A Link Letter

Being a Mac User, a point-and-click kinda guy, when I found that I had to mess with the Blogger "Template" code in order to have a link list, well, I was sure I'd immediately do something incredibly ham fisted and deep six the whole internet, if not the fabric of the space-time continuum itself. I took me days to figure out that, in the LoFi blogger interface, where I apparantly am by dint of my infra OSX infra IE6.0 system and browser, one has to insert a bit of code into one's text in order to link, my palms again sweat with a trespasser's trepidation. I nearly had V. tach when it came time to insert the "Bostonite's" web ringy thingy. But now I feel like a real hacker, and it's time to act like a real blogger (there are those who'll argue I am more a diarist that a cyber link-centered blogger, but I'm trying !) Anyway, I'd like to pay a bit of homage to the blogs on my link list. In order, then.

Buzzflash, of course, is an amazing collection of continuously updated news and progressive opinion, decidedly anti-Bush. Res ipse loquitur.
Trappists is the website of the Trappist monastery, Gethsemani, where Thomas Merton lived. My interest in Buddhism and Zen led me to Merton, and from him to the contemplative traditions in Christianity. Plus he's a marvelous writer. His journals are spectacular, and reading the prose in Seven Story Mountain is like swimming in a clear, cool stream.
I'm not sure how I found coffee sutras, probably through a google on some contemplative-related terms, but from my first encounter with this elegant blog I was hooked. He's a poet, and writes about east/west contemplative issues.
Veg is a vegan bulletin board, part of "vegsource," an excellent web resource for vegans, we quasi-anorexic aliens from the Lost planet, Vegas, the patron planet of hopeless causes (Go Kucinich !)
mahablog probably also goes without saying. Spiffy. professional, lefty and informative.
Duemer is a beautiful blog/site, resplendant with poetry links, by Joseph Duemer, a notable poet, teacher and critic. I feel an odd connection to Duemer because I once wrote a bitchy poem about him after I read one of his reviews a few years ago of a book of poems called "The Rooster Mask."
Hgpoetics is poet Henry Gould's site. He edits Nedge, and has printed some of my poems in the past. He's a lovely poet, and a very funny blogger. Years ago, I learned of Pessoa and heteronymy from an essay in "A Glass of Green tea -- With Honig," a collection of essays he's edited. I found his blog through a link on Duemer's site.
Hermitary is a nice site about hermits. See above Merton, Trappists.
Meetingbrook is a beautiful website about Meetingbrook, a contemplative community that combines Zen and contemplative Catholicism. It contains a webloglike section ("Today at Meetingbrook") with some exquisitely beautiful writing and thoughtful reflection.
Philocrites is a Unitarian blog. I approve of Unitarians.
I really don't know how I found jenblog, but I'm glad I did. It's a blog one can read for the charm of the writer's prose and for her lovely spirit and personality. She's a fellow Massachusettsian, too. I'm a sucker for local color.
Cut-to-cure is a surgeon's medblog. I'm an internist. There are contless variations of this duck joke that explains the difference.
This blog feetfirst is another medblog; she blogs on medicine, but also that part of life (yes there is such a thing) that is NOT medicine. I should thank her for linking to my Calcium Disaster entry, "Audite," and wish her luck on her upcoming boards. (I just re-certed a year ago. Mega angst !)
Hermes is a PGY-2 IM resident, a top-notch writer, who blogs about the crazy and painful life of training.
Docenoch does urgent care. That's sort of what I do.
Pharmawatch is an exceedingly well documented blog about the evil tricks of Big Pharma. It's a by an Australian doc, and I recommend it highly.
I found frumpyprof on the blogger home page "recently updated" scroll. Randomly. It's a new blog; the writer's got an interestingly dysphoric voice.
I found Mittfraud via a Boston Phoenix article about our Ken-Doll, Church of the Sub-Genius, pierce-Brosnan wannabe Venture Capitalist governor, Mitt Romney. He is wealthy, vapid, loathsome; a feed-the-rich, no-new-taxes, let's bring back the Death Penalty bobblehead. The site presents well researched documentation of the mitty-gritty of the Mitthead's not-so-amusing vicissitudes.
That site is linked to chimesatmidnight, more good stuff on the Mitthead and folks of his ilk.
Lileks is a famous dude, kinda righty, but his stuff makes me laugh.
Anitarust oh how onanistic, but that's me. Go there. I am so cute. K-U-T-E.
Breakfast deconstructs the "Hungry Man Breakfast." I hearly compounded my neck fracture laughing when I read it. Yes, I can be juvenile.
Finally, blaugustine is an example of a gorgeous, artful blog by an artist. Go there and admire her artist's books. She is amazing.