Skybarn, Freed from both immediate motive and the insecurities of status that led many first-time bloggers to adopt a tone at once combative, hyperbolic, and self-consciously folksy ("just bloggin'"), Crain simply sets out, in stately middle-style prose, to explore and record those efflorescences of cultural life that catch his eye, a life that rapidly comes to include the act of blogging.

November 1, 2009

Do you remember your pre-combative/hyperbolic/self-consciously folksy days? I don’t.

I’m pretty sure the guys at N+1 masturbate to Irving Howe essays.