Another reason to hate other people's lists
Old Skool Web guy Bob Sassone invited me to contribute a list of my five "favorite web sites" to the new issue of Professor Barnhardt's Journal.
I made what I think was the daring decision to make only safe decisions. No wait -- what I mean is, I took the challenge at its word and attempted to answer honestly. I'm not calling Joel Stein and the other fine contributors to this issue liars exactly, but I think most of them probably qualified the question in their own minds. Favorite sites that aren't completely obvious. Favorite sites that make me look cool, or at least not lame. Favorite sites by creative individuals. Favorite sites today.
I'm not saying that Exploding Dog isn't very cool and worth knowing about... but better than Google?
Well, maybe I'm just hopelessly square, but when I actually thought about which of my bookmarks I check most often, these far and away trumped the others, and that's as good a definition of favorite as I can think of.
Only slot number five was up for grabs. On another day I could easily have gone with Allmusic, or Metacritic, or Mapquest (well, not Mapquest, because, the various map sites I use split the vote, but you get the idea).
All that said, I'm glad most people didn't name obvious sites, because now I have some new places to check out (though I doubt they'll become favorites). And note well, Merriam-Webster, how few blogs made anybody's list.
So... what are your favorite sites? Other than Radosh.net, of course.
Comments
Assuming we're basing this on frequency of visit rather than cool-factor posturing:
First of all, there's www.FunctionalAmbivalent.com, which I visit about ten times a day because I write it, even though no one reads it, not even my family.
Then there's MSNBC, which I check for news periodically during the day.
Then there's Andrew Sullivan, who sometimes makes me want to throw things at my computer but who I check first-thing every morning.
Anyway, that's three, right? Yeah. OK, so two more.
Gotta mention GoodShit (http://goodshit.phlap.net/) which has naked babes but also links (not surprisingly) to good shit on the web that I wouldn't find otherwise. Today GoodShit links to a cartoon history of Iceland, just for example. I go to GoodShit every day.
And, I guess, Google, which shouldn't count for the same reason "a door" wouldn't count if someone asked you what your favorite architectural attribute is.
Radosh.net is sixth. Honest.
Posted by: Tom Johnson | December 6, 2004 2:16 PM
McSweeneys.net
Queserasera.org
Dooce.com
JamesWolcott.com
Romensko
Memeorandum.com
That's six but who cares
Posted by: Geekgirl | December 7, 2004 6:52 PM