Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Why Blogs Matter: Jane Gross's Hidden Gem

A few clicks away from the Carpetbagger's endless self-important prattle, reporter Jane Gross has posted a nuanced and honest essay recalling the 2002 Thanksgiving dinner she made for her mother -- in the nursing home where she spent the last years of her life. With no self-conscious effort to pull at the heartstrings, Gross still manages to move readers with her unflinching memory of her mother and of the one holiday they happily shared. "Without reprising a lifetime of therapy," Gross writes, "let’s just say it was the one night of the year when we passed for a normal family."

Amid all the phony, tedious re-tellings of holiday dinners that fill Internet blogs this time of year -- including the Times's "Diner's Journal," where Kim Severson served up a live-blog of her Thanksgiving without so much as a teaspoon of emotion -- Gross's post is a short, worthy read by a writer who knows how to tell the truth.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We get it, anonymous coward, you hate David Carr.

Anonymous said...

Wait, I'm confused. "Anonymous" thinks it's cowardly to be anonymous? Dude, chill.

Anonymous said...

I'm anonymous also, and proud of it.

Just wanted to say how much I admired Severson's Thanksgiving blog. It's very difficult to cram that many brand names, bosses' names, and famous foodies' names into one piece and still have complete sentences. As always, Severson comes through.

(...not to mention I, me, my and mine.)

Anonymous said...

I really have to stop arguing with myself.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anonymous, but Anonymous is completely off base. Oh, and can you really call a team of one, a team. Is that just... an out of work guy who blogs?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous is right, as always. God, I hate myself! That must be why I keep coming back here.