OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT!
One of my fondest memories of adolescence was staying home on a Saturday night and watching Garrett Morris do his politically incorrect riff on SNL*. He would cup his hands around his mouth and yell the top stories on the news–for those who might be hard of hearing.
Sometimes bloggers need to do the same thing.
We assume that our readers have been around for a while, understand our metaphors, our shorthands, the shortcuts we use to make a point.
Bad idea.
When I wrote my Akron post I suspected I’d get flack for it, but I had no idea how personal the attacks would be. Basically, they begin with, "I’ve never read anything you’ve ever written…" and conclude with, "Because of your poor judgment, I won’t ever read anything you write ever again, or buy your books either."
Of course, given the first sentence, the closing sentence isn’t much of a threat, but it also represents a common human trait and one that more careful writing could probably avoid. Regular readers know that I wasn’t making any comment at all about Akron… merely a comment about a few of the people who live there. Just as I wasn’t criticizing every struggling dot com company, just the group I was interacting with.
Organizations are nothing but people, and their attitudes have a lot to do with their future.
Not in all caps, but I think that makes it more clear.
As for those that will never read my blog again, you’re probably not reading this either, and I hope that a friend who still does will let you know that I’m officially apologizing to anyone who thought that I had issued an edict re Akron. I haven’t, I’m not and I won’t.
*and now, in the interest of my new, ever more clear and complete description of my point, I was only using the Garrett Morris riff as a metaphor, not as a reflection of any kind on those with a hearing disability.