I’m running behind on my promise to select new community bloggers. I have a dozen or so applicants. If you missed the first invitations, there’s still time. Go to our blog page and sign up to be considered.
If you missed the first invitation, here’s the deal: We want to add eight to 10 “community bloggers” to our blog offerings. You get pride of authorship and our blogging platform. It means a spot on a page of what, according to alexa.com, is near the top in readership among Arkansas news and information websites. We hope our community bloggers will bring different points of view from all over Arkansas on a wide variety of topics. We hope community bloggers will be “reporters” on happenings in their areas from time to time, but we’re open to just about anything — humor, movies, entertainment, sports or plain old good writing. Let a thousand conversations bloom.
Which brings me to the photo of the Brantley family dog, Fifi. For one thing, unless you’re utterly humorless, her very appearance should be good for a laugh. For another, I was motivated by reader comments in last night’s open line. One of our readers mentioned her sick dog. Another reader cruelly upbraided her, telling her to take her dog talk elsewhere because this was a political blog.
As I responded in the thread, there is no rule on content on this blog. The passions, prejudices, news judgment and e-mail of the editors guide our posts. Readers operate under the same no-rule rule. Politics happens to be a favorite and primary topic. But we’ve had some pretty good discussions over the last 21 months on sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and barbecue.
And, yes, even dogs. I love them. Particularly the kind with smushed-in faces. We had a succession of four English bulldogs before Fifi came along. They’re jowly and indolent, have terrible table manners and don’t like heat. Kind of like their owner, though much sweeter. Got a dog photo you’d like to show the world? Send it to max@arktimes.com and I’ll try to post some of them.