Reihan: Hello!

As you may have read earlier on, my good friend and co-author Ross Douthat is getting married very soon and he'll be out of the country for some time after that. Once he returns, he will be rested and ready to take the blogosphere by storm, if necessary subduing rival blogs with a series of shattering (rhetorical) blows. My advice to said rivals: get your emergency preparedness kits in order.

So who is this Reihan Salam? Rather than bore you with biographical details, I will list a few things I like. Note that I'm deliberately excluding things produced by personal friends or colleagues. I'm also excluding things that could embarrass or haunt me in the years to come, thus radically reducing the scope of this enterprise. In particular, I'm thinking of my favorite shirts. When I idly daydream about how I'd fare in a post-apocalyptic landscape, thoughts prompted in part by the recently-resurrected CBS drama Jericho, I think about whether my shirts will survive the unending chaos.

Among many other things, I've always wanted to be an illustrator. But I'm quite sure I'll never be one iota the illustrator Jillian Tamaki is, so why bother?

I particularly enjoy Tamaki's mixed feelings about Calgary, her hometown.


Brian Cronin is also amazing. If you can think of any illustrators you particularly like, let me know.

Lately I've also been blown away by the work of Sam Anderson, now a staff writer at New York. His "Exorcising the Brooklyn Dodgers" is excellent, and his meditation-meets-mystery feature on The Splasher was even better. I first noticed Anderson when he wrote terrifically funny shorts for Slate eons ago, and now he's taking on literary legends with the same aplomb.

That's it for now. More to come.

Comments

I can't wait for you to liveblog Ross's wedding. I can't imagine what the nuptials must be like for the human equivalent of dry white toast.

Once he returns, he will be rested and ready to take the blogosphere by storm, if necessary subduing rival blogs with a series of shattering (rhetorical) blows.

Here, I'll just do it for him.

"You can't have community without traditional family structures. How dare you suggest my conservative economic policy positions show inadequate care for the poor? Though it's common for radical liberal professors to claim so, race really had nothing to do with the American Slave trade."

Posted by Freddie | September 28, 2007 2:36 PM

Christ on Rollerskates! Reihan has just equalled Douthat's quarterly output in the first hour! Fasten your seatbelts boys and girls.

Posted by Citizen (World) | September 28, 2007 3:55 PM

Forgive me for saying this, Reihan (and Ross), but since you seem too polite to say something of this nature:

Christ, Freddie, you're a jerk. Taking cheap shots at someone you've never met about his wedding? I've watched you post here and on Megan's site, and you consistently "contribute" bilious, personal attacks without noticeable provocation. Do you have friends in real life? Did you kick puppies and spit on passing pedestrians back before the development of the internet message board? Or are you a highly articulate 17-year-old who has never known a world without the ability to gratuitously insult strangers electronically? Perhaps you are so continuously mean-spirited because puberty has finally hit and you still can't find a girl who will tolerate you?

For a guy who claims to be so concerned about the poor and the downtrodden in the abstract, I'm astounded that you can't show the tiniest amount of decency, or even courtesy, toward an individual whose name you actually know, but who has (presumably) done you no personal harm. Speaking for myself only, I wish you would either acquire a civil tongue or learn to simply hold the one you're stuck with.

Posted by Rover | September 28, 2007 4:26 PM

Man! Tough crowd. Let me say, first: chill. It was only a little joke.

And, second-- no. I don't think I will.

Posted by Freddie | September 28, 2007 4:56 PM

And, for what it's worth, Megan told me in an email I'm one of her favorite commenters. So it can't be all bad.

Posted by Freddie | September 28, 2007 4:56 PM

Well, if Megan said you were one of the favs, then I'm sure Rover will forgive you all sorts of bilious bile, snarks, flame(outs), castigations, mealy mouthedness and plain frontal attacks (non-nude, hopefully). However, the rest of us will continue providing appropriate corrections, as needed, to gently influence you to stay within decent bonds.

The dark-tressed, long on...everything...Megan, has admitted to having a very squishy side, so you may just be that little golden raisin in the oatmeal mush.

Posted by beneficial | September 29, 2007 12:13 PM