Roy Jacobsen was kind enough to tag my other blog, The (New) Legal Writer, with the Premio Dardo Award, recognizing “the effort of a particular blogger to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values in his or her writing.” The rules require me, in accepting the award, to in turn bestow it on 15 other blogs who meet the criteria. I’m usually not one for chain blog posts, but I’m happy to do this one, because it gives me the opportunity to recognize some people who deserve recognition. I gave eight awards on The (New) Legal Writer, leaving seven to give here:
- Ernie the Attorney. Ernie hardly needs more recognition than he’s already gotten. Besides fitting the Premio Dardo criteria, he is the one who gave me the little push I needed to start blogging. He’s also a friend and a neighbor—his condo building is just across Audubon Park from my house.
- What About Clients? I’m grateful to Dan Hull for the recognition and encouragement he’s sent my way. Coming from a blogger of his high caliber, it’s quite humbling. Dan believes in practicing law with enthusiasm—if you can’t manage that, find yourself another line of work. He lives life the same way.
- Southern Appeal. SA’s principal instigator, Feddie, and I have a lot in common. We’re both Catholic; we’re both Southerners; we’re both appellate lawyers. Yet somehow I ended up as a bleeding-heart liberal, while he ended up an unapologetic arch-conservative. There’s also the matter of favorite booze: mine is Dewar’s; his is Blanton’s. What I like about him and his colleagues is their intelligence and genuineness. I read SA to challenge my own thinking.
- iPhone JD. My friend and colleague Jeff Richardson recently started this blog to share his knowledge of and enthusiasm with the iPhone. I don’t have an iPhone, but I enjoy reading Jeff’s blog because, despite its techno-niche theme, Jeff manages to put a lot of humanity into his writing.
- Clusterfuck Nation. I’ve never met Jim Kunstler, but I consider him a prophet—and an entertaining one at that. Like the prophets of old, he forecasts doom and gloom unless we repent of our idolatry, the idols being cars and suburban blight. He foresaw the subprime crisis and the current economic meltdown years before it made the news.
- Ask Sister Mary Martha. When Sister first started her blog, many people thought it was too witty and entertaining to be written by a real nun. My opinion is that Sister is a real nun; she knows too much Catholic catechism not to be. She has a wonderful tag line: “Life is tough. But Nuns are tougher. If you need helpful advice just Ask Sister Mary Martha. She'll help you. Just don't expect any sympathy.”
- Ashley Morris gets a posthumous Premio Dardo. He lived large and wrote with more passion than any other blogger I’ve known. (See, e.g., this.) His wife, Hana, is keeping the blog alive, and as Ashley would have wanted, she’s writing in her own voice.
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