Headline Grabbers

I'm a sucker for clever headlines, especially if the writing quality extends throughout the full length of the ensuing article.

Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom and Tom Maguire of Just One Minute are two of the most interesting writers online and, lucky us, they toil in our right half of the blogosphere. I am having a rotten week - my beloved cat is gravely ill - but reading their headlines today made me smile.

Goldstein penned Swing Roe, Sweet Harriet, including in the title a typically self-aware, self-mocking disclaimer: (note: post not really about Harriet Miers per se; but somehow I didn't come up with this headline until just now. I blame ketamine and gin gimlets). If there were an award for excellence in headlines, it would bear Jeff's likeness. His imaginary vignettes are wickedly funny, too.

Just One Minute is currently my favorite blog. When we hear the phrase the Plame leak investigation, many of us think of Tom Maguire first and Patrick Fitzgerald as an afterthought. Maguire is the leading forensic journalist on the subject and a fascinating writer besides. I l-o-v-e today's headline: How Green Was the Room with Vallely?

In his Review of Right Wing Blogs, last week Jon Henke of The QandO Blog wrote that "in my opinion, Tom Maguire (along with Kevin Drum) is the quintessential blogger. JustOneMinute regularly combines both the attitude and the investigative aspects of blogging in a way that few others ever manage."

Henke's post prompted Brainster to add this comment: "I like Maguire’s writing a lot, but the Plame story lost its fascination for me ages ago. I feel like I’ve walked into a roomful of people discussing a Russian novel I haven’t read." I'm positive this is meant as a tribute to Maguire's gift for detail and for inspiring detailed threads. However, when you enter the Just One Minute maze, it helps to bring breadcrumbs.

Of Goldstein, Henke wrote, "[Y] ou know how you and your friends used to get into wandering, but interesting, all-night conversations about every subject imaginable—school, politics, jokes, sports, news, girls, philosophy, etc—in your younger days? Well, replace you with PJ O'Rourke, and replace your friends with a lot of drugs. Voila! Jeff Goldstein: a right winger somewhere between libertarian and libertine."

The Indigent Blogger of Vagabondia is not yet on Henke's list - and he may not be strictly right wing - but he should be.

Happy reading!