On tonight’s broadcast of The Connection (an NPR-affiliated radio show):

Blogs offer a constant rush of political opinion: the gloating, the jeering, and those knockout punches. But not everyone thinks bringing punditry to the people is a good thing. New Yorker writer George Packer argues that by blurring the line between journalism and pure rant, blogs may not be the best thing for democracy …. George Packer feels that blogs are a culture of people commenting on other people’s comments.

And what are newspapers and magazines? A culture of ….. anonymous sources and power-wielding officials feeding tomorrow’s pre-approved tripe to profit-driven news sharks. The calm, cool, and collected Connection host, Dick Gordon, bless his heart, sounded as though he’d never read a blog until his producer told him he’d have to prepare for tonight’s broadcast.

Apparently George Packer thinks that bloggers should get off their butts and “be reporters” and go out and “talk to people.” True enough. But they already do! I would love it if reporters like Packer actually bothered to read blogs. But no, that would be too much work.

Oops—I mean, that would be reporting !!!!!

From this morning’s Free Press:

Historically, Brood X has sidestepped Wayne, Macomb and most of Oakland counties. They were, however, spotted in Bloomfield Hills the last time they came out in 1987.

Go a little west, though, to Washtenaw, Lenawee and southern Livingston counties and you’ll run into them. Millions of them. Hundreds of millions.

I was at work this afternoon and thought I heard the first wave, but it was just someone in the office with some headphones on. When I got home, Steve pointed to a series of definite holes in the dirt near the back patio. Then we stood outside and listened, for several minutes, straining to hear over the blare of a lawnmower: and there it was, off in the distance, a definite cicada song on the breeze.