Tonight, I decided to do a shout out to the all-time great Top Comments diarists and diaries – at least the ones with “Top Comments” in the title (which is by custom pretty much all of them). It's not epic prose...in point of fact, this was a lot of link-work but the deed is done and I rediscovered a lot of voices and memories in the doing. I hope you enjoy them.
Oh, now for a word from our sponsors:
Here at Top Comments we round up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd and most informative commentary. We depend on your help with talent spotting. If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it to topcomments at gmail by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
Since we are all about the comments, I will start with:
Top Five TC, by Number of Comments
1. Top Comments: Forgotten Edition by Elise
I was thinking earlier today about when I was a little girl and I wanted to have a different name, and about how grateful I am today that my parents wouldn't let me change mine back in Kindergarten when I so desperately wanted to. It's not that there's anything wrong with the names I wanted to change to as a kid, it's just that I kinda like my name a lot now.
2. Top Comments Saturday: Thank the Dogs Edition by noweasels
As some of you know, I usually take the wonderful opportunity of hosting Top Comments to write about animal issues. And yesterday and today, I was considering doing a diary about the remarkable service performed for both animals and children by Intermountain Therapy Animals. But the election is simply too close -- and the situation in this country, in Iraq and around the world too perilous - for me to do anything except use this great space to urge everyone to do anything and everything they can to support Democrats running for Congress.
3. Top Comments: Animal Companion Roll Call Edition, also by noweasels.
On May 22nd, Madison the German shepherd will be 13 years old – which is very, very old for a large dog. Her back left leg no longer works very well, and her hip dysplasia – a condition that is endemic amongst shepherds – is worsening. I know there isn’t the world of time with her that seemed to stretch out before us when I finally got to bring her home – she was still small enough to make the 90-minute trip in my lap as I drove -- on a hot Florida night in July 1994. She has been a source of such laughter and comfort to me so often, for so long..
4. Top Comments: Drinking with taylormattd and Elise, and posted by Elise.
taylormattd and I decided ages ago that what Daily Kos really needs is fun diary where we can all hang out and talk about drinking, or drink, or think about drinking...or- well, you get the idea :-)
Join us below for some recipes, a few good brewery suggestions, and some games!
Grab yourself a drink- some water, tea, soda, a cocktail, a beer, some wine...whatever strikes you as good for a Friday night :-)
5. And preventing an Elise/noweasels sweep of the most commented TC’s is…
Laura Clawson with
Top Comments: Quit Whining Work Fight Edition
I twisted my ankle. I have not really twisted my ankle in the 2 ½ years since I had surgery to tighten the ligament. Twisted your ankle with a functioning ligament is a very different experience than twisting your ankle when it just buckles and yeah, you fall down but it doesn't really hurt. With the ligament, it hurts. And it keeps hurting, and frankly it's scary because you have to wonder "did I just reverse the surgery that kept me on crutches for 10 weeks, six of them non-weight-bearing?" (Incidentally, this is when I really developed my dkos habit - when I was mostly stuck in bed.)
Q: What can we garner from these notable diaries?
A: If you want lots of comments, write about critters, drinking games and political anecdotes. Oh – and post pictures and perhaps music videos.
Of course, there are other ways to rate diaries. How about the old standby: Number of recommendations? Will we find different results? Let’s find out!
Top Five TC, by Number of Recommendations
1. Top Comments: A Miracle for Kate (noweasels)
Back in 2001, when I was living in California, I was driving to Kate’s house when an announcement from President Bush came on the radio. It was his announcement that he was suspending federal support for further stem-cell research. I listened in shocked disbelief. I wondered how I would explain to my then 11-year-old niece that the 10,000 needles she had then already endured didn’t matter; that the potential this research had to deliver a cure for her didn‘t matter. That cells in a petri dish, slated for destruction, somehow mattered more than she did.
I didn’t know how to say: "Your President doesn’t care about you."
On January 20, 2009, I won’t have to say this any more.
2.
Top Comments: Buna, My Kitty, is gone (Elise)
My heart feels heavier this week. Heavy with grief and loss. Yesterday morning, clonecone and I had to go to the kitty hospital and put our cat, Buna, to sleep forever. Buna was my cat, my best friend, and my baby for almost 7 years. His 7th birthday would have been in just a few weeks, August 1st. He was way too young to leave me. Obviously I wanted him to live for as long as I did, at least, but was hoping to get 18 years together.
3. Top Comments: R.I.P., Beloved Animal Companions (noweasels)
It’s been just over a year since my adored Madison the German shepherd went across the Rainbow Bridge.
Tonight, I wanted to memorialize some other community friends who have made the journey since then.
4.
Top Comments 3.08.08 – On Appalachian Racism by
va dare
I remember the moment vividly. Despite growing glare from the emergent light-bulb over my head, I can still visualize [Nell Irvin] Painter’s profile. Well, actually, I best recall the elegant drape of her scarf and her jewelry. But it was her next example that made me sit up and squirm. "Appalachian Whites," she said, reminding us that they bore little resemblance to regular garden-variety whites in America. Separated by more than mere geography, the phrase ‘Appalachian whites’ evokes mainstream presumptions of pathological (possibly genetic) differences – a genuine ‘other’ status.
I wanted to shout, Whoa, Nell(y)! - my mind was spinning already, but I quickly started thinking about how similar intimations of race, caste, and class had been encoded colorfully in Appalachia’s documents and in the vernacular history.
Top Comments 6.05.08 ‘I’ll whomp ‘em!’ 44 in Appalachian VA
Just in case you've been under a rock or distracted by yellow teeth today, you may have missed the news that Barack Obama launched his formal campaign for the general election today in my backyard of southwest Virginia. I didn't get to attend the events as I found out too late to get tickets (they were gone in a few short hours) but I've spent the day following the news, watching it live on a local TV station, reading numerous blogs, and receiving photos from people who were there.
As I'd expected, Appalachian Virginia proved that it's populated by gracious people who were as excited as those in any other region to be in the presence of '44.'
Proud of my people? You bet!
Now, of course, TC produces lots of useful, actionable information – the kind of stuff that people want to reference later. So, naturally, this exercise cannot possibly be complete without…
Top Eight TC, by Number of Hotlistings
1-8 Anything by Sardonyx haha
Ok, there was one break – va dare’s Appalachian diary.
This is Top Comments: DK4 FAQ Forum: Advanced Search leads the way.
And, no, I am not blockquoting it. That would be sacrilege.
Top 10 diarists by category
The by-diary results wound up rather concentrated through the top five places. Let’s give a shout out to some others who had a few good runs of their own:
By Comments
1. Elise
2. Noweasels
3. Laura Clawson
4. Ambrosius
5. nonnie9999
6. cskendrick
7. Cronesense
8. carolita
9. va dare
10. Carnacki
By Recs
1. noweasels
2. Elise
3. va dare
4. sardonyx
5. OrangeClouds115
6. kath25
7. asimbagirl
8. taylormattd
9. cskendrick
10. brillig
Hotlistings
1. Sardonyx
2. va dare
3. noweasels
4. asimbagirl
5. vertexoflife
6. virgomusic
7. carolita
8. Elise
9. OrangeClouds115
10. Progressive Witness
Yeah, what about the 2010-11 TC Season Rankings?
Heh. Why not? I’m running these from exactly a year ago (11/13/10 inclusive)
By Comments
1. Sardonyx
2. smileycreek
3. brillig
4. carolita
5. Chrislove
6. cskendrick
7. asimbagirl
8. Dragon5616
9. gizmo59
10. commonmass
By Recs
1. Sardonyx
2. asimbagirl
3 .brillig
4. gizmo59
5. BeninSC
6. smileycreek
7. cskendrick
8. Laura Clawson
9. bronte17
10. commonmass
By Hotlistings
1. Sardonyx
2. asimbagirl
3. bronte17
4. gizmo59
5. cskendrick
6. Dragon5616
7. Ed Tracey
8. va dare
9. brillig
10. carolita
And darn it I am DONE WITH THIS
Now for the Top Comments!
from Land of Enchantment
A nice heartwarming comment from Roger Fox in a diary that was otherwise a trainwreck.
Thanksgiving, I'm going into Zuccotti Park to cook some dinner for some Occupiers. Its going be great.
Possibly Alfredo sauce, Pasta, with thinly sliced zucini with brocoli florets, brocoli stems sliced and boiled to softness.
Flour & butter, cook together, add milk, then Parm cheese, dump over pasta and veggies.
Gotta keep them Occupiers well fed.
from Bronte17
Dallasdoc notes the Occupy Movement must play a different game if we want to get different results because DC bigwigs will eventually get in on the suppression:
They don't want to run a democracy, they only want to play one on teevee.
in the excellent diary Alternatives from brother OPOL.
from blue aardvark
In which citizenx drops the snark bomb upon the current field of GOP candidates.
The Ebola Virus would be a front runner in this crop of palookas.
The follow by JML9999 is most snarkilicious unto itself
Here come the tissue culture wars.
(That one counts as mine - CSK.) :)
from Gooderservice and Cloudbustingkid (it's a tie!)
Damnit Janet preaches it
So much that we bow down to and revere is just obsolete. Meaningless bullshit.
Cars have better coverage than our children.
We shout out the lines, "Free and the Brave" while we cower in airport lines.
We send our kids off to schools in need of repair and sign consent forms for them to be taught about evolution and global warming.
Our levees fail and our levees are ignored.
We are a country who cares more about the glitz and glamor of obtaining the good life as seen in commercials while we neglect real life issues.
We hold certain people up in esteem, too big to fail or jail. Football coaches, movie stars, Spud McKenzie - a dog. While we say that teachers are lazy, unions are criminal and workers don't need rights they just need to be grateful they even have a job.
"Adapt or Die" is what we tell our sick, elderly, our disabled. Hell we treat our big screen tvs better than we treat humans.
We are a nation of violence, anger and bloodshed. We learn only the hard way and the lessons are instantly forgotten for something new and shiny.
We first blame victims for their injuries when really people are pissed off that their heroes are monsters. When in reality it was monstrous to have a hero whose main achievement is nothing grand like teaching but simply getting a football to one end of a field.
Tell me a man's heroes and I'll tell you what kind of a man that person is.
We like our parades, our bread and circuses. But we don't like to be reminded of the little man behind the curtain.
We are a country of ignorance and apathy. And we wonder why everything is turning to shit.
The revolution will not be televised. It will not be pretty and it will not go exactly as some blogger hopes it will. At some point we will all realize that the riot guns are pointed at us all.
Thank you OPOL. My world is a better place despite it all because there are people like in it.
Yep. It definitely is, Janet.
From Civil Writes Activist
Bill's C & J contained this:
For those of you baking Thanksgiving turkeys weighing over 200 pounds, today's the day to pop 'em in the oven. And also the day to realize you're going to need a bigger oven.
plf515 had setup and Debbie in ME has the nom for delivery.
from Dragon5616
Check out remembrance, Glen the Plumber, Dr. Ann Lopez, Meteor Blades, norm, BentLiberal, navajo, and Catilinus doing good works for Farmworkers in these photos by citisven in today's J Town:Got Post by JanF.
from ozsea1
xrepub speaks of the death of courtesy and consideration across the land
This one I'm posting in full. It should be a diary.
It's more than simple manners or courtesy - which people seem to be woefully ignorant of now...... People seem to be so utterly self centered that it never even occurs to them how their actions affect others.
I was raised to believe that you are entitled to various 'rights' but that you do NOT have any 'right' to intrude on others.
That seems to be a quaint anachronistic view today. You have people who believe that it is fine to practice an overamped guitar at full volume - when they could do so just as easily with headphones plugged in. It never occurs to them that their neighbors might NOT want to hear their jamming or share their taste in music.
The same people that speak too loudly on phones while on trains or in restaurants also walk about their front yards on cordless or cell phones oblivious to the fact that their neighbors do NOT really want to know every detail of their lives.
The guy trying to prove he is still 'cool' who leaves his Harley running in the driveway for an hour (because he doesn't know how to set the idle correctly) could care less that his neighbors don't want to hear his mufflerless bike.
Neighbors in the Bronx we'd have been less kind. It would have disappeared. The cars whose alarms kept going off would have every wire under them ripped out - leaving them unstartable - and likely without lights and who knows what else the next morning......
But then these same people seem to farm out childrearing and although they own a dog (part of moving to the burbs) never walk it. Funny but simply opening the front door and letting a dog loose to dump all over your front yard was something usually frowned on when I was growing up - especially when the dog barked forever wanting to get back in - or when distracted by...well, anything. But then the owners are oblivious to the small children asleep next door or their neighbors needing to get up at 6am to catch a train......
Teaching children to behave is beyond the scope of parenting today. Letting children run rampant throughout a restaurant is par for the course. This is EXPECTED behavior now - tho the point that wait staff were astounded when our children actually behaved in restaurants. It was such an unusual event that it was regularly commented on.
I've volunteered with scouts and other groups for some time. I'm astounded at how few children are EVER taught the basics of 'good' behavior or even basic manners. But then looking at their parents, it seems they never learned them either. 'Rules' of any kind seem foreign.
The worst part is that parents expect school to make up for their shortcomings. It seems that the worst are shipped off to Scouts where they drive the leaders nuts and actually drive out the kids that WANT to be there.
I'm utterly astounded at the behavior I've seen in parents while involved in Scouts. Told that it is THEIR responsibility to get kids to camp and back, many will try and pawn off that job on others - or simply 'forget'. Last summer we had leaders waiting around for parents who showed up two hours late and others who NEVER showed. Others finally drove them back when parents finally returned calls inquiring where they were. (Home - they'd never left thinking somehow that 'someone' was driving their children home.)
I've had parents sign up to drive for a hike and just not show up - or call - leaving us waiting in a parking lot for an hour. We now have to charge up front long before events when fees are involved given how many times people have signed up and not followed through - sticking ht eTroop with the fees that had to be paid.
Good friends in HS who are teachers complain that they send notice after notice home about a child - finally taking action only to have parents show up and scream at them. Ironically most schools seem to be VERY reluctant to ever hold kids accountable for the worst behavior - fearing parent reaction. I know one parent who showed up at another's house saying "From now on anything YOUR child does to mine, I will do to YOU" his child had been physically injured repeatedly and the school had done nothing. The parent of the bully called the police (all too familiar with his child) who basically told him they'd do the same under the circumstances.... the problem kid was sent to private school within a week.
I actually told one kid - who'd been giving my then 16 year old problems "Just so you know - my son has my permission to beat the crap out of you next time you pull something. He won''t get into trouble with me. Given that he's got 40 lbs on you and 6 inches, you might want to consider your future behavior" The weasel (who I'd known since nursery school) pulled a "I don't know what you mean..." but he stopped.
But then go to any church these days and see how both adults and children behave.
And Now for Top Mojo 11/13/2011
1) Rec'd, because Naomi Klein is a genius, and 100% by MinistryOfTruth — 172
2) So much racist fail, . . . by Aji — 88
3) I like the technique, even if it can seem rude to by Eileen B — 85
4) I wish he got that treatment everywhere by pickandshovel — 81
5) I love it! by One Pissed Off Liberal — 80
6) Anyone who could get fundamental Christians by ahumbleopinion — 80
7) Here's a transcript for the video impaired: by Eileen B — 80
8) I"m with you on the "haven't forgiven you for by FlamingoGrrl — 76
9) Great story! by x — 75
10) They had a good speech/mic check worked out. by timethief — 72
11) Hee, hee, heee (snarky laugh) by mumtaznepal — 71
12) My take on it by gjohnsit — 69
13) And for a old guy like me by DrJohnB — 69
14) I Am Stunned This Isn't Mentioned More by webranding — 67
15) Naomi Klein in 2008 by Nulwee — 67
16) I'm on a mission to get Kossacks by Eileen B — 67
17) I prefer 'Regressives' by KingDzBWS — 65
18) This is very good news. I hope the... by Meteor Blades — 65
19) You think that's bad? by commonmass — 64
20) Hippest. Woozle. Ever! by JekyllnHyde — 63
21) At 40 I got over feeling sympathy for them and by boophus — 62
22) It's important to have objectives by arizonablue — 61
23) Sekritarmy needs to improve communication skills by kerflooey — 60
24) Here's the studio version by x — 59
25) The Republican debates by Hrubec — 58
26) We Episcopalians have been joking about that by commonmass — 58
27) You mean because he didn't shut it down? by PeteB2 — 58
28) I just love the toilet paper one! by blue jersey mom — 57
29) That was great by Mnemosyne — 56
30) I gave up on climate change by Anne Elk — 56