Carnival of the Vanities #250: Fade to Black
Welcome to the 250th edition of the Carnival of the Vanities. I bet most of you never thought this edition would ever see the light of day. You were very nearly right. 40 editions of the Carnival were just about enough for me. I ran out of time, ran of out of steam and decided to let the Carny pass into the fog of history.
But you can’t keep a good thing down and people love tradition. People apparently didn’t notice the carnival was no longer making its weekly appearance. Entries kept coming into my mailbox, week after week. The 249th edition of Carnival of the Vanities appeared in this space in June, I think. The latest entry I have is from August 27th. Hopeful creatures, those CoTV supporters. They persist in even the most trying circumstances. Like Herpes.
I have something like 80 entries waiting for the Carnival to return, vying for one more moment in the carny spotlight. I doubt I’ll get around to including all of them here and I certainly won’t get to read them all but I might just surprise you.
Okay, probably not.
No matter what, however, this is likely the last Carnival of the Vanities from the staff here at Silflay Hraka. Bigwig pushed his baby out of the nest years ago and Uncle Kehaar welcomed it back out of a sense of nostalgia, duty and tradition. Uncle Kehaar never did like to let go. But he’s learning.
On to the entries.
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The latest entry received is from J Random American. J Random American presents a few New Rules for Golf. Basically he thinks the Nancy in any foursome should be forced to play with a pink ball. I do not like that rule as I would most likely be playing with a pink ball for a majority of any round. Bastiges.
The next most recent entry is also from J Random American. It’s the same entry. Wouldn’t take no for an answer, I guess.
Another hopeful is long-time CoTV favorite Madelaine Begun Kane. Mad sent her latest entry on August 24th. She should know better. She’s actually visited this blog. Anyway, she derides the idea of dressing room butt cameras in No Butt Cams For Me – No Ifs, Ands, Or Buts.
She also submits the following for your delight and enjoyment:
Another regular – and one of my personal favorites – Jon Swift sent in this one from way back on July 2nd: Jonah Goldberg’s Shining. I don’t know who Jonah Goldberg might be but apparently he’s done something bad enough to have lots of biting sarcasm thrown his way.
I didn’t know who David Vitter was before tonight but Jon has sarcasm to spare for him as well, claiming that he’s Another Victim of Gay Marriage.
Reading your stuff was always a highlight of editing the carnival, Jon. Keep it up. You may just find me lurking.
Someone else I admire by way of carnival entries is Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah. The guy just oozes depth and intelligence. I’ll admit that I sometimes had more desire to read his stuff than I had energy to do so, but he was always worth the link. His Silflay Hraka CoTV swan-song? Of No Fixed Abode.
He also sends Anatomy Lessons. Can one have two swan-songs? Huh.
I apologize to those of you who sent me entries but are not going to appear in this space. I am filling it with my favorites and signing off. Sorry.
More favorites.
Mark A. Rayner presents Excruciating Album Cover Art — Heino. Heino is apparently German for “face like my ass”. Scary stuff.
Divided We Stand, United We Fall has no problem with political grid-lock or with Punishing Prevaricating Politicians & Parsing Partisan Perspectives. Fair and balanced. No, really.
Speaking of endings, Adam the Sophistpundit gives An ending ten years in the making. For my money, I was left vaguely dissatisfied with the end of the Harry Potter novels. I don’t think the last novel lived up to the series. Probably just me.
I almost missed this last from Adam. Apparently he has a last name. Who knew? Adam Gurri presents A Moral Perspective on Minimum Wage. I think I liked him better as just “Adam”.
Mark, DWSUWF,Adam; I bid you adieu.
What Carnival of the Vanities would be complete without an entry from CoTV supporter-of-the-year Wayne Hurlbert? Wayne, God bless him, took more than his share of tongue-in-cheek abuse from yours truly but he always bore it with good grace and charm. Wayne, I hate business blogs with a passion. They have overrun this carny and probably rang its death-knell years ago. Most of them present the shallow and obvious as insightful and new.
Sorry for any offense given in this space. It’s nothing personal.
In Wayne’s final appearance in this space, he gives Simple marketing: Ideas you can use everyday. Vaya con dios, amigo.
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Thanks so much to all those who’ve supported Carnival of the Vanities throughout the years, both posters and readers. Bigwig and I both appreciate it. We’d go on if we could.But it’s time to call it a day and bring down the lights on Silflay Hraka’s Carnival of the Vanities. It’s time to pass the torch to those with fresh legs and fresh ideas.
Long-time CoTV supporter Andrew Ian Dodge has offered to step up and revive and revitalize Carnival of the Vanities. The 251st edition of the all-new Carnival of the Vanities can be found next Tuesday, September 18th at Dodgeblogium. If you want to be part of the original and longest-running carnival on the web, submit your material to Andrew via Blog Carnival. Maybe I’ll see you there.
Until the, God bless and good night.
I’ll miss you too! Thanks for all the good times!