Liebster Blog

Hey, dig this—while I was checked out yesterday working on more Silent Oscars and our bleak financial future, faithful reader Dawn of Noir and Chick Flicks bestowed on me the coveted "Liebster Blog" award.

In her citation, she very kindly says, 'A Mythical Monkey, has a wonderful sense of humor and writes many interesting articles about classic movies from the silent era and the Golden Age. But most importantly, he believes that "There's a little monkey in all of us!"'

Yes, yes I do.

For those of you who are not multilingual, "Liebster" is German for "beloved crustacean"—or at least I think it is—which is appropriate in this case because a friend of mine in high school who thought my voice sounded like the announcer's on a television commercial for Red Lobster Seafood Restaurant used to call me "Red Lobster." True story.

But supposing you aspire to win the Liebster Blog award and don't sound like talking seafood? Fret not. The term "crustacean" also applies to shrimp, crabs, crayfish (what we in the South call "crawdads" or "crawdaddies"), krill and barnacles, thus broadening the circle of potential recipients literally a thousandfold.

So according to the rules of the award, I'm supposed to bestow the award on three-to-five more worthy bloggers—which is a bit of a problem, since I follow something like two hundred and if I didn't like them, and didn't think you should also like them, I wouldn't follow them, would I. Since Dawn gave me the award, I'm precluded from giving her one in return, even though she deserves it. And then there are others, like Ivan Shreve of Thrilling Days of Yesteryear, who have already pulled down a Liebster Blog award (actually, he's so good, he won two!).

And you have to figure Dr. Heckle would find an award with a word meaning "beloved" in the title vaguely insulting, although he amuses the hell out of me.

So here are five, and hopefully I'll have an occasion in the future to mention others.

Yvette at "in so many words ..." who introduced me to the Nero Wolfe mysteries, which are great to read while sitting in sun.

The Mouth O' The Mule, of course, because we've been pals since like three recessions ago.

KC over at Classic Movies, for the daily birthday reports and for the links to interesting movie articles. I wonder how many of the blogs I follow I first discovered at Classic Movies. A lot, I'll bet.

Plain Chicken, because she's my niece, I use many of the recipes from her blog and my big brother will beat me up if I don't. Here's a link, by the way, to her recipe for the best damn cookies on the planet.

And last but certainly not least, Monty at All Good Things, whose best actress and best actor tournaments might be the best things to happen in the blogosphere this year.