Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the the fabulous star of All My Children, Ms. Susan Lucci.
[Courtesy/ABC]
Well, hello.
[Ahem]
Aside from being a lauded star of stage and screen, Ms. Lucci is well known for having been nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series nineteen times before having finally won in 1999. In fact, she was nominated a total of twenty-one times, and only won once.
Okay, I'll admit to you that I am not a fan of daytime TV. I don't watch soap operas, never have.
Now, a lot of folks will make light of soap operas. The plots are silly, contrived. They are overly-dramatic. There are too many characters to keep up with. Sure, maybe all of that is true.
Some of those same folks will say the acting is terrible, too. I'm not so sure about that -- I think it takes some kind of skill to keep these stories going, many of which are repetitive to the point of absurdity.
Look, here's the simple point I'm trying to make: I am not so sure you could judge Ms. Lucci's talent by the number of awards she had won around 1998.
Which leads me to my awkward segue to the 2011 Florida Netroots Awards. Congratulations in advance to all the winners. The announcement will be posted at the Florida Progressive Coalition early Saturday morning.
I was nominated in three categories this year -- Best National Blog; Best Writer; Best Use of Twitter -- and based on who made it to the run-offs in those categories, I already know I didn't win this year.
I like to think that maybe this is because the competition was so stiff, especially in those categories. Perhaps that's how Ms. Lucci comforted herself after so many nominations and let-downs.
Look, this isn't about criticizing the awards -- I've already said a bit about that, Kenneth offered up a thoughtful response, as did Peter Schorsch. This is introspective.
What can I do to make this a better blog? What should I do? How should I do it?
These are tough questions to answer, because frankly, I do have some indicators of success. I still manage to get a FPC Post of the Day every now and then, which is great. I sometimes get a mention in the weekly Best of the Blogs from my friends at Progress Florida, which is also great. It was an honor to have been listed as one of the nine best state-based political blogs on Chris Cillizza's The Fix blog at the Washington Post.
Over at Clintonaut, my blog of fiction and personal vignettes, I've had a short work of fiction chosen as a winner among a slew of great entries.
In my professional capacity, I will be joining local non-profit leaders and former State Senator Charlie Justice for a Coffee & Conversation entitled: "Twitter -- New Media and Why We Need it in Our Non-Profit Market Today." [Here's the PDF flyer; if you're in the area, I hope you can join us!]
Well, none of this is for you to worry about. Netroots winner or no, I sincerely appreciate you coming by and reading. If Ms. Lucci is any kind of example, come by in about fifteen years or so, and you can offer your congratulations.
I'm sorry to see that there will not be a Netroots ceremony. I hope that this doesn't dampen the spirits of the winners, all of whom will have deserved the honor and the accolade.
FWIW, I voted for you.
Posted by: Mustang Bobby | October 27, 2011 at 06:55 AM
Thank you so much, Bobby -- it means a lot.
Posted by: Benjamin Kirby | October 27, 2011 at 01:08 PM