The Atlantic's* blog section, my single favorite part of the Internet and a frequent source of posts and links here, is in turmoil this morning owing to a redesign that has stripped its superb habitues of the graphical personality and color that made their individual pages so compelling. It didn't help that a series of glitches accompanied the changeover, including the (apparently temporary) loss of RSS feeds and the (hopefully temporary) disappearance of daily email updates. The esteemed James Fallows, though characteristically uber-polite, is unable to conceal his unhappiness:
[T]he new layout scheme -- in which you see only a few-line intro to each post but no pictures, block quotes, or other amplifying material -- unavoidably changes the sensibility and tone of personal blogs. It drains them of variety and individuality, not to mention making them much less convenient to read. Only now that it is gone do I realize how important the placing of photos has been to my own sense of what I wanted to convey, along with the ability to alternate between longer and shorter posts on a "landing" page, or to deliberately save some material for "after the jump" placement.
01 March, 2010

I promise not to go on about this ad nauseam, but I just discovered that Beagle-owner Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic noted Rosie's obit in his Daily Dish blog Sunday. Rosie's sardine can caper reminded Andrew of the time his now aging beagle Dusty broke into an overnight bag some house guests had imprudently left on the floor of his loft—with two large boxes of Godiva chocolates hidden inside. Moneyquote: It was a beagle Linda Blair - with viscous chocolate liquid projectile vomiting everywhere in sight. I went to grab her to get her outside. She decided this was a game....

09 October, 2009

Doug MacKay, who edited the Halifax Daily News in its heyday, writes from Toronto: I am sorry to read that Rosie passed away. From the moment she peed on the editor's carpet, I knew she and her owner were of like mind. A great companion. For the record, Rosie only ever peed on the editor's carpet once, and at a young age. It is acknowledged, however, that the stain never came out, and may have played a role in Transcontinental's subsequent decision to abandon the Burnside location. UPDATE: What is it with beagles and journalists? James Cobb, Automobiles Editor of the New York...

06 October, 2009