2.2
August 23, 2009

Look, Dad, I’m mentioned in the NYTimes.com!

Waylon Lewis’ “I ain’t about to boycott Whole Foods” makes home page of Huffington Post (twice three times, & now with photo), is at 350 450 comments & counting (despite getting posted on dead Saturday morning), is listed as “most popular article on Huff Post, appears on home page of NYTimes.com and mentioned in Times’ blog, mentioned on Atlantic’s web site.

Now I can die a happy nerd. I’m of some small, infintesimal cultural relevance, ma! As a Buddhist practitioner who’s vowed to be of benefit to allllll sentient beings (that’s a lot of beans, as my mom likes to say), new media might just be the trick. It’s viral. It’s easy to share. And it’s free, for the most part.

Here’s the deal: John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, wrote a Republican playbook takedown of “Obamacare” for the conservative Wall Street Journal. Big surprise—for those paying attention, he’s a Libertarian. I may have Obama’s back on healthcare (we’ve been blogging up a storm about it for a good while now), but Mr. Mackey’s political views, while “wrong” in my playbook—lack of healthcare is number one cause of bankruptcies in America, making our pricey, innefficient system not only unfair, unkind, but bad for business—that doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate what Whole Foods has done to prove Green’s ability to make green. And if green can become good business, that’ll change everything. Or at least a lot. Conscious consumerism is what it’s all about.

Which is also why I don’t fault those who do choose to boycott Whole Foods. At least they’re thinking mindfully about how we spend our hard-earned dollars. If we all didi that, generally, all the time, the world will be a better place.

My post, as mentioned in the title, has made the home page twice. That’s a big deal, in media land, minute one or two in my 15 minutes of fame, perhaps. And now I’ve been mentioned on the New York Times’ site.

It’s only the second time in a year I’ve made the home page, and just when I was giving up on Huff Post as a medium for anything more than good google results. For a time, whenever I wrote for Huffington Post, I blogged on it, tweeted, facebooked, emailed friends asking them to comment. I got plenty of comments, every time–with thanks to y’all. But my posts weren’t getting promoted, my original editors moved on, and I was left in a sort of editorial no man’s land. So my latest post comes not only as an honor—making Huff Post’s home page despite getting posted on a Saturday morning (deadtime, media-wise) twice is like touching, however briefly, the nerve center of America and media. It’s exciting. And now, I’m in the New York Times, my idols.

It’s a small mention, but I’m a nobody, so it’s a big effin’ deal for me (and my mom, and grandma, if noone else).

Hopefully, it’s a big deal for elephant, too—our traffic has been high this weekend, which is good for our future prospects (just when I was thinking of focusing on politics or talk show, instead of elephant online, which makes good money but not enough to pay me, yet).

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