Announcing "The Silver Fox's THRUST HOME Award!"

For reasons touched upon in my last post, my solo blogs are seeing very little in the way of new material. In fact, here it is, January 8th, and this is my very first post of the new year. And strangely enough, it's here more to showcase the work of others, rather than my own.

Read on, MacDuff...

Bloggers like to give each other awards. I've been honored with a few myself. One of the drawbacks to these awards is that they're usually given with a set of conditions. Quite often, one of these conditions is that the "awardee" is urged to write a post which tells obscure or relatively-unknown things about himself or herself. Another condition, one that's usually stressed more than any others, is that the awardee must "pass on" the award to a pre-ordained number of other bloggers, which has the unfortunate effect of turning the award itself into more of an internet chain letter than a true honor.

In fact, if everyone "tagged" in this manner followed suit, in no time at all every blog in existence would have an award of some kind. Regrettably, that tends to rob the award of its special qualities. Try to picture both you and me with Olympic Gold Medals for swimming, simply because those who'd actually won such medals were forced to pass them along!

Well, I'm only one person, a person whose opinion is of admittedly minuscule importance in the grand scheme of things, but I also like to take occasional notice of a blog or blog post which I find to be outstanding.

So I've created my own blasted award.

One of my all-time favorite stories is Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. I first encountered the tale in its Classics Illustrated comic book version, when I was not quite twelve years old. The ancient, musty-smelling edition I read was a first printing of the comic, published to coincide with the release of the motion picture starring Jose Ferrer. In those days, long before the introduction of VCRs, I had to wait fifteen years before I was actually able to see the film on TV!

Cyrano constantly used the expression "Thrust home!" when fatally piercing an opponent during a sword fight. I've appropriated that phrase for my new award:

As a surprise to virtually no one, I expect, I should

mention that the illustration for this award was drawn

and donated to my cause by none other than Skip Simpson,

who based it on a poster he found on the internet.

The Silver Fox's Thrust Home Award! -- Given to the Author of a Single Outstanding Blog Post.

And my rules for the award's... errr... awardment, and the rules for its recipients, are:

1. This award will be given by me, and no one else, and generally to only one recipient at a time. (Today, however, there will be an exception to this rule. More later.)
2. I'll only give the award to those whose posts have truly "thrust home" with me, so even my best friends on the 'net might never get one.
3. The award will usually go to a post of what I, in my infinite -- or should that be infinitesimal? -- wisdom, deem to be of general import and interest... but that may be fudged once in a while to reflect my own biases. (My award, my stupid rules. Deal with it.)
4. There will be no set frequency for the giving of the award. It's not a weekly or monthly kinda thing. I might give two in a given week. I might give one, and then not give another for months.
5. Theoretically, a recipient of The Silver Fox's Thrust Home Award! may win once, twice... or 47 times! This is an award for individual blog posts, not for blogs!
6. Recipients would be asked to mention their receipt of said award on their own sites, along with a corresponding link to my own. And a little blurb on your sidebar -- feel free to copy and paste the graphic, of course! -- would be greatly appreciated.
7. Winners are not allowed to give this award to others.
8. Other than that, awardees are not asked to do anything else. Heck, you've already done it!

And now, without further ado...

While I've been busy with my own life and -- later -- preparing this award for public dissemination, not one but two blog posts "thrust home" with me. Therefore, in order of their publication, I hereby award The Silver Fox's Thrust Home Award! to the following blogs and their authors (Clicking on the blog's bold-faced title will bring you to the latest post, while, as you've probably surmised, clicking on the title of the "winning" post will bring you to that post itself.):

1. Roy's World, "No Going Back," November 30, 2009

Fellow New Englander and self-described "old hippie" Roy Hilbinger continually provides fascinating posts and intriguing photos. (He also happens to be one of the few people out there who often posts items of musical note -- pun intended -- from which a largely self-satisfied musical trivia know-it-all like myself can learn!) I heartily recommend his blog in general, of course, but he is receiving the very first TSFTHA for a long, incredible post he wrote about religion in general, and the Baha'i Faith in particular. It's a touchy subject -- religion almost always is -- but Roy handled it admirably. Congratulations, Roy!

2. AngelMay's Growing Pains, "Theme Thursday - History ('Because')", December 17, 2009

AngelMay is a remarkably adept writer. My humble words cannot do justice to hers, you might say, so all I'll attempt to do here is to lead you in the right direction. She's won the TSFTHA for a post about the plight of women, both worldwide and in our so-called "enlightened" society. In lesser hands, this post could have been trite and clichéd... but not hers. Congratulations, AngelMay!

And with that... Thanks for your time.