People are always asking me, "Steve, tell us what blogs you read?"

Here's a short list. I'll add more later.

• An Aquarium Drunkard - A great music blog on singer/songwriters and alt.country
• Fowler Jones
• Wendy Molyneux
• Jeff Drake
• Alison Rosen (I wish she were a friend, but she's a friend of a friend)

Okay, so no one has ever asked me what blogs I read. But since blogging is an exercise in narccicism for me, I thought I'd go ahead and post this anyway. It's about the other blogs, really.

A couple of my favorite bits from the archives of the Onion:

Well, Well, Well, If It Isn't a Family-Owned Retailer

Clinton Holds Summit with Magic Turtle

My son asked how come we didn't celebrate more on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

He reasoned that it was, after all, a holiday.

"What kind of celebrating did you have in mind?"

"Watch more TV," he said.

My six-year-old son was named Karate "Student of the Year" for his age group in last night. He is very enthusiastic about his Karate practice, and he was able to complete the main objective with ease: kill another student with your bare hands. Congratulations, Graham!

More stories about raw milk...
"I realised something was up when the queues in my local farmers' market - in London's Queen's Park - started bulking up beside the milk van."
Article about the rising popularity of raw milk in London
(London Telegraph, Jan 18, 2008)

"Just two weeks after new restrictions on raw milk took effect, the Assembly Agriculture Committee voted unanimously this week to repeal them."
Article about the California state laws on bacterial content in milk
(Sacramento Bee, Jan 19, 2008)

The Seattle Post reports that a Seattle dairy has recalled a batch of raw milk after 5 people came down sick with campylobacter jejuni.

I had that bug once in college and it was not a pretty sight. Some of you may have heard me tell of the experience in what I call my 'Dark & Foul-Smelling Story.'

Recent dispatches from the front lines of the battle over raw milk and raw milk cheese:

"I know it's illegal, but that doesn't mean it's wrong."
A story on the Illegal milk trade in a Brooklyn neighborhood
(New York Daily News: Jan. 8, 2008.)

"[J]ust a matter of staying ahead of the curve on food safety."
A story on new raw milk standards that recently went into effect in California
(San Francisco Chronicle: Dec 28, 2007)

"The decision to sell raw milk was made, Cindy Westover said, to give her family a greater margin on every gallon sold." A story about a New Hampshire dairy that decided to sell raw milk for better profits. (Brattleboro Reformer: Jan. 11, 2008)

"With the raw stuff, you get all the goodness that is in it."
A story about the popularity of raw milk cheese made by a Wisconsin dairy.
(Green Bay Press-Gazette: Jan. 9, 2008.)