Mrs. Linklater's Top 100

Answer:  The F-word.   Question:  What's the one thing that can separate AOL Journals into two distinct piles?

 

Mrs. Linklater got to thinking about how she would determine which AOL Journals deserve to be in her version of the AOL Journals Top 100.  Which ones would she choose for her pile?

If you want to see the current hot list -- the who's in and who's out, based on numbers of blog references and links, click here [well, you can click here when Mrs. Linklater gets around to setting up the link.]

Anyway, Mrs. Linklater managed to come up with the one qualifier that separates the ordinary journal from an extraordinary one.  

That certain something that becomes a defining moment for those who want to hog the blog spotlight.  

The standard of excellence that separates the people who write good, from the people who type good. 

Mrs. Linklater, you're rambling. . .

And that difference is the F-word. There she said it. She broke the silence.

For a long time now it has been apparent that the use of a masked vulgarity was enough to keep a journal from AOL Journal Land recognition, no matter how excellent the writing or how many elves and faeries there might be in each entry. 

In fact, just using the phrase "masked vulgarity" was a sure way to draw unwanted attention to one's journal.  

There was also the understandable rumbling about just exactly who decides what a masked vulgarity might be.

Since one person's masked vulgarity might be another person's term of endearment.

We are a country that prides itself on diversity after all.

Even the mention of the euphemistic term "F-word" can raise eyebrows in the judgmental world of journals. 

But Mrs. Linklater thinks that the F-word is the only way to decide which journals she wants in her Top 100.  Because it is HER Top 100 after all.  And she has decided to stick to her guns on this one.

So to make it to the Top 100 in her world -- a journal has to have more than hundreds of links from other blogs. 

It has to have more than pictures so large you can't see them unless you stand across the room.

It has to have more than a No. 1 Editor's Pick.

It has to have the F-word.  Not just in the beginning.  But the middle and the end, too.  Mrs. Linklater wants to be clear about that.

Her Top 100 journals will be full of the F- word.  

F - U - N - N - Y.

What!? You thought she meant something else?