2 Minutes for Cross-Blogging

751 posts in, and it’s finally paying off.

It was nearly 3 years ago when I decided that I could make the internet a better place by creating You’re a Blog. My reasons were simple in that regard – one does not need a divine ultimatum from the Lord Almighty to type things on the interwebs these days. I realized I really enjoyed writing e-mails in comedic fashion, (informative and to-the-point was SO 2003), and blogging would be a way to do it on a more widespread basis.

That, and to impress Katie. Oh, how the ladies swoon for dry humor cybersatire.

Over the last three years, I feel I’ve grown as a writer. I dare you to go back to August 2004 and see the early material we published on this site. I hadn’t yet found my voice when it came to writing these things. Such misfires included the sappathetic tribute to William and Mary Orientation, which just wasn’t funny at all. We’re talking the lowest form of comedy right there. Like a foot and a half below puns. We also learned the lesson to not try and stretch a one-liner into a full column. An ill-fated October Jiffy Lube post taught us that lesson the hard way. (Notice there are no hyperlinks to either of those two columns. Sometimes history is best left buried under a very, very heavy rock.)

We’ve tried big projects along the way to finely tune our literary equivalent of exploding fish, such as the NFL-Fall TV Preview and the monstrous “We Didn’t Start the Fire” parody that commemorated Post 500. Ultimately, we find that our comedic wheelhouse is best served in the topics that we know best.

Surprisingly, that’s more than just Saved by the Bell.

Take sports, for example. After finding the lighter side of sports for two years, we stumbled across the kingpin in the field, the Gawker Media-run Deadspin. A multi-post all-sports site run by the very clever Will Leitch, Deadspin aimed to point out that not everything is exactly as Sports Center reports it. And to add to the hilarity, they allow comments on all of their posts. However, not just any comment can make the cut over there. Any new comments from unknown commenters are reviewed by an editorial board for wit, relevance, sarcasm, and laughs. If they deem your material funny enough to join their ranks, why then, you’ve joined an elite fraternity of people who can mock athletics with the best of them. Last October, a comment about Will’s favorite team, the Arizona Cardinals, got me my ticket to the big dance.

For those who read the ‘spin, regularly, I’m known as “Hextall454.”

I chose the name for a couple reasons. One, it shows that I’m an ice hockey fan above all else. Second, it shows that I’m a Philly sports fan above all else, other than of course, being an ice hockey fan. Third, it delightfully lampoons that medical sports crème Flexall454. Good thing, man. Flexall454 so had it coming.

The thing with Deadspin is that other than the sports of basketball, football, and baseball, everything else if a bit of a sideshow. It’s not that Will isn’t knowledgeable on the topics, but rather, he knows that there’s a much smaller audience for ‘em. Sadly, ice hockey is included in that lot.

But then the Deadspinners had an idea.

Whenever hockey WAS mentioned on the site, the puckhead faithful would comment in droves. They’re a passionate crew, no doubt. Therefore, the decision was made to support and promote a Deadspinoff blog, devoted entirely to hockey.

You can see what’s coming here.

I’ve got a new gig (concurrent, I assure you) now, as I have been asked to join the editors’ staff of Melt Your Face-Off. The link is over there in the sidebar, so you know where to find me. If you hurry over now, my Flyers piece is at the top of the page!

*Now, with 73% more Mighty Ducks references!