Manchester Spring Blog Meet April 7

I know, I know, it's been way too long since we've all met up. But I'm still over here in the states, and still don't know when I'll be coming back to the UK. Fortunately, James Yer Mam! has kindly volunteered to organise the next blogmeet.

It's going to be going down at 3 in the afternoon on April 7 at The Hare and Hounds on Shudehill, a pub many of you may remember fondly from previous glittering Manchester Bloggers affairs (The quaintness of the decor! The cheapness of the beer!) For those of you who aren't quite sure where that is, it's in the Northern Quarter, just across the street from the new bus station and just across the tram stop from the Printworks.

As usual, everyone's welcome: people with blogs, people who wish they had blogs but aren't quite sure how to go about setting them up, people who like to read blogs, bloggers' significant others who secretly resent being forced to attend these geekfests but haven't quite managed to get out of going yet, people who don't understand why all these loud youngsters have taken over their pub in the middle of the afternoon but hope they bugger off soon. Have fun.

Travel advisory

Oh, and if you're wondering why I have been so quiet lately, I'm back home in the states dealing with a difficult situation offline. Blogging service should continue to be intermittent for the forseeable future. Go read some of those blogs over there, to your right.

Have Mersey!

Who says Mancs and Scousers can't get along? Hogwash. The Manchizzle has a new best friend, and it's name is Liverpool Blogs.*

Liverpool Blogs is the work of eminent ex-Mancunian blogger Stuart Ian Burns of Feeling Listless, and it's much like this blog in its aims; Stu says "Liverpool blogs more and more and the purpose of this site is to provide a focus for the budding blogging community, highlighting our writing and demonstrating that actually, we're not alone."

In fact, he says LB was actually inspired by The Manchizzle at the top of the first post. Aww, you gotta love being inspirational. Anyway, it's just barely been born and is still a mere mewling, monkey-faced infant in the blogosphere, but go take a gander at that blogroll. Amazing how many Scouse bloggers there are already, isn't it?

*(Of course we still love you Flat Out Norwich. You know what they say: "Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." I think that was a little song I learned in Girl Scouts.)

Observer Woman: Bite Me

The Observer Woman monthly has been known to make me so angry that I waste perfectly good Sundays being a seething mass of bitter rage, devoting hours to brooding and muttering that were intended for lingering over your third cup of tea and lazily contemplating making another bacon sandwich. So I've stopped reading it. I've strictly limited myself to sneering at the cover (all right, and muttering just a little bit.)

That's why I'm delighted to see that two fine Mancunians have picked up my slack in the righteous ranting department, except they're doing it online and in a much more organized and coherent way. Observer Woman Makes Me Spit is a noble blog that defines its mission thusly:


It arrives once a month. It’s often painful, always annoying. Liable to invoke irrational mood swings and violent bursts of temper. It’s messy, embarrassing and is often known as ‘the curse.’ Yes. It’s the Observer Woman Magazine. Could it be less relevant? Could it be more offensive? 51% of humanity reduced to simpering, bitchy whores of the fashion industry. Nothing to trouble our little minds but hunky men, flashy lip gloss and Gucci gussets. We hate it. We hate it so much we went to all this trouble to set up this blog. And we have real jobs. It took a good 30 minutes out of our drinking time. Spill your bile here. We will.

And I will too. If I ever let myself read it again.