ChrisMohney.com

The Universal Modular Trend Piece

"I am an exemplar of the trend in question," says the person, interviewed in a space appropriate to the theme while aesthetically following the trend's parameters, unless the latter is counter-intuitive though true. Background facts about the person explain his/her membership in the trend's demographics. "Now I am describing what it's like to practice the trend," she/he says.

Previously this trend did not exist or was not recognized, until now. Early forms of the trend have evolved and perhaps been identified as something, though not yet as a trend, for this piece shall serve as the official recognition of the trend in full flower. Consider a broad statement about the trend's wide applicability and growing acceptance. Here is an example of the trend in popular culture, like a celebrity or fictional character that may take the trend to satirical extremes. This proves the trend's legitimacy on the cultural radar.

Mourning Julia Allison

Here is the Julia Allison post I've been resisting for months, illustrated with a photo of her cute dog. Back in the dark days of November 2006, I wrote a Gawker post entitled "Field Guide: Julia Allison." The post was written at Nick Denton's vehement insistence, but he immediately kvetched in the comments that my depiction of Julia as an obsessive attention-seeker was pointless because, duh, that's what she does. Of course, now Nick himself makes fun of Julia's self-promotion mania, mocking her branded birthday party and  agreeing (with Julia, and with me from 2006) that she really should be more discreet. Julia herself still complains about the "Field Guide," since it repeated (multiply sourced) anecdotes about instances where her famous flirtatiousness may have crossed (or blurred) a line. She even brought it up during this past January's "liveblog" clusterfuck on Gawker:

When Gawker did the "field guide" to me, which accused me, amongst other things, of being a hussy who steals women's husbands, I cried all day.

And then, a few comments later, Julia followed her usual form of inadvertent reflexive self-analysis:

I think it's fairly obvious that the comments which hurt the most are those which hit closest to the truth.

Julia asked several people (me included, long after could I do anything about it) to remove the "Field Guide" because of its prominence in Google searches on her name.  Still in the top 10 apparently.  But given all the abuse she's endured in the past three months, Julia must be longing for the relatively genteel days of the "Field Guide." And now she's passed another blogging milestone and formally blogged about her decision to quit blogging.