I mentioned a few posts ago that blogs are like neigborhoods. That's not my idea. It's an idea I got from the writer Jennifer Warner Cooper. I think she's right. They are. I think. But I'm not really sure. That won't come as a surprise to anyone who's been reading The Off The Fence Post. I'm nothing if not agnostic. About damn near everything. In that sense, the name of this blog is ironic. Or downright dishonest. It should be The On The Fence Post. But that blog name was taken.

The one I chose is the next best thing. Which might be a terrific name for a blog.

The Next Best Thing.

I'm sure it's already been used. Strike that. I'm almost sure.

Blogs are the new hoods? Maybe. But what makes them different from, say, radio talk show hosts and their listeners? Or newspaper columnists, and the folks who respond to what they have to say by sending letters to the editor? Is this really different? Or the same old same old in a slightly different form?

My next door neighbor, Pete ( He's the deer hunter, the fisherman I mentioned in a previous post ) mosied on over the other day.

" Read your piece in the Providence Journal this morning, " Pete said. We talked about that for a few minutes. Two old boys in the hood, shooting the shit. Making eye contact every now and then.

Eye Contact. Might be a good name for a blog. Irony being in vogue these days.