Saturday, January 13, 2007

A Matter of Opinions (Mine)

January 13

A lot of browsers find this blog when looking for specific topics, or posts about certain people. Anderson Cooper, say, or Bear County, or Mateer's Restaurant or "Fairhope Storybook Cottage." Almost every time they would have been disappointed, because what they will find here is the rantings of one very opinionated woman -- me -- usually not exactly on the topic for which they were seeking information.

My opinions are not unbiased, even though they are almost always right, but I'm sure they are something of a slap in the face for the casual Internet browser who has a sincere curiosity and a need to know. Last week someone Googled "Bear County" and hit my post about Stephen Colbert, who did a few shows on an Alabama county called Colbert County which he insisted on pronouncing with the same French accent he uses for his own name. If someone came here loaded for bear, he was in the wrong place indeed.

On the other hand, if the browser was looking for some genuine admiration for Anderson Cooper , he would not have been disappointed. If he was seeking information about Andy Warhol, he might have learned quite a bit about the world of modern art. If he had a question about Southern women as pictured by Tennessee Williams, he would have had his eyes opened. And if he wanted to learn how to watch movies with his eyes open, he was sent to quite another place.

I've tried to reference other blogs with a lot of what is known in Internet terms as "html" before, and as you see I'm still trying, but, if you click on any of the above and don't get where I was trying to send you, you're on your own. You can search specific topics on your own by typing your topic in the "Search This Blog" box at the top of the blog. Finding Fair Hope is a blog full of opinions of all kinds, from who really wrote the plays of Shakespeare to the institutions of old Fairhope (Alabama). Its name is derived from my own fair hope of getting the best from Fairhope and my only fair hope that I will.

Welcome to a slightly skewed world of many things.

7 comments:

PURSuE Your Art! said...

I am one of those lucky women who stumbled upon your blog by accident. Love your stories and insight. I will be back.

Mary Lois said...

Welcome to the world of fair hope, Ms. Purs! I hope you'll bookmark me and read all you can stand of my opinions right and wrong. If you think I can never be wrong, read some of the comments from Mr. Bananas of California.

Feel free to post, all ye lurkers in the loft, especially the one from Charleston SC and another from Cleveland who drops in from time to time. As you can see from early posts, we once had lively discussions going on in the Comment section.

Bert Bananas said...

For what we're paying, your opinions are worth the price!

Anonymous said...

Unless we are just plain brain dead, we all have opinions. That's a sign that there is some degree of awareness we hold on what has happened or is happening or will happen. It is interesting to note that only the most of timid and the wise keep theirs to themselves...something to think about. All the rest of us express those we have, revealing to the listener -or reader- just how smart or informed we are or just how stupid and ignorant. Of course, neither case is really a gauge as to the accuracy of our opinion, for others equally stupid or ignorant as ourselves would tend to agree with us, and when that happens the basis for creating a political party or a religion has been set in motion. When our opinions are shared by others equally smart and informed as we consider ourselves, we gloat in the confirmation and the pride of being in excellent company. That too sets in motion group forming, but never beyond mutual admiration societies, for political parties and religions require a leader, and none of you smarties want a second place role, so nothing comes of it.

When we run across someone who holds a different view than ours, our first reaction commonly is one of two: what a dunce we have before us or on what cloud or under what rock does that guy or gal live? On rare occasions, we shut up and listen...and learn. Yes, those occasions are rare. Sincere introspection doesn't come easy, self-delusion does.

Does having an opinion -and freely expressing it- make one opinionated? To answer that we have to take into consideration just how freely the opinion is expressed, meaning is there shown a sort of compulsion to have to opine on everything, asked for or not and qualified or not? Does the opinion giver also manifest the syndrome of selective cognizance, which is a fancy way of saying, "Don't confuse me with facts; my mind is made up."? If the answer to both parts is 'yes' then being very opinionated applies. Most of us are somewhere in between. However, being opinionated is not an overall bad thing, for no blog would be worth reading without the blogger being that.

Mary Lois said...

Gee, Mr. Oaf, I'm glad you too have opinions. Thanks for helping me out by padding my comment section. Too bad it's so difficult to follow the logic of learning from those who are stupid, and the gauge the accuracy of our assumptions, or whatever you said.

Anonymous said...

What do you mean, you're not quite sure what my opinion comment is all about? It's about opinions, that everyone has them, that everyone wants to express theirs -that's the ego coming out-, that most opinions fail to capture the reality of whatever is being opined on, that, often, just listening contributes more to the learning process than expressing an opinion, and that being opinionated can be both good and bad. Where's the confusion? It's so clear than even a caveman can understand it... Forget it; it's not worth haggling over.

Anonymous said...

This is very painful to me. I'm going to have to deal with it with my shrink.