Readers and writers blog

Nine people riding in an open convertible would catch anybody’s attention on the highway, and as I was cruising the Internet over the weekend, a weblog called Riding with the Top Down caught mine.

It’s a shared weblog — actually, a webring without the circular navigation — written by nine authors, all women, and what amazed me was that some old guy like me would find it interesting. But interesting it is. Even on topics I don’t usually care about — network TV, dieting, children’s soccer, home makeovers and the latest fashion trend in pants.

First, the superficial things I like about the site — its airy look, its light peach underlay and its use of serif type. (I don’t know why I dislike sans-serif type, unless my early years as a printer’s apprentice and then nearly four decades as a newspaper reporter and editor conditioned me to think that those little letters needed wings on them.)

But what I really like about the site is its lack of superficiality. While the topics are ordinary, the writers treat them thoughtfully.

Often the treatment is humor: Betina Krahn talks about having to become a coach in her son’s soccer league and inheriting as an assistant “a six-foot-six airline mechanic with biceps the size of Volkswagens . . . who had never played a sport in his life. (’Unless you call ridin’ Harleys a sport.’)” Debra Dixon goes on the Atkins diet and tells us her husband “didn’t know we were going on a diet the next day until I informed him. He was thrilled. Really. Speechless actually . . .. (H)is face was flushed and he looked about to explode.” Christie Ridgway discusses the trend away from low-rise pants: “Are we finally leaving the years of butt cleavage, uh, behind?”

The writers also spin off narrow subjects to wider thoughts: Kathleen Eagle, reminiscing about her favorite teachers, notes that public education “seems to be in trouble these days. These days? I heard the same dire warning when I was in college way back when . . .. (O)ne of the profs — a white guy visiting from South Africa — claimed that the very idea of universal education was absurd. Maybe it is, but without it, there’s no hope for the American dream.” Even Ridgway’s fashion concerns aren’t about herself but the characters in her books: “Today, my 17-year-old secondary character would definitely still be in her hip-huggers. Will they seem so yesterday next year?”

And then there’s the camaraderie: While each post actively tries to engage the reader with questions, most of the comments come from the other writers. Which makes you realize, of course, that the nine of them are not all sitting together in a room (or a convertible) somewhere. Like us, they’re readers, too.

So to you readers, we commend Riding with the Top Down, the newest addition to our blogroll.

– Sid Leavitt