As it turns out, the contrary flâneuse does not have to practice misdirection just yet. Thinking cautiously - and that I may have underestimated reader cleverness - even the Publican's - in decoding, I decided to change settings to private. Lo and behold I had already done that at some forgotten point in the past. Unnerving to realize that caution has become so ingrained.

Inspired or at least encouraged by kibrolv, I'm resuming posting on Computers, Language, Writing. Sadly, formerly first among blogs, Mountainair Arts is no fun anymore.

Announcements, on the other hand, is neither irritating nor a creative delight to maintain - neutral, almost Taylorized in its procedures - safer for that. I was enjoying the plog until poetaster effect, eg approaching picnic and consequent annoyances such as the whining of the easily confused and likely dim (simple logic and page scrolling is beyond them) and the issuing of orders - annual flunkification as it were. I published a "guide to the perplexed" to address current and forestall future whining.

If I survive through August, the poetry plog could be fun again. How to take MArts off the critical list is another matter. Time to figuratively and verbally flip the bird at oxygen thieves and naysaying chorus.

Is the contrary flâneuse back or not?

To blog or not to blog? These are the questions. Also, what the hell is a contrary flâneuse anyway? I was about to add identifying locator but remembered plan not to peg this particular blogging persona to a named location. Suffice it to say that our flâneuse lives in a remote rural village, cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, somewhere in the mountains of the Western US. The Place or rather Un-place is as pseudonymical as the persona.

When the pissing & moaning, bitching & issuing of (absurd) directives commence, the contrary flâneuse will claim deniability. Alas, 'tis but fiction. Go suck a cactus. Nobody's claiming she's going to be polite. Fer cryin' out loud, can't you read: she's contrary.

As a chronic contrarian, said flâneuse wishes to take this opportunity to thank the civic minded local publican not just for inspiring this resurrection and also requests that said publican share blame and/or credit equally with the flâneuse.

Definition of flâneuse (to confuse matters):

The feminine of the French masculine noun flâneur—which has the basic meanings of "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", "loafer"—which itself comes from the French verb flâner, which means "to stroll". Poet and decadent social observer Charles Baudelaire developed a derived meaning of flâneur—that of "a person who walks the city in order to experience it". Because of the term's usage and theorization by Baudelaire and numerous thinkers (notably Walter Benjamin) in economic, cultural, literary and historical fields, the idea of the flâneur has accumulated significant meaning as a referent for understanding urban phenomena and modernity.

A flâneur is a detached pedestrian given to observing and commenting on milieu - critically and analytically to be sure but not without bemusement, even fondness.

Don't tell me I'm not a team player...

I took pissy comments about my not being a "team player" to heart but probably not with the intended effect. While adding to bookmarks I've been assembling for a local marketing campaign of the same name, I came across the new page for a ranch that hosts field trials and noticed that there was only one listing for local lodging - with a couple of motels two towns away. Shame on that local for not sharing - not being a team player. I sent the link to the rest of the local lodging business, including short term & vacation rentals (higher return than HUD rentals).

It all depends on which team you're on. Mine kneecaps neocon bullies with a zest any Canadian LaCrosse player would envy. Figuratively, that is since LaCrosse players think hockey is for wimps

I can hardly believe it - but must: nearly 2 1/2 years since my last post here. In the meantime, I've started, maintained and kept active a handful of blogs, few as fun as this one promised to be. More dutifully communitarian to be sure. I've discovered other web 2.0 social networking app and am trying to keep au courant about web 3.0, semantic web, etc. Periodically, seeing flâneuse on my blogger dashboard, alone and neglected, I wonder if I should pull the plug on her but cannot.

What to do? Post again before the Society for Prevention of Blog Neglect tracks me down. block access and carries flâneuse off to some virtual shelter for abandoned blogs. Who knows, letting it all hang out here might make me kinder, lower snark quotient on Arts. Local PCTPTB (People Considering Themselves PTB) and Stuffed Shirt Society should but probably won't thank me. There's a significant membership overlap in case anyone is so gormless as not to have noticed.

Reviewing old posts: little has changed, a testament to what Balzac, Hardy, Flaubert, Mahfouz, Pio Baroja, et alia have had to say about village life over the centuries...