Monday, March 10, 2008

Choice between writing and a million dollar site

I have an unexpected "work at home day" today, so I've been trying to make the most of it by taking forays into the blogosphere in between my real (making money for vacations) work.

Along the way, I came across some interesting sites.

The first one came via the Sunday Scribblings prompt this week and smtwngrl's post on her blog,

- Writing: My Life
- that led me to a post on her sidebar about Daylight Savings Time
- that came from a writing prompt on

*First 50 Words*
Somehow, today's prompt of "Arrogance" was irresistible and I had to jump right in with my own response.

Ever in need of creative inspiration, I have duly bookmarked the site.

The second site that I've bookmarked (but I'm not sure will be a keeper) came via a post on The Boomer Chronicles about a new site called wowOwow.

WowOwow launched this past weekend on International Women's Day. According to a New York Times article, it's supposed to be a site by and for women "of a certain age" (meaning over forty). The five founding members (Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl, Mary Wells, Joni Evans, Peggy Noonan) have recruited other high-profile media and showbiz names, including Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Marlo Thomas and Judith Martin (aka Miss Manners) to be regular contributors.

According to Ms Evans, in her welcome article,

WowOwow is a party — disguised as a website — where we meet for coffee (in our robes) and for cocktails (without any makeup) and even in the middle of the night (someone’s always up!). Here, we can talk to our readers, invite the most interesting guests, share experiences, tell tales out of school, exchange gossip and news — and make some of our own.

You can read the entire piece here.

From looking around the site, I'm not exactly sure how it relates to me. Nothing in the first batch of articles said anything new, revealing or all that interesting to me as an older woman.

Maybe, as Ms Evans said, it is just "a party disguised as a website" -- not something I'd be terribly interested in reading on a regular basis.

If I want celebrity gossip, I can find that elsewhere. Likewise, fashion opinions by the rich and famous and/or coverage of American politics.

By the way, the NY Times article states the founders put one million dollars into the startup of the site. I hope they get beyond the party image. Better yet, leave it for frat boys and sorority houses.

For now, I've bookmarked wowOwow and will be checking in to see how it evolves. But for my money, I haven't found anything to beat Ronni Bennett's, Time Goes By as an intelligent voice for older women (and men).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll check those out. Of course, I agree with you about Ronni's blog. She is incredible and amazing, isn't she?

Anonymous said...

Hi there! Thanks for the shout-out! Great Sunday Scribbling this week, btw. I had the thought to do the same thing, but decided it was too much to try to get into one post. You proved me wrong, though!