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James Lileks

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James Lileks (born August 9, 1958 in Fargo, North Dakota) and educated at the University of Minnesota, is an American journalist, columnist, and blogger living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His blog, the Daily Bleat, began in 1997 and is one of the oldest blogs still running. The Bleat, which is still written in the older "online journal" style, covers every topic from his personal life, to politics from a conservative viewpoint, to cultural points of interest ranging from art and architecture to movies and music (one perennial topic is the Minnesota State Fair). Known for dry humor and an engaging style of writing, Lileks grew in fame in the blogosphere especially following 9/11 and the subsequent explosion in the popularity of blogs for spreading both news and general punditry. Lileks took up the "fight the terrorists" banner and also became a frequent critic of those who oppose the Iraq war.

Lileks's Web site also hosts a vast repository of vintage advertisements and other ephemera from the 1920s to the 1970s. In the Institute of Official Cheer portion of the site, Lileks displays strange, irreverent, or just plain bizarre advertisements, photographs, pamphlets, comic strips, matchbooks, currency, postcards, cheesecake drawings, and architecture, usually accompanied with his humorous analysis and commentary. His section dissecting the works of cheesecake artist Art Frahm, for instance, observes the devastating effects of celery on the gravitational pull of women's underwear. His books The Gallery of Regrettable Food and Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s follow a similar form.

Lileks writes columns for the Star Tribune, the Newhouse News Service and The Washington Post. He was formerly a regular columnist for the Minnesota Daily when he was a student at the University of Minnesota, and later the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He has also hosted a radio show called The Diner on KSTP-AM 1500 AM, a Twin Cities ABC affiliate, and has been a monologist for the public affairs program Almanac, carried on Minnesota PBS stations. (The Diner has been revived as a podcast available on his site.)

On May 11th of 2006, Lileks created the "collect the dots" internet meme during an interview on the Hugh Hewitt show. Referring to political opponents who undermine surveillance programs, he said, "This is nonsense again, because what they're telling you, essentially, is that the Democratic platform is not to do any data mining, any sort of pattern matching. They want us to connect the dots, but they do not want us to collect the dots. The dots should apparently just walk up and volunteer, 'Here I am. I'm a dot!'"

2004 saw the emergence of the "Shorter Lileks" in the liberal blogosphere: bloggers editing down Lileks' arguments so as to sound completely inane and ridiculous. One of the best known practicioners of this tactic is Roy Edroso, creator of Alicublog.


Bibliography

Fiction

  • Falling up the Stairs (1988, ISBN 0-525-24655-X)
  • Notes of a Nervous Man (1991, ISBN 0-671-73701-5)
  • Mr. Obvious (1995, ISBN 0-671-73705-8)
  • Fresh Lies (1995, ISBN 0-671-73703-1)

Humor

  • The Gallery of Regrettable Food (2001, ISBN 0-609-60782-0)
  • Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s (2004, ISBN 1-4000-4640-8)
  • Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice (2005, ISBN 1-4000-8228-5)
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