Valleywag: a-list bloggers

Silicon Valley's baby boom

Owen Thomas — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:45:23 PDT

I never intended for the blogger-baby story, which began with the birth of Ollie Kottke to A-list bloggers Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan, to become quite such a saga, but news has a way of happening. Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield are no longer expecting a baby — they have a daughter, Sonnet Beatrice Butterfield, according to fellow Yahoo executive Bradley Horowitz. Here's the rundown on the rest of the couples mentioned in yesterday's baby poll, which — well done, readers — you guessed correctly.

Alaina Browne and Anil Dash The foodblogger and Six Apart executive are not pregnant, though Dash has been looking a little chunky.

Heather Powazek Champ and Derek Powazek: Flickr's community manager and the famous Web designer are not pregnant.

Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield: Flickr's cofounders made no secrecy of Fake's pregnancy, which ended yesterday with the safe delivery of a newborn daughter.

Jennifer Granick and Brad Stone: The lawyer and New York Times reporter are expecting, and are telling people about it.

Maryam and Robert Scoble: Would you really expect Robert Scoble, whose blogger wife, Maryam, is pregnant, not to blog about the fact?

Now we all know: Ben Trott proved so irresistably hot that his wife and fellow Six Apart cofounder, Mena, found herself in a family way. Until recently, she'd been trying to keep the fact private.

To the pregnant couples: Heartfelt congratulations and best wishes. To Fake and Butterfield: Mazel tov! To Browne, Dash, and the Powazeks: Get cracking! Valleywag is going to need readers in 2025.

(Photos by Anil Dash, edyson, granick, jacksonwest, Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, and simoncast)

The pregnant A-lister comes out

Owen Thomas — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:59:05 PDT

Mena Trott, cofounder and president of Six Apart, the blog-software company, is pregnant. There, I said it — and now, so has she. Trott blames her superstitions as a first-time mother for keeping the pregnancy a secret for so long. The lack of disclosure, though, has been uncharacteristic for Trott who, as a spokesperson for her company, has long made blogging about herself an integral part of Six Apart's publicity strategy. Six Apart's new blogging site, Vox, however, makes it easier to keep some posts limited to a small circle of readers — which is part of how Trott kept her pregnancy quiet. For a blogger, work and home life are never far apart.

Let's play hide the baby

Owen Thomas — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:26:02 PDT

Last week, the birth of a son (and future blogger) to Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan reminded us of another famous Web personality who ~~tried~~had a colleague try, bizarrely, to claim that the mom-to-be's pregnancy was "off the record." (Memo to other would-be secret-keepers: "Off the record" is always a matter of mutual agreement between reporter and source, not something you can declare unilaterally.) We asked for guesses on who it was, and you had lots of good ones. Now it's time to vote, picking out the baby-hiders from among these glamorous A-list bloggers. Pictures of the people you've speculated about, and a poll, after the jump.

The contestants: Alaina Browne and Anil Dash, Heather Powazek Champ and Derek Powazek, Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield

Jennifer Granick and Brad Stone, Maryam and Robert Scoble, and Ben and Mena Trott

(Photos by Anil Dash, edyson, granick, jacksonwest, Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, and simoncast)

A bouncing baby blog

Owen Thomas — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:54:21 PDT

Jason Kottke, who was blogging long before anyone called it that, and Meg Hourihan, the cofounder of Pyra Labs, maker of Blogger, are the proud parents of Ollie Kottke. Mazel tov to the new mom and dad! We can't wait until Ollie starts IMing us tips about his A-list blogger parents. For those of you as thrilled as I am by news of the next generation of bloggers, here's a question: Which other famous A-list blogger couple is set to have a baby very soon — but who are going around telling people, absurdly, that the mom-to-be's very obvious bump is "off the record"? (Photo by jkottke)

13 Blogs You're Not Reading

lock — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:32:39 PST

LOCKHART STEELE — Rounding out an admittedly East Coast-centric day on Valleywag, we emailed a group of NYC internerds and asked them to tell us about the more obscure blogs they're most enjoying these days. (Yes, we're ~~ripping off~~ finding inspiration from Fimoculous blogger Rex Sorgatz's Best Blogs of 2006 You're Not Reading post from a few weeks back.) Feast on the flotsam, after the jump.

Rosecrans Baldwin has edited The Morning News, one of the web's smartest daily reads, for quite a long time now.
· Foreign Policy's 'Passport': Better than Emergen-C.
· The Nonist: The goods bits from a fruit salad.
· Maria Kalman's occasional 'Principles of Uncertainty': I print out her drawings and pin them on the wall.

Ricky Van Veen is the editorial director of CollegeHumor.com. His personal blog, Get Excited, is a very special treat.
· John Mayer's Blog: Puts a lot of effort into his blog and keeps it personal and honest.
· Mindy Kaling (Kelly on "The Office")'s Blog: An earnest and charming blog about things she buys that she loves.
· TonyHomo.com: Amir, one of our writers, keeps a jealousy-fueled blog as former Dallas Cowboys starting QB Drew Bledsoe covering current starting QB Tony Romo. The domain name is the touch that knocks the concept out of the park.

Mark Graham, aka Uncle Grambo, writes the seminal celebrity blog Whatevs.org. He recently moved from Detroit to New York, where he's now embedded at VH1, working on a secret project rumored to be taking on TMZ.
· Corn Chips And Pie: If "erudite" and "crutidé" actually rhymed (and it's a crime they don't), it would be the perfect tagline for this wonderfully written and truly unique site.
· Passion Of The Weiss: For the last six weeks or so, no blogger has been hotter.
· Toybreaker: Satiates your inner avant goth artiste tendencies.

Rachel Sklar edits Eat The Press for the Huffington Post. She is Canadian.
· Penguins on the Equator: I'm loath to give up my secret, but Ankush Khardori's blog is really freaking smart.

Felix Salmon blogs about economics at Economonitor.com. He would like to recommend these finance/economics blogs, "many of which are much better than you might expect."
· Dean Baker's Beat the Press: Everything you suspected about economic reporting is true.
· The Bayesian Heresy: Brand new, but already challenging Mark Thoma's Economist's View for best economics weblog.
· Alexander Campbell's Over the Counter: One of the very few blogs associated with a print publication (Risk magazine) which really gets it right. Great, clear writing on very recondite financial instruments: not easy!

Other underappreciated gems welcome in the comments, so long as you're not self-linking.