My Strategy for Winning the Readers’ Choice Awards

Posted by Micah Murphy in Culture | 2 comments

You may have seen earlier today when our Editor-in-Chief, Andrew, announced that Truth & Charity was in the finals for the 2013 About.com Catholicism Readers’ Choice Awards.  It’s a pretty prestigious thing and we’re humbled and honored to be included.

We find ourselves at the outset of a one-month battle for our own share of the Catholic blogosphere market.  Our competition? Fr. Z, These Stone Walls, Bad Catholic, Holy Souls Hermitage … okay, so we’re coming in at dead-last.  Since I feel some fraternal affection for Bad Catholic, who shares with me an alma mater (hey Marc, say hi to Bolster and Sr. M. Johanna for me, will you?), and I don’t know much about These Stone Walls, I’m going to play David to Fr. Z’s Goliath, who decided to add his own personal commentary on the finalists:

There are some good and, I must say, surprising choices this year.

Surprise!!!

I’ve decided to take a distinctly capitalist approach in my attempt to topple Fr. Z’s lead.  I’d like to make the argument that while the product I offer here at Truth & Charity is indeed inferior to Fr. Z’s product, you get my product at significantly less personal cost (All that reading? BOO!) and with a much more stylish design (yeah, that was a cheap shot, but look at our logo!) to distract you from the lackluster quality.

Also, I’d like to compare myself with Fr. Z.: He’s a priest, I spent time in the seminary (a comparison that’s preceded many a heretical comment, I know, but not from me!).  He speaks Latin fluently, I know Latin … well enough to write Latin poetry.  Any frequent reader of his holy birettaness knows how he loves to cook.  So do I!

I present to you below, in this order: homemade chicken marsala rigatoni (with homemade rosemary dipping bread), homemade egg noodles with lemon-pepper butter sauce and shrimp, white-wine poached pears in vanilla creme anglaise, homemade banana nutella crepes, caprese paninis, homemade strawberry balsamic reduction, a little dish I like to call Yankee Jambalaya, corned beef and roasted potatoes with kale and homemade soda bread.

Fr. Z has met Pope Benedict, I’m two degrees from … Kevin Bacon (Rosalind Harris, Tzeitel from Fiddler on the Roof, once stayed at my house when I was a kid, and was – ironically – in a Christmas movie once with Kevin Bacon). Also proof of our mutual love of … [wait for it] … TRADITION!

So, basically, everything Fr. Z excels at, I … kinda do well at.  Yeah.  Okay, this isn’t working out so well for me.

Ummm … vote for Truth & Charity!  We’re every bit as good as Fr. Z … kinda.

Hmmm… let me try a socialist approach instead: you could just vote for us because he’s won a couple years in a row. Time to redistribute the wealth! :-p We are the 99%

[Fr. Z, if you read this, I hope you take it all in good humor.]