Via Laure, the New York Observer profiles the Manhattan blog scene. My first thought: “Oh, how funny. This sounds, mutatis mutandis, pretty much like my circle of friends. Just substitute DCist for Gothamist, Townhouse or Black Cat for The Magician, and so on.” My second thought: “Wait, this sounds like everyone’s circle of friends. Why is this remotely interesting? It’s about bloggers, but it could be med students, Redskins fans, brokers, whatever.” But the Observer seems to have made its stock-in-trade the mystification of the completely ordinary. If a couple 20-something right-of-center journos have occasional house parties attended (shockingly) by friends who are also disproportionately 20-something right-of-center journos, they’ll try (not wholly convincingly) paint it as some kind of novel, burgeoning scene. (Conservatives have parties too? Whoa!) If another young conservative writer has hit upon the dizzyingly unorthodox career strategy of interning and working at a number of conservative publications, where his editors help put him in touch with folks in the publishing industry, this apparently constitutes evidence of a well-oiled right-wing machine to groom and promote a new generation of pundits. What’s your per-word, guys? I can do five of these a week. We can start with my earthshattering 4,000 word expose of some dudes who are all lawyers and frequently eat lunch together.