We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos. Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain. We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.
One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.
Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at TopComments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.
These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But we hope they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.
Please come in and make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fold...
A couple of weeks ago, as I'm sure you'll remember, I was down with a virus that had me coughing up a storm, sneezing involuntarily at various intervals, and otherwise feeling very sorry for myself.
The frequent coughing, aside from the gross inconvenience and inconvenient grossness, made it just about impossible to sing. The first week, I missed singing with my Renaissance group because I felt too miserable, and the second week because even though I was feeling better, I couldn't sustain a note for more than a second or two before provoking a long series of coughs. Clearly, attending a rehearsal would be an exercise in frustration for me, and probably disruptive for everyone else; there's nothing like the sound of someone seeming to cough out a lung or two to ruin the musical effect.
On Tuesday of this week, I was well enough to attend. Sure, I was still coughing occasionally, but I could sing multi-second phrases without interruption, and my body was at the point of using my abdominal muscles to suppress most attempts to cough, even singing through them. Every breath, of course, is an opportunity to reset, to relax the muscles and start again. Unfortunately, the cough tried to reassert itself at some point before the end of most phrases.
Singers usually know how to get through challenging moments like this, even if they're not ideal for music making, so that the rehearsal or performance isn't marred. And I did a pretty good job of it. However, it wasn't an ideal singing experience: when your body locks up to prevent coughing, it also locks up your instrument, which reduces your flexibility and ability to sing with true control and good tone. I was missing some high notes, and less able to get to others sounding as good as I normally do.
Even so, there were good moments: one of the pieces was new to me, and there's always something magical about hearing a piece for the very first time, especially if you're part of the web of sound. I couldn't help grinning at one point at that rush of pleasure…and then suppressed yet another cough.
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We received a nice group of emails today from people who took the time to submit comments that deserved recognition to Top Comments mailbox in time for the 9:30pm Eastern Time deadline. The address of our mailbox for top comments submissions remains:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can send great comments to our address. Be sure to include the direct link to a comment—the URL—which is available from that comment's date/time; we need that to find your choice. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we are able to include that, too, though we reserve the right to edit.
From Fiddlegirl:
This comment by Andrew C White is my nomination for a top comment! Love it!
From Samer (writeup by sardonyx):
Fiona West writes on the "perks" afforded Keith Ellison, the congressman from Minnesota who's also the first Muslim elected to congress.
From Dragon5616:
In Seneca Doane's diary Dude, you forgot to make it a diary!, which was all about top comments by G2geek regarding non-violent protests, kurious added this outstanding comment and link about organizing those protests in Egypt.
From sardonyx (your suppressed Thursday diarist):
In arendt's diary from yesterday evening, The Extraordinary Rendition of Our Rights, hannah writes that thought pieces don't always get as much attention here at the big orange, and then gives her own thoughts on the diary.
trillian writes about people who should know better and still vote for Republicans.
Pager asks some interesting questions from the perspective of someone who's working hard to elect Democrats in Colorado.
In Conscientia's diary Tag...I'm in, Andrew C White tells what brought him to full-bore active.
In navajo's diary Pine Ridge Billboard Project by Aaron Huey, the diarist would have submitted this comment by Tookish if it had been "earlier in the day." Since the comment was written during eligibility for the next day's Top Comments (that is, this one), I'm including it here because comments made around or after our daily diary can always be submitted for the following day's diary. Excellent comments should never be withheld from TC because it's midnight.
Please add your own comment finds below!
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A reminder: Top mojo will return once we figure out how to strongarm convince Comment Search to give us exactly what we need in a form that we can use. Which is more difficult than it sounds.