Welcome to Minerva’s Consort!  I've been absent from the blogosphere for some time but it is good to be back.

I used to have a blog several years ago on a nationally known media website.  It was very successful and the number of people reading it was truly frightening, but the website was hacked and went down for over a year, and when it got back up I was otherwise engaged.

Let me explain what I do.  The blog is called Minerva’s Consort because Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and reason.  Since Minerva was a virgin goddess she is not thought to have had any consorts, which is where I come in.  What I like to do is apply the qualities of wisdom and reason to areas where most people are passionate and irrational.  Mostly I mean entertainment and sports, but also broad areas of public policy.  Do you think your favorite last place team will win next season because they signed a big free agent?  I’ll explain why you’re wrong.  Are you outraged that a network cancelled your favorite show despite the fact that it was awesome?  I’ll look at the ratings and explain how networks aren't in the business of cancelling good shows (OK, there have been exceptions). 

Everything won’t be argumentative, however.  I will also post movie and TV reviews, historical notes on what I consider to be forgotten TV shows and movies, and random analyses that occur to me like discussing the best actor to play Perry White in any of the Superman incarnations.

Why do I do this?  I am a contrarian by nature and an analyst by training.  If I am in a room full of people saying “Yes” I have to ask if we should at least consider “No.”  I believe the greatest mistakes ever made in the history of the world were all made unanimously (Watergate, anyone?).  This has not endeared me to some of my bosses, but I always remember the words of the character of Isaac Jaffe from Sports Night: “If you’re dumb, surround yourself with smart people; if you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people that disagree with you.”

So in the future I will be talking about stuff you care about passionately.  And most of the time I’ll be telling you that you are wrong.  They say one problem with America is that everyone now gets their news from sources that reinforce their beliefs; conservatives believe everything spoken on Fox News despite all evidence to the contrary, and liberals keep on listening to Kermit the Frog and other people on PBS.  I am hoping that some people are willing to seek out a well written blog that just may challenge what they believe in.  Just keep the hate mail clean and as lucid as your medication permits.

D. W. O’Dell