A bit of meta-blogging goes well with my coffee

I've been thinking a bit (as hard as that may be to believe) about what makes a blog worth reading. This came in response, no surprise, to my stultifying lack of traffic. The blogs I read often, and enjoy, are very diverse. The best ones, to my mind, teach me something about things I don't know, or say something I know in a way I've never thought of before, or just tell good stories. For this reason I miss both USS Clueless and Madpony, two now defunct blogs that I used to read on a regular basis. A quick perusal of their archives will reveal several similarities, despite their extremely different styles and formats. Steve Den Beste, of USS Clueless, is an engineer who wrote mostly about engineering and politics. His gift is the analogy. He was always able to present a point by means of a super clear analogy and he helped me to understand any number of political issues that I hadn't been clear on before, as well as opening up a world of engineering to me. Lauren Madpony, on the other hand, was a pure story teller, a sorority girl from the University of Oklahoma who had a wonderful way of making her life interesting. What do they have in common? Well, they are both articulate, funny, but most of all have something to say. I'm just rambling here, trying to make some sense of what I'm doing with this thing. ::sigh:: Hopefully, it will come together eventually.