Meme: The Nice Award
Another award comes my way, courtesy of Nina Munteanu, The Alien Next Door: The Nice Award.
My English teacher at school always advised that using “nice” in written work should be avoided at all costs because it indicated a lazy mind. But we all do it — and certainly in our everyday conversations. Ask Google to define:nice and it’ll tell you it means “pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance”, “done with delicacy and skill”, “courteous: exhibiting courtesy and politeness”, and even “a city in southeastern France on the Mediterranean; the leading resort on the French Riviera.” We needn’t trouble ourselves with that last one (though a holiday there would be … well, nice) but the others are nicely appropriate for our subject here.
As Nina wrote in her blog entry: Sometimes we forget the word and what lies behind it; sometimes we simply take “nice” for granted; sometimes we undervalue “nice”, preferring to exalt “courage”, “cleverness”, or “innovation”. But like integrity, honor, and humility, NICE is one of the traits we most appreciate deep down. Nina is one of the nicest people I’ve never met, and I deeply appreciate the honour she’s kindly bestowed upon me. In writing about the five bloggers to whom she’s gifted the award, she says: You all truly light up the blogosphere with your kindness, compassion and inner light. What a very nice thing to write. Thank you, Nina. That’s so well put, I’m sure you won’t me passing the same sentiments on to my five recipients, as I can’t think of a better way to express myself.
And so it falls to me to pass the award on to five others — some of whom, owing to my limited number of blogging friends, have probably already been tagged with this meme, but no matter. It’s the thought that counts, eh?
They are:
Comprodman Dave at English Blogger – My Back Garden
Andree at Meeyauw
Jill Terry at Wordsmith Extraordinaire
David B Dale at Very Short Novels
Emily at MamasBloggin
Enjoy!
davidbdale says:
August 29th, 2007
1:42 pm
You’d be on my list, too, Bob! Thank you very much. As for the others you’ve named, while I’m sure they’re all very nice, I can only speak with confidence about Jill Terry, who is absolutely fantastic!
Somerset Bob says:
August 29th, 2007
2:53 pm
Wow, quick response, David! I hadn’t even had a chance to let you know you were mentioned!
Emily says:
August 29th, 2007
3:48 pm
Oh thank you so much, Bob! You just made my day!
Somerset Bob says:
August 29th, 2007
4:05 pm
My pleasure, Emily. I should have added, after Nina’s kind comment, that I wanted to pass the same sentiment on to my five recipients, so I’ve now amended my post to reflect that. Keep on lighting up the blogosphere!
Jill Terry says:
August 29th, 2007
9:25 pm
Thank you, Bob, for thinking of me and passing the award my way; and David (whose finger is always on the trigger), for speaking of me with such enthusiastic confidence! You guys ROCK! And yes…Nice Matters.
meeyauw says:
August 29th, 2007
9:31 pm
I’m so touched, Bob. Thank you so much. Do you know how much it means from somebody like you?
:0)
SF Girl says:
August 30th, 2007
4:42 am
Yes…nice matters…
Comprodman says:
August 30th, 2007
9:27 am
Thanks again Sir Bob, it’s nice to be thought of as nice
and you are a jolly nice man.
Dave
Somerset Bob says:
August 30th, 2007
11:56 am
Jill — I put Darwin to one side last night and began reading your book Exposed. Twenty or so pages in and I’m well hooked already!
Great work.
Meeyauw — never mind me (though it’s very kind of you to you give me such a jolly good back-slapping, which I truly appreciate), you work so hard to keep your blog interesting, lively and accessible. I don’t know how you do it with all your other commitments. It’s credit where credit’s due and no more than you deserve
Dave — Thank you too. I love your down-to-earth blog and I’m really looking forward to being able to follow your adventures on The Robber Button!
Mama’s Bloggin » Blog Archive » He thinks I’m nice. Don’t tell him any different! says:
August 30th, 2007
3:59 pm
[...] Somerset Bob tagged me with The Nice Award. [...]
meeyauw says:
September 16th, 2007
2:04 pm
I was able to pass it on to more great folks. thank you again for giving me the opportunity.
Somerset Bob says:
September 17th, 2007
12:48 pm
You’re welcome, Meeyauw