The following is Carnival of the Vanities #18 as posted by Meryl Yourish--someone who isn't a Blogcritic but oughta be:

Which ones to read? All of them. But, what with my recent fall and all of the attention my ass has been garnering, I'm going to award one butt gif to each post. The first group gets the big butt-cheek, because they're the ones I found extremely amusing or thoughtful or the writers have blackmail pictures of me. The second group gets a half butt-cheek. That means read them later, which you should, because none of them tried to blackmail me, and that deserves to be rewarded. (Note to contributors: If I missed you or messed up your link, email me, I'll fix it.)

The point of the Carnival is greater exposure for a wide variety of posts and weblogs that would otherwise not get the attention. Take a moment or three to look around each of the weblogs you visit. My taste and judgment aren't the same as yours. You'll find some real gems out there, and will probably not agree with my butt-ratings. (This is getting to be fun, this butt stuff. At least, until the obscene searches start coming in.)

Carnival #19 is hosted next week by Dodd Harris of Ipse Dixit (last week was Dave). Let's not forget Bigwig, whose idea this was and who may even one day take it back to Silflay Hraka, but not today. He's looking for new hosts, so send him an email if you, too, want to spend several hours reading and summarizing other bloggers' work. (It's not really that hard.) Special thanks to Laurence Simon, who gave me the butt-cheek gif that, uh, graces the page below.

DC Pierson updates Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," in a wickedly funny post.

Tim Dunlop is trying his hand at Letters to a Young Blogger—his advice on whether or not to blog. For some reason, I'm reminded of the scene from The Princess Bride where Billy Crystal's character says, "He said 'to blave'!"

Judith Weiss has an excellenty-reasoned essay on why the right shouldn't be so quick to take credit for everything the left accomplished since the 1960s, and why the left needs to clean its house today.