I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either

Flares has received a Leibster Blog Award from A trainwreck in Maxwell. The origin of the Leibster is shrouded in mystery, some say it is a more closely guarded secret than Obama's college transcript. I am of course honored to receive it. 

It is an award that small blogs pass on to each other. The simple rules for the Liebster are as follows:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award
3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs. 

It is of course a scheme for smaller blocks to link to each other, and linkage is always a good thing. Some people compare it to a sort of chain letter, but I was reminded of a different model. I once watched a documentary on human traffic patterns. In one segment researchers put out cones to create a traffic jam, and then removed the cones to see how the traffic jam would dissipate.

The traffic jam persisted for a long time, and slowly moved up the road, as cars still fed into the rear of it as other cars escaped from the front. I imagine each strand of the Liebster, regardless of how and when it got started, being a little bubble of linkage drifting though the intertubes.

And so, with out further ado, my Liebster nominations:

One More Middle Aged Guy - this Canadian has neither a list of followers nor traffic stats linked from his home page, so I'm only guessing that he is a small blog. If I'm wrong, I apologize. Regardless, he is a daily read of mine.

Bob's Blog - like OMMAG above I'm only guessing at his size, but he too is a regular daily stop for me. He also sometimes posts articles, stories and what-not that his kids write.

Shout First, Ask Questions Later - yet another regular read of mine. I'm not sure why I haven't moved them onto my blog roll yet, I guess I should fix that oversight when I'm done with this post. 

Asian Conservatives - a group blog maintained by Americans of Asian ancestry.

Anti-Republican Culture - a blog I frequently read. I quite like his posts. Like Shout First, I've procrastinated adding it to my blog roll for too long and will remedy that pronto. 

By the way -- the title of this post is a Jack Benny quote.