Secrets of the City

Jason DeRusha has, once again, taken his fame to a national level. How? By keeping it local, as usual. If anyone gets social media, it’s DeRusha. And Mashable is finally giving him due credit. In an exploration of how social media is taking the news local, Mashable credits DeRusha with “going local virally” with a meme that resulted in DeRusha Day. What started with a tweet transformed into a meme; “and then someone created a poster, another person launched a web site, and someone else started online petition devoted to the cause, which were all tweeted about. The end result? Sept. 21 was officially proclaimed DeRusha Day by the mayor’s office and a party marked the event.”

Go Jason!

Jason DeRusha is getting his own day: Monday, Sept. 21. I’d like to think I had a hand in that, as author of perhaps the stupidest petition ever.

Jason DeRusha asks how does a day get dedicated? This prompts, or perhaps was prompted by, efforts to get Jason his own day, including a Web page and an online petition (the atter of which yours truly is reponsible for.)

What sort of dedicated days does Minnesota lack? What should be be celebrating and honoring more?

The Corner Table prints a letter discussing whether or not local eating should be dismissed as a fad: The point of this article for me is to get people to stop talking about if this is a fad or not, and go on hard facts. One fact: this is not something new. This idea of eating locally has been around forever. it had a lot to do with how this country was founded and how this country ran for a very long time. Another fact: with human rights abuses, animal abuses, the massive rise in food allergies, bovine hormone injections (largely unlabeled) linked to human and bovine health risks, overfishing, topsoil erosion, water scarcity, and (unfortunately) more, we have got to change the way we get our food.

Jason DeRusha reponds to a cranky email as he wishes he could respond: Good Luck with being a douche.

We’ll ignore his random capitalization and the fact that he thinks a sentence fragment is a full sentence to ask: Do you think email has made us less civil? The Web in general? And what sort of obnoxious communications have you received?

And, ouch, editorial nerd burn from the Bunny.

Jason asks, and answers, the good question “Why do we love to grill?” Why do you grill? What do you grill?

[via BecauseEmilySaysSo]:  Leah Betancourt profiles Jason DeRusha by offering up The Journalist’s Guide to Twitter on Mashable today and, among interesting tidbits, provides this example of Dweeting:

DeRusha’s first Twitter success story was in late 2007. He was doing a story on December sniffles caused by allergies to Christmas trees. He used Twitter to find someone who was allergic to Christmas trees, who has to use heavy protective gloves to decorate theirs. He said he would never have found this source without Twitter.

Jason DeRusha now has a Webcam pointed at his desk all the time. I don’t know why.

Steve Marsh interviews Jason DeRusha. He doesn’t ask who DeRusha plans to divorce if he becomes famous in Hollywood, but he does start in almost immediately by asking about DeRusha’s loss of virginity.

As you think back over your fondest memories of 2008, one good question can only be answered in your heart of hearts: Jason DeRusha is on hot cookie, isn’t he? Discuss.