Attack of the magazine: Somewhere along the way, the writing of this Forbes cover story careened off the highway.

I suppose the assignment started as a look into weblogs that are used to drive up- or down- stock prices. However, it made the cover with the screaming head: “Attack of the Blogs.” Ironically, it comes off as a poorly-reported, slimy attack rant of the entire blogosphere.

Like Steve Rubel, I’m perplexed by how mis-directed this Forbes piece is. In a sidebar, the magazine even suggests that companies file frivolous lawsuits against ISPs of bloggers they believe are attacking them.

There’s a sentence buried in it, “Attack blogs are but a sliver of the rapidly expanding blogosphere.” However, if you read this story, you’ll think all blogs are killer tomatoes.

Update: As expected, this hack-job lit up the blogosphere. There are links to lots more discussion of it at tech.memorandum.com. Of note: Dan Gillmore nails it: “a pile of trash.”

Southwest announces new Nashville flights: Press releases like this are always welcomed by someone like me who spends a few days each month flying on Southwest between Nashville and somewhere.

Starting Nov. 12

Two new daily nonstop roundtrips between New Orleans and Nashville.

Starting Feb. 5:

One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Austin and Nashville (for a total of three daily).

One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Nashville and Ft. Lauderdale (for a total of two daily).

One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Nashville and Jacksonville (for a total of four daily).

One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Nashville and Las Vegas (for a total of four daily).

One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Nashville and Orlando (for a total of five daily).

One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Nashville and San Antonio (for a total of two daily).

One additional daily nonstop roundtrip between Nashville and Tampa Bay (for a total of five daily).

A good time had by all: Great fun at the blogger gathering in Nashville tonight. Lots of photos were taken by someone — at least, there were lots of flashes, so I’ll link later to them.

I’d especially like to thank Brittney Gilbert of Nashville is Talking who found someone’s iPod nano that happened to have my name and cell phone number etched on the back of it. What a coincidence, as mine slipped out of my pocket.

Lots of people were there. Lots. Like 30-40. Old and new bloggers, alike.

Funniest story: When Busy Mom arrived, she told a waitress she was meeting a group.

“Oh. Are you looking for the Noggers?” the waitress asked.

Question of the day: Jim Romensko asks an interesting question: Has NPR reporter Libby Lewis done any reports on Lewis Libby?

Brand extension? No, I’m not extending “my brand”, even though it does have something to do with magazines.

(Flashback: More Rex® stuff)

More news from Nashville: Trace Adkins is recovering after surgery to remove a portion of his inflamed badonkadonk.

Just in time for mother’s day: Here’s some Nashville news that I’ll tell you, but please, do not tell my wife: Tiffany & Co. is opening a store in the Mall at Green Hills next year. Something tells me they won’t be giving out T-Shirts on opening day like the Apple Store there did.

Hey, what about the home boys? The Wall Street Journal has a “free feature” today about iPod accessories. (”Apple boasts more than 1,000 different accessories have been made for the 28 million iPods sold since the device hit the market in 2001.”)

How could someone write a story like this and leave out Nashville’s Griffin Technology, creator of some of the snappiest iPod accessories ever? Check out that iTrip nano, for instance. (By the way, if any of you Griffin types see this, please feel free to contact me about a new program I’ve just thought up called, “bribe the blogger.” It’s available exclusively for Nashville-based iPod accesory makers.)

Pre-announcing - Web 3.0 Beta: Since Xeni Jardin at Wired.com is reporting that “Web 2.0 is already showing cracks,” I think we should go ahead and begin beta testing the buzzword “Web 3.0.”

What is Web 3.0, you ask: Web 3.0 is just like Web 2.0, except it doesn’t have cracks yet.

Also, I’m wondering if the folks who brought us Web 2.0 will provide solutions for how to get the cracks out of our shiny new Web 2.0s. Perhaps Brasso will work?