Rick Bruner's awakening to the power of the written word came by way of a throwaway line, typed one afternoon in the cerulean glow of his I.B.M. ThinkPad.Mr. Bruner, a 37-year-old Manhattan marketing consultant, keeps a Web log, an online diary known as a blog. After coming in for some
sporting abuse from a friend who told him blogging was a waste of time, Mr. Bruner wrote in his blog that the friend "was fat and runs
like a girl," adding that he was sure the friend would not be offended "because he doesn't read blogs." With a push of a button, the
comment was published on Mr. Bruner's site, www.bruner.net/blog, and accessible to anyone with a computer.
A few days later, though, that friend's curiosity about blogs was awakened after all. He quickly found Mr. Bruner's site and was "deeply
aggrieved," Mr. Bruner said. Their friendship barely survived the episode.
"It was a big wake-up call," Mr. Bruner said. "Sometimes it's good to have an editor."
