Observer blog goes live; visitors to Observer main page confused

observer marquee, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

And we're off! After something like eight months of planning, almost as many months of searching for a writer, and six months of Molly Ivins columns serving as filler, the Texas Observer Blog launched today. If you really, really, really like Texas politics, update your bookmarks.

My new job — whose duties I performed entirely in my pajamas, by the way — kicked off with, let's say, a bit more fanfare than I'm used to. The above image greets anyone who happens upon the Observer's main page. Flattering, for sure, and almost as surely a chorus of readers around the state are asking, "Matt who?" I was giving the web guy, who had to slap the image together this afternoon, a hard time because it looks like people should have some clue who I am. It's the perfect cap to what has been a surprisingly wild and weird couple weeks, all starting that Tuesday after Christmas when my Post editor sent me to Oklahoma (that story should run soon, by the way).

Anyways, it's no coincidence that 80th Texas Legislature begins officially tomorrow, with the first order of business being a wild and wooly House speaker race, which I prefer to call Craddick vs. Pitts: Pandemonium at the Podium. Oh, the crazy life and times of a journalist!