Poet Laureate Greeting Cards: Did you know that Maya Angelou is doing greeting cards now? I ran across them while shopping for a sympathy card. They are less than inspiring. I ended up going with some lesser, unknown, greeting card writer who managed to express sympathy without descending to the maudlin or trite. That must be the height of frustration - to produce better work than a celebrated poet and yet remain an unknown among the rank and file of greeting card poets.

UPDATE: Blogborygmi says we bloggers could find ourselves in the same position:

I have a friend who edits children's books, and the same thing is going on in that industry. She secretly despises the recent mediocre forays into children's lit by Billy Crystal and Madonna, and wishes she could promote some stellar work by newcomers.

But the public wants brand names uber alles, it seems. And we could be in the same boat, too -- say, if Sanjay Gupta started a blog...