Damned if you do?

I don't think I've written about this before, but it's quite possible that I did and don't remember it, like most of my 20s. I kid. My Philly filly wrote recently about trying out ads, like one might try out male capris, to see if they are bearable and if people don't ridicule you openly in the streets. I wholeheartedly believe one should be mocked for the man-pris, but can't wrap my mind around what is offensive to folks about a blogger having ads on the sidebar.

It may not seem like it, given the occasional misspellings and completely lack of current event coverage or, let's face it, even remotely relevant content, but I put a good amount of time into writing for this site. I'm not an author, per se, but I'm a writer; no, you can't cart me around in hardcover, but I'm guessing you can't do so with much of what you're reading these days. I think about the "professional" sites I visit on a regular basis - the Washington Post, MSNBC, and ESPN to see how much the Nationals lost by this time - and it never occurs to me that the folks writing for these online publications shouldn't get paid for what they do. Does it lessen a writer's passion for petit fours or Portugal or the pitfalls of one Austin Kearns if she makes gas money off of it? Does it increase a writer's legitimacy if he refuses to play that game, instead blogging for his expectant masses pro bono?

I won't hold it against you if you disagree. Statcounter doesn't tell me exactly where you work.