You know you have a good blog going when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wants to submit a photo of herself with the caption "ROFL @ ur tumblr! G2g -scrunchie time. ttyl?..." to it. And she's completely serious too.
The blog in question is not so serious. Inspired by a photo taken last year of Clinton on a flight en route to Libya, completely engrossed with her PDA, the Tumblr account Texts from Hillary used said photo to depict Clinton writing influential power players snarky notes.
From high fashion to Facebook, no mover or shaker was spared Clinton's fictitious comebacks. The first note to appear on the blog was an imaginary conversation with President Barrack Obama and Hillary with Barrack resting on the couch and Clinton upright in her seat. "Hey Hil, whatcha doing?" "Running the world."
This simple note alone gathered over 11,000 notes which in the Tumblrverse means that over 11,000 people either "liked" the post by clicking on a small heart on the note's upper right hand corner or reblogged it with the button option to repost said note on their blog. Or they might have done both. What started as a joke between pals Adam Smith and Stacy Lambe went viral almost immediately, expanding past those in the Tumblrsphere know to features on virtually every single major news publication and television outlet and even getting back to Clinton herself who wanted in on the fun.
But in a savvy move from the creators, as of today Texts from Hillary is no more. One week and an estimated 83,000 shares on Facebook later, Adam and Stacy decided "it's time to stop while we are ahead" and admitted, "It [the meme] has gone as far as it can go. Is it really possible to top a submission from the Secretary herself? No. But then when you get to text with her in real life -it's just over."
We're used to milking successful ideas to death. And when it comes to internet memes, the shelf life on their success is a teetering and unreliable thing. It's best said by Heidi Klum on Project Runway, "One day you're in, the next you're out." Looking back on some of the memes I enjoyed from 2011 I know many of them won't be able to translate onto 2012. The joke is over and in some cases, overplayed to death (sorry Feminist Ryan Gosling). Into the pop culture vault you go.
Never fear though- the internet always has the wheels in its head turning. And while some of those wheels are definitely shaped like cats, others resemble these five fantastic Tumblr accounts that have yet to get old in any sense of the word. Follow along, put 'em on your dashboard and enjoy just because.
Charts of all forms from pie to bar for all topics including TSA security, the most reputable companies in America, and most importantly, a chart for people who really wish a pie chart was indeed a pie.
2) Beyoncé
"This is my life- today, over the years- through my eyes." Seeing how the other half of the pop star world lives has never looked better.
A smorgasboard of nonstop humor. None of it predictable, a lot of it original, and all of it 100% laughable.
4) The Atlantic
From print to digital media, The Atlantic rides the wave of balancing hard news with a soft pop culture touch. It may be one of the only Tumblr blogs to inspire a comment on how the blog was so good, it made a reader a magazine subscriber.
5) Animals Talking All in Caps
It is literally exactly how it sounds and that's just how we like it.
Deborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation, an online filing services company that specializes in incorporations and LLCs. Find her online at mycorporation.com and on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.