These are the five writer blogs that I, your humble editor, check out every day.

The Mechanic & the Muse . Reporter turned writing teacher Chip Scanlan's baby, on the art and carpentry of good prose.

Gangrey. Great storytelling from newspapers around the country, and so much more.

Collision Detection. Tech and culture writer Clive Thompson's collection.

Malcolm Gladwell . Tipping Point and Blink's author's. How can you not check it every day?

Creating Passionate Users . What writer doesn't want passionate readers?

Two of the science fiction authors that our colleague Robert recommends in the latest "Dog Eared" book picks also write regular... well, don't call them "blogs." Check out Neil Gaiman's Journal and George R.R. Martin's Not a Blog.

We asked our Bad Language columnist Matthew Stibbe to tell us the top blogs on his "must surf" list. He says:

I scan over a hundred every day so it's hard to pick the good ones but I make a point of reading these four carefully.

Samuel Pepys's diary. This a blog created from the diaries of the famous historical figure.

Lifehacker. Neat geeky tricks for making life more efficient.

Guy Kawasaki. Always provocative and entertaining.

Presentation Zen. Really nice website about making presentations.

Los Angeles teacher Linda Slater wrote us to say, "Did you know that Bob Sipchen, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at the LA Times now has a powerful blog all about the public school system in Los Angeles?" Thanks for the heads up, Linda, we didn't know. But when we checked out School Me, we thought it would be useful to any teacher, in Los Angeles, or beyond. We encourage you to check it out, too: School Me

Steve Hall, the founder of the must-read advertising industry blog Adrants suggests these blogs about copywriting and ad creativity:

American Copywriter

AdLand

CoolzOr

Random Culture

In the following blogs, educators write about their challenges, triumphs -- and love for teaching:

In the Heart of a Teacher is a Student

Bud the Teacher

Teaching in the 408

hipteacher

Writing that catchy slogan getting you down? Can't conjure the name of the doohickey your client's marketing? Will the following sites help? Well, not really, but they're fun to check out:

The Advertising Slogan Generator

Name-O-Rama

Random Surrealism Generator