I get a lot of sass for once appearing in a pic with him looking sweaty (as if!), but I’ll have you know that it was pouring rain that evening, and I didn’t have an umbrella. I never have an umbrella. But, pardon my bon mot, that’s not my point. My point is that the former editor of The Michigan Daily and current blogger at Read Express deserves a big congrats this morn – for FishbowlDC, in all of Inky’s infinite wisdom, has nominated the Oculator with “rising star” status:

Michael Grass: “[I]f you know his work infusing blogging and journalism at Express’ Web site, along with developing Google Map mashups, you know why he should be nominated. To me, he is the “local” blogger of record, which started when he launched DCist.com, a blog that was ahead of the curve long before every mainstream media outlet started launching blogs. He’s transforming The Post from the inside, but nobody realizes it yet.”

As I understand it, if he wins, he gets to go to dinner with Patrick Gavin. Yum.