Okay, I admit it. I’m one of those downtowners who hardly gets above 23rd St without a toothbrush and sleeping bag and who visits Brooklyn and Queens a couple times a year. It’s something I’m not particularly proud of. (Don’t ask me the last time I was in Staten Island, let alone the Bronx.)

Even worse, perhaps, my blog reading habits mirror my real life downtown chauvinism. I tend to stick close to home, reading Eastsider blogs like Jeremiah’s and Grieve’s rather religiously. When they venture out or up, I ride along in my armchair, but for the most part I find enough in my own neighborhood to keep me entertained. I suppose the city works that way for a lot of folks, at least those who work where they live.

So to whet my appetite for things beyond walking distance, I’ve decided to try to keep up on uptown and outerborough blogging — at least monitoring a few key sites a couple times a week. Here’s a roundup of highlights from today’s reading experiment:

obamafried.jpgObama joins the ranks of presidents with fried chicken emporia named after them. [What about the Plastic Animals via Uptown Flavor]

Looking for something to do in Long Island City, Queens, this wkend? [liQcity]

Brian Berger plugs the NYRB reissue of L.J. Davis’s 1971 from-Idaho-to-Brooklyn novel, A Meaningful Life, including details on an upcoming reading with Jonathan Lethem. [Who Walk in Brooklyn]

Interrupting several thoughtful posts on the relationship between print and digital technologies, Staten Island blogger Dan Icolari stops to notice the flowers. [Walking Is Transportation]

A podcast interview with the Bronx Borough Historian, Professor Lloyd Ultan [Bronx Bohemian]

Bonus: Even though Roosevelt Island technically belongs to Manhattan (all the little islands do), it’s unique enough to warrant an additional Manhattan link here. One of the island’s two active blogs notes that Brangelina will be filming there soon. Brad apparently made a preview trip with all five kids in tow — and did just fine managing them single-handed. [Roosevelt Island 360]