Re: Retrospective

1

They were both pretty stupid posts, I'll grant, but I like how you manage to be incredibly conventional in both of them while trying to be overly contrarian.

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2

Haha, made you read 'em!

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3

Magik was a legend. I love the changing signature, too. He kind of had you dead to rights, but you've sort of absorbed his style since then.

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4

Embrace, extend, dumb down.

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5

Does he still read this site? I hear MJ rumors from time to time, but he's shrouded in mystery.

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6

He commented a couple of months ago, and the email address he left answers your question, I guess.

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7

Oh, crap, you can't see it because he also left a URL: Magik.Johnson@is.still.a.fan.of.unfogged.even.if.the.site.is.a.little.hysterical.at.times.com

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8

Speaking of that thread, the grad student must be back from far-off Sweden by now, no?

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9

It's worse than that, Ben: the Swede told me a few days ago that she was going to a party at the Grad Student's place (!) this Saturday. Frankly, I think she's lying.

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10

How callous!

Unless, of course, it was in the way of a not-so-subtle hint...

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11

Indeed.

It was no hint.

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12

Sorry about that, my man. Has to hurt-- I know how much you wanted things to work out.

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13

I'll never love again.

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14

No swedes, at any rate. It would be hilarious if, just before the Earth is vaporized, we all realized that the Swede didn't call you because of that post.

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15

You mean the Grad Student. I admit a moment of panic after reading your comment: "Did I tell her about the blog??" I didn't, but you know, we are worldwide.

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16

I can't believe you don't pimp the "ogged" persona to impress women; hell, I can't believe I don't pimp the "ogged" persona to impress women.

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17

I usually don't tell people about the blog. But if an army of desperate men wants to go forth claiming to be Ogged, that can only be blogging gold.

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18

No, I am Spartacus!

Half-seriously, I've been surprised to see how much love there is in the blogosphere for this humble site (all due to your input, of course). Unfortunately for you, most of it is from pasty men, but still.

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19

But if an army of desperate men wants to go forth claiming to be Ogged, that can only be blogging gold.

Dream a bigger, more detail dense dream, Ogged. What you need is something closer to a license that makes approved use of the Ogged persona dependent on a promise to report back on the results. You could then have whichever of your commenters is a statistician take the data and create a statistical picture of where Ogged would be most successful, as measured by a series of characteristics. You could then plot where we think FL or Bob would fall on the map, and deploy commenters to test out those personae and validate the "Desperate Man" algorithms.

(60 oz of coffee AOTW - good).

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20

That would never work, SCMT.

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21

That's Mills at #20. I realize it was apposite and all, but can I say here that impersonating one another in the comments is not a road that we want to go down?

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22

Yeah, no one could reproduce Ogged's neurosis.

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23

You can say that.

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24

Is the turn from "defending Summers" to "using blog to pick up chicks" deliberate, or am I just a humorless bitch?

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25

I second Ogged on impersonating each other--it was funny once but nevermore.

b, I think all the defenses of Summers were by Labs (def. all the recent ones). Also, hasn't ogged been trying to use the blog to pick up chicks since before Summers was a twinkle in the blogosphere's eye? Labs too.

(I should say that I would use my blog to try to pick up chicks, were the classified ads that make me hot not ads that say "TT, 2/2, AOS: M & E.")

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26

Was referring to the first sentence of this post ;)

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27

Matt, that stings. Since when have I tried to pick up anyone on this or any other blog? Ok, I've got a cybercrush on Megan McArdle, but I try to be a gentleman about it.

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28

b--oh, yeah, that. ;)


FL--you mean you haven't been trying to pick up pg? A thousand pardons. As for the rest, well, I guess I understand, but still: Stay away from romantic involvement with people whose greatest talent is for telling plausible and detailed stories that have no relation to the truth. (For instance, third para here; truth.)

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29

Stay away from romantic involvement with people whose greatest talent is for telling plausible and detailed stories that have no relation to the truth.

Does this mean I can't masturbate?

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30

That's it, FL. Play it coy. None of the flashy neuroses of ogged for you; his is a purely short run game. Sure, the Swede was so desperately committed to him after only one meeting that he feared the wrong signal would send her over the edge; but now, in the fullness of time, she has recovered and womanfully built a life for herself without him.

Also, I have to sorta-second Weiner. I expect great things from the PG-FL-Ogged triangle, and assume that in the end ogged gets aced.

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31

ogged gets aced.

I admit, with shame, that I initially had some pretty weird ideas about what this meant-- before thinking, "oh, like in tennis."

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32

Good lord, even with nothing but a written record, we manage a massive game of telephone.

Two things:

Remember, the Swede ≠ the Grad Student. The Swede teaches me how to swim, the Grad Student (also Swedish) has decided to sacrifice her love for me to devote herself instead to the sad and solitudinous life of the mind (and the occasional dinner party, apparently).

Regarding the triangle: I'm trying to set up Labs and PG. They're both playing it coy, but, for all we know, when pg took her mysterious trip a few weeks ago to visit "the boy," she was visiting Labs.

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33

Ogged, you are so like Dick Cheney heading the VP search.

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34

Indeed, Mr. Labs, in the event that no suitable gentlemen can be found, or what suitable gentlemen are found are found unwilling, then I will, sir, answer the call of booty.

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35

Ogged:

The re-attribution of "Swede" to the Grad Student is not a mistake; it is a recognition that "Swede" is too large an idea to be wasted on one without romantic possibilities. The former Swede should be referred to as That-Married-Swim-Coach, or something like that.

And, yeah, I sense a little Cheney-itus, as well. Nothing wrong with that; where would 9-Oh have been without the Dylan-Brenda-Kelly-Brandon grouping? (Which leads to the inevitable question: which of the commenters is unfogged.com's David Silver?)

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36

I sense a little Cheney-itus

Ooh, that itches like crazy. But you get slap-happy with the Gold Bond Medicated Powder for a few days and that will clear right up, SCMT. Good luck with it.

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37

Nothing wrong with that; where would 9-Oh have been without the Dylan-Brenda-Kelly-Brandon grouping?

wtf are you talking about. i mean seriously. i don't even know what this is. man.

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38

I call Jesse Vasquez!

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39

Does anyone here believe Wolfson?

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40

Sorry to impersonate you, ogged. I though long and hard before doing so. Well longer than I normally do before posting. I'm talking like seconds longer. Really.

I even thought about signing it "ooged" or "oggeed" or something like that, but it just didn't have the effect I was looking for.

But I agree with you, down that path madness lies. I shan't do it again.

And what I was really trying to do was so heighten the contradictions in the accepted posting rules of Unfogged that it would spur genuine reforem. So you see my plan worked perfectly.

Besides, ben wolfson did it first!

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41

Oh, speaking of the call of the booty, does Trader Joe's still sell that "pirate booty" snack? One of my favorite grocery moments came when a moderately queeny clerk yelled out "price check on this booty! How much for the booty?" when I tried to buy some.

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42

Yes, they do sell pirate booty. I bought some just yesterday, in fact.

I must defend pgrrrrl's honor: I know where she went on that trip, and it wasn't to visit Labs.

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43

I'm not sure that implies any additional honor.

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44

Wolfson may just be young enough to be speaking the truth, the bastard. (Here.)

There's an ad on the transit TV network that features one of them guys saying, "Here's a quiz about me. What city did I live in? What's my zip code? Name three kids I hung out with in the lunch room. [Pause] Name three kids your own child hangs out with in the lunchroom."--it being a PTA ad, "know what's important." Unfortunately, I can't answer the third one, and I only even knew who the guy was because of the expectation I'd recognize his zip code. Also, I don't have kids. Gread ad, though.

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