A better idea is to craft a secret identity and tell secrets on your blog, and then everyone knows who you are and you kind of feel like a dick. That's an awesome crafts project. I learned it from this great book I'm reading, Fontana Labs' 101 ways to be a dick.
What's the matter with you people? Why didn't you know earlier? What's so special about this? Jesus H. And poor Labs is moved to yet another self-flagellating meltdown. What's with this link? Is it some kind of human frailty sink? I guess mine must be prickly defensiveness, because you know what? I saw it today. I thought is was cool. I went crazy and posted a link to it. Deal with it!
Ok, 7 was about 85% in jest. I mean, the comments until there were kinda weird, but I wasn't really annoyed. Though consistency isn't so bad, is it? I mean, one doesn't want to be a madman.
In jest, but revealing all the same. I was actually thinking of it earlier, on the liberals and stereotypes thread--the concern with assuming shared assumptions. It's not a bad thing. In fact, it tends to exonerate you on some past charges made against your character.
Though consistency isn't so bad, is it? I mean, one doesn't want to be a madman.
Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.
But may God shield and deliver me from the fangs of the Arch-Fiend! No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb! --by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman --a howl --a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.
Not so much -- mystified, here. But nothing livens up a night in the salt mines like a little mystification.
we'll put her kids to work in the field
Hey, as soon as Sally can operate a push-broom, I've got her a gig sweeping out the neighborhood butcher shop -- the butcher is on board with this. She develops personal responsibility, we get free bacon, everyone is happy.
ac is just needling me, LB, because I professed that I would propose to you, but haven't (yet) said the same about her. Impatience, I think it was Kafka who said, is the original sin.
Well, your proposal will always have a special place in my heart, right up there with the Samoan teacher who offered to marry me, despite my unfortunate appearance, because my parents must be getting concerned about my advanced age and he'd always wanted to see the US. (It was kindly meant, I believe.)
Standpipe. we were claiming body parts, after your crack about "epiglottis" in the other thread. You can't claim "essence of body part"; not unless you're a potion-making witch.
Ok, I just assumed that you were claiming a body part, and figured I should grab the spleen.
Gently, gently!
No, since I had previously posted some quote about a placenta just after the post about consistency from the dead, non-living, non-zombie 19th century author, and it seemed that we were recapitulating the form of that conversation, I tacked on a pro forma placenta reference for completeness' sake.
Those "Sadly, No!" people are agressive, don't be surprised when they show up in the comment thread tomorrow claiming that LB should have given them credit for using a variant of "their" catch-phrase.
I was a little too sleepy to respond to 26 last night - my original complaint, Ogged, was not so much about the fact that other people get marriage proposals and I don't, as that other people get marriage proposals and I get sex-related breaches of decorum. Two very different complaints, I would say. I don't want the tone of my needling to be misunderstood.
What people do in comments is their own business, but we might do well not to traffic so much in idle intimacy (marriage proposals &c). Um, but I guess that would leave us with just the penis jokes, so idle intimacy it is.
That is unless I've misjudged the situation, and all these recurring virtual pair-bonds are proposed in earnest. Is Unfogged reacting to rising short-term earnest rates?
Can we get the facts straight here? I didn't actually propose marriage to Lizardbreath. I merely said to her, when she was feeling unloved, that I would propose if she weren't married.
They don't apply to your conditional statement. What I said was "can one propose to someone who's married". Your conditional statement doesn't enter into it (directly).
The point is not whether you actually proposed, it's that whatever you said was vaguely in the realm of the affectionate. And a little affection is the spoonful of sugar that helps the lack of decorum go down. (As it were.)
Ah, ok Ben. But in that case, it doesn't seem much different from any contingent proposal: "will you marry me when we get back from Antarctica?" for example.
The proposal in 79, should it be "if we get back from Antarctica", to make it properly contingent? And "if we get back from Antarctica" and "if you weren't married" seem, to my ignorant way of thinking, to differ meaningfully in one's being counterfactual.
I was thinking that one proposal amounts to "let's get married after you get divorced," and the other "let's get married after we return from Antarctica."
First off, I don't know how Texas (Austinian) got in here, but of course you can propose marriage to someone who is married.
Second, ac, I don't get you. You didn't seem to like online flirting, but then call it sugar?
Third, LB, enough about your appearance. I happen to know you have freckles and are gorgeous.
Fourth, I'm having a really crabby day, and I was forced to learn that there are three accent marks in French over the letter 'e', and the one I was forced to care about was the aigu accent, which slants up to the right.
I don't think this is the type of affection ac was after. Must keep everyone happy, so:
How's about: excepting that you are a lady that I've never met, and that I have romantic attachments, and that you seem also to have several, my guess is that you are foxxy, and anyway, have a style of writing that I enjoy.
You know, reading through this really does give me pause to wonder how many personas here are adopted. Is your unfogged-skin the same as the skin you show to you significant others etc?
I get the feeling that ac is the only one here being honest and damn that can be lonely.
The proper method is to be mean to them, then to be nice to them, then to be mean to them, then to be nice again, until they don't know which way is up but suddenly you're the most fascinating person in the world. Pays off quite frequently.
You know, reading through this really does give me pause to wonder how many personas here are adopted. Is your unfogged-skin the same as the skin you show to you significant others etc?
My unfogged-skin may not be the same as the skin I show to real-life people, significant others, etc, but they're all adopted.
I get them from the pound. Please spay or neuter your personas.
All meant in jest. I've never done such a thing, except as a callow lad. I have, however, listened to the laments of many a woman friend over fellows who engage in this behavior.
I meant not in jest, but not to call you an asshole either. It is true that what you describe "works" -- I have heard the same stories you have heard -- but the result is that you have to behave like an asshole, which isn't worth it.
My prediction: Tripp will say that if he were 19, he would be out making whoopee, not commenting.
I solemnly swear that I have written this before seeing Tripp's next comment, and I will press post without editing anything just as soon as he responds to 113.
And, if a lady is complaining that no one is proposing to her, a gentleman proposes. Never mind whether she will inevitably reject him--a gentleman must bear that burden.
LB, the notion of Matt as Bertie Wooster is just too precious. The question now is, who shall we cast as Spode? Oh, and doesnt that also identify ac as the Basset?
With all the Wodehouse fun long over, I thought I'd note that the actual topic of this post got coverage from today's NYTimes. The article is oddly sensitive and sapient by style section standards.
Yeah, I saw that w/d, and did think it was good, but this line bothered me:
The secret sharers here aren't mindless flashers but practiced strippers.
That seems almost nasty; an accusation of bad faith. I have the impression, from a lot of the cards anyway, that they represent a real cathartic moment for their creators.
Yeah, everything was fine until the last paragraph; at the same time, it's always seemed like an art project on some level to me, so I don't really mind even the false-seeming ones.
And the flasher/stripper image just seems wrong. The anonymity of postsecret and similar sites allows people to detach what they consider most personal from their persons, something that is quite different from exposing one's body and all of its uniquely identifying marks for all to see.
It's tough to come up with a metaphor which combines anonymity and exhibitionism. The "flasher/stripper" does accenuate one, but the compromise of "flasher/stripper with a bag on his or her head" seems a little forced.
Perhaps some kind of close-up photography showing just enough to expose something - perhaps a body part, perhaps a wound or scar - but not enough to identify the person?
But then that would probably turn out to be as much of an art project as postsecret. And I'd hate to see people wounding themselves just to be included.
Dude ... you *just* finding out about this?
What secret will you send in?
Posted by profgrrrrl | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 7:08 PM
1 raises the question of whether pg has sent a postcard.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 7:14 PM
Indeed. Which one's yours PG?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 7:15 PM
I have no time for that stuff. But I had considered it, yes. Would become a major craft project, though, to create a worthy postcard.
Maybe after the LiT Tour is over.
Posted by profgrrrrl | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 7:22 PM
A better idea is to craft a secret identity and tell secrets on your blog, and then everyone knows who you are and you kind of feel like a dick. That's an awesome crafts project. I learned it from this great book I'm reading, Fontana Labs' 101 ways to be a dick.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 8:12 PM
I'm unclear; how is this significantly different from the longstanding sites where one simply confesses secrets anonymously (for everyone to read)?
Posted by Gary Farber | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 8:48 PM
What's the matter with you people? Why didn't you know earlier? What's so special about this? Jesus H. And poor Labs is moved to yet another self-flagellating meltdown. What's with this link? Is it some kind of human frailty sink? I guess mine must be prickly defensiveness, because you know what? I saw it today. I thought is was cool. I went crazy and posted a link to it. Deal with it!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 9:08 PM
You know, Ogged, it strikes there's something very consistent (and meta?) about the things that irritate you.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 9:13 PM
I saw it today. I thought is was cool. I went crazy and posted a link to it. Deal with it!
Someone needs some chocolate and a good cry.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 9:15 PM
All right, that last was pretty mean.
In pennance, I offer this:
My human frailty is a delight in casual cruelty combined with overwhelming guilt and self-loathing for engaging in said cruelty.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 9:27 PM
Ok, 7 was about 85% in jest. I mean, the comments until there were kinda weird, but I wasn't really annoyed. Though consistency isn't so bad, is it? I mean, one doesn't want to be a madman.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 9:32 PM
In jest, but revealing all the same. I was actually thinking of it earlier, on the liberals and stereotypes thread--the concern with assuming shared assumptions. It's not a bad thing. In fact, it tends to exonerate you on some past charges made against your character.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 9:39 PM
Oops, too many forms of "assume." In there.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 9:40 PM
There have been charges made against my character? That must have been during my hiatus.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 9:47 PM
Well, even if you don't understand, I'm sure LB will, and her passion for you will increase.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:01 PM
Though consistency isn't so bad, is it? I mean, one doesn't want to be a madman.
Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.
Posted by Edgar A Poe | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:01 PM
"For the love of God, Montresor!"
Posted by Fortunato | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:06 PM
LB will, and her passion for you will increase
Awesome. I'll assume her debts, we'll put her kids to work in the field, and then declare bankruptcy! Last of the true romantics, am I.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:10 PM
But may God shield and deliver me from the fangs of the Arch-Fiend! No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb! --by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman --a howl --a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.
Posted by the black cat | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:13 PM
Or you could go here and confess.
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:14 PM
What, are we talking about consistency again amidst the ramblings of dead 18th century authors? Didn't this already happen?
Placenta.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:17 PM
19th century, for the most part.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:18 PM
I note Bridgeplate's redundant emphasis "dead 18th century authors."
Spleen.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:21 PM
I'm sure LB will
Not so much -- mystified, here. But nothing livens up a night in the salt mines like a little mystification.
we'll put her kids to work in the field
Hey, as soon as Sally can operate a push-broom, I've got her a gig sweeping out the neighborhood butcher shop -- the butcher is on board with this. She develops personal responsibility, we get free bacon, everyone is happy.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:22 PM
spleen
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:23 PM
ac is just needling me, LB, because I professed that I would propose to you, but haven't (yet) said the same about her. Impatience, I think it was Kafka who said, is the original sin.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:25 PM
It is so much more than reduntant. When I do it, it is redundantical.
Ogged, it appears we are developing an "obligatory tissue mass" protocol for signing our posts.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:25 PM
Oh, and LB, I heartily approve of your child-rearing methods.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:27 PM
I feel I am alone.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:27 PM
In the comments, one is always alone.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:28 PM
nothing livens up a night in the salt mines like a little mystification.
Kind of like this? (scroll down)
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:29 PM
"obligatory tissue mass"
Like a tumor? A tumor protocol?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:29 PM
Ah.
Well, your proposal will always have a special place in my heart, right up there with the Samoan teacher who offered to marry me, despite my unfortunate appearance, because my parents must be getting concerned about my advanced age and he'd always wanted to see the US. (It was kindly meant, I believe.)
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:32 PM
That hurts, LB. I'm naturalized.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:34 PM
I tried to generalize from placenta and spleen and wound up with tissue mass. Tumor works, but as an exemplar not as essence. Here is what not to do:
Ribosome
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:34 PM
Well, you haven't seen my unfortunate appearance.
I still kind of regret the last name I could have had -- Mulitalo, which means "Taro Ass". Euphonious, no?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:36 PM
Lizardbreath Mulitalo is a name for the ages. You could have been related to (or married to, for all I know) a professional athlete.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:40 PM
LB, did you see this on the secrets blog?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:41 PM
Standpipe. we were claiming body parts, after your crack about "epiglottis" in the other thread. You can't claim "essence of body part"; not unless you're a potion-making witch.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:41 PM
His first name was Seevae -- in English, 'Shoe'. Not the guy you linked. But possibly a relative.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:43 PM
That can't possibly be a picture of Roy Orbison, unless something really unsettling happened in the rest of the story.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:44 PM
I am hopelessly confused. I thought:
1. RWE claimed eyeball (transparent).
2. Since epiglottis trumps eyeball for dangly, somebody must have beat RWE to the epiglottis (neon).
3. Placenta has nothing to do with anything other than there is a freak on the internet.
4. I didn't claim ribosome, it was a object lesson in not-a-body-part!
5. Potions???
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:45 PM
Ok, I just assumed that you were claiming a body part, and figured I should grab the spleen.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:48 PM
dead 18th century authors
As opposed to those annoying living or zombie 18th century authors.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:49 PM
But wasn't RWE trying to transcend body parts, rather than claim their essence?
Or something like that.
Tonsils.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:50 PM
His name was "Shoe Taro Ass?"
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:50 PM
So I read 21 and then commented before reading 23 or 27. Which makes my comment an example of what it is was trying to criticize. Isn't irony ironic?
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:52 PM
Ok, I just assumed that you were claiming a body part, and figured I should grab the spleen.
Gently, gently!
No, since I had previously posted some quote about a placenta just after the post about consistency from the dead, non-living, non-zombie 19th century author, and it seemed that we were recapitulating the form of that conversation, I tacked on a pro forma placenta reference for completeness' sake.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:54 PM
Remember, always read all the comments. There might be a fellowship someday!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:55 PM
Got it, SB, I missed that. But I'm not giving up the spleen.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:55 PM
Sadly, yes. Samoan names end up like that -- a lot of common nouns.
Great moments in conversations with Samoan cabdrivers:
Cabdriver: Do you know Angie, from Australia?
My friend Paula, an NZ volunteer: Certainly, she works with me.
Cabbie: She is,... what is the word, we say 'tomboy'? She likes girls?
Paula: Well, yes. The word we use is 'lesbian'.
Cabbie: 'Lesbian'?! What a beautiful word! I will name my daughter 'Lesbian'!
Names in Samoa were just peculiar.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:56 PM
Before you fund that fellowship, you'll hire Apo as your court jester, right?
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:57 PM
What a beautiful word! I will name my daughter 'Lesbian'!
I'm going to end up liking these Samoans.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 10:59 PM
you'll hire Apo as your court jester, right?
The apostropher jests at his pleasure, for hire to no man!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 11:02 PM
Those "Sadly, No!" people are agressive, don't be surprised when they show up in the comment thread tomorrow claiming that LB should have given them credit for using a variant of "their" catch-phrase.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 11:03 PM
I'm going to end up liking these Samoans.
Person on street: What a lovely child, what's her name?
Ogged: "Spongiform". It's a Samoan thing, you wouldn't understand.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 11:06 PM
Those "Sadly, No!" people are agressive
If they come in good humor, we can all be friends.
Yes, that's a threat! We will crush them! Like raccoons!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-18-05 11:07 PM
Remember, always read all the comments. There might be a fellowship someday!
Dude, it better had be well paid. Opportunity cost, ya know?
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 3:33 AM
Cabbie: 'Lesbian'?!
I wonder how long it had been since his last interrobang.
fellowship
The pot of gold at the end of the comments.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 7:11 AM
I was a little too sleepy to respond to 26 last night - my original complaint, Ogged, was not so much about the fact that other people get marriage proposals and I don't, as that other people get marriage proposals and I get sex-related breaches of decorum. Two very different complaints, I would say. I don't want the tone of my needling to be misunderstood.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 7:24 AM
SB, maybe that should be crock at the end of the comments
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 7:28 AM
I get sex-related breaches of decorum.
This blog has decorum? Why has no one told me about this?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 7:48 AM
What people do in comments is their own business, but we might do well not to traffic so much in idle intimacy (marriage proposals &c). Um, but I guess that would leave us with just the penis jokes, so idle intimacy it is.
That is unless I've misjudged the situation, and all these recurring virtual pair-bonds are proposed in earnest. Is Unfogged reacting to rising short-term earnest rates?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 7:56 AM
Worst comment ever. Sorry.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 7:58 AM
Dead authors.
I wish my neighborhood had a butcher shop. That didn't suck ass.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:04 AM
So has Labs actually been found out?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:10 AM
Jesus Christ. I go away for 12 hours and you all decide to enact a moment from Theater of the Surreal.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:34 AM
Can we get the facts straight here? I didn't actually propose marriage to Lizardbreath. I merely said to her, when she was feeling unloved, that I would propose if she weren't married.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:42 AM
The question is, can one propose to someone who's married?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:44 AM
Why not?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:45 AM
that I would propose if she weren't married.
So, because she's married, you won't make an honest woman out of her? Ogged, you cad!
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:46 AM
WTF? Labs is found out? Where are you getting that, Wolfson?
Ogged, aren't you a little old (and anonymous) to be trying to play it cool?
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:46 AM
SCMT, I'm getting it here.
Ogged, for Austinian reasons?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:48 AM
How do Austinian reasons apply to my conditional statement? Or are you guessing?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:50 AM
Hmm, I paused over that part of Labs' comment, but figured there'd be more panic if he'd actually been found out.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:51 AM
They don't apply to your conditional statement. What I said was "can one propose to someone who's married". Your conditional statement doesn't enter into it (directly).
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:52 AM
The point is not whether you actually proposed, it's that whatever you said was vaguely in the realm of the affectionate. And a little affection is the spoonful of sugar that helps the lack of decorum go down. (As it were.)
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:53 AM
I can't believe you just said that.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:55 AM
Ah, ok Ben. But in that case, it doesn't seem much different from any contingent proposal: "will you marry me when we get back from Antarctica?" for example.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:57 AM
I know. I can't either.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:57 AM
Given my professional situation, it'd take a lot more than a counterfactual proposal to make an honest woman out of me.
Can we all drop the navel gazing and get back to the politics/cock-jokes?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 8:59 AM
Why do we all love LB so so much?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:00 AM
The proposal in 79, should it be "if we get back from Antarctica", to make it properly contingent? And "if we get back from Antarctica" and "if you weren't married" seem, to my ignorant way of thinking, to differ meaningfully in one's being counterfactual.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:00 AM
I was thinking that one proposal amounts to "let's get married after you get divorced," and the other "let's get married after we return from Antarctica."
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:02 AM
Chopper,
Help me out here. They are getting all weird.
First off, I don't know how Texas (Austinian) got in here, but of course you can propose marriage to someone who is married.
Second, ac, I don't get you. You didn't seem to like online flirting, but then call it sugar?
Third, LB, enough about your appearance. I happen to know you have freckles and are gorgeous.
Fourth, I'm having a really crabby day, and I was forced to learn that there are three accent marks in French over the letter 'e', and the one I was forced to care about was the aigu accent, which slants up to the right.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:02 AM
I gazed into my navel and found a cock joke. Please advise.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:02 AM
Navel gazing, that's what the blonds do at the Mineshaft, right?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:03 AM
I gazed into my navel and found a cock joke. Please advise.
Please return to rightful owner. Likely someone with very bad aim.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:07 AM
Navel gazing
Is it naval gazing when they say 'Hey, sailor'?
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:10 AM
Please return to rightful owner.
The joke answers to "an fellatio". Is anybody missing one of these?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:13 AM
Ogged, FL, Tripp...
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:15 AM
OK, which of them has the poorest aim?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:17 AM
Tripp, points often get lost in the attempt to make a joke. I would explain what I mean, but it would just be deeply, deeply unfunny.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:18 AM
ac,
Tripp, points often get lost in the attempt to make a joke. I would explain what I mean, but it would just be deeply, deeply unfunny.
Oh, it figures. I've been gone awhile and obviously missed some things. Sorry.
The good thing is that in order to get a clue I went to your blog and found out that you are, you know, female.
Which believe it or not I did not know.
Does 'ac' mean you are chilly?
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:22 AM
No, it does not.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:26 AM
Does it mean your current alternates?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:30 AM
No. It should really be "ace" but I just keep forgetting the "e".
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:39 AM
ace,
Do you have more than 5 kills?
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:50 AM
I'd want to know where she notches them
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:52 AM
Or does she talk to animals and out of her rear end?
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:56 AM
Chopper,
Help me out here. They are getting all weird.
Ummm. "Getting" all weird?
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 9:57 AM
I don't think this is the type of affection ac was after. Must keep everyone happy, so:
How's about: excepting that you are a lady that I've never met, and that I have romantic attachments, and that you seem also to have several, my guess is that you are foxxy, and anyway, have a style of writing that I enjoy.
At the mineshaft.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:04 AM
text,
I'm also ready to compliment ac, too, but I really need to hear about the kills first.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:15 AM
That is fair. What if she only has 3 kills?
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:19 AM
What if she only has 3 kills?
Then she'd be worth the chance.
Otherwise, well, I didn't live long enough to reproduce by being totally impetuous.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:23 AM
I don't think this is the type of affection ac was after.
Not really after affection. Was originally after decorum. But seeing that that's hopeless, would prefer the lack of it with affection. That's all.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:45 AM
ac has goopy liquid issues, and we love her for it!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:47 AM
You know, reading through this really does give me pause to wonder how many personas here are adopted. Is your unfogged-skin the same as the skin you show to you significant others etc?
I get the feeling that ac is the only one here being honest and damn that can be lonely.
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:52 AM
ac, does it help if I point out that boys are mean to each other and to girls because we're too scared to be nice?
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:55 AM
shorter Austro: I lie because I am all alone. Please help.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 10:56 AM
hey dont get me wrong: Adopted personas can be fun and are certainly neccessary. I m sure I have two or three all lying around within handy reach.
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 11:00 AM
ac,
Decorum?! Well bless your heart!
And Chopper, I for one am never mean to the girls. Nor to the women. Believe me, it does NOT pay off. Ever.
And personas? Well, duh. One truth about me is that I am an actor and blogs are the funnest place to act between gigs.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:18 PM
Tripp is actually 19 years old.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:20 PM
Tripp:
The proper method is to be mean to them, then to be nice to them, then to be mean to them, then to be nice again, until they don't know which way is up but suddenly you're the most fascinating person in the world. Pays off quite frequently.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:22 PM
but you have to be an asshole.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:25 PM
You know, reading through this really does give me pause to wonder how many personas here are adopted. Is your unfogged-skin the same as the skin you show to you significant others etc?
My unfogged-skin may not be the same as the skin I show to real-life people, significant others, etc, but they're all adopted.
I get them from the pound. Please spay or neuter your personas.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:27 PM
All meant in jest. I've never done such a thing, except as a callow lad. I have, however, listened to the laments of many a woman friend over fellows who engage in this behavior.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:27 PM
I meant not in jest, but not to call you an asshole either. It is true that what you describe "works" -- I have heard the same stories you have heard -- but the result is that you have to behave like an asshole, which isn't worth it.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:31 PM
Ah, between this and the subtle comment on the other thread, I was beginning to think I'd stepped on a nerve. Good.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:33 PM
ogged,
Tripp is actually 19 years old.
Pretty close. "Tripp" is the way I wish I was at 19.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:39 PM
My prediction: Tripp will say that if he were 19, he would be out making whoopee, not commenting.
I solemnly swear that I have written this before seeing Tripp's next comment, and I will press post without editing anything just as soon as he responds to 113.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:41 PM
Damn.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:42 PM
no nerves of mine. And I know what it feels like to be an asshole from experience.
And in throwing stones re: subtlety, I seem to have broken my house.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 12:42 PM
ac, will you marry me?
(Someone's got to be the gentleman.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 1:54 PM
Hey, I already suggested that she and I date, but that got me nowhere.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 1:56 PM
You should at least write her a love letter.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 1:56 PM
ergh, see 102. I am the invisible suitor.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 1:57 PM
Text, did you intend 102 to be some kind of come-on?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 1:58 PM
I thoiught we had established that ac has a thing about sticky fluids.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 1:59 PM
You are unsuited.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 1:59 PM
not a come-on, but I meant it in a gentlemanly fashion.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:01 PM
125: Maybe I should go on a date with ac?
Très romantique.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:02 PM
And, if a lady is complaining that no one is proposing to her, a gentleman proposes. Never mind whether she will inevitably reject him--a gentleman must bear that burden.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:03 PM
Hey Weiner, I didn't link to that for a reason. God damned up-scrollers.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:03 PM
Re: 133
Isn't this how Bertie Wooster used to get himself into trouble all the time?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:04 PM
Weiner is the prevailing gentleman, except that a gentleman would not have pointed out what is pointed out in 133.
Posted by text | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:07 PM
Not the preux chevalier, what?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:08 PM
Where was it that we were complaining about preciousness?
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:12 PM
I knew I could count on Matt to cheer me up. I have to say no, but you are lovely.
And Ogged, I was thinking that I'd been a bit quick to head off that line of banter, considering what it was replaced with.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 05-19-05 2:27 PM
LB, the notion of Matt as Bertie Wooster is just too precious. The question now is, who shall we cast as Spode? Oh, and doesnt that also identify ac as the Basset?
Stuff to ponder on.
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-20-05 1:58 AM
With all the Wodehouse fun long over, I thought I'd note that the actual topic of this post got coverage from today's NYTimes. The article is oddly sensitive and sapient by style section standards.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05-30-05 10:54 PM
Yeah, I saw that w/d, and did think it was good, but this line bothered me:
That seems almost nasty; an accusation of bad faith. I have the impression, from a lot of the cards anyway, that they represent a real cathartic moment for their creators.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-30-05 10:59 PM
(Though some of the cards, particularly recently, seem fake.)
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 05-30-05 10:59 PM
Yeah, everything was fine until the last paragraph; at the same time, it's always seemed like an art project on some level to me, so I don't really mind even the false-seeming ones.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 05-30-05 11:25 PM
And the flasher/stripper image just seems wrong. The anonymity of postsecret and similar sites allows people to detach what they consider most personal from their persons, something that is quite different from exposing one's body and all of its uniquely identifying marks for all to see.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 05-30-05 11:34 PM
It's tough to come up with a metaphor which combines anonymity and exhibitionism. The "flasher/stripper" does accenuate one, but the compromise of "flasher/stripper with a bag on his or her head" seems a little forced.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05-30-05 11:37 PM
Perhaps some kind of close-up photography showing just enough to expose something - perhaps a body part, perhaps a wound or scar - but not enough to identify the person?
But then that would probably turn out to be as much of an art project as postsecret. And I'd hate to see people wounding themselves just to be included.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 05-30-05 11:50 PM