Do you shudder because, in your imagined utterings, you seem to exhibit no self-awareness of the silliness of the club, or because you think belonging to such a club is in itself shameful? For instance, I could well imagine being a member of a beer of the month club, and talking about some great! new! beer! with a beery friend by saying, "yeah, I heard about it 'cause I'm in this B-O-T-M club, it's actually pretty cool", &c, &c, &c.
Here's an alternative - chain letters in which you're supposed to send a certain type of thing. A friend of mine (a woman) did one for underwear, and got all sorts of wierd shit from around the world, including the ever popular edible panties. What would the unfogged chain letter be for?
Along the lines of Ben's beer, I've heard of wineries that send a couple bottles a month. In fact, I've shared bottles from said club and it never seemed silly.
My wife enrolled her father in the cheese of the month club one year for his birthday. The results were mixed. On the one hand, he liked it a lot. On other hand, he had a heart attach during month six. It wasn't fatal, fortunately.
Yep, as you can see by going to the Brickskeller in D.C., they have over 1,000. Guinness record for "Most Varieties". Just don't order Miller Lite (which they have for some reason).
There are scads of other calendrical systems, I'm sure. Besides, in order to have forgotten the Seleucid calendar, wouldn't I have had to have known about it in the first place?
For some reason, Ben, I imagine that the x-of-the-month club is like golf in that the worst part of the thing is the people who typically enjoy the thing. Hence I shudder at imagining myself to be one of them. There are many reasons why this is silly, and one is that it's not so bad to come home to, say, a nice bottle of wine on your doorstep. Or a necktie, for that matter.
Huh, I thought the shame of it was that these clubs are connoseurship for the hoi-polloi, so that in joining, one announces both that one cares, but also that one doesn't have much of a clue. (I'm not saying that impression is correct....)
Your interpretation and Labs' aren't mutually exclusive. Imagine the self-satisfied smugness of one who thinks he has a clue by virtue of having joined the club—one of the couples in Waiting for Guffman might be instructive in this regard, but I can't remember which. The one that goes to the Chinese restaurant, I think.
Thesis: self-satisfaction is one of the most hateful traits a person can possess.
announces both that one cares, but also that one doesn't have much of a clue
I think you wrongly assume ignorance of the second point by people who would join.
Being willing to care and show your ignorance is a requirement for learning something new. To me the too cool to join attitude is far worse, because it usually precludes caring about things you don't know and thus learning about them.
More realistically, an assorted sixpack every week for a year would be fantastic.
Here in Minnesota you're not supposed to buy real beer on Sunday anyway. To maintain our championship status we must work extra hard the other six days.
I was in wine.com's wine of the month club for a while. It was alright. Always nice to taste wine you wouldn't have otherwise, and they did a decent job selecting them, but it wasn't nearly as much fun as wandering through my local wine shop and after shipping ended up being quite a bit more expensive.
Now the place where we buy our wine has a Case of the Week that they assemble and knock off 20-30%. We usually get it every other week or so.
Join Weiner's Biscuit Conditional of the Month club! Each month a hot and satisfying biscuit conditional will be shipped to your door. Our staff of linguists will select only the finest, most paradigmatic biscuit conditionals as good enough for our members.
I have moved to Minnesota, primarily because of threats from the Troll of Sorrow. The "whois" result for my website will direct him to the apartment of a hapless medical student or post-doc who is most likely of Asian origin.
Calendar-of-the-month club?
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 10:53 AM
Do you shudder because, in your imagined utterings, you seem to exhibit no self-awareness of the silliness of the club, or because you think belonging to such a club is in itself shameful? For instance, I could well imagine being a member of a beer of the month club, and talking about some great! new! beer! with a beery friend by saying, "yeah, I heard about it 'cause I'm in this B-O-T-M club, it's actually pretty cool", &c, &c, &c.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 11:19 AM
Tampon-of-the-month club?
Posted by annie | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 11:19 AM
Gregorian, Julian, ecclesiastical, ecclesiastical (orthodox), Jewish, Roman, Mayan, Chinese, druidical, etc.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 11:21 AM
Here's an alternative - chain letters in which you're supposed to send a certain type of thing. A friend of mine (a woman) did one for underwear, and got all sorts of wierd shit from around the world, including the ever popular edible panties. What would the unfogged chain letter be for?
Posted by cw | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 11:21 AM
Used tampon of the month club. Problem: may already exist in Japan.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 11:22 AM
Here's an alternative - chain letters in which you're supposed to send a certain type of thing.
A cock joke ring.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 11:23 AM
Along the lines of Ben's beer, I've heard of wineries that send a couple bottles a month. In fact, I've shared bottles from said club and it never seemed silly.
Posted by cw | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 11:24 AM
A cock joke ring.
First I thought you said a cock ring, since it was in keeping with getting something in the mail.
Also, each person could send bar matches from the local mineshaft or equivalent.
Posted by cw | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 11:27 AM
An old roommate of mine was in a cigar of the month club.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 12:30 PM
My wife enrolled her father in the cheese of the month club one year for his birthday. The results were mixed. On the one hand, he liked it a lot. On other hand, he had a heart attach during month six. It wasn't fatal, fortunately.
Posted by pjs | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 12:52 PM
Cheese for them as likes it and prevention of fatalities from otherwise-fatal heart attacks sounds like unambiguously positive results.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 12:55 PM
I was passed over to extend a post-doc position, however, as a going away present my supervisor signed me up for 6 months of a Wine of the Month club.
Nice gesture, but I was an angry drunk on a monthly basis for about a half year.
Posted by Rich | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 1:09 PM
Wolfson forgot the Seleucid calendar, dating from Alexander the great and still in use among Persian Christians in 1300 AD.
I could deal with a beer-of-the-day club. I'm sure that there are more than 365 quality beers.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 2:51 PM
Yep, as you can see by going to the Brickskeller in D.C., they have over 1,000. Guinness record for "Most Varieties". Just don't order Miller Lite (which they have for some reason).
They should have a club.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 2:56 PM
He wrote etc., must you provoke a calendar naming fight? Coptic, which I think isn't equivalent to any of the previously named ones.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 3:15 PM
There are scads of other calendrical systems, I'm sure. Besides, in order to have forgotten the Seleucid calendar, wouldn't I have had to have known about it in the first place?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 3:23 PM
For some reason, Ben, I imagine that the x-of-the-month club is like golf in that the worst part of the thing is the people who typically enjoy the thing. Hence I shudder at imagining myself to be one of them. There are many reasons why this is silly, and one is that it's not so bad to come home to, say, a nice bottle of wine on your doorstep. Or a necktie, for that matter.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 4:47 PM
Huh, I thought the shame of it was that these clubs are connoseurship for the hoi-polloi, so that in joining, one announces both that one cares, but also that one doesn't have much of a clue. (I'm not saying that impression is correct....)
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 4:53 PM
Your interpretation and Labs' aren't mutually exclusive. Imagine the self-satisfied smugness of one who thinks he has a clue by virtue of having joined the club—one of the couples in Waiting for Guffman might be instructive in this regard, but I can't remember which. The one that goes to the Chinese restaurant, I think.
Thesis: self-satisfaction is one of the most hateful traits a person can possess.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 4:57 PM
I just barely stopped myself from writing "\textit{Waiting for Guffman}" up there.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 4:58 PM
self-satisfaction is one of the most hateful traits a person can possess
That really is the motto for Unfogged.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 5:16 PM
Tampon-of-the-month club?
Used tampon of the month club.
I think members of these two are also typically members of the "that time of the month" club.
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 5:43 PM
announces both that one cares, but also that one doesn't have much of a clue
I think you wrongly assume ignorance of the second point by people who would join.
Being willing to care and show your ignorance is a requirement for learning something new. To me the too cool to join attitude is far worse, because it usually precludes caring about things you don't know and thus learning about them.
Posted by cw | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 6:14 PM
More realistically, an assorted sixpack every week for a year would be fantastic.
Here in Minnesota you're not supposed to buy real beer on Sunday anyway. To maintain our championship status we must work extra hard the other six days.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 7:03 PM
I thought you lived in Oregon.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 7:05 PM
Boy, you really weren't paying attention to Emerson's series, Seventeen Comments on Unfogged about My Move to Minnesota.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 7:15 PM
I'm still not finding it. All I see is that he was living in Portland as of August 9.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 7:25 PM
Is that what that Lake Wobegon business was about a while back?
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 7:31 PM
Well, I gathered he was moving and is in Minnesota, so I thought he moved to Minnesota. Did I jump to conclusions?
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 7:33 PM
I was in wine.com's wine of the month club for a while. It was alright. Always nice to taste wine you wouldn't have otherwise, and they did a decent job selecting them, but it wasn't nearly as much fun as wandering through my local wine shop and after shipping ended up being quite a bit more expensive.
Now the place where we buy our wine has a Case of the Week that they assemble and knock off 20-30%. We usually get it every other week or so.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 8:00 PM
Whoever's job it is to knock off 20-30% of the case must go home happy. On public transport, I hope.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 8:03 PM
[redacted]
Posted by [redacted] | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 8:49 PM
I'm torn between agreeing heartily with Labs (exceptin' that I'm not in the market for most of those things) and linking to Sifu Tweety's executive summary of Glenn Reynolds' views on energy policy.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 9:02 PM
Join Weiner's Biscuit Conditional of the Month club! Each month a hot and satisfying biscuit conditional will be shipped to your door. Our staff of linguists will select only the finest, most paradigmatic biscuit conditionals as good enough for our members.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 9:27 PM
There's a Biscuit Conditional of the Month club, if you want to join it.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 9:28 PM
Weiner's Biscuit Conditional of the Month Club has commenced operations, if you like that sort of thing.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 9:29 PM
pwned!
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 10- 9-05 9:29 PM
Mad magazine did this; their best shot was the "Disease of the Month" club. I'm surprised noone's brought it up, it was only 43 years ago.
Posted by dave heasman | Link to this comment | 10-10-05 6:13 AM
I have moved to Minnesota, primarily because of threats from the Troll of Sorrow. The "whois" result for my website will direct him to the apartment of a hapless medical student or post-doc who is most likely of Asian origin.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 10-10-05 6:18 AM