Wow. That's such a gigantic title fail that maybe I'll just let it stand.

Unfquinceantildecon 2018

Also: this is probably not a great post for me to have embarked on today. I'm feeling a little sad because of an unexpected death of an acquaintance, and a colleague whose home was destroyed last Friday. Entreating people for a big thing like this leaves you (me) open to feel rejected, even though it's all circumstantial. However, I felt like we were getting kind of far into 2018 not to mention it.

How about this: Let' s just muse and percolate on the idea in this thread. No commitment, no big rejections.

We really should have done the sex grotto in Palm Springs thing before everyone got old.

I'm game.

Also now free for the sex grotto of the aging Gen-Xers.

Required quinceanera meme.

I will demonstrably show up for pretty much anything, but also not so much with the whipping up enthusiasm. Or the sex grotto.

Not really into whipping in the sex grotto tbh.

I failed to attend the last one even though it was only a 1 hour commuter train ride away, so I can't promise much. But I'll happily encourage everyone else.

It sounds like a good idea - I was sorry to miss the last one.

In the old days, no one would have let it slide that you're 13 days premature with this post.

Boy that would have been an easy thing for me to verify, had it occurred to me.

8: SSC!

11: 15 years! And you know what else is still around if also a shadow of its former self? Salon!

http://www.unfogged.com/archives/week_2003_02_23.html#000003

I had a great time at unfoggeddecacon (which was the only unfogged event that I've attended). I'd recommend it.

I don't know whether I'd be able to attend something this year. My travel flexibility is limited, but I would feel like I was missing out if it happens and I couldn't make it.

Wes found totally do this.

Who is Wes?

Never! I hate each and every one of you.

Except for you, heebie. You are okay.

I will come if I can, but I may not be very flexible for traveling because of previous commitments and various obligations. Also, if people go to a farmer's market, I'll sneak out and come back later.

I regret not spending more time at the last one. I'd just changed jobs and moved across the country and thought I couldn't spend as much time and money on travel as, it turned out, I could have spent.

14: The signal/noise at Salon has become so low that I finally abandoned it for (probably) good last year.

I'd say unfogged has aged a lot more gracefully than Salon.

I'd offer to host a party late this year BUT there is no way that most people will come if we hold it in Los Angeles.

I'd offer to host a party, but I'm afraid everybody would make fun of the plastic slip covers.

22: It's not really a fair comparison, because Salon was already well past its prime in 2003. Also I don't think Unf & Ogged ever thought that Unfogged would make them rich.

I would go to a party in Los Angeles, even though it would mean I'd have to spend time with my in-laws.

25

Actually, ogged sold out to facebook 5 years ago. He's a billionaire, and our comments are being mined for data on the highly-sought after demographic of slightly underemployed and underpaid ageing smart people who like to argue about obscure things on the internet all day.

I'll show up for it if it's in the DC area. Sorry to not travel (unless it just happens to line up with some other vacation due to sheer luck). I'd seriously consider donating regardless of whether or not I'm attending, though. Like LB, not enthusiastic but that should not be taken as disapproval, just not enthusiastic in general.

Hmmm, I'm talking about commitment and stuff right there, contra 3. OK, I'll muse... in one sense, I'm not very committed to this blog/community/lifestyle; there's a thread I comment on roughly weekly and I'm not much of a character around here. On the other hand, I've traveled 500 miles for a meetup. I've been commenting here longer than I've known my wife or all but one of my friends. In the time I've been commenting here I've had at least 3 jobs, basically of my "professional" career. When I was in the ER, you people found out after my immediate family and babysitters but before anyone else. Wow. This is a big part of my life now that I write it down.

Honestly I feel like if we could get circus performers or magicians involved it could be more fun.

If it's not happening till May that's plenty of time to learn.

I think Moby is studying to become a wizard.

But that takes seven years and eight movies.

||

Fabulous: Conjecture: All perfect number theorists are odd ("Does there exist a prime number whose representation on a phone screen looks like a giraffe?")

|>

When roughly would this take place?

Holocene epoch.

Let's have one on each coast simultaneously, but with a high-resolution videochat projected on the walls so it's like they're connected. Sort of trapnel tried to do with his phablet in DC.

(Thought prompted by, not sure how far I can travel this year.)

I think we should have a Winter Olympics thread.

Spoken like a true Norwegian.

You should see whether the amazing house Chopper linked at the other place might be available to rent for Spring Break . . .
(Why the hell can't I make links? I used to be able to. Stupid HTML, stupid mobile device.)
http://www.mlive.com/expo/ERRY-2018/02/0197e4ed64/index.html

It's only, err, 3 hours from Chicago.

36 is what I had to do for the one five years ago where I planned to attend but then had to cancel due to sick kid.
Also it's time for me to change jobs again which is how I measure when DCcon was since that's when people told me to take my current job. By missing the one 5 years ago I'm stuck in the same job instead of moving to something better then.

I happen to be a circus performer.

Or, New Orleans is almost in the middle of the country...

Honestly, I promise that if Urple comes and does circus acts I will go. We should go to whatever location encourages an Urple circus-act performance. I don't even need to know what the act is.

39: Ho. Lee. Shit. That house is... just...

well, the perfect place for an Unfoggedcon, among so much else.

My favourite thing about the linked page is how the first picture sets you up to approach so innocently. Then you get to the second picture, and you think you know the score. And then you keep scrolling down, down the rabbit-hole...

I'm always up for DC.

Or you could all come to my lake house, which sleeps 6 in a pinch and features a total lack of public transportation.

39: It's even "eclectic", just like the blog web magazine!

I feel like to get past the door of that house, you'll have to tell it your real name or at least bring a pocket of quaaludes.

I know we're not committing, but I'm close to a definite no. Maybe if it were urple's circus where he lives, but my goal for the year is to manage to get babysitters for things like meetings and maybe eventually a meal out and it's unlikely to work for a weekend away.

I'm afraid to ask for details on 41.

43: I'm only going to show up if urple promises to perform a truly novel circus act.

(More seriously, I was kept from past Unfoggedcons by my need to maintain anonymity for professional reasons. That's no longer a huge issue, but my personal and professional lives have exploded in ways that leave me basically zero free time for the next couple of months. So we'll see!)

If you want to chuck it all and go live off the grid in a house of cob that you make yourself, I can point you to some good sites on cob building.

Maybe this event should feature a cob-raising.

A cob grotto.

The death-of-acquaintance is a really wonderful guy who did a ton for the community, in his 40s, who died of alcohol poisoning from a Mardi Gras party. Prominent member of the LGBT community, kids, etc. First, I'm broken up for his husband. But also I'm really stunned by the unexpected way he died. I really don't think he was an alcoholic - I think it was probably a bad judgement rare binging thing - but so preventable and thus so haunting.

If enough people pitch in to by that house and hold the con there I will come. I would put my mother on a plane and bring her, too. I don't think I have ever seen a better stage set for an elmore Leonard story

Oh, Jesus, Heebie, 54 is awful.

And then I got to work, and our secretary (who I adore) who just moved into a rental house, had a burst pipe on Friday while she was here at work, which soaked the upstairs to the point where all the ceilings collapsed, so all her possessions are soaking and covered in plaster. Like, she can't even get to them. The upstairs bedroom belonged to her 7th grade son.

I'm listening to her talk on the phone - the landlord wants the clean up people to pack up her belongings and itemize them for insurance, and put them in storage, but both insurance companies are balking on paying for the pack-up, and until it's resolved, all her belongings are sitting, wet and caked with plaster. I'm so furious/upset for her as well.

Those are both awful. My sympathies.

56 and 58 are exactly correct. Those are tragic and infuriating and both sound heavy and exhausting.

The problem with liquors, especially in sugar mixed drinks, is that you can blow by the good parts of being drunk before you've even noticed you were there.

I'm just stunned by 54. I mean, I know you can kill yourself with alcohol poisoning, I've talked to my kids about it, I know it happens. But a reasonable adult doing it accidentally with drinking at a party? That's horrifying and tragic.

I looked it up. In America, it's mostly middle-aged white men.

What isn't?

61

Right, it's an extra layer of horrifying and tragic.

I had actually emailed heebie about a UnFifteengigacon meet up, but then I never followed up. Sigh.

I would totally want to go if there is one. Pittsburgh would be nice, but DC would be more interesting. Still, there's always Rancho Cucamonga...

61: Some people have meds that mix really badly, and some people forget tolerance drops age you age and get really sick trying to party like a college kid. (Why yes, I did spend last weekend with AJ's college roommates!)

Guys, let's NOT mix the "middle age men can actually die of preventable alcohol poisoning" and the "let's plan a big party for ourselves" thread. Speaking personally, I'm not going to talk to any of you unless I'm drunk.

And I REALLY do not want to die at the Unfogged meetup party. Can you imagine a more embarrassing funeral.

If I go, can you just say I died fighting off a bear or something?

68: The ceremonial moment when everyone stops masturbating is epic.

I can't read 50 as anything other than an admission of being on the witness list for the Mueller investigation. Or maybe Snowden.

Most likely in.

I'm probably in for this, depending on the specifics.

I laughed out loud at 70.

if it were end end of this year then I could likely come to DC; I'd love to come to LA also and they're about the same distance away. I go through on my way to phoenix all the time.

(no jokes about bi-location of narnia. that's our whole deal. oh ugh party-wise I'm so not prepared for CNY! I have no high-quality cookies! I don't have a plan on where to get excellent sashimi at the last minute! total number of cherry blossoms/forsythia/peonies in house=0! I'm almost out of fucking clementines! in better news I still haven't hurt myself, that's all sweet and dandy.)

Moby, are you aware of this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SLwT6rlGPo

I'm killing time in Denver right now, having come out here for my uncle's funeral. I've had a horrible cold for 2 weeks, and the altitude hasn't helped. Flew in Friday morning, funeral stuffall day on Saturday in a mountain town, dinner with a friend of Tim's last night in Denver and lunch with my aunt today. Other than driving around a bit, I spent most of the rest of the trip sleeping with a terrible headache. I think I went through my travel budget for the year.

I'd be more excited about going to LA than DC. I owe my cousin in Forestville a visit, so Northern California has a certain appeal.

LA isn't pedestrian friendly though, and I would want to do it on the cheap. Meh.

I will be in DC anyway in April but I'm guessing that's too soon for people at this place to commit to and organize anything.

When I connected through Denver, I was disappointed that somehow we didn't get to see the Rockies. My son has never seen them before. They should put the airport in the mountains.

I was gonna say I'm cool with LA, but I had forgotten about Denver. Ahh, Denver.

Pittsburgh would be nice, especially if the Pirates were in town.

Or maybe we should rent a villa in Curaçao.

I actually have other reasons to go to Curacao, so, great. But seriously if I know anything it's that it needs to be on the Acela to max out the crowd. Easier to get west folks east tgab easr folls west. Obviously I'd prefer my own house for a pool party or even Lord help me the Bay, but gotta be realistic.

The way the trains have been working, then we'd all just die on the way there instead of after we get there.

T'gift of tgab.

I think I'm going to give up the internet for Lent so I don't have to read the story about the woman who got worms in her eye.

The worms will still be there when Lent is over, just for you to see.

If I go, can you just say I died fighting off a bear

Only if I can write your obit. As a Canadian, I have a ready supply of stock phrases concerning bear-inflicted injuries and fatalities, of course, but I promise you I'd also give it a personal touch.

Imagine Halford as this guy:

I was sittin' on the throne, we call it, and my feet are sort of, well, up on the poop stool, we call it...

Or as this guy:

The bear dropped Gordie, and turned toward me...

Has a more Canadian statement ever been uttered?

Full story of the outhouse bear attack here.

And I doubt Halford is really and truly willing to go down in history as a bear fatality like that.

A DC event I would attend, btw.

Heebs, if only you'd said something sooner, I wouldn't have squandered my travel budget.

I enjoyed the first two, and have really liked meeting those of you I've had the good luck to meet on the fly. I'm probably a no, though, unless it lines up with work travel.

Anybody want to sue somebody?

Jane, thank you for that truly wonderful video: also the fact that the friend who rescued him is wearing a T shirt that says "I listen to the voices in my tackle box".

"And the bear grabbed me and started dragging me into the woods..."

Well, obviously. "Hey! What the hell are you doing? Over here is where you shit. Every bear knows that."

Just to correct Heebie's horrific cultural appropriation (not to mention gender insensitivity): it's Unfquinceañerogged.

How come you know so much about the culture of Canada?

I asked the quebecois in my office.

I would love to come, but finances may prevent. Unless you guys want to hold it in Minnesota, which is lovely in the summer and relatively central. I can sleep 6 guests on a non-linear weekend and have a pretty decent back patio. Museums, night life, and lakes all close by...

A lake, a cabin, some canoes, four cases of Hamm's, and some hot dogs.

I would come, but non-linear weekends are so unpredictable.

Anybody want to sue somebody?

That reminds me of how my brother passed out his card to guys renovating the hotel we were staying at. He thought they might have a case for unpaid overtime.

I'm in.

I was ready for another right as soon as I slept off the last one.

I mean, Kobe!

Well, since apparently the blog is into the marginalization and silencing of wealthy white countries in the global north, I have to say, was anyone else heartbroken over Johannes Thingnes Boe's total meltdown in the biathalon sprint and pursuit? I was pretty sure he was pushing himself way too hard before the Olympics, and I'm worried he peaked in January.

Also I was hoping Kaisa Makarainen would at least medal, so it's pretty bleak across the board WRT biathlon (though Olsbu's surprise silver was nice).

102: I was heartbroken as soon as I found out about it!

You people are so pale, you just blur right in to the monitor backlighting.

91!!

106 is bring back traumatic memories of Jewish Day Camp when I was tormented endlessly for not realizing the Pope was Catholic.

It turns out that the greatest winter sportsmen are not Norweigians, but Asian-American women from Southern California.

Is it because he wears a kippah sometimes?

That was me obviously. Also the bear story in 88 is great.

||

"His position was very clear, which was that we had spent 50 years trying to impoverish these people, and we'd finally done it, and at this moment you want to assist?" Carter recalled. "In fact, Don had a phrase, which was freefall. He wanted them in freefall. And I felt that freefall was not safe. It was not a safe position given that they had nuclear weapons."

||

Popov felt fortunate that his laboratory could generate some ideas for projects beyond biological weapons, but he knew others who could not. "It was just impossible if you dealt with anthrax or plague weaponization," he remembered. "What could you suggest would be the practical purpose?"

Maybe the Voluntary Human Extinction Society has a grant-funding arm?

I guess maybe genocide via biological weapon isn't "voluntary."

||

Mossy, I thought of you reading the recent LRB article on a book about the My Lai massacre. The tone with which it approached human folly seemed less detached but somehow related to the quotations you post from time to time.

Phil Caputo, one of the first Marines to land in Vietnam in 1965, was dismayed to discover that not all the members of his platoon, in which he took such pride, had a store of humanity as impressive as their combat skills. 'Some of them were not so decent and good,' he wrote in his classic combat memoir, A Rumour of War. 'Many had petty jealousies, hatreds and prejudices. And an arrogance tempered their ingrained American idealism.' His sergeant observed that during the Korean War, he had seen men sight in their rifles by firing at farmers: 'Before you leave here, sir, you're going to learn that one of the most brutal things in the world is your average 19-year-old American boy.'

|>

||

Chetek was offering to sell a special service: underground nuclear explosions to destroy chemical and toxic industrial wastes, munitions, nuclear reactors or anything else by incinerating it with thermonuclear blasts two thousand feet underground--for a fee.

I mean obviously if you're making the nukes from scratch it's a loser, but if you've got a spare 10,000 of them just lying around cluttering up the storeroom why not.

Well, since apparently the blog is into the marginalization and silencing of wealthy white countries in the global north, I have to say, was anyone else heartbroken over Johannes Thingnes Boe's total meltdown in the biathalon sprint and pursuit? I was pretty sure he was pushing himself way too hard before the Olympics, and I'm worried he peaked in January.

No way. Nice to see the medals for the Czech guy and the Swedish guy.

The biathlon is the only thing I've been watching so far. I watched both the sprint and the pursuit. And the moguls, in which all the Korean and Japanese competitors crashed and landed flat on their face at some point, except the one who won.

Edit: The Japanese guy got the bronze, he did not win. The favorite from Canada won and someone from the skiing hotbed of Australia finished second.

118

I haven't been watching moguls. I'm glad to hear an East Asian won. My cheering hierarchy goes:

Norwegians -- Finns -- Swedes -- Chinese -- people from other non Euro-American countries -- everyone else -- Austrians -- Swiss -- Russians

I haven't been watching moguls.

And that's how they're getting away with robbing the country blind.

118

Pushing yourself such that 99% of the time you crash out but the other 1% of the time you do OK seems to be Japan's winter sports MO. Their alpine skiers are the same way.

I was wondering what the history of snowboarding was such that it's dominated by anglophone countries. I'm presuming it was invented as a sport in So Cal?

120: Your longtime imperial masters the Danes don't even get a mention?

Pushing yourself such that 99% of the time you crash out but the other 1% of the time you do OK seems to be Japan's winter sports MO.

My brother went to a talk by a professional mountain biker and one the lines I remember him mentioning was, "the world looks really different when you're going downhill working at 90% of your aerobic capacity."

123

Well, as my grandmother says, the Danes are soft and unathletic like all the butter they make. I suppose I'd cheer for them above the Swedes, but my family wasn't into curling so it never came up when we were kids.

I should add, now that I'm married to an Italian I cheer for Italians after non-white athletes but before the everyone else category.

Alex, I'll take "Things that are less inspiring when said by a smoker at an AA meeting for $100".

120: Does the USA fall under "everyone else" or is it not even on the "cheering hierarchy"?

115: Thanks. That's an interesting review.

I cheer for world peace, you nationalist fucks.

In n Out is the new breakfast of champions.

I scream for ice cream, but only if it's chocolate. #woke

I just had a great idea for a Winter Olympics sport. Snow volleyball!

129: I'm holding out for taped pee.

I'm thinking that would be painful.

129

World peace didn't even make the quarter finals.

127

Well, I was raised to actively cheer against American athletes, but I'm trying to retrain myself to lump them in the "everyone else" category.

I assume Canada is included as a "Euro-American country".

Yep.

Argentina? Chile? Netherlands Antilles?

138

Nope.

132

Would they wear bikinis over their full body spandex suits?

When I'm world dictator, all men will be forced to wear full body spandex suits. It's a good look.

140: I was thinking just bikinis.

Short-track speedskating continues to be a fun sport to watch, especially the relay events.

143

What I like about it is that the race can change in half a second. Like when the 5th person falls and wipes out all the people in front, then the person in last wins by being slow enough not to get taken out. It would drive me crazy if I were a competitor, but it's fun to watch as someone with no stakes in it.

141: #notallmen surely

My cheering hierarchy

Sweden
Canada
Finland
Bloody-Norway-who-are-going-to-win-the-cross-country-skiing-despite-the-best-efforts-of ume's-cat-who-has-been-promised-a-whole-tin-of-tuna-if-feline-malignity-can-trip-them-up, or "Norway"for short
Japan
Korea
The field
Liechtenstein
USA
Great Britain
Russia

But bloody hell the Norwegian who won the sprint skiing gold was amazing

144- Otherwise known as "pulling a Bradbury."

There should be a Winter Olympics decathlon -- I'm not sure what all the events would be, but it would have to include luge, ski jumping and figure skating.

145

#allmen!!

146

What did Liechtenstein ever do to you?

(Though, seriously, I also have a dislike of what I consider "bullshit countries," tiny places that are basically just tax havens for wealthy European assholes. So, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra but less so. I guess they're maybe tied with Switzerland on my shit list? Also, I dislike the name Tina so much that I automatically dislike any athlete with that name. Tina Wei/rather might be the nicest person in the world, but she has two black marks from me.)

Also, the sprints were amazing. I was so happy too that the Italian beat out the Russian for silver. Stina Nilsson was also impressive enough I can't begrudge her win, and I also appreciated the that Maiken Falla beat out Russia for silver. I'd prefer if none of the Russian athletes medaled, but I'll take what I can get.

Results-wise I'm most pleased with the skiathalon. Mostly total Norwegian domination, but with just enough other Scandinavian success to shake it up. Not that I would complain if the Norwegians swept all the medals...

... tiny places that are basically just tax havens for wealthy European assholes . . . Andorra

Are you saying that the Pete Seeger song doesn't precisely capture the nature of the country?

150

Well, to be honest I don't actually know if they're as terrible as the others, but I included them in the list because I'm a completionist.

I'm from the "up close and personal" generation. I don't care about the country of origin, I only root for individual athletes that have overcome great personal tribulations in ways that touch my soul.

My honest view, which I state not as a principle to be defended or enforced but just as my feeling, is that if you live in the USA you should:

a. Not watch or give a shit about the Olympics, which is a fine choice.

b. root for Team USA.

Legitimate exception if you grew up as an immigrant in a family that strongly cared about the Olympic team from the home country, but the exception goes away if you fail to root for Team USA in events where the home country's not competing. You're here now fool!

This isn't just nationalism, though it's partially that, it's how I feel about people who are into sports but not their local sports team. Get on board and stop being a contrarian individualist jerk or don't do it at all, the end.

I mean and obviously you can root for compelling individuals from any country to do well. And weird fluke athletes like Eddy the Eagle or the Jamaican Bobsled Team. I enjoyed Cool Runnings as much as the next man. I am not a fascist! But you just can't be like "oh sorry you boring Team USA rooter I'm into this other nation's team for some reason" without very good cause.

And now I'm worried that maybe I'm Trump.

What if you were raised by immigrants who taught you your native culture involved rooting against American athletes in winter sports?

Go back to Russia? Also, why do Norway-ans care about the USA in winter sports anyway. Our cross country ski team has got to be like three nerdy college students from Minnesota or something.

Looking at the bios, I should have substituted "Vermont" for "Minnesota." Should have known!

Well, the only sort of global domination Norwegians have access to is in athletic competitions of winter sports we invented, and we don't appreciate world superpowers honing in on our medal count.

Also, Leif Nordgren* doesn't appreciate being called a nerd.

*actual name of American biathlete

I may never have agreed with Halford as much as I agree with 153-154.

Our cross country ski team has got to be like three nerdy college students from Minnesota or something.

Ahem.

without very good cause.

Mostly agree. Though I tend more to watch the individual performances. But yeah, I'll cheer the Americans as a team because I'm American. I don't cheer the Norwegian as Norwegians since I'm not one. Buttercup is not American, they're Norwegian so naturally they cheer Norway.

Yeah, I think 153-154 is about right. That said, Iris is vocally pro-USA, and it sets me on edge a bit. Partly because it's so out of character; she DGAF about patriotism normally, and I can't even get her to care about the Pirates, whose games she's been attending her whole life. But now she's all but wishing injury on rando skaters from other countries?

On a separate note, I don't know who the fuck Kai's been talking to, but he keeps describing Asian-American athletes as "not real Americans." What the fuckety-fuck? We keep coming down hard on this, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in.

Meanwhile, there's the thing I'm waiting to post elsewhere as soon as I'm provoked:

A lot of sports fans like to mock any event that involves judges as "not a real sport," but at this point it's easier to identify winning skating routines than it is a fucking catch in the NFL or a stolen base in MLB.

163: Has it gotten to the point where he's doing it to be contrary?

I have a Halford-approved cheering hierarchy:
USA
Poland
Compelling Personal Story or Quirkiness*

*E.g., Norwegian curling team's trousers

Last night I watched a bit of snowboarding (in a huge half-pipe) and an Australian woman did a very painful face-plant. So now I only watch snowboarding for the accidents.

Well, the only sort of global domination Norwegians have access to is in athletic competitions of winter sports we invented

That and wealth and prosperity, which some people care about. And puffin population.

Speaking of Salon.

Another snowboarder.crash.

163.last- probably reading the NY Times.

167

There's a difference between being a small wealthy country and crushing your enemies,* seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentations of their women.

*Swedes

I'm watching a Danish skier in the alpine combined, and I feel basically nothing. I guess I'd rather a Danish athlete win than a non-Scandinavian, but I don't have the same automatic affective response that I do for Norwegian, Finnish, or even Swedish athletes.

I'm watching a Danish skier in the alpine combined, and I feel basically nothing.

This belongs in Strindberg and Helium Watch the Olympics.

Re: the Winter Olympics. I want an individual or a team (depending on the event) from some totally non-Nordic country to come out of nowhere and take home the gold in a surprise win. Otherwise, I feel like I already know who's going to get the bronze, silver, and gold.

Everything you need to know (and more!) about the Olympic men's curling teams.

On the British (but more specifically, Scottish) men's team:

They're good Scottish boys. They've all played together since the junior ranks, they're all young, and chances are great they'll show up somewhere in kilts. Their lead's name is "Cammy." Tommy, Cammy, and Glen sound like the names of your neighboring farmers. Naturally, they're actually farmers.

The Canadians are really good at curling, because Scotland (because Canada is the second home of the Scots, is what I mean).

When I was a kid, I thought curling was a boring sport-that-is-not-really-a-sport played by middle-aged people (both women and men) who wore plaid tam o' shanter caps, and who bore typically Scottish-Canadian surnames. But I had to learn the basics of curling as part of my grade 12 high school phys ed curriculum*, and while (or perhaps because) I was utterly hopeless at throwing, sweeping, or curling rocks, it did give me some respect for the game.

*The idea here was to move beyond dodgeball in the gym, and to introduce physical activities that were actually pursued/enjoyed by actual adults who were neither serious athletes nor gym rats, but who just included these activities in their everyday lives. We also learned the basics of canoeing and kayaking, which was probably the most useful thing I ever learned in phys ed.

160: word.

174

What were the origins of curling? How did people just decide to sweep rocks across the ice?

Great Canadian leisure sports:

Curling
Kayaking
Canoeing
Touque toss
Timed dullardry
Saskatoon steeplechase
Gordon-ing
Bear lusting
Poutineathon
Pan-provincial federalism biathalon
Sweatering

176: it's basically bowling but on ice. Same origin process as ice hockey from normal hockey, I should think.

178 from the veldt to the tundra.

I should add that when I'm actually in Sweden, or even reading the Swedish papers, I find Swedish patriotism wholly absurd, but that has to be true of any country's sport coverage. But I was working in a small factory there during the era of Ingemar Stenmark's domination of the slalom, and we would all stop work and troop into the owner's house to watch him run on television. Quite extraordinary. I mean, we worked damn hard all day and stopped for nothing else, ever.
And AIMHMHB I have a friend whose husband invented modern ski-jumping -- the style where you fly with your skis in a V -- to see him in a small town in the far north is to understand what it would be like never to have to buy yourself a drink for the rest of your life. He can't drive, because he's an epileptic. I think that being an epileptic Olympic ski jumper is one of the braver professions I have ever come across.

I root for Asian-American athletes to beat Asian athletes because it demonstrates the superiority of American culture.

Agreed. Eating steroids with chopsticks takes forever.

I like the Winter Olympics, but this year am not watching because I'm on the road. Most of the events I like to watch -- alpine skiing in particular -- are individual, so I can go for specific people.

I enjoyed the curling back in 2002 (I think -- maybe it was 2006) because a cousin was then running her local curling club in rural Manitoba, and talked me through it.

(I'm right now in Nürnberg, visiting my niece and her 16 month old twins. Just getting through the day is an Olympic event for her and her husband!)

||

"And we went through the door, and into that room, and there's 75 kilos of highly-enriched uranium lying on the floor. On the floor! You've got it on racks, too. There's an oversized dumbwaiter that goes up and down to one of the rooms above where they were doing experiments. The uranium is in all sorts of configurations. Some in tubes, some in boxes. And we all had this sinking feeling, like, why? Why do you guys even have this shit?"|>

Not watch or give a shit about the Olympics

This has been my long-standing policy. People I've never heard of competing in sports I don't care about? I'll just be over here staring at my phone, thanks.

180.1

That's amazing, but not surprising. (I also figure that much of my Norwegian nationalism comes from the immigrant experience. I don't get annoyed by Norwegian papers but I do get annoyed by my smug relatives showing up ever few years and telling me how much America sucks.)

Also, I didn't realize you knew the person who invented modern ski-jumping.

When I was little my grandmother would tape winter Olympics coverage that was on while we were at school and/or in the middle of the night, and edit out the commercials. Then when my sister and I got home, we'd watch her coverage, then prime time coverage. Olympics watching was a full time job. She'd prioritize x-country skiing and ski jumping, then figure skating, then alpine skiing, speed skating, luge, etc. We never watched hockey or curling.

X-country skiing was my family's sport, and I believe my dad actually worked as an instructor briefly in the 70s. He started us skiing at age 3, and we had season rental passes at the x-country skiing supply place on the mountain.

(My main childhood exposure to "American" sports was actually through my German godfather, who loved all things American and immigrated to the US in the late 70s. He taught us to sing 60s folk songs and play whiffle ball. It wasn't until I was 13 or so that I realized that baseball and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" were American, not German. Also, at elementary school we'd play kickball, dodge ball, and basketball, where I sucked hardcore at all the sports and cried when I got hit by the ball.)

While I'm piddling around in the thread I turned into a Winter Olympics thread, I realized what the actual answer to Halford's 153 is. In the Winter Olympics, the "real" overall competition is the medal count. I don't just want individual Norwegians to win events, I want Norway to dominate the medal count and win ALL the medals. Barring that, I want them to win the most overall medals and the most golds. The biggest rivals in this competition are the Americans, the Germans, and the Russians. This makes athletes from all those countries in all events athletes I have to instinctively cheer against in the Olympics.

I just realized this because I was thinking about why I feel really differently about athletes in the Olympics vs. the World Cup, where it's individual standings at stake. For example, I'm happy for Jessie Diggens or Susan Dunklee to do well in the world cup, and I'll want them to beat out "the field" then (though not the Scandinavians, of course), but I want them to fail in the Olympics. Same with German athletes. Germans rank above Swiss and Austrians for me in the world cup, but not in the Olympics. (Well, maybe still above the Swiss, because I really dislike the Swiss.)

For more Norwegian ski-jumping content, I recommend the comedy movie "O'Horten". It's about a man named Odd Horten. Don't know why O'.

Having seen that "agony of defeat" wipe out hundreds of times back when ABC's Wide World of Sports was on TV, I feel like I've already seen the best that ski jumping has to offer.

I'm asking my Nepalese driver why Nepal is not crushing it in winter sports. I know it is a poor country but they should be kicking Norwegian butt.

A Gurkha hockey team would absolutely dominate the rink.

193

Be the change you want to see in the world.

I'd go to an unfogged 15-year thing.

Timed dullardry

Harsh! (but fair...).

This is probably the place to mention a sort of micro-meetup in Dublin on Sunday night, micro- because it will feature Stanley, his accomplished SO and me. AFAIK there are no (other) Irish lurkers so unless any of the blog's UK peeps happen to be visiting, that'll be it.

I think this makes my fourth time to meet Unfoggeders in Ireland, which tends to happen in single spies not battalions. I also met a few people once in New York.

How did I miss the NY visit? (How would you know how I missed it, of course, but when was that?)

Was it some kind of deal where everybody was masked and silent?

200!

And one!

It was about 10 years ago, I think. You specifically couldn't make it but I forget why. It was sort of combined with Drinking Liberally because as it happened numbers would otherwise be scanty. I met Jackmormon and Mike d. I had cross-invited my friend Nicholas as he lives in Brussels and I hadn't seen him in a long time and I knew he'd be interested in the DL political people. I recall people were impressed with his business cards which said "Independent Diplomat", which is a real firm providing services to small / new nations. I think he commented here for a while afterwards.

OT: Seasteading.

Meet-up success! emir is lovely and charming and whip smart. She explained for us many confusing things about Ireland and didn't even seem to judge me when I came back from the bathroom showing photos of the old-school urinal/trough set-up. Also notable: as we were winding down, all the power went out at the pub, perhaps because I was lit enough as it was.

Stanley!

Howdy, teo.

Supposedly, there was a bar in Pittsburgh with the pee-trough located right below the bar.

Not the bar that teo and Stanley visited.

Of course, IC Light and a catheter save time.

That's a rough way to imbibe.

Not compared to drinking IC Light.

(blushes, twists toe on ground)
Stanley and the missus (can't remember if she has an unfogged pseud?) were delightful company, I was sorry I had to be sensible and go home at a reasonable hour.