Yes, Limbaugh should be strangled.
No, Elvis Costello most decidedly does not suck.
He's not asking how to use a stapler, he's asking for a brand/model recommendation.
I think you need to eat something.
Well, somebody around here has to be.
Wait, someone gave him tenure? well, there goes one of my favorite schadenfreude.
Actually, I want to know the answer to the stapler question.
Project: pretend "The Ballad of Hank McCain" is actually about John McCain.
This is a pretty lame (but successful!) bleg as well.
the stapler thing is legit--it's really annoying having to staple 100 page court cases in five batches, and binder clips don't quite work--but I'm slowly coming to realize that you're right about elvis costello. (my husband has been arguing this for 7 years)
Elvis Costello is all right, but the people who think he is teh coolest bug me.
Isn't Elvis Costello one of those people about whom you have to specify which Elvis (that is, what era) you mean? This Year's Model Elvis not the same as Burt Bacharach Elvis.
>it's really annoying having to staple 100 page court cases in five batches
Have you considered a STANLY BOSTITCH ANTIJAM
You go about dragonslaying a weird way, Ogged. "Pretend I defended this indefensible claim." If you don't see the merits of staplerblegging and can't be bothered to even explain yourself, I'm not going to argue with you.
Obviously the internal loop should be at the back.
Ogged is a pioneer of argument by praeteritio.
Paperclips are practically the definition of a loopback device.
I bet I could kill Rush L with a paper clip.
No, Ben's right. Inner loop at the back.
Ben's wrong, and I didn't realize I had an opinion about this until just now.
13, 18: Okay, smartypants, I'll bite. Why?
That's the way you should put it on. You put the bottom of the external loop at the top of the front sheet, bend the internal loop back, and push down. Duh.
That's the practical reason, but there are also theoretical reasons into which I don't have time to go because I need to buy toothpaste.
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Just wait, though, because when I return from my toothpaste/bar excursion I'll be armed with several devastating reasons that will bend your mind to my will.
I just can't believe no one's suggested this stapler to Drezner yet...
Ben's right on the paper clip issue.
Except that if you want to be able to read more than the first page in your stack, having the inner loop at the front makes it much easier to fold the paper back over the paperclip.
Yeah, and it fucking sucks when the back sheets go sliding off the stack because the tiny inner loop ain't doing it's job. If anything's going to slide off, I want it to be the sheets I've already read and bent back, because they'll be in the right place anyway.
Of course, this is why no one in their right mind uses paper clips; *binder* clips are where it's at.
bend your mind to my will
I'd rather see you bend a paper clip with your mind, like Uri Geller.
Hey, Timbot, I just updated to your effin Firefox 2.0, and now every time I click on a comment thread, it reuses the comment tab that's already open. WTF, dood?
I generally just take off the paper clip if I want to read the papers.
Go to a copy center and ask what kind of heavy-duty stapler they have. At the place I go to they don't have it out in front. There really are two different kinds of stapler.
26, 27: This is like wearing your clothes inside out so the seams won't chafe. It makes some sense but it's still wrong.
30: I'm not sure what you're saying, but you can always right click and open in a new tab.
Do you use a podcatcher? I'm pretty impressed by Ziepod; it's the only working one that I've found that isn't painful to use.
Yeah, places that do serious stapling have serious staplers.
you can always right click and open in a new tab
And everywhere is walking distance, if you have the time. Gah!
35 is one of my favorite comments ever.
36: Do you mean that when you click on a "Recent Comment"? Or on the "Comment (129)"? Because my browser's working the way it always did: in the former case, reuse; in the latter, new window.
34: Or if you have a 3-button mouse (or a mouse with a scroll wheel), just click the middle button or scroll wheel.
On the Elvis question, observe this bit from the autism telethon. Summary: if you don't give us money, Elvis will play his current songs. The more you give, the further back in his career he'll go. Talk about "funny because it's true". (Mostly, with significant exceptions. And I liked the Bacharach phase, myself.)
in the latter, new window
But what about the next comment link you click, does it open in the same tab (which mine now does, annoyingly) or in a new tab (joy)?
Yeah, I see what you mean. I don't think I've ever tried to open two threads at once. Surely there's a control for this in options? Anyway, you get spell checking; that's pretty awesome, no?
Spell check is nice, but I open several comment threads at once, and now I have to either right click and open new, or ctrl-click, which means (horror) using the keyboard to navigate (no mouse; touchpad).
Did you not have this problem before?
I did not. Each thread opened in a new tab with a plain left click. (I was using Tab Mix Plus.)
(no mouse; touchpad).
So these two polar bears are sitting in a bathtub…
It must have been Tab Mix Plus doing the work, then, because I've always had this problem.
Maybe. I'm using it again, because the scrolling when there are too many tabs thing really is unacceptable. I'll see if I can find an option that works.
To answer the stapler question, this is the best stapler ever.
Only a 20 sheet capacity, but still...
You know you can change the default minimum tab width, right?
By the way, Japanese staplers are pathetic, puny pieces of plastic that can staple about 4 sheets together before they choke. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a good 20-sheeter.
I do, and I have, but I still sometimes have, say 15-20 tabs open, and I ain't scrolling.
I don't know what 47 means, SB, but I'm betting that it doesn't mean that I shouldn't still beat you up.
Firefox 2.0 tab hacks:
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/firefox-2/geek-to-live-top-firefox-2-config-tweaks-209941.php
47, 55: I thought it was beautiful.
Thanks, AWB. ogged, you should still beat me up, because you need the exercise.
A man who hosted a weblog
A man I hardly knew (ooh-ooh ooh ooh ooh)
A man who hosted a weblog
Sought to beat me
You people are on crack. It is in fact the lamest bleg ever.
The man wrote a book titled "Locating the Proper Authorities", and yet, (as Emerson said) it does not occur to him to locate a copy center and ask.
So much for the rugged individualism of the libertarians.
There was a muslim named Ogged
Who made aggressive when he blogged
However in person
He showed his aversion
to beating anyone up, really
Well I'll be damned. A local supply store that happens to be a national chain has an entire category called Heavy Duty Staplers.
http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?N=201176
"Isn't Elvis Costello one of those people about whom you have to specify which Elvis (that is, what era) you mean? This Year's Model Elvis not the same as Burt Bacharach Elvis."
One of my favorite "you don't really deserve to be as big of an asshole as you put on" moments was when my friend pointed out to a guy we met at a show that he liked this person's satchel button, which said "ELVIS" with a picture of him behind the letters. This aquaintance tells my friend "Yeah, Costello in a real dismissive tone and turned around.
Bow down before the majesty of the heavy-duty stapler! Two fifteen-inch pieces of metal that you lean down on like an Acme detonator to ram in 5/8" staples? I wouldn't consider anything else if I were stapling 100-page documents all the time.
I generally just take off the paper clip if I want to read the papers.
At my old office, I was infamous for my habit of absentmindedly removing paper/binder clips from reports I was reading on the train, attaching the clip to my lapel so as not to lose it, and then forgetting to take it off. One winter I ended up with a row of six or seven down the edge of my winter jacket before a colleague finally announced theatrically that she wouldn't walk down the street next to me.
65: I often discover that I am wearing anything up to six rubber bands like bracelets over the right sleeve of my jacket, having removed them from around files. It looks ridiculous.
Ben and SCMT are wrong about the paperclip issue. Their stated rationale (as I understand it) is that placing the larger loop on top of the sheet allows the paper to provide leverage for bending the clip open and around the stack of sheets. But of course this is ridiculous on its face: our wrists swivel in both directions, so there's nothing stopping a person from performing the same operation from the other side. In fact, doing so seems more comfortable to me, although we'd probably need a kinesthesiologist to get a definitive answer.
Given that the ergonomics of the situation are immaterial, it becomes a question of aesthetics. One must consider which way the final structure is likely to be presented: flat on a surface, with the front side of the paper facing up. Consider the paperclip in this configuration. Does it make sense to have the larger loop on top, dangling precariously over its smaller base? Of course not. It would take a profoundly diseased mind to think so. It makes much more sense to have a wide, firm base composed of the outer loop, with the smaller loop sitting soundly on top. This organization recalls the fundamentals of all of man's greatest engineering achievements and, indeed celebrates the triumph of human ingenuity in general.
Also, I once heard that Elvis Costello isn't really British but was actually born in New Jersey. As far as I can tell this isn't true, but it's a rumor I'd like to spread.
I have other reasons too.
I didn't even know that Costello was supposed to be British. Is he?
I have other reasons too.
Is this how you're planning to defend your dissertation? I'm unpersuaded.
And yes, he's supposed to be, according to mainstream Elvis Costello norms.
Like those Pakistanis who happen to be born in London.
A lot of his early songs have very British content: "Shipbuilding", "Oliver's Army", "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea", etc.
Can't speak about his later stuff because I stopped listening when he began to suck.
Is this how you're planning to defend your dissertation? I'm unpersuaded.
When I defend my dissertation, it will be to people capable of giving and understanding reasons, and not merely emitting a stench of jargon in the direction of a problem.
Three out of four people at the bar last night agreed with me. The fourth likened the paper clip to a topographical map, reasoning on those grounds that the inner loop should be on top. That's respectable, though ultimately misguided.
Isn't his name actually Declan McManus? Irish as Paddy's pig.
Robert Wyatt's cover of "Shipbuilding" is fantastic.
merely emitting a stench of jargon in the direction of a problem
Oh come on. How else am I supposed to play with you philosophical types?
Your friend's topographical analogy is a good one, although needlessly complicated. Things should be wider on their bottom than their top -- it's that simple. Until we start doing office work in microgravity, anyway.
Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus. How many of Paddy's pigs is that. His dad played in dance bands in Britain, and he was born there.
Robert Wyatt's cover of "Shipbuilding".
I think your analysis, tom, depends on thinking that the paperclip has to support the stack of paper. But that's ludicrous. No one cares if there's a slight declivity in the direction of the corner opposite the paperclip (anyway it won't even reach that far, given that paper isn't very stiff).
Aloysius
I thought this was a Croatian thing. Irish people name their sons Aloysius too?
So ogged, are you going to say that actually, you find peace, love, and understanding funny, now?
Ogged was talking about Elvis Costello, not Nick Lowe.
79: You're still approaching this from the perspective of functionality. I don't think there's a difference there — rather, it's a question of propriety and avoiding dissonance with the outside world. It's like balancing a beer bottle upside down: it's possible, and even if it's knocked over it probably won't break. But it still seems like a bad idea.
you find peace, love, and understanding funny, now?
I wonder if I could turn off my sense of humor for a week and post that way. But...it might be fun. Black holes, paradoxes, it'll never work.
Having the outer, larger loop on top creates more confidence, presents a bolder face, and generally engenders an impression in the observer of the wholeness of the bound material. As with men who, in wearing bow ties, diffuse their energy bootlessly into their surroundings, we have an antecedent though defeasible reason to be suspicious of material boud inner-loop-on-top.
Aloysius: "His full given name is often listed as Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus; however, Aloysius was not one of his names at birth, being added years later, around the time of the release of "King Of America", when he toyed with the idea of changing his name back to Declan MacManus from his "stage" name, Elvis Costello."
Irish people name their sons Aloysius too?
Germans, too. A second-cousin of mine was named Aloysius (but every one knew him as "Stanley").
but every one knew him as "Stanley"
Aloysius and his knab
(Who called himself Labs)
Were in the next room at the hoedown.
B-Wo stepped in, and grinning a grin
He said "Labsy boy, this is a showdown!"
But Labs, he was hott --
He drew first and shot --
And B-Wo collapsed in the corner.
82: It must be said the best version of P,L&U I ever heard was when Costello pulled Lowe on stage to duet it.
Also, I was hoping that Ogged, from the infinite depths of his intellect, was going to tell us what was so funny about them.
I stopped listening when he began to suck.
The sentence preceding this would indicate otherwise.
But Labs, he was hott --
He drew first and shot --
And B-Wo collapsed in the corner.
"was hott" s/b "was insensitive and thought only of his own pleasure"
But, that would not rhyme, silly Ben!
If you're interested in seeing a rad video, go watch this animation of the opening bars of Syd Barrett's "Thinking of You".
Er, ah, I mean "If It's In You".
85: A bolder face, perhaps, but a false boldness, ultimately unsupported by the smaller loop cowering behind the stack of paper. As with men who stuff their pants with socks.
There is a symmetrical paper clip for such as you.
59 prompted limericks? Where's Joey D when you need him?
The clear solution to stapler and paper clip problems is to not read anything printed on paper. Easy.