No, it's an old joke about the optimist kid and the room full of shit.
I think McCain is referring to the fact that he kills baby ponies and buries them in his backyard. Then, after a few weeks, he digs them back up, and eats them.
Started with the Simpsons, and thence to Bell, I thought.
You'd think ogged could spell Belle Waring's name correctly.
No, I'm serious. My aunt tells this joke. The parents want to teach the kid a lesson because he's overly optimistic, and so for Christmas, they get him a room of manure. The kid says, "With all this shit in here, there's got to be a pony somewhere!"
Follow the link on "introduced," people.
Sifu, you're fat.
It started with Calvin and Hobbes, yes.
You all, McCain is referring to the old joke, of his generation. Not the Calvin and Hobbes strip.
And Belle's post is definitely where Atrios got it from.
"The Pony Engine" was an alternate title for the story better known as "The Little Engine that Could."
Sounds like heebie is right. Googling reveals that it is an old joke, and it makes sense in context.
Heebie is right, people. Humor her.
So seriously is the misspelled some clever joke I'm failing to get?
i'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mrighti'mright
Hey, you misspelled her first name, too!
I should be smoking more pot.
To convince you it's not the dementia?
Where's Ben? He can probably explain the whole thing in great detail.
It's possible that Sifu honestly doesn't know why I would misspell the name. It's not a huge deal that her name appears here (it appears in other places on the blog), but I'm still going to play Mercy with Sifu if I meet him.
eb is being punny. And Heebie, I'm quite happy to admit you're right. Back to the salt mines now!
(Sifu, it's explained on Standpipe's blog, except for the part that's not a joke, which once existed in a page linked on the front of this blog but vanished.)
Light is gradually dawning. Or maybe that's the pot!
SO I got invited to my college graduation by a some students who think I'm the best Professor evar. But that means I will have to shell out for regalia. Regalia is expensive.
I'll happily accept my award for Most Petty Commenter. Thank you all who indulged me on my rise to the top.
Goneril is going to put on his robe and wizard hat!
Is Sifu's head made out of marbles? Stay tuned.
Canadian PhDs get the goofiest hats.
Canadian PhDs get the goofiest hats.
I think there are some Eastern European places that have truly awesome stuff like ermine tricorns and so on.
Goneril is going to put on his robe and wizard hat!
At the ole Alma there was a famous faculty member in the department who would go around campus (and attend talks) with an enormous carved staff and two huge dogs. When he (invariably) got annoyed at a speaker he would bang the staff on the ground and the dogs would give menacing looks.
Um, speaking of non-jokes, I'm kind of horrified by the latest addition to the Flickr pool. It's not the garden-variety racism so much as the sheer astonishment. People actually take time out of their lives to bring Confederate flag signs to an MLK Day celebration?
I dunno. My alma mater has 8-sided Tams of Power.
heebie, it must be sad getting old and having these young people not comprehend your cultural references. It's just you and your cohorts in the McCain generation that understand these gags any more.
It must also be infuriating that aging furriners like ogged, who also don't share your cultural framework because they are un-American, aren't deported forthwith.
My alma mater has 8-sided Tams of Power.
I thought most Tams had 8 sides.
One of my sweetest ESL students is signed up for a class in which I'm teaching The Wizard of Oz, and she explained that she'd never heard of it. She's been in the US for 12 years! It's sort of endearing.
I imagine it is a characteristic they share with other Tams, along with making the wearer look utterly ridiculous.
People actually take time out of their lives to bring Confederate flag signs to an MLK Day celebration?
A friend of mine lived in Utah for a chunk of the mid-90's. I remember talking to him on the phone in the early spring one year after he and some friends had gone on a hiking trip in the mountains. They came across a not-too-old camp site that included, among the detritus, a framed picture of MLK that had been used as target practice.
Although 8 sides is apparently only one of many options.
The Calvin and Hobbes thing spawned the Belle
Waring thing. The room full of feces thing spawned the John McCain thing. Four separate things, parallel lines of descent. Not related.
The kid digging through shit to find the pony isn't just an old joke, it's famously a Reagan joke: McCain's trying to summon up some of that Great Communicator mojo.
A friend of mine here has 4 twentysomething children who have 10 ponies to play with.
Are they grateful? No. Fucking kids.
So between the media and the cemeteries, he's pretty much got the thing locked up already.
The room full of feces thing spawned the John McCain thing.
You got your verb tense wrong. The Republican convention is still in the future, and therefore "will spawn" is correct.
It's a Reagan joke? A friend of mine co-wrote a book about the AOL/TW merger called There Must Be a Pony in There Somewhere whose title derived from the joke. But Reagan?
Also: LizardBreath!
55: Oh, scary. Politicians shouldn't speak idiom unless they speak blogosphere.
Anyway...
Obama was our only hope, to find someone, anyone in the world whom the press would be more biased in favor of than McCain!
This bodes ill.
Obama was our only hope, to find someone, anyone in the world whom the press would be more biased in favor of than McCain!
Fortunately, McCain looks like a crazy old gnome on camera.
Fortunately, McCain looks like a crazy old gnome on camera.
Unfortunately, on camera Obama doesn't really look like he's white.
Yeah, I have a hard time picturing anyone who might possibly vote for a Democrat ever looking at McCain next to Obama and voting for the ancient cancer-ridden troll with the baggy neck.
57: I miss all of you guys -- I really have to figure out a schedule that lets me comment more. This actually working during the workday thing, much as I'm enjoying it, has some drawbacks.
the ancient cancer-ridden troll with the baggy neck
This has to be sexist.
I dunno. My alma mater has 8-sided Tams of Power.
You need to upgrade to 20-sided if you want to make your saving through against committee.
Throw! Throw! I am full of tequila, people.
68: full? That's a lot.
It appears that Chambord has hardly more alcohol per volume than wine, and I've had much less than a glass of it, but I feel tipsy.
You need to upgrade to 20-sided if you want to make your saving through against committee.
I've heard that if your comeliness score is high enough, you don't have to worry so much about this.
Stanford's regalia sux.
It does. I believe they've been augmenting it over the years, too --- initially it was all plain and egalitarian and new frontierish, but it's acquired various embellishments.
It's more that I have a delicious tequila center, I suppose.
53
"The kid digging through shit to find the pony isn't just an old joke, it's famously a Reagan joke: McCain's trying to summon up some of that Great Communicator mojo."
Not just McCain. Here's Clinton .
Jesus, her comic timing is awful.
I just had a revelation: I'm going to assume she already has.
This is going to make my life so much easier.
Hey, what's she doing on TV? It's a mystery! Oh well, moving on.
Yeah, I have a hard time picturing anyone ... voting for the ancient cancer-ridden troll
I'd vote for ogged !!
From Time magazine. I actually remember reading this issue when it came out back in 1986:
Reagan still has his suits made with buttons on the flies. He refuses to wear makeup for television. He pumps iron every day. He rides a horse when he can. His favorite story is his old surreal barnyard parable regarding optimism --about the boy who finds a pile of horse manure in a room and cries excitedly, "I just know there's a pony in here somewhere."
The septuagenarian in the White House is not necessarily getting any younger. On the other hand, he does not seem to be getting any older. His suit size has been the same for years--42--and so have the ideological furnishings of his mind. His principles give him a certain serenity, and possibly the luck that comes to the optimist. Reagan keeps finding the pony.
Of course Heebie was right, and anyone who doubted her is a complete sexist. Had to google it indeed. Hmph.
His principles Alzheimers gives him a certain serenity
78 is genius. I feel the weight of the world lifting from my shoulders. Wanna be my lifecoach, Jetpack? Also: Breach sucked. Watching it in installments over three nights didn't help.
84: I am so happy to help you, Ari.
I thought Breach was okay. I wish they hadn't cut all the scenes where something happened, obviously.
When did Ari start calling Teacher Tweety "Jetpack"?
If by "okay" you mean "sucked," then yes. Also, was there ever a reason given (a joke maybe?) for why Ogged misspelled Belle's name?
Also, was there ever a reason given (a joke maybe?) for why Ogged misspelled Belle's name?
Someone who posts here is often confused with Ms. Wearing, and we try to keep google from exacerbating that.
IOW, RTFA, n00b.
I thought digging a pony had something to do with Yoko Ono.
86: Yes, 88's right. And as there can only be one "Arctic Wolf" -- and he is me -- Jetpack is Jetpack. Fin.
IOW, RTFA
These are unions? Or mass transit?
When I finally go pseudonymous, I'm taking Arctic Wolf from you, Ari. Sorry.
What Jetpack wants, Jetpack gets.
(I spent close to a thirty seconds placing and them removing the comma in the above sentence. I would blame this on Ben, but I do this all the time.)
89.3, for serious.
Also, pop quiz for criticizing me: instead of nothing, what should you say to him if you're in the same bar as David Cross? I was trying to come up with a never-nude joke and failing. I also considered asking what he'd done with Odenkirk's body.
Ari, Ari, Ari. You're embarrassing me here.
When did Ari start calling Teacher Tweety "Jetpack"?
RTFA.
Nothing that happened within the past week counts as being in the archives.
What is this, random self-serving rule day? If you can't keep up with the reading, Benjamin, you need to drop the course.
That self-serving rule wasn't random at all.
Those comments haven't been archived yet.
If you can't keep up with the reading, Benjamin, you need to drop the course.
Sassy!
If you can't keep up with the reading, Benjamin, you need to drop the course is quote good.
I'd like to clarify, as this will all be archived, that I meant "quote good." As in, good enough to quote. See?
Didn't bother to read the thread, but heebie is right in 1.
Earliest mention I found in Google books was somewhat interesting: Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, with a variant being told on the eternal optimist Joe Ben.
99: Nothing that happened within the past week counts as being in the archives.
Uh, on my edition of the unfogged.com weblog, there is a link for "04.13.08-04.19.08" under the heading "ARCHIVES". When I click on said link (here! you can do it too!) I am delivered a page that contains a graphic that contains the text "The Archives". These are no longer sufficient conditions for being a part of the archives?
102: You're supposed to *know* these things.
Good morning! I'm still right!
111: As is well known, rightness is measured using modulo arithmetic. And with this latest declaration, you've become so right that you have wrapped around to wrong.
As is well known, rightness is measured using modulo arithmetic.
This is somehow related to the cliche that a stopped clock is right twice per day, right?
My aunt tells this joke.
Heebie is related to the Clintons!!!
It's not a huge deal that her name appears here (it appears in other places on the blog)
When I asked a while ago if writing Be//e Wa//ing was an indiscretion error you *personally* said it wasn't.
I can be more petty than Heebie.
111: Heebie and LB are so right. Famous Reagan joke.
Uh, on my edition of the unfogged.com weblog, there is a link for "04.13.08-04.19.08" under the heading "ARCHIVES". When I click on said link (here! you can do it too!) I am delivered a page that contains a graphic that contains the text "The Archives". These are no longer sufficient conditions for being a part of the archives?
That's right.
Being archived has to do with the database and the location of the comments files on the server.
...and now I've said too much, and will have to kill you.
It seems to have been an all-purpose Reagan anecdote. I remember coming across it the first time in David Stockman's memoirs of his stint as Reagan's Director of OMB, "Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed." IIRC (since I don't have my copy of the book at hand), when Stockman tried to explain to Reagan why Voodoo Economics was producing gargantuan deficits in the out-years, Reagan wasn't willing to shift policies -- said he was still looking for that pony in the pile of manure.
121: Stockman's experience eerily resembles Paul O'Neill's and John DiLulio's about two decades later. Little-government Republicans and conservative Christians both got suckered twice by the militarists, country club Republicans, and mercenary grafters.
122: John DiIulio, yeah?
I feel bad for those kind of republicans, sort of, but geez if you're that easy to sucker. Maybe it's because they have addictive personalities, like problem gamblers who can't really get a grip on the odds?
"This time it'll be different!"
While I am not quite in either of those categories, but I have suckered surely. The problem is, where to turn if one is a glibertarian like moi.
124: inward, towards an examination of one's beliefs?
Dude, that sounds like work. Pleasing soundbites that feed my vanity and fears alternately, that's what I want.
Oh, okay. Democrats believe in freedom, TLL! They believe in protecting you from the rapaciousness of multinational capital, and in allowing you to become a captain of third-wave industrial framitzing! You'll be rich, nurtured, and proud, along with your fellows -- except the bad ones, obviously, they won't be coddled in any meaningful way.
Pleasing soundbites that feed my vanity and fears alternately, that's what I want.
Good thing you've already discovered the blogosphere, then.
127. When the student is ready, the master appears. They don't call you Sifu fer nuttin.