6 -- color me skeptical that my previous incarnation could be that high up the list -- he was only commenting for what, 4 or 5 months total? Compared to many of the posters on that list who have commenting histories stretching back (I imagine) to the dawn of Unfogged and continuing into the present!
Y'know, SB and LB have clawed their way into the top ranks really quickly. Not saying they're noobs, just that the others in the top 10 have been around a lot longer. (Although B did have that 6-month hiatus.)
11 -- But remember the hundred-comment threads are only a little more than a year old. If you look back in the archives, 20 comments is a reasonably healthy thread for 2004.
An interesting thing to muse about: the size of the Unfogged community. There are 28 names on Becks' list above, not all of whom are currently active commenters; and I would think (that's what they call pulling a number out of your ass these days) that there are at least 10 or 15 people not on that list who comment regularly enough to meet my standards for being in the community. So maybe 40 people in all? That would jibe with gut estimate. Is there a metrick that could help here?
And tangientially related, how frequently are long threads (or long portions of threads) exchanges between just a couple of commenters or between one commenter and several people asking him/her questions?
What we really need to know is comments/time period. How hard is it to find out when each of the above listed first commented and last commented? And I'm really surprised to see FL so low - he's had some classic comments, so his slugging average must be huge. Like his hand-stretched cock.
19 -- knowledge of first and last comment dates is not really sufficient. My previous incarnation for example made his first comment on one of the earliest Unfogged posts; but he made his second comment in about October or November '05. What you really need is for each commenter, a list of comment timestamps and word counts (so as to minimize the impact of "X s/b Y" comments), then you can run that through your algorithm and come up with an Unfogged Quotient for each denizen of our lovely metropolis.
Also: if we had such a list, perhaps we could set up an engine to predict when each commenter would next weigh in, and how tasty their next contribution would be. Eventually perhaps we could create a fully-funcional real-time emulation of the Unfogged comments threads, and we would all be able to get on with our real lives.
there'd also have to be a minimum threshold, otherwise the formula in #22 will rank some troll who wrote six 1000-word diatribes against nordic swimmers in the space of five minutes as the hero, when we know it's apostropher, who has been penning anti-Swedish broadsides since 2001.
I'm glad to be in the middle of the pack, since some people who are apparently way talkier than I am have accused me of always needing to have the last word.
27 -- yes, this is a good idea; also we should probably award some bonus points for being the last comment on a particular thread, and for being comment spam clever enough to elude the listmoms. These and other refinements will come with time.
Eventually perhaps we could create a fully-funcional real-time emulation of the Unfogged comments threads, and we would all be able to get on with our real lives.
We did this months ago. You mean you're still actually here? Didn't you get the memo?
Who says 24 wasn't posted by the emulator? (Really: The first thing that would happen post-emulation is all the bots would start talking about the new emulatory regime.)
Huh, philosophical question: If I was an Unfogged comment-emulator instead of a person, how would I tell?
so as to minimize the impact of "X s/b Y" comments
This is what I really want to count. If the "s/b" is obvious, I don't really understand the point of the correction; reading it is a bit like listenting to a story told by one who is obsessed by irrelevant details ("I think it was May 3rd. No wait, it was May 4th, because it was a Tuesday. No, no...it was May 3rd.") It is also very clearly a result of Wolfson's grammar tyrrany.
also we should probably award some bonus points for being the last comment on a particular thread
Can I just mention how pleased I am that this concept of "winning" a thread caught on? That and the acronymization of "Why must you be such a little bitch" seem to be my two lasting contributions to unfogged.
("I think it was May 3rd. No wait, it was May 4th, because it was a Tuesday. No, no...it was May 3rd.") It is also very clearly a result of Wolfson's grammar tyrrany.
"Tyranny". It's also somewhat reminiscent of talking to me, in some moods and if you're some people.
what would also be interesting would be to see who made the most impression with the least number of comments. I'm suprised how far down on that list there Farber is, considering the Wolfsonian grip he has on this institution.
TMK should come up with his "top 40" that he considers the community, and whoever's made it into that list with the fewest number of comments is one charming mo-fo.
I'm suprised how far down on that list there Farber is, considering the Wolfsonian grip he has on this institution.
Farber's working off general old-school blogospheric street cred, rather than a particularly strong presence at Unfogged. Rather like Saisegly, who's been memorable much more because everyone reads his fifteen other blogs that because he comments here all that much.
I think she got a new job--at any rate she was pleading for invocation of the "Chopper effect"--and curtailed her commenting.
MK--I'm sure she can be found, it's just that chasing her around would seem a little silly--it's the same reason I never followed B over to her place after The Banning. What I treasured was the interaction with DE *here.*
Let me repeat the question in 7, and add that a site search has no results for that character string, which makes me think it's an abbreviation, but I can't imagine what is being abbreviated.
Also, Michael has really dialed down his presence.
Y'know, I've consciously stepped up the pace of my commenting today to see if I could move back ahead of Tia. What happens? I post 11 times, she posts 18.
In the month between 2005-02-08 and 2005-03-08 the following pseudonyms left their first commen (in order of priority): ac, washerdreyer, chopper, eb, John Emerson, austro. Slolernr and Standpipe Bridgeplate are later in March of '05.
(Also, I'd like to note that yesterday's abortion-o-rama of a front page resulted in 20% fewer page loads than average. Today's self-referential naval gazing is on track for 10-15% more views than average. Shows the level of the crowd is, I think.)
That thread linked in 96 is hilarious to me because I can identify the exact moment in it when I decided--"Bah, I won't leave my silly comment defending Thackeray."
Not so. I love his essays, and his fiction makes me angry. It's not 'don't like', it's 'you, particularly, are almost ideally fitted for writing something that I would very much want to read, but choose not to. Damn you, DFW!'
And, although the Thatcherite propensities shouldn't make any difference, they do. I'm feeling better now.
And there is a lawyer actually playing the bagpipes parading through the office. He seems not to realize that (a) he's two days early and (b) he's fucking annoying.
He's some idiot attorney parading around an office building on the wrong day -- you think he cares where the pipes are from? But, actually, I've always seen pipers at Irish stuff -- I think they're associated with both countries.
When I was little, I was totally scared of bagpipes. I saw something on TV about a mold that grew in bagpipes that bagpipe players would inhale when they played and killed them. I was afraid that someone I knew would play a bagpipe and drop dead right before my eyes as they were playing.
When I was little, I was scared of the Pale Green Pants With Nobody Inside Them, especially on a record album I had with that story, the Sneetches, the Zaxes, and the Daves.
Now that I am grown, I am scared of Harrison Ford. I idly watched What Lies Beneath the other night and thought I was bored, until I got really frightened by the last 20 minutes, and later, I woke up in the middle of the night trying to put Harrison Ford out of my mind, but failing to, for the better portion of two hours.
When I was in third grade, I spent a couple of months insomniac with terror about earthquakes. But then, every important building in my life was located on or near the Hayward fault. When I went up North, I was scared to death of grizzly bears and mine cave-ins. Again, very rational.
Now I'm started to wonder why I didn't have some entertaining and adorably irrational fears as a child. Wait, maybe I should delete th--
In unrelated news, contra matty, Coke Zero is neither delightful, nor an enigma. Just tasting it for the first time now, I'm getting prominent notes of citrus, vanilla, cinnamon, and Dimetapp.
Everyone's flattering everyone else, aren't we all a bunch of clever, self-congratulatory folks all in a room together.
I believe I leveled the same criticism at Dave Eggers. Ah, Here we go. "Something about the whole "group of clever fellows who know they're clever and like being clever together" vibe the McSweeney's crowd sometimes gives off irks me, but at least part of that is because I wish I were part of a group of clever fellows and fellettes who do clever stuff.".
As Carlos Santana once said, those who read just enough of a thread to snark on it, are doomed to repeat the same snark as someone on further down the thread further down snark snark. Then he played a wicked guitar solo.
Since coming to Chicago years ago, I've only seen bagpipers in an Irish context. When I was growing up in Canada, it was always Scottish--my church had one, although he only always ever played "Highland Laddie."
Saw Loudon Wainright at the Old Town School on Saturday night: he had a great opening joke about "St. Patrick's Day Weekend" and when did that happen? I think that's what accounts for the clown/counselor. He knows what day it is, he's just trying to extend the celebration.
As a newbie who has still not gotten a fruit basket, only commenting for a month or so, let me say that there is a political and social subtext to the writing here that makes over-serious exchanges of views unnecessary. That's what's drawn me in. The discussion here is like real conversation, it communicates a lot more than it seems to.
136: I wasn't asking for a quantity, but rather what's being counted. And I meant numerator, I was taking for granted that the denominator was total comments, and the numerator some subset which would count sucessful comments. This would follow the model of the Mendoza line which is a particular level (.200) on a ratio composed of hits (successful outcomes)/at bats (a subset of attempts, but no need to add in that complication here).
Y'know, it may be unfashionable to say so, but I really like AHBWOSG. The last scene where he's playing frisbee with his brother--it just kills me. I know a lot of people don't like all the digressions and ceaseless affect, but I felt like it was a brave attempt to fight out of the gen-x irony trap.
I love Stoppard too, Eggars I've never read. The self-regard on this blog is justified and tempered by imagination and humility. Just yesterday half of us were going to what I thought were extreme lengths to articulate objections to abortion-on-demand that the posters didn't themselves feel but wanted to understand sympathetically, while the other half were explaining patiently as if dealing with believers. Not my idea of smug self-regard.
I liked it as well, Chopper. Didn't think it was great lit or anything, but plenty enjoyable for what it was. Bashing Eggers is the mark of puellile self-regard.
first!
Posted by cw | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 7:56 AM
Does this mean Unfogged is now out of warranty?
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 7:56 AM
"was posted" s/b "was posted on the Innocence thread".
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 7:58 AM
Says the man who's responsible for how many thousands of those comments?
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:07 AM
Think of all the productive hours you've stolen from your employers. Shame!
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:13 AM
Top commenters:
ogged 10488
ben wolfson 7215
apostropher 5423
Matt Weiner 4828
LizardBreath 3941
Standpipe Bridgeplate 3240
SomeCallMeTim 3046
Michael 3044
bitchphd 2787
eb 2190
John Emerson 2032
Joe Drymala 2020
text 1977
Tia 1877
Chopper 1815
washerdreyer 1735
Jeremy Osner 1685
FL 1676
cala 1533
Tripp 1499
ac 1404
slolernr 1336
BAA 1207
Gary Farber 1201
Armsmasher 1151
Becks 1115
Anaka 989
tweedledopey 915
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:21 AM
Anaka?
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:23 AM
Where's Tripp been?
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:26 AM
Good lord. Think of how many hours I have stolen from my employers.
Funny, I'm not that ashamed.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:27 AM
And I'm within 12 comments of overtaking Emerson!
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:29 AM
6 -- color me skeptical that my previous incarnation could be that high up the list -- he was only commenting for what, 4 or 5 months total? Compared to many of the posters on that list who have commenting histories stretching back (I imagine) to the dawn of Unfogged and continuing into the present!
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:29 AM
Y'know, SB and LB have clawed their way into the top ranks really quickly. Not saying they're noobs, just that the others in the top 10 have been around a lot longer. (Although B did have that 6-month hiatus.)
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:30 AM
11 -- But remember the hundred-comment threads are only a little more than a year old. If you look back in the archives, 20 comments is a reasonably healthy thread for 2004.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:31 AM
Or did all the heavy commenting start in the Fall of '05, around when my previous incarnation climbed on board?
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:31 AM
Of course, if you subtract the 100 or so comments I made on this thread, I drop a fair amount.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:47 AM
An interesting thing to muse about: the size of the Unfogged community. There are 28 names on Becks' list above, not all of whom are currently active commenters; and I would think (that's what they call pulling a number out of your ass these days) that there are at least 10 or 15 people not on that list who comment regularly enough to meet my standards for being in the community. So maybe 40 people in all? That would jibe with gut estimate. Is there a metrick that could help here?
And tangientially related, how frequently are long threads (or long portions of threads) exchanges between just a couple of commenters or between one commenter and several people asking him/her questions?
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:13 AM
Wow, it's hard to believe I'm within spitting distance of baa. Also, that I'm still employed.
Posted by Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:14 AM
(My hunch is that the answer to my last question is: fairly frequently.)
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:14 AM
What we really need to know is comments/time period. How hard is it to find out when each of the above listed first commented and last commented? And I'm really surprised to see FL so low - he's had some classic comments, so his slugging average must be huge. Like his hand-stretched cock.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:18 AM
Break out the bar charts!
Posted by pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:24 AM
Eh, what's the point? We're all just swimming in Wolfson's waste.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:30 AM
19 -- knowledge of first and last comment dates is not really sufficient. My previous incarnation for example made his first comment on one of the earliest Unfogged posts; but he made his second comment in about October or November '05. What you really need is for each commenter, a list of comment timestamps and word counts (so as to minimize the impact of "X s/b Y" comments), then you can run that through your algorithm and come up with an Unfogged Quotient for each denizen of our lovely metropolis.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:30 AM
How hard is it to find out when each of the above listed first commented
I can tell you, it's been just about a year for me.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:33 AM
Also: if we had such a list, perhaps we could set up an engine to predict when each commenter would next weigh in, and how tasty their next contribution would be. Eventually perhaps we could create a fully-funcional real-time emulation of the Unfogged comments threads, and we would all be able to get on with our real lives.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:40 AM
funcional s/b fun-ctional
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:40 AM
Comment schmomment, I'm looking for most bannings.
Posted by Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:41 AM
there'd also have to be a minimum threshold, otherwise the formula in #22 will rank some troll who wrote six 1000-word diatribes against nordic swimmers in the space of five minutes as the hero, when we know it's apostropher, who has been penning anti-Swedish broadsides since 2001.
[does this comment put me over 50?]
Posted by mike d | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:43 AM
I'm glad to be in the middle of the pack, since some people who are apparently way talkier than I am have accused me of always needing to have the last word.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:43 AM
and word counts
But the best comments are often very brief. (Brevity is the soul of wit, and all that.) Emphasizing word counts would disproportionately favor Farber.
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:46 AM
27 -- yes, this is a good idea; also we should probably award some bonus points for being the last comment on a particular thread, and for being comment spam clever enough to elude the listmoms. These and other refinements will come with time.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:48 AM
The most banned commenters are Joe Drymala, Standpipe Bridgeplate, LizardBreath, and Ogged.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:48 AM
Emphasizing word counts would disproportionately favor Farber.
[Rubs hands together, looks up with a hysterical glint in his eye] So you begin to see my plan...
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:49 AM
27: Yes! We should have prizes!
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:51 AM
Eventually perhaps we could create a fully-funcional real-time emulation of the Unfogged comments threads, and we would all be able to get on with our real lives.
We did this months ago. You mean you're still actually here? Didn't you get the memo?
Posted by My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:51 AM
38 -- but would the prizes be awarded to us or to our simulacra?
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:53 AM
My Indian manservant makes all my comments for me.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:53 AM
Who says 24 wasn't posted by the emulator? (Really: The first thing that would happen post-emulation is all the bots would start talking about the new emulatory regime.)
Huh, philosophical question: If I was an Unfogged comment-emulator instead of a person, how would I tell?
Posted by Weinerbot | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:55 AM
accused me of always needing to have the last word
Please don't start that again.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:57 AM
so as to minimize the impact of "X s/b Y" comments
This is what I really want to count. If the "s/b" is obvious, I don't really understand the point of the correction; reading it is a bit like listenting to a story told by one who is obsessed by irrelevant details ("I think it was May 3rd. No wait, it was May 4th, because it was a Tuesday. No, no...it was May 3rd.") It is also very clearly a result of Wolfson's grammar tyrrany.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:57 AM
BTW -- does anyone else find it odd that there is only one Matt among the 28 names listed in 6?
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:58 AM
If the "s/b" is obvious
More often than not, it's a joke.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:59 AM
38: I didn't start that the first time.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:59 AM
also we should probably award some bonus points for being the last comment on a particular thread
Can I just mention how pleased I am that this concept of "winning" a thread caught on? That and the acronymization of "Why must you be such a little bitch" seem to be my two lasting contributions to unfogged.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:59 AM
40: The rest of us must have split the Matt vote, as will happen.
Posted by Matthew Harvey | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:01 AM
I can't believe I'm not on that list when I spend half my life here. From now on I'm going to argue about everything.
Posted by mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:14 AM
37: you wouldn't be able to tell ... but we would.
Posted by soubziquet | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:15 AM
But you're not helping. Why is that, soubziquet?
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:18 AM
("I think it was May 3rd. No wait, it was May 4th, because it was a Tuesday. No, no...it was May 3rd.") It is also very clearly a result of Wolfson's grammar tyrrany.
"Tyranny". It's also somewhat reminiscent of talking to me, in some moods and if you're some people.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:20 AM
I like to think that Wolfson is most tyrannical toward himself.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:23 AM
Lame
Posted by Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:23 AM
Tyranny s/b Tranny
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:23 AM
comment
Posted by Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:24 AM
I don't think that spelling counts as grammar.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:24 AM
inflation
Posted by Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:24 AM
Burma Shave
Posted by Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:24 AM
Mo, if you're complaining about the response to your banning inquiry, the bannination study was here.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:27 AM
In other news, I really need to get a life.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:28 AM
56 to 50, you dog.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:31 AM
Freak out in a pwnage daydream, oh yeah.
Posted by Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:33 AM
FL posted as Fontana Labs for a while, and Armsmasher had another name. Is that included in the comment counts?
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:55 AM
Labs has used many names. He is legion.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:58 AM
Is that included in the comment counts?
No, I just used simple grouping.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 12:04 PM
what would also be interesting would be to see who made the most impression with the least number of comments. I'm suprised how far down on that list there Farber is, considering the Wolfsonian grip he has on this institution.
TMK should come up with his "top 40" that he considers the community, and whoever's made it into that list with the fewest number of comments is one charming mo-fo.
Posted by mike d | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 12:19 PM
I'm suprised how far down on that list there Farber is, considering the Wolfsonian grip he has on this institution.
Farber's working off general old-school blogospheric street cred, rather than a particularly strong presence at Unfogged. Rather like Saisegly, who's been memorable much more because everyone reads his fifteen other blogs that because he comments here all that much.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 12:25 PM
rather than a particularly strong presence at Unfogged
Yeah -- I was surprised to see him on that list at all, I thought he commented pretty rarely here. Did he comment a lot more before fall '05?
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 12:28 PM
Farber commented in 03-04, but I don't remember seeing him much for months after I started reading right around December '04.
On words/comment: any algorithm that doesn't put Tim Burke at the top needs work.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 12:34 PM
You know who I miss? DominEditrix. That was one funny broad.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 12:41 PM
True fact. Did she announce a reason for leaving, or just wander off into the mists of the internet?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 12:45 PM
I believe she can be read over at testycopyeditors.com.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 12:49 PM
I think she got a new job--at any rate she was pleading for invocation of the "Chopper effect"--and curtailed her commenting.
MK--I'm sure she can be found, it's just that chasing her around would seem a little silly--it's the same reason I never followed B over to her place after The Banning. What I treasured was the interaction with DE *here.*
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:54 PM
Let me repeat the question in 7, and add that a site search has no results for that character string, which makes me think it's an abbreviation, but I can't imagine what is being abbreviated.
Also, Michael has really dialed down his presence.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:03 PM
Anaka could be a spammer and, therefore, not actually displayed on the site. I forgot to filter by not-flagged-as-spam.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:05 PM
w/d -- Perhaps this is what Becks has in mind.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:07 PM
Yeah, Anaka is definitely a spammer. My bad.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:07 PM
Congratulations are due Tweedledopey, who moves up from the bottom rung of the Big 28. Who will occupy the new opening? Be sure to tune in next week.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:09 PM
Annika, on the other hand, may have been the Swedish grad student.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:09 PM
Does BAA capture baa?
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:10 PM
One might just as well ask whether FL captures Fontana Labs -- two separate posting identities, two entries in the Big 28 competition.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:13 PM
Asked. Answered.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:13 PM
Oh, I think I misunderstood the sense of "capture".
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:15 PM
it's the same reason I never followed B over to her place after The Banning
For which, by the way, I never forgave you. Fair-weather pretend friend. Hmph.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:29 PM
I give and give and you just want more. Hrumph.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:34 PM
Becks rules! Or "rulz" or "rulez" or "rul3z" or something.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:35 PM
Ha! Your ass is mine, Emerson.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:37 PM
Query: does this include posts which FL is currently engaged with his project on?
Query, the 2nd: where's "textualist"?
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:39 PM
Y'know, I've consciously stepped up the pace of my commenting today to see if I could move back ahead of Tia. What happens? I post 11 times, she posts 18.
Dammit.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:40 PM
Jeebus, look at the numbers SB has put up. You can always tell early with the great ones.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:41 PM
We need to get SB a cake or something for his/her (dammit, SB!) one-year commentaversary.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:43 PM
In the month between 2005-02-08 and 2005-03-08 the following pseudonyms left their first commen (in order of priority): ac, washerdreyer, chopper, eb, John Emerson, austro. Slolernr and Standpipe Bridgeplate are later in March of '05.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:46 PM
85 - Yes, this includes all comments, whether currently published on the site or not.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:49 PM
The first time I commented here, I commented under a pseud that's not too hard to decipher.
First one to find it gets a hundred thousand dollars, paid by Tia.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:56 PM
I seem to remember a number of us admitting that we once posted under different pseudonyms before becoming regulars.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:01 PM
SB always gets better presents. It's not fair my birthday is three days after SBself.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:01 PM
I'm rich, bitch!
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:02 PM
Take it up with Tia.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:03 PM
I was a lot crazier back then.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:04 PM
(Also, I'd like to note that yesterday's abortion-o-rama of a front page resulted in 20% fewer page loads than average. Today's self-referential naval gazing is on track for 10-15% more views than average. Shows the level of the crowd is, I think.)
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:05 PM
Abortions for all!
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:06 PM
96: You don't say?
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:07 PM
I stand by that statement.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:07 PM
97: I was teaching all day yesterday! Today, not.
Also, I agree with 98.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:11 PM
I've done more posting than I would have thought. I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed.
I know, I'll just be a blonde lobster.
Posted by pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:13 PM
How do you keep a blonde lobster busy?
Posted by pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:14 PM
Miniature American flags for whom?
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:14 PM
Others!
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:15 PM
I suppose it's inevitable that Joe D will push me out of the top 10. But that doesn't mean I'm not watching
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:17 PM
you.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:17 PM
Tom Stoppard and Pale Fire? Drymala, I'm crushed, heartbroken, saddened, and clearly not borrowing any books from you anytime soon.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:18 PM
Tom Stoppard is great. But LB, you don't like DFW, so I don't see where you have room to talk.
Fitzgerald sucks, and I think that defending him is the mark of puerile self-regard.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:20 PM
That thread linked in 96 is hilarious to me because I can identify the exact moment in it when I decided--"Bah, I won't leave my silly comment defending Thackeray."
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:20 PM
Sorry, LB.
Would it help if you knew that Tom Stoppard was a Thatcherite Tory?
Maybe it would soften the blow if you knew that he supported her because he loved how she crushed the unions.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:20 PM
I must say, Thackery's makes some good pizza.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:23 PM
defending him is the mark of puerile self-regard
Not when a woman does it.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:23 PM
don't like DFW,
Not so. I love his essays, and his fiction makes me angry. It's not 'don't like', it's 'you, particularly, are almost ideally fitted for writing something that I would very much want to read, but choose not to. Damn you, DFW!'
And, although the Thatcherite propensities shouldn't make any difference, they do. I'm feeling better now.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:25 PM
And there is a lawyer actually playing the bagpipes parading through the office. He seems not to realize that (a) he's two days early and (b) he's fucking annoying.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:27 PM
I'm trying to find the thread in which I debated with Ben about Stoppard, but I can't find it. I explain my views much more fully there.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:29 PM
Found it.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:31 PM
I thought bagpipes were Scottish.
Posted by Matt F | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:31 PM
He's some idiot attorney parading around an office building on the wrong day -- you think he cares where the pipes are from? But, actually, I've always seen pipers at Irish stuff -- I think they're associated with both countries.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:35 PM
When I was little, I was totally scared of bagpipes. I saw something on TV about a mold that grew in bagpipes that bagpipe players would inhale when they played and killed them. I was afraid that someone I knew would play a bagpipe and drop dead right before my eyes as they were playing.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:39 PM
Huh.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:41 PM
I've just realized that if anyone from my firm reads this, I've just outed myself. Or at least where I work.
Be merciful?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:41 PM
122: hush now. i'm sure there are hundereds of random clowns wandering around corporate america today with bagpipes.....
Posted by soubzriquet | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:44 PM
When I was little, I was scared of the Pale Green Pants With Nobody Inside Them, especially on a record album I had with that story, the Sneetches, the Zaxes, and the Daves.
Now that I am grown, I am scared of Harrison Ford. I idly watched What Lies Beneath the other night and thought I was bored, until I got really frightened by the last 20 minutes, and later, I woke up in the middle of the night trying to put Harrison Ford out of my mind, but failing to, for the better portion of two hours.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:45 PM
119 - The inclusion of bagpipes in Irish festivities in New York may be due to the transitive relationship: Irish -> NYPD -> bagpipe brigade.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:45 PM
Everyone's flattering everyone else, aren't we all a bunch of clever, self-congratulatory folks all in a room together.
That sure is a withering critique of, uh, Tom Stoppard.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:49 PM
Well, which is why I like him. I don't get the self-flattery sense off Stoppard: he comes off to me as purely playful.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:56 PM
When I was in third grade, I spent a couple of months insomniac with terror about earthquakes. But then, every important building in my life was located on or near the Hayward fault. When I went up North, I was scared to death of grizzly bears and mine cave-ins. Again, very rational.
Now I'm started to wonder why I didn't have some entertaining and adorably irrational fears as a child. Wait, maybe I should delete th--
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:56 PM
In unrelated news, contra matty, Coke Zero is neither delightful, nor an enigma. Just tasting it for the first time now, I'm getting prominent notes of citrus, vanilla, cinnamon, and Dimetapp.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:03 PM
Everyone's flattering everyone else, aren't we all a bunch of clever, self-congratulatory folks all in a room together.
I believe I leveled the same criticism at Dave Eggers. Ah, Here we go. "Something about the whole "group of clever fellows who know they're clever and like being clever together" vibe the McSweeney's crowd sometimes gives off irks me, but at least part of that is because I wish I were part of a group of clever fellows and fellettes who do clever stuff.".
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:06 PM
Also it seems Apostropher made that connection too.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:12 PM
But are Stoppard's plays like usenet, or an IRC channel?
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:18 PM
As Carlos Santana once said, those who read just enough of a thread to snark on it, are doomed to repeat the same snark as someone on further down the thread further down snark snark. Then he played a wicked guitar solo.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:18 PM
Actualyl this Coke Zero thing is not so bad.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:27 PM
#82: hah! above the Mendoza line!
Posted by mike d | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:34 PM
What's the numerator in your commenting average, number of comments which you still think, in retrospect, were a good idea to write?
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:43 PM
Since coming to Chicago years ago, I've only seen bagpipers in an Irish context. When I was growing up in Canada, it was always Scottish--my church had one, although he only always ever played "Highland Laddie."
Saw Loudon Wainright at the Old Town School on Saturday night: he had a great opening joke about "St. Patrick's Day Weekend" and when did that happen? I think that's what accounts for the clown/counselor. He knows what day it is, he's just trying to extend the celebration.
As a newbie who has still not gotten a fruit basket, only commenting for a month or so, let me say that there is a political and social subtext to the writing here that makes over-serious exchanges of views unnecessary. That's what's drawn me in. The discussion here is like real conversation, it communicates a lot more than it seems to.
Posted by John Tingley | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:57 PM
w/d: 1000, obviously.
Posted by mike d | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:01 PM
A fruit basket for John Tingley!
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:02 PM
A drum and bagpipes corps plays at the beginning of the academic year at the University of Chicago, and after every graduation ceremony.
I like bagpipes.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:03 PM
...and don't you mean denominator?
Posted by mike d | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:03 PM
You're new? Am I mixing you up with someone else? I thought you'd been here for a while.
I'd link to the fruit basket, but it's kinda gross.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:08 PM
As long as it's not the tossed salad.
Posted by John Tingley | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:10 PM
Why the numerator and denominator are so named. This is information that needs propagated, people.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:10 PM
136: I wasn't asking for a quantity, but rather what's being counted. And I meant numerator, I was taking for granted that the denominator was total comments, and the numerator some subset which would count sucessful comments. This would follow the model of the Mendoza line which is a particular level (.200) on a ratio composed of hits (successful outcomes)/at bats (a subset of attempts, but no need to add in that complication here).
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:23 PM
John Tingley, as far as subtext goes, do you mean something what B said here?
The discussion here … communicates a lot more than it seems to
Don't comment! But if you do, use protection.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:29 PM
I will not use protection! I don't care if it burns in the morning.
That's a more sophisticated way of saying something like what I mean; like-mindedness doesn't prevent the exploration of views, it can facilitate it.
Posted by John Tingley | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:36 PM
Uillean bagpipes are an Irish instrument but they neither look nor sound much like Scottish pipes. They are driven by bellows, not lungs
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:36 PM
Here is a better photo.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:48 PM
I don't care if it burns in the morning
Sez the guy named "Tingley".
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:52 PM
See, I'd argue that Stoppard's self-regard is like ours: acceptable and fun. Whereas Eggers needs a punch in the gut.
And yes, that *is* an argument. So there.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 6:54 PM
Y'know, it may be unfashionable to say so, but I really like AHBWOSG. The last scene where he's playing frisbee with his brother--it just kills me. I know a lot of people don't like all the digressions and ceaseless affect, but I felt like it was a brave attempt to fight out of the gen-x irony trap.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 7:15 PM
I love Stoppard too, Eggars I've never read. The self-regard on this blog is justified and tempered by imagination and humility. Just yesterday half of us were going to what I thought were extreme lengths to articulate objections to abortion-on-demand that the posters didn't themselves feel but wanted to understand sympathetically, while the other half were explaining patiently as if dealing with believers. Not my idea of smug self-regard.
Posted by John Tingley | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 7:34 PM
I liked it as well, Chopper. Didn't think it was great lit or anything, but plenty enjoyable for what it was. Bashing Eggers is the mark of puellile self-regard.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 7:36 PM
Did you hear that, B? You're puellile.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 7:49 PM
Chopper, I said not unkind things about it.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 7:55 PM
Credit where it's due for "puellile", friends.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:51 PM
I was hoping that would remain implicit.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:53 PM
157, meet 113.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:53 PM
Excellent good.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:03 PM
Credit where it's due for "puellile", friends.
Cracker, please. We had that joke in seventh-grade Latin.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:05 PM
155: You wish you could see my puella.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:08 PM
Your puella de pays, or your puella de ville?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:22 PM
Puella de ville, puella de ville,
If it don't attract you then nothin' else will
To see it is to earn a lifetime's thrill
Puella, puella de ville
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:25 PM
That's it, from here on out I am using the term "puella de ville" in all my offical correspondence.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:29 PM
Is the "ville" Valencia?
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:34 PM
As in oranges/bitter grapefruit? Sure, why the hell not?
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 10:08 PM
wow--743 Comments and it feels like I mostly only lurk.
Was it Joe Drymala who compared this place with crack cocaine?
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 8:20 AM
It was my dealer who said that.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 8:35 AM
Now there's a concept: Unfogged-pushers.
What is the price of raw-base unfogged?
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 8:51 AM
You don't pay in money, Austro. You have to work it off.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 10:03 AM