Re: OMSG

1

Actually I was thinking "I wonder if I should convert my subversion repository to mercurial and host it on bitbucket.".

Close, though.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 5:10 PM
horizontal rule
2

Emergency room after a bottle of soy sauce? Weak by Unfogged standards. Urple could have shown this pussy a thing or two.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 5:16 PM
horizontal rule
3

"Urple could have shown this pussy a thing or two," said the actress to the Bishop.


Posted by: Turgid Jacobian | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 5:29 PM
horizontal rule
4

In collge I once ate a third of shaker of salt for a bet, not thinking of the consequences--I drank about 2 gallons of water that night, and didn't unbloat for a week. Kids are dumb.


Posted by: Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 5:50 PM
horizontal rule
5

We had a contest once to see who could swallow the most dry iced tea mix. I won, sure, but that was one of the most horrible experiences I've ever had. It was like inhaling a sandstorm; all the moisture in my mouth and esophagus was instantly wicked away and I was left choking down dry powder.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 5:54 PM
horizontal rule
6

swallow the most dry iced tea mix

Wow. I think I'd throw up. I'd lose the contest, at any rate.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 5:57 PM
horizontal rule
7

. . . And I ate two entire sticks of butter, which left a kind of greasy slosh in my stomach for weeks and put me off butter entirely for about 2 years.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 5:57 PM
horizontal rule
8

You've got to admire Sifu's gritty determination ....


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 5:59 PM
horizontal rule
9

The U of C Scav Hunt once required consumption of 43 ramen noodle flavor packets—just the packet contents, no liquid. Team event, but still. People were not happy.


Posted by: Gabardine Bathyscaphe | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 6:25 PM
horizontal rule
10

I'm honestly surprised how unsympathetic the comments on that article are. I figured nobody was in favor of hazing, except the people administering it.

A prominent theme seems to be that pledges aren't as tough as they were in my day. As one of them puts it:

"Whatever happened to just throwing up, going home, waking up with a terrific headache and a lesson about how stupid you are?"

In my day, kids could drink all kinds of condiments without getting hypernatremia.


Posted by: Ace K | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 6:28 PM
horizontal rule
11

It's as if we voluntarily undertook all the bad parts of being fraternity pledges without getting any of the benefits. Good job, guys!

(Actually, as recounted here previously, I briefly was a fraternity pledge, though the excessive butter consumption was done outside of the Greek System).


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 6:30 PM
horizontal rule
12

What's the point of fraternity hazing supposed to be? Is it to show how badly you want to be a member, or to demonstrate determination (to show you have balls)? Or, per 11.1, more like having to earn the right to the benefits.

I'm obviously getting old, because I find it somewhat bewildering.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 6:43 PM
horizontal rule
13

This helps to put the bro-icing phenomenon in perspective. What the hell kind of idiot would fell compelled to drink a Smirnoff Ice just because a bro told him to? Oh, right.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 6:51 PM
horizontal rule
14

Oh my saucy God?

I have never eaten anything on a bet, although I once renounced anarchism and praised the suppression of the Kronstadt Rebellion for a couple of pieces of pizza. Bolsheviks: Sometimes they have all the pizza.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 6:52 PM
horizontal rule
15

I wonder if I should convert my subversion repository to mercurial and host it on bitbucket.

Why mercurial?


Posted by: CJB | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 6:59 PM
horizontal rule
16

"I wonder if I should convert my subversion repository to mercurial and host it on bitbucket.".

git + github is nice, too.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 6:59 PM
horizontal rule
17

Ooh it's the great Friday night version-control debate! I knew something entertaining would be happening.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 7:03 PM
horizontal rule
18

13: I wasn't going to say anything about bros, but now that you mention it, apparently they also do fist-bumps.

Joking! We don't know whether all those who fist-bump as grown men were frat members.

Mild reverie: I've been to a handful of frat parties, only one of which was of the bro variety. Another (at MIT) was prone to having formal-ish dinners with invited ladies, well-dressed, all seated around a long polished table and served. Another (also an MIT frat) was more informal and involved various brothers assigned to DJ duty, bar duty, and so on. I got thrown out of that one for smoking pot, unfortunately. A misunderstanding!


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 7:05 PM
horizontal rule
19

14: Oh MonoSodium Glutamate, is my guess.


Posted by: Bonsaisue | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 7:10 PM
horizontal rule
20

16: afaict github doesn't do free private accounts, though, and I don't really want to host my dissertation-in-progress publicly. Or pay.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 7:41 PM
horizontal rule
21

21: it does not. You don't have someplace you can host a repository that you can ssh into, though? That's the nice thing about git; any directory is a repository.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 7:53 PM
horizontal rule
22

You don't have someplace you can host a repository that you can ssh into, though?

Yeah, I do—the same place the subversion repo currently lives. (Once a member, always a member, apparently.) But there's a disk quota. I've also been thinking about getting myself a VPS situation, which would have significantly more space, but, eh.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 8:00 PM
horizontal rule
23

"I wonder if I should convert my subversion repository to mercurial and host it on bitbucket.".

And here I was wondering if I should convert my reversion suppository to mercurial ...

I once ate a tablespoon of wasabi, but not on a bet, as such. I was miltantly anti-frat and anti-bro in college, more so even than I am today (which is not much now, actually, they merely annoy me from a distance.) More disasterous was always the last round when someone bought one for me. Always dangerous stuff, that last round.


Posted by: Populuxe | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 8:16 PM
horizontal rule
24

23: Always dangerous stuff, that last round.
Ain't that the goddamn truth? One minute you're happily chatting with an NBA star and the next thing you know you're projectile vomiting while the janitor looks on in horror. Stupid last rounds.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 8:37 PM
horizontal rule
25

I've happily eaten cold skwarki straight up with a bit of salt and paprika. Take pork fatback, cook it so that it melts down and forms yummy crispy bits, then let cool and congeal. Often cooked with some onion for extra flavoring. And then there are various cheeses and bird livers which are basically just fat with extra flavor.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 9:10 PM
horizontal rule
26

25: Is skwarki the same as Griebenschmalz? If so, I know a source where you can get it by mail order.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 03-11-11 11:45 PM
horizontal rule
27

What's the point of fraternity hazing supposed to be?

Fodder for porn.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 12:33 AM
horizontal rule
28

I have drunk bottles of hot sauce before. It's tucking great, just try not to be its bell on your teeth.

And is this just another indication of our inability to distinguish pain and suffering? Folk physics of the opioid system et al


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 1:02 AM
horizontal rule
29

'What's the point of fraternity hazing supposed to be?'

Really? Efforts to simulate work or claim suffering are one the main things people do, when they aren't claiming to be 'totAlly don't care and didn't even notice you did that and so over that'


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 1:08 AM
horizontal rule
30

27. No, this is fodder for porn.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 2:27 AM
horizontal rule
31

Granted, most of the porn* does not involve drinking soy sauce.

*I have watched all of the porn.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 7:36 AM
horizontal rule
32

From 30:

"This is the only place he seeks to gratify himself in this particular manner. It goes back seven years."
I don't know how the owner hasn't either shot the man or sold the farm.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 8:24 AM
horizontal rule
33

Can you imagine the conversations with the real estate agent?

"Anything unusual about the place?"
"No, not the place itself, no."
"It really is an attractive piece of property."
"Attractive. Yes. Very...attractive."
"Are those a series of gopher holes in that hill there, by the ditch?"
"...No."


Posted by: donaquixote | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 8:37 AM
horizontal rule
34

Once, back in the day, I ate a dollup of bacon grease that came from the drain of a sink which had had dirty dishwater sitting in it for at least a week. For this, I was paid $21.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 9:22 AM
horizontal rule
35

34. You were ripped off. I'd have held out for $210.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 9:23 AM
horizontal rule
36

It's a tale as old as time.

Bonus: guy doing bizarre dance in the background at 1:51.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 9:43 AM
horizontal rule
37

OK, not hungry now.

My dad once ate 12 fried eggs, not even for money, but it was strange times and he admitted it was a bit daft.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 9:54 AM
horizontal rule
38

34:Okay, I can top that, although this may already be in the archives

One evening I see liquid on the kitchen floor. For incomprehensible reasons, I want to know what was spilled:grape juice? spaghetti sauce? So I stick my finger in it for a taste. Then the blind senseless innards-liquified rat stumbles out.

So I ingested the warfarin-filled parasitical blood from a dying rat's asshole.

I actually held off because there isn't a bet or frat here, and I didn't want to be off topic.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:12 AM
horizontal rule
39

There's a nice discussion of hazing in Cialdini's Influence. He uses it to illustrate the point that people will value a thing if they have had to sacrifice to get it, and this remains true if the thing has no other value besides the fact that you sacrificed to get it. As a result, all sorts of enduring, but basically useless, social institutions turn out to have elaborate initiation rites that generate loyalty.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:14 AM
horizontal rule
40

Yeah, I tend to think that's the only reason people don't quit their fraternities. I dated a boy who was in the fraternity everyone thought of as the "nice guy" one--lots of music majors and compsci types--and holy shit they still made his life a living hell. Whenever I tried to question the way he was treated, he'd get all scary and defensive. I ended up finding out some about their supersecret hazing rituals and was totally appalled. It was really disgusting, dangerous, potentially traumatic stuff.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:29 AM
horizontal rule
41

||

Knecht, I have a problem that might be up your alley. If you have five minutes to extend a bit of help, please email me at naniwablogger at gmail. (It's a quasi-consulting issue - basically my initial research attempts are getting nowhere and I think at least you'd know better search keywords than I'm currently using.)

|>


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:35 AM
horizontal rule
42

38 is the least happy thing I have read in several hours at least. I'm tempted to suggest some part of it as mouseover text, however, since the mouse was decidedly over by the end of the story.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:38 AM
horizontal rule
43

I was just reading Cialdini - I was pretty perturbed to read that in USC, a new fraternity code once apparently prompted a riot so severe that city police were afraid to enter campus.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:45 AM
horizontal rule
44

36: I was wondering how long it would take for Cool Hand Luke to come up.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:47 AM
horizontal rule
45

38: So what does that taste like?


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:47 AM
horizontal rule
46

38: Somebody slipped bob a Mickey?


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:50 AM
horizontal rule
47

||

Juan Cole ...Qaddafi is winning. Rebels begging for no-fly, Obama dithers.

Now of course, Obama wants Qaddafi out, eventually someday, but he very likely doesn't want those pesky possibly illiberal rebel types in to negotiate new contracts or something else unprofitable. So let Qaddafi win, and then install a new CEO in Libya.

And damn, Tunisia fine, Egypt manageable, but this freedom thing was movin in on Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Time to reverse the momentum and kill some hopes and dreams, which is Obama's greatest skill.

|>


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:53 AM
horizontal rule
48

I continue to be shocked the that social Greek system still exists in this form. I wonder how much of an effect it has on the way those people go on to conceive of other kinds of relationships. It's certainly true of the guy I dated that the relationship followed the Greek model of:
1) super-sweet kind person seems almost too wonderful and loving to be true, adores you for who you are
2) sudden completely psychopathic and sustained emotional and physical torture with demands for loyalty, leading to
3) a totally insane devotion to someone who treats you worse than shit as you forget what it feels like to be treated with decency and respect

A couple of girls tried to rush me when I first got on campus, and they'd call me to ask if they could borrow "that cool nail polish" I was wearing or see if I wanted to go shopping, and it just made me feel really confused. I lent the girl my nail polish, after explaining that it's only like a dollar at Rite Aid. And shopping? Like you need help carrying groceries or something? I can do that.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 10:59 AM
horizontal rule
49

28: It's tucking great, just try not to be its bell on your teeth.

From the link in 30: When police officers arrived soon after, they found Truscott naked and covered in a large amount of slurry and mud, in a quagmire, surrounded by tissues.

I can't decide which of these utterly wonderful sentences I like better.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 11:17 AM
horizontal rule
50

I was trying to figure out how to point to 49.1, but man I don't even know.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 11:22 AM
horizontal rule
51

I like to imagine the second one in a proper English accent. Tiss-yous.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 11:31 AM
horizontal rule
52

It was interesting to hear all the British commentary about the revolution in Tunisia. All of a sudden I wondered if I should change one or more of my phonemes to bridge the gap between "Too-nee-zha" and "Chunizzia".


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 11:35 AM
horizontal rule
53

52: Did they explain what "Obamer" was planning to do?


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 11:37 AM
horizontal rule
54

No, but apparently there's an entity named "Barrack Obama", accent on the first syllable, that's always issuing statements. Maybe that's the new name of the White House.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 03-12-11 11:40 AM
horizontal rule
55

So I ingested the warfarin-filled parasitical blood from a dying rat's asshole.

Bob wins. You can all go home now.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 03-13-11 8:39 PM
horizontal rule
56

Late answer, but yes skwarki seem(s) to be the same thing as Griebenschmalz. I can get them/it (plural known) in Greenpoint. Maultaschen not so much, but while I'm a bit nostalgic for them, at $2.50 per piece of (large) ravioli, I'm not nostalgic enough.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 03-14-11 1:11 AM
horizontal rule
57

I was describing this thread to our houseguest from Lebanon, who was not familiar with our traditional folkways of daring dudes to eat/do dangerous stuff. He wanted to know why anyone would take up one of these dares, and I ventured some guesses having to do with Cool Hand Luke and the repressed desire to see another guy's cock, which is really at the heart of the "Are you a man or not?" question.

Houseguest responds: "Fine. Next time someone dares me to do something of this nature, I will simply take out my penis and show it to everyone. 'Here you go! I don't have to eat that now, right?'" I thought that seemed an elegant solution.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-14-11 3:39 AM
horizontal rule
58

57: I don't think the repressed desire to see cock is at the heart of the man-or-not question. I think it's all about dominance hierarchies, and somewhere in there is concerns about violence. Accepting an "eat this" dare shows the ability to endure suffering (I can take a beating and still fight back) while at the same time being an act of submission. Of course it's all about bonding and there's a sexual subtext to that, but the sexual subtext tends to show up more in games of gay chicken.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 03-14-11 4:02 AM
horizontal rule
59

I don't think the repressed desire to see cock is at the heart of the man-or-not question.

I should warn him before he leaves the house.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-14-11 4:07 AM
horizontal rule
60

Said houseguest has been at our house for like three fucking weeks that was supposed to be "one or two days" because he has a super-Arab-sounding name that makes it basically impossible to get a sublet via email. I am being made aware of my white-sounding-name privilege.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-14-11 4:11 AM
horizontal rule
61

I don't mean to complain; he's a fully decent guy. There just comes a time when resources and manners are somewhat strained.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 03-14-11 4:13 AM
horizontal rule
62

I just got the post title.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 03-15-11 5:21 AM
horizontal rule
63

Err... Hi, Di!


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-15-11 5:30 AM
horizontal rule
64

57: houseguest sounds like Kryten (but in a good way).

Accepting an "eat this" dare shows the ability to endure suffering (I can take a beating and still fight back) while at the same time being an act of submission.

Possibly relevant:

http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/5242/

She dropped her glove, to prove his love, then looked at him and smiled;
He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild:
The leap was quick, return was quick, he has regained his place,
Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.
"By Heaven," said Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat;
"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that."


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 03-15-11 5:31 AM
horizontal rule
65

Hee. Now me too.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 03-15-11 5:36 AM
horizontal rule
66

Said houseguest has been at our house for like three fucking weeks that was supposed to be "one or two days" because he has a super-Arab-sounding name that makes it basically impossible to get a sublet via email.

Would it be worth trying a) to get a sublet from an Arab, who presumably wouldn't mind, or b) changing his name, cf Piyush Amrit "Bobby" Jindal?
Depending on what area you are in, either Chester Hussein or Slidell Hussein might work.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-15-11 5:38 AM
horizontal rule
67

cf Piyush Amrit "Bobby" Jindal?

eh, dislike that tendency to use 'Priyush' on Dem blogs. The guy has been using 'Bobby' as his primary name since childhood; it is his name, period.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 03-15-11 5:58 AM
horizontal rule
68

67: Whoa, people are doing that regularly? On what blogs?


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03-15-11 9:08 AM
horizontal rule