Re: Guest post: My two favorite April Fool's Day posts

1

The only good one was the Bloom County guest strip by Bill Watterson.


Posted by: Tom Scudder | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 7:03 AM
horizontal rule
2

Also, the Chicago municipal election today was maybe the lowest-stake election for me since I got back to the States more than a decade ago. In the two races I voted in I had a preference, but honestly won't be upset if the other candidate wins.


Posted by: Tom Scudder | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 7:06 AM
horizontal rule
3

Berkeley.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 7:09 AM
horizontal rule
4

A blog I read announced it was moving to facebook as an April Fool's Day post, but it posted a day early so people thought it was real.

I was pleased to see how uniform the anti-facebook sentiment was. Over a hundred comments in a few hours (an unusual volume for that blog), all from people saying that they'd regrettably have to stop reading if it moved to FB.


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 7:24 AM
horizontal rule
5

Clearly a desperate walkback.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 7:30 AM
horizontal rule
6

Stupid caller ID means you can't leave messages asking them to call Mr. Bear and giving the number for the zoo.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 8:12 AM
horizontal rule
7

The links are good. And it's not easy to do a good April Fool's Day piece. Most are kind of pathetic.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 9:08 AM
horizontal rule
8

Criterion's April Fools prank rules


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 11:20 AM
horizontal rule
9

The Robinson piece was interesting and ultimately persuasive, but boy-howdy does he need an editor.

Quite a lot of this piece is about things that aren't in Buttigieg's memoir, rather than things that are. One problem with that: the memoir is not the only place Buttigieg has put himself on the record.

I am not too interested about whether a candidate shares my values as long as he or she is willing to promote my policies. If Buttigieg pushes, say, Medicare For All (as he does) then, frankly, it's all the better if he does so out of political expedience. And Robinson's assumption that Buttigieg is insincere on healthcare gets very little support in his piece.

All that said, yeah, I think Robinson raises some important points about how smooth-talkers can subvert progressive goals. But I think the piece would have been more persuasive at about a quarter of the length.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 2:12 PM
horizontal rule
10

Wrong thread?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 2:16 PM
horizontal rule
11

Wrong thread.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 2:20 PM
horizontal rule
12

If you, quite reasonably, don't consider Stalin as a leftist, the worst part about the left is how they use way too many words to express themselves.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 2:21 PM
horizontal rule
13

Wanting to expropriate property is fine, but leave the bourgeoisie some free time.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 2:28 PM
horizontal rule
14

Only one "prank" of consequence for me: A coworker gave me a math problem to work on that was supposedly too hard. After spending the better part of an hour on it, I proved that it was actually under specified and hence impossible. Kvetching to her today that she had pranked me, I learned that no, we genuinely had accidentally presented an impossible problem to students and she had just wanted to confirm that. Oops.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 04- 2-19 2:42 PM
horizontal rule