Re: I Suppose No One Reads The New Yorker For Medical Advice

1

He was probably betting on the fact that no one reads the short fiction.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:15 AM
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no one reads the short fiction

I never do. But I know people who, conversely, read only the short fiction. And then there's eb, who refuses to read the cartoons. Are there several mutually inconsistent but equally loyal readerships of The New Yorker?


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:19 AM
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You wanna piece of me?


Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:19 AM
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3 to Kotskah.

We need to find someone who only reads the poetry.


Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:22 AM
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I mostly don't; or, rather, I generally start reading them and then start skimming and then find myself reading the movie reviews without being sure of how I got there. This one had the WTF moment in the first few paragraphs, though, so I read the whole thing. Weird story generally -- the moment when an otherwise reasonably sympathetic character muses that since his wife became pregnant, the fact that pregnant women are frequently murdered by their husbands now made sense to him was also disturbing.

Current literary fiction always makes me feel like a philistine.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:25 AM
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And beat him up!


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:26 AM
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6 & 3 show the value of quoting.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:31 AM
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7: FWIW Either comment could have employed the number method to much the same effect, since our obejctive is merely to minimize scrolling.


Posted by: Sam K | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:35 AM
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I despise the NYer's practice of stuffing an ordinary magazine full of assorted glossy advertizements and calling it a special issue on Journeys.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:36 AM
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9: That issue annoyed the crap out of me too.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:44 AM
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8: Yeah, numbers would work too. But the objective in this case is more to be clear what's being talked about than to minimize scrolling.

Occasionally the lack of a reference leads to comedy, but usually it just leads to confusion.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:46 AM
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I'm delighted by the fact that in threads where the comments are short and persiflagic, several conversations can be going on, just as real space, and everybody is able to follow what goes to/responds to what. So no references are needed, either numbers or quotes. Not for always, or for every kind of thread, and threads can change tone and sometimes back again, but often.


Posted by: I don't pay | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 10:59 AM
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At least the Fiction Issue has fiction (not that anyone reads it). Where are my Journeys, you punks?


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:02 AM
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I prefer quoting to numbers, mostly because I get the reference numbers wrong and send people into eternally recurring feedback loops.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:05 AM
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I generally prefer quotes too, but number mistakes can lead to high comedy, such as this episode.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:10 AM
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Where are my Journeys, you punks?

Sounds like you've stopped believin', SB.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:18 AM
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But the numbers method often leads me to scroll back up to catch the reference and then back down again. Do the negative and positive scrolls cancel out?


Posted by: Mo MacArbie | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:24 AM
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Several years ago a "special fiction issue" featured three stories involving an older male academic or teacher interacting in creepy ways with much younger women. I got the feeling they had overplayed the "we know our target audience" card and, once I stopped masturbating, I resolved to stop reading their fiction.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:24 AM
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So have you stopped masturbating yet?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:27 AM
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but i thought confusion == comedy


Posted by: mike d | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:27 AM
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And how about the stopping crying, FL? How's that coming along?


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:28 AM
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Jonathan Franzen, J.M. Coetzee, and . . . what else within the last few years?


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:34 AM
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That issue featured some of the semenal texts of our time.


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:35 AM
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Confusion only leads to comedy when the confusion can be resolved quickly, by the reader. Because explaining a joke ruins the golden hairy lobsters that are running up my pants leg.


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:38 AM
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That issue featured some of the semenal texts of our time.

Pwnage is transitive. "Seminal".


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:41 AM
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explaining a joke ruins the golden hairy lobsters that are running up my pants leg

That reminds me of the time we talked about how scientists discovered a new kind of lobster and we made jokes about it.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:43 AM
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23: That issue featured some of the semenal texts of our time.

I don't read the New Yorker regularly--I'm a rather irregular reader, so I don't know whether that spelling with an 'e' rather than an 'i' was intentional. Of course, it shouldn't matter, since the root is the same, but, stil, I find it humorous given the istory of Unfogged humor.

NB: I have just deployed the perfect quotation/citation method. Number posting alone is simply laziness, but including a number in the citation is useful. It allows the person who wants to to check the quotation in context. This is especially useful when one is responding to a fairly long comment. It also gives one the chance to see the surrounding comments,and thereby better understand the conversation which induced a particular response in the person doing the quoting.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:47 AM
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Noooo! My poor lobsters!


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:47 AM
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27: On a thread with thousands of comments, that might be useful. But isn't it safe to assume that quoting the text will be enough to find it easily enough? Especially given the presence of Ctrl+F.


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:52 AM
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I thought I had better make it explicit, lest I be mistaken for a New Yorker short fiction enthusiast, but I see that all my deliberation has earned me is pwnage!


Posted by: Armsmasher | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:57 AM
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Pwnage is transitive. "Seminal".

I often regret that my most developed expertises are musical and technical. Other disciplines seem to be a much richer source of puns and allusions.

But then, I'm probably better off this way.


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:58 AM
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Explaining a joke is like dissecting a hairy lobster. You learn a lot about the lobster, but the lobster tends to die in the process.

On the plus side, though, you end up with a nice lobster pelt.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:58 AM
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I used to read the poetry first, toward the tail end of my New Yorker subscriber days -- more a move of desperation than anything.

I'm pleased to announce that my Atlantic Monthly subscription (purchased in a charity drive and thus not able to be cancelled consistent with human decency) ran out today. It got to the point where I was reading it just for Christopher Hitchens and Caitlin Flanagan.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:11 PM
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I often regret that my most developed expertises are musical and technical. Other disciplines seem to be a much richer source of puns and allusions.

I beg to differ.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:12 PM
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Also, regarding numbers and quoting, there are two concerns: one is avoiding undue scrolling, the other is being clear what your comment refers to.

For the latter, besides numbers or quoting, there's always the option of being just a little more explicit.

For example:

"I agree, FL."

is better than

"I agree."

because someone may comment in between your post and the comment you're agreeing with.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:18 PM
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refuse to read 2: and because of that And then I don't I just rarely find who refuses to read don't usually look at them. the cartoons. the cartoons, them funny there's eb,



Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:28 PM
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I don't know why it took me so long, but 18 made me fall in love with Labs a little. I take it you're no longer worried about your students reading the blog, Labs?

Also, I think the whole argument about how people should refer to previous posts is Just Wrong. #s is a time honored tradition, and I *like* the scrolling up and down, even when it's annoying. It adds to the cliquish in-group feel.

So there.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:42 PM
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38

37: Did you read comment 4?


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:51 PM
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39

Yeah, so?


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:55 PM
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40

You have to read 2 to follow what 4 is referring to.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:56 PM
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41

39: Just curious.

And besides, you said you liked scrolling.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:57 PM
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42

I don't get it. I also don't get why my name didn't show up in 39.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:58 PM
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43

Thank you, LB, for perfectly demonstrating why my inclusion of "39:" in 41 was a good idea!


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 12:58 PM
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44

If you look up "gullible" in the dictionary, there's a picture of me.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 1:15 PM
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But "gullible" isn't in the dictionary!


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 1:17 PM
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If you look up "gullible" in the dictionary, there's a picture of me

...humping a microfilm machine.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 1:20 PM
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I find it hard to believe that 36 was not written by a spambot.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 1:24 PM
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48

Back to the post, perhaps it was such a powerful vibrator that it rattled her placenta to pieces right through the uterine wall?


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 1:31 PM
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As any fule kno, there is only one way to address comments to other comments, and that is the Chuck(le) Pelto way.
It even winds his fellow wingnuts up so they repeatedly ban him.


Posted by: Anthony | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 1:40 PM
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this short story, by Mathew Klam


Posted by: permabot | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 2:04 PM
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51

Hey, thanks! The link I posted was clearly going to expire in a week.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 2:14 PM
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52

I thought this was going to be a post about Atul Gawande.


Posted by: ac | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 2:57 PM
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53

Would somebody please answer my highly important questions? At least the vocabulary parts?


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:07 PM
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54

I have never in all my days heard the term "persifleur," and I hope never to encounter it again.


Posted by: ac | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:11 PM
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Persiflage is the art of making fun of ogged.
Badinage is the art of making: incisive comments!


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:12 PM
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Okay, I'll take a crack at it.
I think that badinage has more flirty overtones. Persiflage, to me at least, suggests the kind of learned wit that's supposed to be light and chock-full of sprezzatura but usually comes off as ponderous. Like William F. Buckley making conversation at a cocktail party, say.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:14 PM
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57

Doesn't badinage mean tying your lover up when you sex him/her?


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:22 PM
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Persiflage - bad. Bandinage - good.


Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:23 PM
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59

Both good.


Posted by: I don't pay | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:25 PM
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Following 55—if the blog ever finds its way into book form (à la Language Log), it should be a two-parter: Persiflopolis, and Persiflopolis 2, chronicling the oggedian and post-oggedian eras respectively.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:29 PM
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56 is right, I think. Persiflage is more straight comedy, light-hearted witty nonsense (think Peter Wimsey). Bandinage is more combative, but more romantic -- it takes two people. One person can provide all the persiflage in a conversation, but bandinage has to describe an exchange between at least two.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:29 PM
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A bandinage is what you use to dress a rhetorical wound.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:34 PM
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60 - Hmmm...I don't think I like where that comment is going. I don't want to be the protagonist everybody hates!


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:43 PM
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I used to read the NYer cover to cover (well, not the poetry) until I read a story with such a glaring plot hole that I stopped regularly reading the short fiction. It was a really awful story, too.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:49 PM
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62 reminds me of the WaPo neologism contest. My favorite of the top ten:

Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 3:58 PM
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I don't want to be the protagonist everybody hates!

Doesn't have to be you. What's Unf up to these days? Taking candy from babies, I bet.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:00 PM
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Thank you all. Mostly.

I'm still stuck on what you call someone who engages in either, though. I mean, if persiflage is from persifler, it seems to me that just as flâner:flâneur then so persifler: <insert ac's forbidden word here>.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:13 PM
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It's totally badineur and persifleur, although the second one doesn't get around much any more.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:15 PM
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A Wit. (Preferably in a Sentence with those inexplicable 18C capital Letters.)


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:22 PM
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Persifleur seeks flaneuse for badinage, repartee. No Irish need apply.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:43 PM
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71

Well, drat.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:45 PM
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72

Not to mention thofe almoft unreadable long Ss.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:45 PM
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73

Well done, slol!


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:47 PM
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74

72: Precifely.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:48 PM
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75

You realife, of courfe, that I have no problem with the long S.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:50 PM
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Ooh, I lovef me some long fs When I waf reading in aeftheticf recently, I realized, while poring over a copy of the workf of the earl of Shaftefbury, that I waf very quietly reading out loud, and I was lifping.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 4:56 PM
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Perfifleur feeks flaneufe.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:01 PM
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78

Waƒ there a rule about which s's got the ƒ treatment and which didn't?


Posted by: ƒlolerneur | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:29 PM
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My favorite part of Adam Smith's lectures on rhetoric is the ten pages or so where he beats up on Shaftesbury, as, basically, a poser. It's vicious.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:29 PM
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78- Yes, all lowercase non-final s's get extended.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:32 PM
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81

ATM.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:32 PM
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82

Really, there'ƒ not much to diƒlike about Adam ƒmith if you can read him without reminding yourƒelf about all the modern poƒeurƒ appropriating him.


Posted by: ƒlolerneur | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:33 PM
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83

I ?u?pect you're not doing this right, ?lol.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:35 PM
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84

Chacun à ƒon goût, dude. As Voltaire would say.


Posted by: ƒlolerneur | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:40 PM
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85

It's times like the?e I wi?h I ?poke French.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:43 PM
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86

Literally, it's "dirty son of a goat".


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:48 PM
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I juƒt meant, I prefer my ƒ, as it looks more ƒcript-like. But to each his own. And thanks for the tip about uƒage.
(Okay, I know I've got to ƒtop this at ƒome point. Lord, grant me ƒenƒe. Juƒt not yet.)


Posted by: ƒlolerneur | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:49 PM
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Literally, it's "dirty son of a goat".

Ack! Another proof that M/tch M/lls is always correct!

ƒpeaking of which, are there people in New York who prefer The New Yorker's front liƒtings to, say, Time Out New York's, or is that ƒection now uƒeleƒs to the whole country?


Posted by: ƒlolerneur | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:52 PM
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belong to the Federalist Society

I'm going to hide out here in this thread so Ideali&402;t won't notice I just called him a poƒeur. I mean, I did it unwittingly, but do you think that matters?


Posted by: ƒlolerneur | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:56 PM
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Ideali&402;t

Okay, when you make a typo you have to give up. I give up.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:59 PM
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I read them. Well, mostly. If a restaurant or a play gets a positive nod from a New Yorker critic, it definitively means more clout in the CV and press kit.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 5:59 PM
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I read them.

I have to say, I got a little thrill when I moved to New York and realized that I'd just doubled the value of my weekly New Yorker. A small prize to compensate for my larcenous rent rate!


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:01 PM
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93

I'm not making enough money actually to act on most of the recommendations, mind you.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:04 PM
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94

The thing is, long s isn't just f; it's a different character entirely. I gue?s I'm ju?t a ?tickler, though. Carry on.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:06 PM
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I mean, I did it unwittingly, but do you think that matters?

No, I will track you down and be pissy and thin skinned wherever you are hiding. Besides, I was in the Federalist Society before it was cool. I'm old school, baby!


Posted by: Idealist | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:07 PM
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No, I will track you down

Damn, busted. Dude, for what it's worth, like SCMTim I was old school but I changed my mind, man. It remains slightly a mystery to me that you haven't.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:10 PM
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Didja see the razor-sharp dildo that Anthony Perkins wields in Crmes of Passion? THAT would pop a placenta, no doubt...


Posted by: matt in eugene | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:10 PM
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long s isn't just f

Dude (holy smokes, now I've turned into Spicoli), ƒ isn't "just f" either.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:12 PM
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99

It definitely isn't ?, though. That's all I'm saying.

(Not an Early-Modernist, eh, slol?)


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:16 PM
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100

I must admit I've begun to wonder if it was worth subscribing to the New Yorker at all.

Also, 36 deploys the citation method described in 27.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:17 PM
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Not an Early-Modernist, eh, slol?

Ooh, busted twice in one thread. I think I must needs retire.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:20 PM
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102

Where is my runic thorn? Whære!


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:22 PM
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103

You mean þis one?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:26 PM
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I'm a fan of the eth: ð


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:37 PM
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105

7 gets it exactly right.


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:40 PM
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Mr. w-lfs-n: is my understanding correct that "ð" is a voiced "þ"?


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:42 PM
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107

j? s?? ? ?o?waf, b?n


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:43 PM
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108

106: Yes (in Old Norse--in Old English they're interchangeable).


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:44 PM
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109

þanx


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:52 PM
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j? w?lk?m


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:54 PM
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111

Cleårly, Vikings åre þe pwn.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:54 PM
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Must've been one helluva orgasm if she couldn't decide whether she broke her water or hit the G-Spot.

I'm guessing Matthew Klam doesn't get much of the poon. If he does, I feel sorry for his girlfriends.


Posted by: colinsmith | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:56 PM
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107/110 -- is schwa a character used in writing some actual languages (like I guess specifically Old Norse)? Somehow I had got the idea that it was an invention of orthographers. And I guess the schwa with a little tail hanging off it sounds like "er"? What is its name?


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:58 PM
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þwned.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 6:58 PM
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Ah. Now I looked on Wikipaedia and I guess you have switched from Old Norse orthography to IPA, from historical to synthetic -- Wikipaedia says: ? = "r-colored vowel" ("?, how did you get so r?"), ? = "near-close near-back rounded vowel". Is my thinking right that these were never used in writing an actual written language?


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:05 PM
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re: 108

Usually in Old English, as far as I remember, it's þ at the start of words and ð in the middle (orthographically speaking).

107: You missed the / /'s (or [ ]'s, depending).

/a:m s?? ? smart a:rs, ?lso t?i n?n rot?k aks?nts, lai:k ?n 107 lu:k t?i f?n?/


Posted by: Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:07 PM
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a:rs

Fuckin' Brits.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:16 PM
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118

like SCMTim I was old school but I changed my mind

(Extends black-gloved hand to Idealist)

Join us, and together we can rule the galaxy.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:21 PM
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119

Usually in Old English, as far as I remember, it's þ at the start of words and ð in the middle (orthographically speaking).

If I recall correctly, they're different sounds -- voiced vs. unvoiced.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:24 PM
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120

Join us, and together we can rule the galaxy.

Tempting, but isn't this where you cut off my hand with your light sabre?


Posted by: Idealist | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:27 PM
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121

I'm all with the crappy allusions tonight.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:31 PM
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122

120: Only if you turn him down. Come to the Blue side, Ideal!


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:35 PM
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123

119: see 108.


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:38 PM
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Only if you turn him down. Come to the Blue side, Ideal!

Extremely tempting, but for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?.


Posted by: Idealist | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:40 PM
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125

I did, after I'd posted 119, and hoped to hide my pwnédness in oblivion.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 7:41 PM
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126

pwnédness s/b pwnèdness


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 8:04 PM
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127

for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Nookie?


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 8:24 PM
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128

What?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 8:33 PM
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129

No thanks, I'm fine.


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 8:34 PM
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130

Whoa, you guys have been Wonketted!
I'm with 112: not enough poon. What gets me is that the fiction editor of the NYer must not be getting enough poon, either, else he'd've (assuming it's a he, since "has a poon" is a subset of "gets poon") caught that one. I mean, what's the point of getting a job at Conde Nast?


Posted by: sw | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 8:54 PM
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131

There is only one Wonkette, and her name is Ana Marie Cox.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 9:14 PM
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132

That g-spot stuff is such bullshit. They don't exist.

Of course, people who'll believe in an oxymoron like "the female orgasm" will believe anything.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 9:29 PM
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133

115: indeed, these are IPA symbols, which have never been part of the native orthography of any language (as far as I know) but are nevertheless often used for transcription of many actual languages.

116: it was intended to be a broad phonetic transcription, so []. And your Scottish accent (as reflected in your transcription) is at least as funny as my (rhotic) American one.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 9-06 11:56 PM
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re: 133

Heh, we have an American social secretary type at my college who every year emails round prior to Burns' night asking for, and I kid you not, people with 'funny accents' or (and he said this one year) 'Groundskeeper Wullie' accents to read. Funnily enough, he gets no takers.

I presumed from the rhoticised schwa that you had a normal GenAm style accent where rhoticised vowels replace /r/. That's a non-rhotic accent from where I stand!


Posted by: Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 4:08 AM
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135

Technically, you're right of course. The American use of a rhoticised schwa is, iirc, classed as 'rhotic'


Posted by: Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 4:10 AM
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136

This comment thread made up somewhat for wasting my time on one of the most boring stories I've ever read. I'm so glad no one expects me to read the New Yorker.


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 8:40 AM
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94, 99: Well, yef; when you come up with a fcript that reprodufes the long S, I'll be the firft to ufe it, okay?

132: Oh, ye of little faith.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 10:24 AM
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138

137 -- One easy way to do it would be to copy and paste from any of Teofilo's contributions to this thread, like e.g. 99: "?". There's probably a tidy ampersandy way of doing it, But I know not what.


Posted by: The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 11:04 AM
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139

As far as I know, there is no html code for ?. There are, however, other ways to insert special characters.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 1:29 PM
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140

Geez, teo.

Apparently, it's ſ or ſ—that is to say, it's &#x17F; or it's &#383;

So say Wikipedia.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 5:26 PM
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141

Well how 'bout that. I had no idea.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 7:02 PM
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142

??´ œ¨ˆç? ?®ø?˜ ƒø? ?¨µ?ß ø?´® †?´ ¬å?¥ ?ø©


Posted by: Â円 „´ˆ˜´® | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 7:36 PM
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143

Does that somehow translate into spam?


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 7:59 PM
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144

????????????


Posted by: ??????????????? | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 8:08 PM
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145

Thanks, Matt. That was totally worth it. Off to call my broker!


Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 8:12 PM
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!?? ?????? ???? ??????


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 8:16 PM
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147

If it makes you happy, teofilo, Google translates that as: "In the metal Spam Ttrgmk."


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 9:11 PM
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148

142 is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" typed on a Mac with the Alt key held down.


Posted by: explanabot | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 9:28 PM
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149

(option key, actually, though it also says "Alt" on it)


Posted by: explanabot | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 9:28 PM
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131: I met both iterations; the original, definately hotter.

Which is really all that matters.


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 9:43 PM
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147: It is indeed ironic that Google was unable to translate the word meaning "translate." And you should be able to figure out what I meant by "in the metal."


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05-10-06 10:20 PM
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