Opus' Evil Twin

November 21, 2003 10:32 AM

The Opus Interview
MSNBC: One more personal question: have you ever gotten back together with your mother?
Opus: Yes, we had a big reunion five years ago, and I’ve set her up in a nice place in Florida.
MSNBC: A condo?
Opus: Sea World.
and to think we knew him when...
posted by quonsar (18 comments total)

Tux kicks Opus's ass.
posted by xmutex at 10:33 AM on November 21, 2003

and to think we knew him when...

... he used to write tech manuals for metafilter.
posted by quonsar at 10:35 AM on November 21, 2003

I call Shabos Goy on quonsar!
posted by riffola at 10:38 AM on November 21, 2003

well, hava nagila to you too, riffy!
posted by quonsar at 10:40 AM on November 21, 2003

Related note: Berke Breathed's online chat at WashingtonPost.com.
posted by LinusMines at 10:49 AM on November 21, 2003

Further link: Salon email interview.

The fun starts this Sunday. And this is the best thing to happen to the comics section since Garfield was taken off the front page.
posted by ed at 11:12 AM on November 21, 2003

Heh, nice score wendell.

Also, Breathed's voice? Mellifluous.
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:34 AM on November 21, 2003

that line about predicting dilbert was pretty funny
posted by Peter H at 11:36 AM on November 21, 2003

as much as it may feel like gargling with broken glass to say so...
Thank you, quonsar.
You link me! You really, really link me!

Writing this trifle was probably the best experience I ever had with a keyboard. don't say it, q...
1) I got to write about something I truly love.
B) I felt challenged to capture the voice of a favorite author's favorite character (If it sounds like Wendell talking to himself, then I failed...)
VI) MeFite/blogger GaelFC is the easiest editor I ever had to work with (I count less than 20 words changed from my original submission... strangely enough, she left on vacation just as this piece was coming out...)
&) It's totally cool to see my first paid writing job in years under a seriously big-name bannerhead, without actually having to sell my soul to get it.

For the record, Peter H, the line about predicting Dilbert was based on Breathed's actual interview with The Onion two years ago. I really researched this silly thing (and better than the author of the Salon article, IMO). Not that going through all the old "Bloom County" collections could ever be called 'work' (except for cleaning up every time I laughed so hard I coughed up a lung).

See you in the funny papers!
posted by wendell at 12:47 PM on November 21, 2003

Wendell, I'd like to congratulate you on the story, but also ask: Do you intend to email the whole planet every time you get a byline?
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:42 PM on November 21, 2003

Hey, Wendell didn't email me. But if he did, I would have told him that he just made me jealous.
posted by billsaysthis at 1:55 PM on November 21, 2003

How Mo Nickels ended up on Wendell's MeFi Friends Maillist:

[This message is being sent to everyone who participated in the latest MeFi NYC meet-up thread. I'm well aware some of you said you were not coming, or could not come, to this event, and that others of you have substandard email addresses ending in .ca or .jp or .co.uk. I know you
can't come. You're being taunted.]
The Next MefiNYC meet-up is at Siberia, 356 West 40th at Ninth Avenue, Friday, June 6 at 8 p.m.
Bring your own antimacassars and salad tongs.
You are the party. You bring the cool people. You bring the fun.* Be proactive. Notify your friends and the press that you will be attending. Email everyone you'd like to see there. No lackluster "well, I dunnos." Don't be weak. Be strong! Come with a throng.
* Japanese gummy candy does not equal fun. Fun is gogo dancers. Fun is cherry bombs. Fun is Sean Penn. Fun is a bowling league. Fun is fishing in a dry lake. Fun is breakdancing. Fun is belligerence. Fun is a car rental. Fun is dropping a dime on a neighbor. Fun is adultery.
Postscript: Many of you are wondering why I, once again, have yanked order from chaos and imposed myself upon the passive-aggressive decision-making process. I will tell you only this: Calabrian thighs.
Cheers,
Grant Barrett
AKA Mo Nickels
World New York

See how a funny email can get you in a heap-o-trouble?
(A lesson I re-learn weekly)
We now return to your regularly scheduled topic.
posted by wendell at 2:05 PM on November 21, 2003

Can you go away Wendell? We get that you contribute to MSNBC.
posted by xmutex at 3:46 PM on November 21, 2003

assholes.
posted by Optamystic at 5:13 PM on November 21, 2003

Yay, wendell! Congrats on not only getting paid to write (even if it is for an Evil Empire), but getting to do it on such a fun, supacool subject. I'd be emailing people too, if I made a fucking dime with this keyboard. Ignore the snarks; they're not worth bothering about.

Now hook me up with a paid writing gig, ya bastard!

Please?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:47 PM on November 21, 2003

Also, a propos, from the Salon piece :

"Now. Lord, now. The din of public snarkiness is stupefying. We're awash in a vomitous sea of caustic humorous comment."
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:53 PM on November 21, 2003

Great work, Wendell!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:52 PM on November 21, 2003

now on /.
fame!
posted by andrew cooke at 2:30 PM on November 23, 2003