No, No, Nostalgia!

June 9, 2008 8:33 PM

NetClassixFilter: The next time you're standing clueless in the greeting cards section of your local drugstore franchise, you'll be wishing you'd visited the Gallery of Unfortunate Greeting Cards instead. For all your holiday needs: Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Weddings, 4th of July, Hallowe'en, Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and of course, Washington's Birthday. [via Cap'n Wacky]

Cap'n Wacky has previously sailed the seas of MetaFilter.

posted by not_on_display (18 comments total)

suffering cats!
posted by leotrotsky at 8:43 PM on June 9, 2008

Which reminds me of a favorite from the Onion: Happy Easter!
posted by leotrotsky at 8:45 PM on June 9, 2008

Huh. If you have your referer obscured, you can't view about half of the cards, which is kind of an odd way of doing that sort of protection, isn't it? Typically you would set access limits only on the directory the images are stored in, so when a page on your own domain requests an image it will be allowed no matter what the browser referer says, but someone trying to directly browse the image directory, or linking to the image from another site would be denied the images. I don't think I've ever seen it done like this...and for good reason.
posted by maxwelton at 9:31 PM on June 9, 2008

Achewood's Roast Beef makes the best cards.

"I'm sorry I can't Go Outside When the Neighbors Are Home."

"I'm sorry that I pretend I don't read the Drudge Report."

"I never said I'd be great I mean I never even said I'd Be Capable of Reading the Label of a Shampoo Bottle Without Wondering Which of Us Would Die First."

"I'm Sorry I said Kim Jong Il Gets More Play Than Me / At Least Our Play Is Not Based On Lies About Me Being A Diety"
posted by freebird at 9:45 PM on June 9, 2008

Well, that sucked.

I can't understand the mentality of blocking access to the site based on my browser preferences. Why on earth should I have to enable referer? How on earth does the site owner benefit by that?
posted by five fresh fish at 9:59 PM on June 9, 2008

^maxwelton: Huh. If you have your referer obscured...
^fivefreshfish: Why on earth should I have to enable referer?

What, did you not see teh cool cardses? Sorry, charlie!
What's a referer?
posted by not_on_display at 10:13 PM on June 9, 2008

How on earth does the site owner benefit by that?

Do requests from IMG SRC generally get the referer set? If not, then it's probably an attempt to discourage people from just displaying the cards on their blogs or what have you.
posted by freebird at 10:19 PM on June 9, 2008

If we're talking bizarre greeting cards, I feel like I must bring up the frankly mental greetings netherworld of 'Credhedz'

"Credhedz invites mates and family to give relatives, friends and neighbours the recognition they've earned and deserved. Celebrate their great personality, the things they've done to impress you, which make them the real genuine people worthy of your trust, loyalty and consideration."
posted by robself at 1:16 AM on June 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

ON YOUR SPECIAL DAY

"You've worked so darn hard
For such a long time!
And now that you've "made it"
I'm sure you'll do fine!

Your ticket's got no chance in Hell
Without my participation -
Still - congratulations on winning
the Democratic Nomination!"

- "Yours", Hillary.


SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS

"You should feel so proud
Of your efforts this year
You ran a hard race
Without hesitation or fear

And tho' it was so narrowly
That you lost, in the end,
There's no fucking way
You'll be Vice President, my friend."

- "Best", Barack.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 2:12 AM on June 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

O, quid. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

One.
Two.
Three..... yeah.
Four... oh yeah.
Hmm. Well technically that's a variation on four, but let's count it as five.
Six...
Sssssevennnn....
EIGHT ohgodyes EIGHT

excuse me for a moment.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:05 AM on June 10, 2008

^robself: I must bring up the frankly mental greetings netherworld of 'Credhedz'

Oh man. Now, that defies explanation. I'm tuning my tinfoil hat to a signal I've never even smelled before.
posted by not_on_display at 5:14 AM on June 10, 2008

I choo-choo-choose this post!

A referer is the site you clicked on to get to a particular page. So, in this case, Cap'n Wacky wants to see that people are being directed to him by a post on Metafilter. If you tell your browser not to supply this information, he's blocking access, for reasons that remain obscure. Maybe something about hotlinking? Maybe he's feuding with Fark and doesn't want to let them in?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:26 AM on June 10, 2008

Great cards, but they're really damn hard to read... case in point. Someone should phone up the website owner and let him know it's not 1997 anymore, and bring on the high-res scans.
posted by crapmatic at 6:10 AM on June 10, 2008

capnwacky.com's written descriptions are less funny than insulting. Tip: let the artwork speak for itself.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 8:11 AM on June 10, 2008

The layout and sensibility remind me of Lileks. I wonder who came first?
posted by anthom at 8:19 AM on June 10, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Meh. I like these much better. He's a local, and they're really really funny.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 8:45 AM on June 10, 2008

^anthom: The layout and sensibility remind me of Lileks. I wonder who came first?
Lileks: Founded 1996/7
Cap'n Wacky: Founded 1999

^Chinese Jet Pilot: ...less funny than insulting. Tip: let the artwork speak for itself.

I like Lileks better in general for its wider variety and the sense of humor, and that it looks nicer. Though the Cap'n Wacky site does have that 1999-nostalgic feel: a dated site about dated things, which I kind of liked. Not counting the referereree problem.

I found these via an old "bookmarks" file of mine and laughed a bit, but also skipped a lot more of the sometimes hackneyed commentary than I would on Lileks. Just wanted to share, though, because I did find myself laughing at some points.

And bitter-girl: Eponysteri--[[WHAP]] hey that was a SHOE! You hit me with a SHOE?!
posted by not_on_display at 10:42 AM on June 10, 2008

Me wants one of them dove cannons. Oh well, there's always next year...

(I've noticed a lot of overzealous referer blocking in just the last couple of days. Even direct links to blog and forum pages in Google results are being caught, so it's not a very well thought-out idea. Firefox's RefControl plugin is earning its keep.)
posted by Pinback at 10:30 PM on June 11, 2008