You just ruined this, ObscureReferenceMan.

Seriously. What are people thinking sometimes?
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 3:17 PM on August 13, 2008

And you know the physical pain is just the tip of the iceberg. Shoot, it ruins my week if my stomach growls at a staff meeting.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:31 AM on August 13, 2008

13. And I've taught a course on English phonology that included accents.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 11:57 AM on August 3, 2008

I'm not so sure about the pardons. It's not like I've got reason to have confidence in Bush, but I think even he realizes that a few bastards are going to have to go down hard after these eight years, and Stevens is a better choice than many--he doesn't have any dirt on the administration that might come out in a plea deal.

And the important thing to remember about the pardons: they don't really come free. Bush defied gravity for a couple of years through 9/11 goodwill... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 12:01 PM on July 29, 2008

I had Barbapapa's New House myself. Such a cute book.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:41 AM on July 25, 2008

The scary thing is that this is India. I could understand an American court pulling this shit, but they supposedly understand and care about science there.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 7:39 AM on July 21, 2008

I hate to break it to all of the super-enlightened posters here, but there are millions and millions of people who don't know this.

No one is disputing this point. The question is not "who doesn't know this," but "why are you wasting the time of this principally well-educated and liberal audience."

Seriously, it's a single pop-science paper that makes a point that was established decades ago. The people who... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 5:05 PM on July 13, 2008

Terrific little speech. I'll be smiling all day.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 6:17 AM on July 10, 2008

I think we're just supposed to point at the idiots and laugh. Fair enough.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 4:43 PM on June 30, 2008

I do not condone any discrimination. But I also believe we need a little balance here. Business owners have some rights also, whether or not you agree with their reasons.

They do not have such rights under California state law.

And they should not. When the option exists for businesses to serve only a subset of their willing customers, and economic and social pressures exist for them to do so, everyone not in that subset is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 7:09 AM on June 20, 2008

Here's a guy who apparently doesn't have anything against gay people, is fine with them being married, and in fact later on worries about insulting gay couples whose samples are omitted from his portfolio. He's worried about the impact this will have on his business and trying to figure out ways to deal with it. Note that not ONCE did he mention the option of refusing service outright -- in fact he provided reasons why that was not an option.

OK, this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 7:14 AM on June 20, 2008

Do people just drive around randomly then suddenly think to themselves, "Shit, where the hell am I? I guess I could glance over there at that street sign, or look for the name of the suburb on that shopping mall across the road, or I could read that big green sign up ahead that appears to have some kind of arrow pointing to a freeway, but that's so Web 1.0. I'll fire up the GPS!"

I have frequently gotten lost in Manhattan, where I have lived... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 6:43 PM on June 9, 2008

The problem with this post isn't so much the content (self-conscious in its offensiveness in a sophomoric way) but the "OMG! Offensive!" tone. You wanna link to goatse next, guy?
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 1:00 AM on June 9, 2008

Senator Ronald Ernest Paul

He's not a senator. And if he were, it wouldn't be you that needed to apologize.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:57 PM on May 31, 2008

Moffat created and wrote the UK Coupling, one of the best sitcoms ever aired. That's probably enough to get this non-fan to start watching the show after god knows how many decades.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:19 PM on May 20, 2008

The musical version of Stephen King's Carrie can also lay legitimate claim to infamy as the worst show ever. Awful as Moose Murders may have been, it lacked a pig-slaughtering ballet entirely, let alone one scored by the composers of Footloose and choreographed by Debbie Allen.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:17 PM on April 20, 2008

The dreamy, romantic part of me wants to cheer him on.

Most of me is sober, and that part says, "Idiot."
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 12:34 AM on April 19, 2008

Why are you editorializing in an FPP? Haven't you been posting here for years?

FPPs are supposed to be objective--tell us the facts and save the rest for the thread below. That's not an arbitrary criterion; it's important. Do you want to be the New York Post?
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 12:01 AM on April 5, 2008

Loved this. I spent much of today fretting over a screw-up of my own; I think I can put it in perspective now.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 2:18 PM on March 20, 2008

I was expecting something far worse from that description. Unexceptional, but not particularly embarrassing--the song's not bad for a Petula Clark knockoff. (This is MeFi's cue to look up the dates and prove that "Downtown" was recorded after this.) And yeah, she's cute.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 7:35 AM on March 2, 2008

Is the internet so bereft of good ideas that we have to discuss these?
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 3:02 PM on February 10, 2008

Apparently we do have to discuss these. OK, Earbucket:

1) The Republicans get to pretend like they're being progressive, with a black woman on the ticket. Netroots rhetoric aside, most Republicans aren't overtly racist or sexist; where it does exist in the party, it's more of a soft and subtle bigotry that they don't like to admit to themselves. So Condi would give them a chance to say "Look! We like ladies AND Negros!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 3:24 PM on February 10, 2008

I'd look for him to pick a governor, maybe someone like Richardson, to give some "executive experience" to the ticket as well and bolster support from Latinos.

Please don't say things that are going to keep me awake at night in terror.

Richardson is god-awful--dumb as a post, surprisingly conservative, and a notorious womanizer just in case anyone thought he had any electoral viability. Throw in "ugly as... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 3:27 PM on February 10, 2008

And can a house where countless dogs were killed and trained to kill really become a good shelter for abused animals?

Depends on the house. If Vick chose this one because it was good for keeping animals, perhaps. If it just happened to be handy, perhaps not.

Symbolism is all well and good, but is this really a practical idea? Is there need for an animal shelter in the area? Is the house of the right size to serve that need? How... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 8:04 PM on January 20, 2008

I wonder what mens' scrapbooks would look like.

I'm gonna go with "goatse."

And it looks to me like everybody in this situation made careless mistakes but rectified them as necessary--Contes didn't try to claim credit for photos she hadn't taken (which she'd have done had she realized she'd broken a rule in the first place and really wanted to get away with it), and the hall of fame was correct to rescind her... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 1:17 AM on January 15, 2008

...

I had no idea this existed.

I must have one. I must have it inside me. NOW.

And a handful of Crisco to follow, or would that be gilding the lily?
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:18 PM on January 8, 2008

Wonderful. I'd missed these, though I barely remembered them.

Amazed that New York had them as late as the eighties.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 1:04 AM on January 1, 2008

I was somewhat grossed out by this project until I learned that he composted all of the organic stuff. I don't understand why he saved the recyclables if his message is conservation; would they otherwise be "waste?" I'd have saved only non-recyclable plastic packaging...or, more likely, dismissed the project as a silly idea inspired by drink.

Still, since the "ick" factor is gone, I'm curious about the rents in his area. If you can spare a room for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 12:15 PM on December 31, 2007

I also don't especially like FPPs that have an editorial tone, even if the issue's a no-brainer. It's only a small step from there to the New York Post headlines that scream "Sicko" about anyone who's even been accused of a violent or sexual crime.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 11:48 AM on December 29, 2007

I feel nothing for Miss O'Rourke, and fuck all of you for barging into my home and holding a gun to my head, making me go on the internet, navigate to MeFi, come to this thread, and express otherwise. I despise you all for trying to squelch my opinions.

That's only slightly less horrible than the disgusting, morbid "tributes" to her.

Christ, her family deserves some respect AND some peace.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:35 PM on December 27, 2007

I feel old and cranky just typing this, but it is not particularly hilarious that someone was mauled to death on Christmas Day.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:37 PM on December 25, 2007

I don't get it. If I were to link to Google and call it "search the entire web," would that make a worthwhile FPP? This might be useful, but I can find the same functionality in a hot second whenever I need it.

As I see it, good FPPs show us things that we would otherwise probably do without.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 12:07 PM on December 19, 2007

Adorable.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:33 PM on December 9, 2007

Don't you have a Livejournal to put this on? A Twitter account? Something like that?
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:29 PM on December 9, 2007

Weak, Pope Guilty. It was a pretty damned idiosyncratic comic, but after a long time of reading it, it was hard not to feel affection for it. And for Scaduto.

That said, this isn't much of an FPP. The "tribute" is a comment thread. Um, okay.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 11:46 PM on December 8, 2007

but unless you happen to sit through the tripetastic musical version, where you can vote for your favorite character to be the murderer and sing one more song penned by Rupert "Do-You-Like-Pina-Colatas?" Holmes

Dude. The musical is one of the best of the eighties, funny as hell and full of terrific songs. It holds up extremely well in stock, and Rupert Holmes will often attend rehearsals personally to give his advice.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 9:20 PM on December 2, 2007

How is this in any way bad for her? There can't be that many legit announcements for her to record on a regular basis, so the publicity from getting sacked is probably a net plus that she calculated in advance.

And yes, boo to humorless morons. God forbid anyone should ever pleasantly acknowledge unfortunate, universally understood truths about their employer in public.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:56 AM on November 26, 2007

It's threads like this that make me want an "apropos of nothing" flag.

I don't really get why this is an FPP--the band's official page and a bunch of YouTube clips are nice and all, but I'd have found them all myself with ten seconds of effort the next time I got the urge to learn more about Air Supply. (Which would be never.) Couldn't this have waited until the next time the band was in the news? (Which, again, would be never.)
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 2:16 PM on November 24, 2007

As Thanksgiving stories go, this rocks.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 1:49 PM on November 22, 2007

I'm sick to death of people bitching about politics and not actually participating at the grass roots level.

Many black people do, in fact, participate at that level. They're just not on your side is all.

However weakened it may be, the GOP is still in charge of lots of things in America. Are people not allowed to have grievances with it if they're not actually part of it? If they're not part of it specifically because the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 7:31 AM on November 13, 2007

North Carolina has a sizeable African American population. You'd think ONE of them could have made it onto an ad.

You'd think candidates don't personally create all their own advertising or something.

Seriously, konolia. Your party is killing thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis, and recently went out of its way to prevent poor children from seeing doctors. If abortion weighs so heavily on the scales that you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 9:48 PM on November 13, 2007

Right, I actually had that order of magnitude in my head and for some reason typed the smaller one.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 12:24 AM on November 14, 2007

So everyone in Washington knows about a sex scandal involving a leading presidential candidate and Matt Drudge hasn't touched it?

Bullshit. He'd be all over a Democratic candidate, and frankly, there are no leading Republican candidates, just five guys clawing each other in the hopes that one will be on top by next summer.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:50 PM on October 31, 2007

This is just an extension of the question of whether it's worse to punish the innocent or to spare the guilty.

Civilized society, The World Famous, has come down pretty squarely on the side of "punish the innocent" being worse, at least until Republicans started getting their claws and fangs on everything. This is no different--we don't want addicts to be illicitly doped up, no, but if the price is that genuinely sick people have to go through agony, sane and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 6:48 PM on October 29, 2007

Is it really necessary to respond at any length to someone who quotes Ayn Rand approvingly?
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 11:11 PM on October 28, 2007

Regis still thinks he was part of it tho, and the women are alive, no (or do the women not count)?

The women in the Rat Pack? Uh, no.

Now, the Brat Pack would be nothing without Molly Ringwald.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 7:05 PM on October 18, 2007

I have my doubts as well, but I'm somewhat disappointed by the rush to judgment here on the basis of one trailer. Doesn't anybody else think there's at least the potential for an interesting (if, perhaps, inadequately sung) movie with these ingredients?

In any event, the film needn't be the last word when there exist three very full cast albums and a video of the original show.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 7:27 PM on October 14, 2007

For once I was smart enough to tell myself "Finish dinner first!"

Let's see if I can keep it down now.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 6:09 PM on October 8, 2007

Whenever it comes out, the original Broadway cast album of LoveMusik will close with Donna Murphy's spine-tingling rendition of "September Song" in character as Lotte Lenya.

Bad show, but I'll never forget her (with the very good but not quite spine-tingling John Scherer) singing that song. Also her version of "Surabaya Johnny," Michael Cerveris singing "It Never Was You" or the two of them together on "Speak Low.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 7:37 PM on September 28, 2007

Count me among the disappointed.

Not me. You have to have expectations in order to be disappointed, and I have no good expectations of Ben Stein.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 8:14 AM on September 28, 2007