I have mixed feelings about Burroughs.

It IS disconcerting when we are faced with such a dichotomy between a person's art and their life, hj03. I personally find it quite troubling in the case of Hitler, who was a TERRIBLE artist, but otherwise a really great guy.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:02 AM on May 2, 2008

Wait a second ... I think I've got that the wrong way round - sorry. What I meant was Hitler was a horrible, disgusting mass-murderer, but his paintings are wonderfully sublime and compassionate.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:04 AM on May 2, 2008

No, that's not right ... his paintings are shit too. OK, I think that means that the inconsistency here must be between Hitler, who was a complete jerk in every department, and me - obviously some kind of world's ultimate genius or something.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:08 AM on May 2, 2008

What a moran. Accurately replicating even the smallest trace of an human being - created in God's image and endowed with complex rationality - is simply impossible for sinful fools such as we.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 5:09 AM on May 1, 2008

Does that apply to paintings, photographs, sculpture?

Or MeFi comments?
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 9:53 AM on May 1, 2008

MINUTES OF GALACTIC BOARD MEETING

1. Update on takeover of Milky Way by Andromeda galaxy. Staffing issues discussed, agreed that this was a good chance to get rid of embarrasingly-named Uranus. Memo entitled "We're firing Uranus" to be distributed to all staff.

2. New brand names considered and voted on. Milkdromeda - 2 votes. Androway - 1 vote. Alko-Wade - 10 votes.

3. Plans for future expansion... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 7:48 AM on April 25, 2008

I'm actually working on a similar scheme, "the Open Source Child-Hugging project". Parents are encouraged to wear one of our freely distributed T-shirts - one kind reads: "Yes, Please Hug My Child!" and I'm working on getting the other kind printed just as soon as I get back out of solitary and that goddamn son-of-a-bitch Governor lets me back in the prison workshop. And then you'll all pay for how you've treated me, you hear me? YOU'LL ALL PAY.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 5:56 AM on April 23, 2008

Well I welcome any and all research into the sham athiest science of "Darwinism", and I'm glad that people are finally starting to recognise that the intelligent design of toxic plants, malaria, leprosy, flesh-eating bacteria and ravenous sharks proves once and for all what a complete prick God really is.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 5:58 AM on April 17, 2008

The flowers are losing their scent
The buzz of bees is diminishing
The stock of the forest is spent
The banquet of fish is finishing
The glaciers are melting and dying
The frogs are all covered in mould
The birds have given up flying
The soil's become sterile and old
Every colourful creature that flew or that crept
Will disappear utterly. Nobody wept
At their fading; no-one... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:46 AM on April 17, 2008

in which languagehat will bless it and tell you that it's now part of the English language

Oh, so that's your game, eh? languagehat performs his anti-papal office and suddenly it's OK to tax me, click by click! You linguinists DISGUST me, what with your endless morphologising and diabolical phonetrickeries. And now your powers have extended to the basest usufruct, and profiting from my every prendre! Well, I'll hide my taxables in a miasma of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 8:15 AM on April 15, 2008

New patented soul test! Doth thou have soul? Look unto mine child and fill thine ear with his hymn unto the LORD. Then should thee have soul, thy soul will cause thee to bless mine child before the LORD. Should, however, thee lack soul, thou shalt say but "nay" and thou shalt be gruff like the yak of the fields, known to both the Pharisee and Sadducee for his gruffness, insulting to the LORD. Thus thy soul is surely revealed or not as the case may be! Instant results guaranteed... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 10:00 AM on April 14, 2008

QUENTIN BRYCE: EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY

SHE was a fiesty, two-fisted federal official whose no-nonsense approach to her gubernatorial duties ruffled feathers in the highest levels of government.

"Goddammit, Bryce! I told you to exercise vice-regal authority in accordance with the strict limitations relating to the Royal Prerogative!"

"Prerogative THIS, Rudd. My approach gets RESULTS in this constitutional... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 6:00 AM on April 14, 2008

unlike males, prone to making assumptions, women processed all available information when making decisions

BULLSHIT. When I got caught balling my wife's sister, she immediately starting yelling and throwing stuff at me, despite my calm protestations that it was a "just a dick thing". If she had only been able to process THAT information then I wouldn't now be restricted to seeing my son one weekend a fortni-

Wait a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 8:22 AM on April 9, 2008

Of course many persons lined the flame's route through London's streets, and I myself was one of these - allow me, I beg you, to tell my story of that fateful day.

All throughout the dim and frosty morning I had waited out my place. I was stood on the planned trajectory of the controversial fire, near the corner of two streets in Leicester Square. By lunchtime, the crowd of would-be onlookers was full five persons deep, and all jostling in a cacophony for an... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 3:21 PM on April 7, 2008

Meta.

Absolutely disgusting, people.

An obit thread that links to "comingsoon.net" - ? What are you saying - that Zombie Charlton Heston will soon appear to commence his reign of terror? Please show just a little respect in future, and break such news by linking to "justleft.net" or "notcominganymorecausehe'sdead.com". You assholes make me SICK.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:54 AM on April 6, 2008

You need to read that comment again, Stav. And double check who posted it.

Preposterous! It's standard procedure to read each comment only once and then release one's zombie army upon the commentator or commentatoress as the case may be, while simultaneously infoming metatalk that a metatalk thread has not been opened via opening a metatalk thread referencing the non-opening issue as per standard procedure. You make me SICK Lentrohamsanin, you horrible Zombie-botherer!
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 5:03 AM on April 6, 2008

O.K., I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital.

- At last you will tell us your military secrets, John McCain! So - please begin!
OK - take this down. Salt, pepper, paprika, oregano ...
- Ah, this is some kind of code, I take it?
No ... do you know Colonel Sanders? Kentucky Fried Chicken?
- You mean ... my God. Do you ... do you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 7:03 AM on March 31, 2008

we'll know she recognizes herself in the mirror

Just to add my thoughts on this mirror topic: it's actually been quite a while since I recognised myself in the mirror. As far as I recall, I'm a strapping young lad of 18 years old, with a song in my heart, a twinkle in my eye and a luxuriant mop of thick, auburn hair. Yet when I look in the mirror, there peers back a corpulent middle-aged hunchback with warty fingers and a crooked rictus set in a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 5:40 AM on March 31, 2008

This only reinforces my previous prejudices - these dirt-poor Taliban grunts are led by a murderous asshole into fighting foreigners through manipulation of their religious and nationalist ideology. They seem happy to accept torturing people and killing civilians, and they obviously know NOTHING about the wider world that they live in.

In that context, it's amazing how much we have in common. Do they want to join our war on terror? We are in some serious need of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 3:33 AM on March 27, 2008

Hero's work was remarkable

Too true, Pastabagel! And, it is fitting that Hero of Alexandria is remembered in our language, through lending his name as an epithet to all those brave pioneers who boldy strike out in new directions, and who justly win the praise of the crowd.

Even now, when we want to highlight the life of an outstanding leader and thinker, we simply say that the person was "a fucking little smart Alex".
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 8:07 AM on March 26, 2008

My pet peeve is when someone says "hack-hack-hack-pyow-hack-hack-pyow". I know potty-nosed monkey language is constantly evolving (or whatever the hell it is that languagehat claims) but I just think that it makes the caller sound stupid. Is it so hard to say "hack-hack-hack-pyow-hack-hack-hack-pyow" instead? I mean, it doesn't even make SENSE to say "hack-hack-hack-pyow-hack-hack-pyow!" It makes me so angry that monkeys these days aren't even taught the BASICS... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 3:21 AM on March 11, 2008

Funnily enough, I'm also controlled by a single knob.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 7:38 AM on March 7, 2008

Pardon me for not joining in your reactionary group-think, MetaWhiner - but I honestly don't see what the problem with this is. All but one of these kids look really happy to be portrayed in this way.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 3:19 PM on March 6, 2008

DOWN GRAMMAR WITH!

Add youself to a grammer-anti society we is formed there on an internets. Sure used words a longtime "normal" and "orthodox" and "proper" ways are enemy at thought freedom; is it late enough to stop? Not yet! So start to be joining it society "DOWN GRAMMAR WITH" called. You ask how I'll said; now. Simple to make application compote of words that for grammarians would pop their angries, fuck At which point me... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:09 AM on March 5, 2008

THE ROSARY OF OUR LADY OF LOUISIANA

Hail Britney, full of grace, the LORD is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed are the fruits of thy womb, Sean Preston and Jayden James. Holy Britney, mother of dogs (Bit Bit and Lacy), pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

(Hit it baby 10 more times)

Britney's father, who art in temporary conservatorship, James Spears... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 6:59 AM on February 26, 2008

The only problem is that he's a fucking president of a fucking country

Sheesh, you people and your stereotypes.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 1:04 PM on February 25, 2008

FUN QUIZ!

How should this interesting Henry C. Mabuse sentence end ... ?

One of the clues I picked up over the years from studying the USA cattle mutilation mystery ...

(a) was how to make a woman achieve a satisfying sexual climax using only my elbow.
(b) was that Angela Lansbury, I ain't.
(c) was that, fuck it, I just really like steak.
(d) was that it may have... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 10:28 AM on February 22, 2008

Personally, I never write a single syllable on this website that I would now proudly say at the facial appendages of the person or persons whose eyeballs are intended to suck upon the syllabic glyphs first-mentioned.

Why, only the other day I accosted mine own Vicar, Father Poonswaggle, ambulating his merry corpulence upon the pathway churchwards. "Noble flock-handler!" cried I, "perchance that you might make a chronofractional pause in your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 1:56 AM on February 19, 2008

Of course, you will all remember the bestselling book, Coming to Terms with the Dictionary of Coming to Terms with the Past - for Dummies!.

Not to mention the University course, "Two Terms on Coming to Terms with the Dictionary of Coming to Terms with the Past - for Dummies!" (a highly popular subject at MIT) based on a close reading of that text.

Well, Terminus Pictures has just announced an... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 6:33 AM on February 18, 2008

Fuck, I wish the Jews would annex Disneyland and pop some caps in OUR anthropomorphic cartooneries. The sooner that asshole Donald Duck gets a bullet in the face from the chosen people the better, as far as I'm concerned.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 12:18 PM on February 14, 2008

Godspeed You! Black Emperor placed itself into voluntary administration today, citing their embarrassment over a misplaced exclamation mark as the primary catalyst. "No one told us that those things go at the end of a sentence - not just wherever the hell you want to put 'em. Boy, do we feel stupid," said the group's red-faced spokes-Emperor, Efrim Menuck.

The admission immediately caused ripples of grammatical doubt to radiate throughout post-rock pond-life.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:26 AM on February 13, 2008

You know not of what you speak

Yeah, actually very few of the facts stated in my comment above are correct.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 4:26 AM on February 13, 2008

Heh!

That's an interesting piece of information you provided, by the way.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 4:39 AM on February 13, 2008

Friday Night with Günter Verheugen
The European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry will delight audiences again in March with an exciting line up of Hollywood stars speaking about their ideas for economic progress through innovation and respect for the environment.

Everybody Fucks Christophe
The loveable male prostitute who's unlucky in love and who has herpes returns February 20 in a five-hour special focusing on the operation to remove his... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 8:42 AM on February 11, 2008

Well I hate immigrants, and demand that you dirty foreigners go back to Olduvai Gorge where we all came from. Me? Oh, I'm actually sixth generation red squirrel on my mother's side - so that makes me a native species. You people are always taunting me because my great-great-great-grandfather was a squirrel fucker, but now you can just piss off back to Tanzania and MAYBE we'll let some of you come back to visit on a squirrel exchange program, or something.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 5:58 AM on February 6, 2008

He's not a red squirrel, that's a filthy lie, typical of his subspecies of Stoat.

Stoat! Stoat, he says! Why this disgusting vole was allowed to ferret his way onto this site remains an impenetrable mystery - no doubt the MeFi gerbilstrators such as Munch Howie and Gnawtex and Flopsy were all drunk on elderflower brandy when he first stuck his ugly head into this our burrow. I strongly suggest that we badger this rat out of our mouse and mole, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 7:37 AM on February 6, 2008

This is truly high quality post, and I'm glad that Wolfenstein has "raised the bar" for discussions on socioeconomic themes on MeFi - it's usually a pretty left-wing extremist pseudo-intellectual cesspool in here, to be frank.

That being said, after perusing this paper I think I can offer a few criticisms, given my pretty intesive autodidacticism in the field of economics.

I think the first point to make about the question "why do... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 1:54 PM on January 24, 2008

Surely the phenomenon of celebrity is now so ubitquitous that we could expect to be immune from its sullen spell when tragedy blights the spotlighted incumbent? No! - not when a callow youth, whose very profession is to inculcate empathy in his audience, is suddenly clutched to pale Thanatos' side. And are we wrong to care so? Never! Let's not be ashamed of compassion, dear friends, wherever we find it - there's so little of it about in these dark and troublesome times.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:50 PM on January 22, 2008

I'm too intellectually lazy to comment on this so I'll just see what google says about this stupid prof.

FanFiction.Net - My Disjointed Life, a Final Fantasy VII fanfic
Damn, this stupid prof is killing me with his plastic smile and fake toupee. It’s not as if he’s being inconspicuous about it either.
www.fanfiction.net/s/2724230/1/

Yeah, that sounds about right.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 10:01 AM on January 14, 2008

I'm actually thinking about painting a non-sectarian mural on Bono. This will combine the Loyal and National factions into a gestalt, "Lotional" grouping, and I imagine myself painting this Lotion all over Bono while he sings one of his inspirational guitar-based peace-promoting hits with a modern bluesy feel.

As I massage this liquid of tolerance into his tired, aching muscles, he'll flash me that charismatic smile and make a cheeky quip about me rubbing him... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 5:57 AM on January 14, 2008

Great post. I'm actually standing for political office myself in 2008, and I believe that kissing the odd innocent youngster is a time-honoured ritual in every honest campaign. Yet, you get caught on video fondling an 8 year-old girl and suddenly the campaign contributions dry up quicker than the hopless tears of a Sudanese refugee under the pitiless African sun. That's typical liberal flip-flopping for you.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 6:43 AM on January 13, 2008

Look, everyone knows that Barack Obama IS actually an Islamist sleeper agent who hates Jews, America. And, you know - maybe that's OK.

Hillary? - she's actually a lesbian demoness who wants to castrate all American menfolk with her own sharp talons. But, it takes “diff'rent strokes” to make America.

Edwards: pedophile crack fiend. And can YOU really say that you've never been tempted by those twin forbidden delights?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 8:24 AM on January 12, 2008

Hey check this out: you know what Bill Gates' solution for preventable diseases in Africa is? No? He's gonna close Africa - and then open it up again, just to see if THAT works! HA HA HA HA HA! Like a "help desk" - !

No wait - how about this: Bill Gates is retiring to work on his Charity, right? So now he's gonna write to some Nigerian guys, offering to give THEM $100 million if they just give HIM their bank account details! HA HA HA HA HA! You get it?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 3:53 PM on January 7, 2008

This is a great list - a GREAT list. One of the best lists I've read in a long time - and let me tell you, I've read a lot of fucking lists in my life. But without a doubt, this list has that rare combination of action, suspense and romance that I always look for in a good list.

The setting of this work of historical listing is Britain, from 1945 to the present day. The list follows a group of writers - novelists, poets and playwrights - as they ply their trade in a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 9:38 AM on January 7, 2008

Co-incidentally, I actually have a life-sized rubber mother. And we do everything together!

I dress her up in a variety of clothes appropriate for a middle-aged matriarch, I take her out shopping with me, we go to the movies once a week, and - basically - we spend a lot of quality time together in the privacy of my house.

And the great thing is, even when I'm on a date, I can still hear her nagging, whiny voice in the back of my mind telling... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:17 AM on January 7, 2008

Great! Thanks plex (et al).
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:18 PM on January 5, 2008

Make everything electronic and based on cameras

Obviously you are a foul enemy of all that the noble game of cricket stands for, you abominable Apollyon - you barbarous Bolshevik - you chthonic cultist - you demonic denouncer - you ersatz Erinye - you fustilarian felaheen - you gaunt giglet - you horrible harpy - you iconoclastic insurrectionary - you jeering jackanape - you kakistocratic kook - you lumpenprole lapidator - you malodorous mutineer - you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 6:31 AM on January 4, 2008

Yeah, Aussies sure do have big dicks.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 7:45 AM on January 4, 2008

So being on a pirate ship and attacking all those gnomes made out of dried apricot covered in honey last night was just a rehearsal for the real thing

Arrr, me tiny, dried-apricot hearties! Ye scurvy-preventin' dogs, hoist the Jelly Roger - I'll dribble honey on any of ye who won't heave-ho!
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 5:27 AM on January 3, 2008

"Banality of evil" - ? Pfft! That tired and shop-worn hypothesis is so "last century" - !

Nowadays, all the cool kids are devotees of the theory of the bananality of evil: they all hold that evil has a thick, yellow skin and is high in potassium. Furthermore it contains no seeds, but must be transplanted by human hands. Also monkeys like it - the cheeky little scamps!

Yet I myself am working on a new concept, that of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 2:05 AM on January 3, 2008