MetaFilter posts tagged with mcsweeneys

The Conflicted Existence of a Female Porn Writer.

minifigs — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:51:23 -0800

Lynsey G. has taken odd writing jobs where she could get them for a few years now, and one day woke up to realize that they were all about sex. Part 2: Desensitization. Part 3: Pornocracy Party. Part 4: The Look. Part 5: Schooled by the Stars, or What I Learned at the Porn Expo.

Or was that squeal thing you did supposed to be the crying doves? How did it go? "Aii! Aii! Aii! Aiaiaiai!" It was a massive turn-on, but it was not science.

ocherdraco — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:42:04 -0800

John Moe's Pop-Song Correspondences

Including:
An Invitation to
Joni Mitchell to Sing
at the Opening of
the Tree Museum.
"Why couldn't we have just cut the trees up? Then it would have been a log museum. And we wanted a tree museum." A Letter to Prince Regarding the Crying of Doves and the Fiasco That Resulted From the Presentation of a Speech on That Topic. "Despite the provocative title of the speech you proposed, we are not in the habit of hiring speakers who are not ornithologists. But frankly, Mr. Prince, your androgynous, highly charged sexuality hypnotized us. We went crazy; you were a star; we wanted you to take us with you. Also, as you know, we were all quite fond of your father, Tubold. Knowing how rigorous Tubold's academic standards were, we thought his son would be just as thorough and insightful. But you are not like your father, Tubold. " A Note Placed In The Pay Envelope Of Billy "The Piano Man" Joel. "And our businessmen were irate about your description of them getting "stoned." Do you not know the difference between drunk and stoned? Hint: One is acceptable businessman behavior, the other's illegal. But even if you were to say they were getting drunk, that still would not be OK. As a matter of fact, just don't sing about the businessmen. They're nice guys and good tippers."

McSweeney's help for spam authors

bystander — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:07:28 -0800

THE ELEMENTS OF SPAM (single link McSweeney's post)

Death By Chocolate

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:22:09 -0800

Selections from H.P. Lovecraft's brief tenure as a Whitman's Sampler copywriter.

Nothing like a good Read.

adamvasco — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 10:18:20 -0800

Small is Beautiful - The best new journals. (via Guardian / Observer) selected by Stephanie Merritt. "Published out of tiny offices or even editors' apartments, funded by grants, donations or founders' savings, distributed by direct subscription or in selected independent bookshops, paying contributors little or nothing at all, these magazines have nevertheless attracted such eminent writers as to give them an international reputation far beyond their limited circulation."

Abbott and Costello At Blockbuster

adrober — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 21:17:29 -0800

Movie Store "Who's on First."
CUSTOMER: Why can't I rent Seven?
CASHIER: Because it's over the limit.
CUSTOMER: Right, but I want Seven. Get rid of Ten.
CASHIER: (Pause.) That would leave negative three.
(via McSweeney's)

Ye scurvy bilge rat!

louigi — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 08:54:36 -0800

What's a pirate's favorite aspect of computational linguistics? PARRRsing sentences.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate day, me hearties!

His books are required reading for the rest of your life

chinese_fashion — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 09:51:49 -0800

The Greatest War Protestor of All Time --Wise, hilarious, and kind words from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. If you don't know who he is, fake it.

shouting politics-fiter in a crowded theatre

leotrotsky — Sun, 30 May 2004 08:07:22 -0800

Pros & Cons of Kerry's Veep Choices 14. Ann Coulter, columnist Pro: Flattering position would silence her exposing of the true evil liberal agenda Con: Is composed entirely of spiders and deadly snakes writhing beneath a latex "skin." Courtesy of McSweeneys

Rising Up and Rising Down

Prospero — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 15:31:36 -0800

When is violence justified? I am now the proud owner of one of 3,500 copies of William T. Vollmann's 3,299-page study of violence, Rising Up and Rising Down, published by McSweeney's. The book (if you can call something that's seven volumes a "book") has gotten mixed reviews that lean toward positive: Scott McLemee, writing in the New York Times Book Review (reg. req.), called it a "flood of logorrhea," while Steven Moore (a literary critic notable for his work on another long-winded writer, William Gaddis) wrote in the Washington Post that it is an "achievement beyond the realm of mere mortals," comparing it to Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough. This oral history tells the story behind how the book came to be published at McSweeney's, and is an interesting look at what needs to happen for a difficult-to-market work to make its way from its author to the general reading public, in a publishing industry that's unfriendly to this kind of thing, to say the least.

Kafka at Camp: The Lost Diaries

GriffX — Tue, 14 Oct 2003 18:53:53 -0800

Kafka at Camp: The Lost Diaries July 10,1897—In Arts and Crafts, that humid hut, the teacher stops. He looks down. I look up. I am working on something intricate, something simultaneously nothing and everything. It is made of paper. "I always wanted you to admire my origami," I say. "I do. I do admire it." "Well, you shouldn't," I say. "You're a weird little dude, Franzie."

D'Souza and Coulter on Aliens

homunculus — Mon, 02 Jun 2003 10:34:38 -0800

Unused Audio Commentary By Dinesh D'Souza and Ann Coulter, Recorded Spring 2003, for Aliens Special Red-State Edition DVD, Part One and Part Two.

a log flume through your lower intestine?

jonson — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:40:57 -0800

Lost Disney Memo Found. McSweeney's posts a posthumously uncovered memo from the Disney board to Walt regarding his initial plans for a radically different "Disney-Land."

owillis — Fri, 01 Nov 2002 20:48:09 -0800

Journal of a new COBRA recruit. "I report to COBRA boot camp out in Utah in the middle of June. The recruiter guy said that everyone around there thinks it's where some crazy old Mormon lives with all his wives. I'm not supposed to say anything about it to anyone. I'm supposed to tell Mom and Dad that I'm going off to work for the phone company."

MiguelCardoso — Tue, 15 Oct 2002 11:02:59 -0800

If you can't stand the heat, better stick to the kitchen of your dreams... Reading about the new industrial home chic in last week's Time and The Wall Street Journal, with its Viking and SubZero worship, how couldn't one be reminded of Mark Shatzker's now classic "My Dream Kitchen" piece for McSweeney's? In the light of all this fetichism, it deserves to be read afresh. For a sobering dessert, may I propose a look at Julia Child's kitchen, now in the Smithsonian?

MiguelCardoso — Mon, 29 Oct 2001 02:21:46 -0800

Is McSweeney's Sounding More And More Like Random House? Or is it just me? As a lifetime subscriber and fan of David Eggers, I'm sickened by the glib, shameless commercialism that now contaminates what was once an interesting website for new writers. What in the hell has happened? Or is the new book-peddling climate just another tiresome take on post-post-post modernism or, more likely, just blatant PR? (Latest example inside)

palegirl — Thu, 22 Feb 2001 12:22:08 -0800

A Clarification -- Dave Eggers wants to expose the process, "By reprinting your correspondence to me I hope to illuminate the journalist's mind: how a writer starts by telling me he is a fan of my work, supports my company's endeavors, etc, then writes a snippety little thing full of sneering and suspicion." so he's posted ALL of the email correspondance he had with david kirkpatrick before this unflattering piece was printed... and after.
"I think it's important that our exchange be published. It's the only remedy commensurate with the impact you enjoyed with your original piece. I want your friends and family to see it, and to say 'David, ew.'"
Meanspirited all around, but can you blame him?

sylloge — Sat, 02 Dec 2000 19:07:00 -0800

McSweeneys.com — seven months later. Gerry, lead writer of the "Massachusettes McSweeney's" is ripping it up with feeble essays such as Potty Parity and Suburban Lumberjacks. He's no Ben Greenman.

luke — Fri, 12 May 2000 23:14:26 -0800

McSweeney's suspends lifetime subscriptions. Sure hope mine got in under the wire.

mrmorgan — Tue, 11 Apr 2000 13:57:11 -0800

Mcsweeny's is back to normal, rather abruptly. Okay, I give; what was supposed to be funny about this whole thing, anyway?

luke — Sun, 09 Apr 2000 23:34:45 -0800

If you're tired of McSweeney's, try McSweeney's.

sylloge — Sat, 08 Apr 2000 23:13:16 -0800

22% of McSweeneys.com visitors are using Macs which is more proof that the more intelligent your content, the more diverse your user agents. Or something. (More Mac users read Suck and Salon?)

mrmorgan — Thu, 06 Apr 2000 13:01:50 -0800

Latest on the mcsweeneys.net takeover. If this is a prank, it's already getting old. I keep hoping for some big humor payoff, but I'm the MTV generation--speed things up! Darnit!

Hegemonic — Tue, 04 Apr 2000 08:57:27 -0800

Anyone who doubted that the mcsweeneys.com/mcsweeneys.net merger was a hoax might want to take a look at the new McSweeney's Internet Tendency home page. Somehow I don't think this is a permanent change.