Emails From Crazy People
July 30, 2009 1:04 PM Subscribe
Emails From Crazy People for your analysis.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Yeah, it doesn't seem there's a lot of genuinely new stuff here. -- cortex
Ahh, the whole site isn't JUST about Gary the Landlord. Sorry, carry on.
posted by uaudio at 1:08 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by uaudio at 1:08 PM on July 30, 2009
It does retell almost the entire Gary the Landlord saga, though.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:09 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:09 PM on July 30, 2009
Okay, if this isn't everythign that's wrong with the world, there is nothign wrong with anything anywhere.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:13 PM on July 30, 2009 [7 favorites]
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:13 PM on July 30, 2009 [7 favorites]
Okay, if this isn't everythign that's wrong with the world, there is nothign wrong with anything anywhere.
The truth of that one is up for grabs.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:16 PM on July 30, 2009
The truth of that one is up for grabs.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:16 PM on July 30, 2009
Crazy people's emails don't use the Internet's tubes. They use the psycho paths.
posted by netbros at 1:18 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by netbros at 1:18 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
In a way, I sort of almost want it to be true, because it so clearly illustrates so many despicable things so well: suggestion that a blind adherence to authority is more important than truth, suggestion that facts are mutable. It's a little snowflake of horror.
But I think it's fake. It's too perfect a little snowflake.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:19 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
But I think it's fake. It's too perfect a little snowflake.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:19 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
Hey, someone else on MeFi follows Failblog! Woot.
No, wait.. kewl?
Dang. What are the kids saying these days?
posted by yiftach at 1:21 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
No, wait.. kewl?
Dang. What are the kids saying these days?
posted by yiftach at 1:21 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
The truth of that letter may be up for grabs, but my son was sent to the office in grade 5 for insisting that insects are animals.
The teacher and the rest of the class ridiculed him.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:21 PM on July 30, 2009 [9 favorites]
The teacher and the rest of the class ridiculed him.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:21 PM on July 30, 2009 [9 favorites]
Blogs from crazy people have background images with lines going through the body text rendering it difficult to read. Just sayin'
posted by no_moniker at 1:23 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by no_moniker at 1:23 PM on July 30, 2009
it's like they did a mefi search for the word "email" and just posted everything we've already seen into one blog.
posted by shmegegge at 1:31 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by shmegegge at 1:31 PM on July 30, 2009
The letter may be fake, but I was sent to the office and my mother was called when I was in the fifth grade because I was being 'disruptive' by insisting that stars move. It was at that tender moment in my life when I realized that the process of becoming an adult did not cure stupidity.
posted by Pragmatica at 1:35 PM on July 30, 2009 [6 favorites]
posted by Pragmatica at 1:35 PM on July 30, 2009 [6 favorites]
Having been to school, I didn't think to question the authenticity of the letter.
posted by cmoj at 1:38 PM on July 30, 2009 [5 favorites]
posted by cmoj at 1:38 PM on July 30, 2009 [5 favorites]
I used to visit failblog from time to time, but they've recently started unblockable pop-up madness so fuck 'em. Also, the fact that they and everyone else who runs a semi-sleazy site now uses "viddler" instead of youtube tells me viddler must be fairly reprehensible.
posted by maxwelton at 1:47 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by maxwelton at 1:47 PM on July 30, 2009
Having been to school, the letter was so plausible that I didn't see the need to question it.
Water wet. Bush dumb. Ice cream cold. Pigtails cute. Grass green. Authoritarian public school teacher asshole.
It seems weird for someone to have gone to the trouble of fabricating the letter, since no doubt there are plenty of similar stories that are documentably true.
posted by majick at 1:51 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
Water wet. Bush dumb. Ice cream cold. Pigtails cute. Grass green. Authoritarian public school teacher asshole.
It seems weird for someone to have gone to the trouble of fabricating the letter, since no doubt there are plenty of similar stories that are documentably true.
posted by majick at 1:51 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
It seems weird for someone to have gone to the trouble of fabricating the letter, since no doubt there are plenty of similar stories that are documentably true.
Yes, but that letter is like distilled essence of authoritarian public school teacher asshole.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 2:04 PM on July 30, 2009
Yes, but that letter is like distilled essence of authoritarian public school teacher asshole.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 2:04 PM on July 30, 2009
Authoritarian public school teacher asshole
it's not just the assholery, it's the ignorant assholery... but is this just a U.S. thing? maybe you have to have few options in life to consider being trapped in a room filled with adolescent humans (did you know what humans are also animals?) all day, and maybe that leads to anger issues. but then it would be a cross-cultural phenomenon...
posted by geos at 2:06 PM on July 30, 2009
it's not just the assholery, it's the ignorant assholery... but is this just a U.S. thing? maybe you have to have few options in life to consider being trapped in a room filled with adolescent humans (did you know what humans are also animals?) all day, and maybe that leads to anger issues. but then it would be a cross-cultural phenomenon...
posted by geos at 2:06 PM on July 30, 2009
Nobody ever wrote a letter about it, but one of my few vivid memories of third grade is standing up in science class and, with increasing agitation, insisting that Sol was another name used for the sun. At nine years old, I lacked the rhetorical chops to make a good case for it, but by god the science teacher should have known that.
Anyway, no trouble believing that one was true.
posted by Nomiconic at 2:07 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
Anyway, no trouble believing that one was true.
posted by Nomiconic at 2:07 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
Be fair. Dmitri didn't tell Olga to pass this email on to 12 of her friends or her ears would fall off within the next phase of the moon.
posted by Cranberry at 2:23 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by Cranberry at 2:23 PM on July 30, 2009
E-mails from crazy people. Definitely one of the five food groups of Internet.
posted by festivemanb at 2:27 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by festivemanb at 2:27 PM on July 30, 2009
My eighth-grade science teacher once asserted that the double-slit experiment showed that light behaves like a particle. I raised my hand and asked her if she had bothered to read the textbook. She sent me to the principal's office. I felt like Galileo.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:49 PM on July 30, 2009 [7 favorites]
posted by BitterOldPunk at 2:49 PM on July 30, 2009 [7 favorites]
I got in trouble for insisting that spiders were arachnids, which are different from insects. That's when I stopped learning.
posted by turgid dahlia at 2:55 PM on July 30, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by turgid dahlia at 2:55 PM on July 30, 2009 [2 favorites]
Dear lord...my brilliant son starts school this year...and none of these stories are making me feel any better about it. (We'd been homeschooling through kindergarten, but he wanted to try the school where all the other neighborhood kids go.) I'm really kinda worried about it because he's going to first grade, but reads at a 6th grade level, passes vocabulary tests aimed at 5th and 6th graders, does fractions level math, and has had the opportunity to play with paleontologists and forensic anthropologies for extended periods, so he has a strong grasp of biology and physiology...I *KNOW* he's going to correct teachers. Hell, he corrects me, and most of the time he's right.
I'm just not sure how to deal with it when it happens, because "Yeah...ignorant people, what can you do?" is probably not the best approach.
posted by dejah420 at 3:16 PM on July 30, 2009
I'm just not sure how to deal with it when it happens, because "Yeah...ignorant people, what can you do?" is probably not the best approach.
posted by dejah420 at 3:16 PM on July 30, 2009
This happened to me twice; first in the third grade when I corrected my teacher's spelling of "vacuum" and then in the fifth grade when I insisted that the Rosetta Stone was not, in fact, found in Canada.
The funny thing is, at least with the second time it happened, it was one of my favorite teachers ever; Mrs. Anderson was kind, funny, and could handle everything we threw at her... except for that, I guess.
posted by jtron at 3:23 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
The funny thing is, at least with the second time it happened, it was one of my favorite teachers ever; Mrs. Anderson was kind, funny, and could handle everything we threw at her... except for that, I guess.
posted by jtron at 3:23 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
dejah420, I feel for you. I think I was in sixth grade before I figured out that I was smarter than most of my teachers and better-informed than many. Your son seems likely to hit that point of despair much sooner. Hope things go well for your son...or that he decides to come back home.
posted by not that girl at 3:28 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by not that girl at 3:28 PM on July 30, 2009
Astro Zombie: Okay, if this isn't everythign that's wrong with the world, there is nothign wrong with anything anywhere.
But...I thought this was proof of what's wrong with the world....
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:46 PM on July 30, 2009
But...I thought this was proof of what's wrong with the world....
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:46 PM on July 30, 2009
You know, I skip out on work and read Metafilter to avoid e-mails like these.
posted by rokusan at 3:48 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by rokusan at 3:48 PM on July 30, 2009
The kid called his teacher a liar publicly. That wasn't true (almost certainly) and was incredibly rude and disrespectful. That kind of behavior should not be tolerated. I think the kid got off with a pretty mild punishment.
However, I don't like the following line: "In the future, Alex would be better off simply accepting my teachings without resistance." Alex should be able to contradict the teacher, if he does it in a polite and respectful way. He should be able to state his case once, and if the teacher disagrees, he should be able to drop it at that moment, and possibly bring in an authoritative source the next day to show to the teacher, in private, outside of class. And if the teacher still refuses to correct himself in class, Alex should draw the obvious conclusion and move on.
As teachers become more and more ignorant, this situation will occur more often, and parents should instruct their children in how to handle it.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 3:51 PM on July 30, 2009
However, I don't like the following line: "In the future, Alex would be better off simply accepting my teachings without resistance." Alex should be able to contradict the teacher, if he does it in a polite and respectful way. He should be able to state his case once, and if the teacher disagrees, he should be able to drop it at that moment, and possibly bring in an authoritative source the next day to show to the teacher, in private, outside of class. And if the teacher still refuses to correct himself in class, Alex should draw the obvious conclusion and move on.
As teachers become more and more ignorant, this situation will occur more often, and parents should instruct their children in how to handle it.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 3:51 PM on July 30, 2009
The teacher one is legit. As someone who was banned from bringing outside books to school or sitting within 6' of a computer it hurts to say this, but the kid needs to learn that there are right and wrong ways to suggest that someone is mistaken and to resolve disagreements without making a scene.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 3:58 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by a robot made out of meat at 3:58 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
I got into it with a substitute teacher whose buttons were just too easy to push. The thing that really set her off was my insisting that smoking is not good for your health (she had a bumper sticker proclaiming I SMOKE AND I VOTE). What set me off was her insistence that people with HIV/AIDS should be quarantined on an island.
Ms. Harrington, if you're reading this, fuck you.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 3:59 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
Ms. Harrington, if you're reading this, fuck you.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 3:59 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
I'm just not sure how to deal with it when it happens, because "Yeah...ignorant people, what can you do?" is probably not the best approach.
Yeah, I know. I'm forty and I don't know what to do about that. But especially if he's smart, there's no reason to protect him from that particular fact of life. As much as I'm not into Crabby Appleton's (up there) emphasis on respect regardless of whether it's deserved, socially, it's important to learn to how to keep your mouth shut, when not to pursue an argument, and knowing who you can talk to and who you simply can't, and how to handle those things gracefully and maintain good relationships and so on. And God, that's hard. But he'll learn, sounds like a smart kid.
I dread this too because baby llama is only twelve months, and I had such a hard time in school and have such a hard time with the cold hard reality that sometimes, for reasons that would drive you crazy if you thought too hard about it, stupid people are in charge. So I guess actually, your original response was right on--What can you do? Be polite, move forward, don't fight dumb battles, find the people you can talk to.
This isn't making me feel any better about my sad losing battle for data integrity where I work, though. There's a battle I won't be winning. Speaking of.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:12 PM on July 30, 2009
Yeah, I know. I'm forty and I don't know what to do about that. But especially if he's smart, there's no reason to protect him from that particular fact of life. As much as I'm not into Crabby Appleton's (up there) emphasis on respect regardless of whether it's deserved, socially, it's important to learn to how to keep your mouth shut, when not to pursue an argument, and knowing who you can talk to and who you simply can't, and how to handle those things gracefully and maintain good relationships and so on. And God, that's hard. But he'll learn, sounds like a smart kid.
I dread this too because baby llama is only twelve months, and I had such a hard time in school and have such a hard time with the cold hard reality that sometimes, for reasons that would drive you crazy if you thought too hard about it, stupid people are in charge. So I guess actually, your original response was right on--What can you do? Be polite, move forward, don't fight dumb battles, find the people you can talk to.
This isn't making me feel any better about my sad losing battle for data integrity where I work, though. There's a battle I won't be winning. Speaking of.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:12 PM on July 30, 2009
Your f-score must be off the charts
Are you referring to Meyers-Briggs? If so, nope. I'm an NT.
Seriously, though, if you can't handle arguing with a kid without it injuring your ego, you shouldn't be teaching
I'm not a teacher. Also, this isn't really the issue. Learning in a classroom setting requires discipline. Alex's behavior was ugly, and it won't serve him well in life. In an ideal world, perhaps, the truth would reign supreme over all values, but this isn't that world.
On preview: Oh, I see, you're just an asshole.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 4:26 PM on July 30, 2009
Are you referring to Meyers-Briggs? If so, nope. I'm an NT.
Seriously, though, if you can't handle arguing with a kid without it injuring your ego, you shouldn't be teaching
I'm not a teacher. Also, this isn't really the issue. Learning in a classroom setting requires discipline. Alex's behavior was ugly, and it won't serve him well in life. In an ideal world, perhaps, the truth would reign supreme over all values, but this isn't that world.
On preview: Oh, I see, you're just an asshole.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 4:26 PM on July 30, 2009
Telling the truth when an authority figure is lying, and sticking by what you said when called on it, is "ugly" behavior?
Oh, Crabby. You're such a contrarian.
posted by jtron at 4:28 PM on July 30, 2009 [3 favorites]
Oh, Crabby. You're such a contrarian.
posted by jtron at 4:28 PM on July 30, 2009 [3 favorites]
Now I think I finally understand "you are educated stupid".
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:31 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:31 PM on July 30, 2009 [1 favorite]
jtron, I was discussing the "Alex" letter. Please explain to me how the teacher was lying.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 4:37 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by Crabby Appleton at 4:37 PM on July 30, 2009
By saying a kilometre is longer than a mile, he is clearly telling a falsehood.
posted by jtron at 4:38 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by jtron at 4:38 PM on July 30, 2009
A lie is an intentionally false statement. It seems unlikely to me that the teacher was deliberately misleading the class. More likely, he was simply ignorant. I won't defend his ignorance, but I'm not willing to attribute malice to him without more evidence.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 4:41 PM on July 30, 2009
posted by Crabby Appleton at 4:41 PM on July 30, 2009
I'm just not sure how to deal with it when it happens, because "Yeah...ignorant people, what can you do?" is probably not the best approach.
dejah, this may well be the best approach. It's what we grownups have to tell ourselves every damn day.
posted by scratch at 4:45 PM on July 30, 2009
dejah, this may well be the best approach. It's what we grownups have to tell ourselves every damn day.
posted by scratch at 4:45 PM on July 30, 2009
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posted by Addiction at 1:06 PM on July 30, 2009