MetaFilter

LGFs' fear is real and legitimate.

You have to take into account the level of sheltering these people require from LGF and other websites like Free Republic. These sites work in part because they allow a level of anonymity for their members but there is more to it than that...

Structurally these sites are designed (like almost all blogs and message boards) to expire topics and discussion threads. Oh, these threads are still there in most cases,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by wfrgms at 8:26 AM on May 18, 2008

There are any number of methods but the common thing is: you deal with competitive people by not competing. That's the main thing to keep in mind

people who ask those kind of questions are not happy. it's incredibly trite but incredibly true: money and possessions do not equal happiness.

So true. If you can do this genuinely, do like me.

Give them a beatific smile, with piercing and loving, happy eyes.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Meatbomb at 6:12 PM on May 16, 2008 marked best answer

Background: when my wife was getting her MBA, people regularly assumed that I was the student, and she was merely the spouse. This led to ample opportunities for this kind of thing.

It needs to be said, however, that most of her classmates surprised me by not playing to the stereotype. A few did not. Of those, if I started to get sick of the vibe you're describing in your question, I'd change the game. Why should Mr. or Ms. jerkwad compare themselves to me? What fun is... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by NoRelationToLea at 11:34 AM on May 16, 2008

Your wife is not depressed now. She was years ago and worked thro it with counselors and medication and with your support. You continued drinking more than 1 bottle of wine a nite. You drink and drive your car and your boat. After 2 glasses it is impossible to have a conversation with you. So of course you wife withdrew. But on a constant basis she would ask you nicely to quit. Your answer was no. The bottle was more important.
The porn, well she looked at your computer and realized... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mrleec at 2:26 PM on March 31, 2008

What do you get when you cross a dead baby with a bottle of Astroglide™?

I don't know either, but I can't stop eating it!
posted to MetaFilter by Navelgazer at 7:26 PM on May 12, 2008

Has anyone checked on Zuleika Dobson's whereabouts on the nights of the deaths?
posted to MetaFilter by goatdog at 12:59 PM on May 3, 2008

Suck it, playahs, my Mom was all hatin the Ewoks before the Internets even existed.

When I was little, I watched those Ewok TV Movies like their were the gospel. All summer, over and over again, I went on magical space adventures with my pal Wicket. I started to incorporate Ewok sayings into my normal speech patterns, particularly the word "Tootcha" which Wicket said all the time.

So I was all tootcha this and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by robocop is bleeding at 2:45 PM on May 2, 2008

Barbershopshop quartet singing the Ewok celebration song.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 2:41 PM on May 2, 2008

I am SO staying away from all of you when the new Harry Potter book comes out.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:38 PM PST on May 14

I paid $10 extra when I pre-ordered it to find out the ending. Voldemort is Harry's father and is redeemed in the end right before he dies. Then the ewoks fucking jam out.
posted to MetaTalk by ND¢ at 1:43 PM on May 14, 2007

Where's the line? Does this cross it?
posted by Asymptote

Stop that.
posted to MetaTalk by Armitage Shanks at 9:59 PM on April 28, 2008

Ad teams put together billboards and don't worry about whether every 83rd person that drives by says "What an amateurish piece of shit design job that is."

Just so you know, ad people, I do this.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 2:14 PM on April 24, 2008

I saw the post last night - part of me was delighted to see a bit of Paul de Leeuw on the blue but I decided to stay out of it, not in the least because of the horrid framing and the looming trainwreck.

But today, seeing how most other NL Mefites have weighed in and now it's in MeTa, I feel compelled to respond.

Almost without exception, I tend to feel "you just can't understand this if you're not from there, mahn" arguments are... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:01 AM on April 24, 2008

...would have had her carrying the same ID as a very famous, barrier-breaking black baseball player. So she got a different name.

You almost named her Curt Flood? Crazy, dude.
posted to MetaFilter by NoMich at 9:41 AM on April 24, 2008

Man, am I the only guy who hasn't cheated on a trip to Europe?

Due to the necessarily imperfect nature of relationship questions (I'm not you, I'm not your boyfriend), I can only speak to how I'd react were I your guy: I'd be pissed. Because, y'know what, I can take a trip with my ex and not have anything happen. Just like I can hang out with women that I'd love to have sex with and nothing will happen. Because despite the bullshit gender assumptions, not all guys are... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by klangklangston at 1:08 PM on April 22, 2008 marked best answer

That does seem like kind of a dick move, dersins.
posted to MetaTalk by blacklite at 4:53 PM on April 21, 2008

I also love everyone's stories. I want to build forts with you, and show you the foundations of ruined farmhouses, where we can dig for iridescent bottles. If we're very quiet, we might see a fox.
posted to MetaFilter by louche mustachio at 1:03 PM on April 12, 2008

This seems like a good place for a "back when I was a kid" response.

When I was in middle school and high school, I would roll a pillow into a sleeping bag, tie it onto the handlebars of my bicycle and yell, "I'm going campin', see you tomorrow!" Sometimes I would hear a response, other times I didn't, I would just pedal off into the woods anyway.
One day, some friends and I found a twotrack that we never saw before,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NoMich at 10:20 PM on April 11, 2008

This kind of list isn't meant to be an outline of any person's life - it's a series of suggestions, as a jumping off point for thinking about things. To point to some of them and say that in certain times and places they apply to people who aren't white really misses the point. This stuff blew my mind when I was first exposed to it, but it always kind of baffles me when people can't see it at all... I'm not saying that straight, white men all live on easy street and are prosperous and happy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by moxiedoll at 3:55 PM on April 17, 2008

You know, it's quite a strange thing. The single most common adjective applied to Mister Rogers in this and other thread is the word 'creepy'?

I think I know why he strikes people as creepy. It's because his isn't at all 'cool'. There is no cynicism, no irony, no condescension in him at all. He is not simply unhip, he is ahip. And this is what people calling him creepy are picking up on.

We are conditioned to traffic in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 2:00 PM on June 1, 2007

I'll hook you up if you hook me up...

AAAAA+++++ WOULD VOYEUR META REACHAROUND AGAIN!!++1
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 2:06 PM on April 17, 2008

Awesome! I'm only, like, 33 away!
posted to MetaTalk by klangklangston at 1:54 PM on April 17, 2008

Here's some gallows humor related to the trench warfare prevalent during WWI, and the great number of men who died uselessly engaging in it. It's from Black Adder Goes Forth:

Captain Blackadder: How are you feeling, Darling?
Captain Darling: Ahm- not all that good, Blackadder. Rather hoped I'd get through the whole show, go back to work at Pratt and Sons, keep wicket for the Croydon Gentlemen, marry Doris. Made a note in my diary on the way here.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by shmegegge at 10:56 AM on April 17, 2008

The problem with theme posting is that the more you do, the worse they are.
posted to MetaFilter by smackfu at 5:01 PM on April 16, 2008

You're right, shmengee. Even though Armitage was able to pick through my un-nuanced message better than you were, you're completely right. I've been on the receiving end of Languagehat's ire, but that's no reason for me to kick the guy when he's trying to make amends. And for that, I apologize. Now, where's my sycophantic pile of favorites?
posted to MetaTalk by Dave Faris at 1:48 PM on April 16, 2008

I want a little cake icon next to our names on our birthdays. (Optionally, of course.)

(mockup)
posted to MetaTalk by flatluigi at 4:49 PM on April 7, 2008

That's not acting out, that is a job perq. As is being able to ban dersins for eleven minutes just because he's irking me.
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 11:43 AM on April 10, 2008

Ok, parting shot, for all my homeys...

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: a vast and barnacl'd longboat hull
Stands in the desert. Near it on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd oar lies, whose splintered blade
And smooth-worn grip and bowed shaft
Tell that its rowers well those waters clove
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these empty oarlocks,
The waves that mock'd them and the... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by LobsterMitten at 12:32 AM on April 10, 2008

That was the AskMe version of "My penis is so big that it's uncomfortable to ride a bicycle. What other problems will my big penis and I encounter?"
posted to MetaTalk by mullacc at 2:21 PM on December 18, 2007

* lights a smelly cigar, sits down *

Pull up a chair, lemme tell you how it used to be.
You see, back before threads were closed every 30 days, there were LOTS of places - places they didn't tell you much about, except in whispers. They called them "cult" threads.

* takes a long puff, blows smoke rings *

Except, back then, you had to FIND the threads. There were whispers here, hints there, but you... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by yhbc at 7:22 PM on October 26, 2005

"What happened? Where did you go? You're eyes are all bloodshot and twitchy, you look like-"

"I saw...something. I saw something bad."

"What did you see? I thought you said you were working all day, that you wouldn't be messing around with that stuff anymore..."

"No - I was - I mean - No... I just, I was looking at her profile. Well, I was looking at this picture of a pig that she... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Baby_Balrog at 3:26 PM on March 7, 2006

Hello. koeselitz here, using my wife's account because I don't want to go to the trouble of restarting my old one for one lone comment. Unfortunately, this has to be done, though I promised myself I wouldn't. I found myself ducking in today, and noticed this:

papakwanz: Anyway, why is it that we think that being sodomized is the most absolutely horrible traumatic thing that can happen to a boy? Do we really think that Aristotle needed therapy because Plato... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Viomeda at 7:27 AM on April 3, 2008

I've been outside. It's overrrated.

Traditionally Outside receives extremely high ratings by those who like to see others play it, and these people are in many cases comfortably ensconced Inside themselves. Outside was released many years ago, it was in fact the first massively multiplayer game, and yet it has always managed to avoid the double-edged Retro tag. In its favor, continual user updates have kept Outside current; there are always new things... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aeschenkarnos at 4:19 PM on March 30, 2008

I knew you reminded me of someone, cortex.

Dan White?
posted to MetaTalk by Kirth Gerson at 12:05 PM on March 20, 2008

In the sub-basement of what was once an industrial park, the server continued asking questions to the void. The network was long-gone--the ethernet cables vaporized right where they emerged to the surface--but this didn't stop the server. It had a queue.

The third wave of bombings had collapsed the ceiling, destroying almost all the other racks in the room, but the server remained. It was closest to the large metal cage that held the enormous emergency power supply. It... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ian A.T. at 5:20 AM on March 17, 2008

I am so fucking sick of these shitkicking hillbillies and their idiot bigoted manchild killer God I could scream. Could someone please start putting head-asploding blipverts in pop-country records and talk radio programs....

I'm no expert, but this may not be the best way to fight intolerant, hateful, bigoted, stereotyping, inflammatory statements.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 9:41 PM on March 12, 2008

☺Test
posted to MetaTalk by Rhomboid at 2:34 PM on September 14, 2007

Disgraced Sports stars: You should wear a #7 with "Ron Mexico" on the back. InstaClassic!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by numinous at 9:46 PM on March 7, 2008

What in the fuck? Oh great...

*THE CLOUDS BOIL AND PART. LOQUACIOUS DESCENDS FROM THE CLOUDS IN A RAY OF LIGHT, CLAD IN BRILLIANT WHITE ROBES. IN ONE HAND IS A OVERSIZED HARDBOUND EDITION OF ROBERT HEINLEIN'S "STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND", IN THE OTHER HAND IS A COLD PLATE OF BEANS*

Ok. Hi class. Class!? *bangs book on podium until he has your attention*

I hope your week was splendid, and I know you're looking... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by loquacious at 12:15 PM on March 7, 2008

Somewhere in a box at my mother's house, on a faded sheet of notebook paper twenty years old, Smallheart the Gnome removes his helmet and falls to a knobby knee.
posted to MetaFilter by Bookhouse at 10:30 AM on March 4, 2008

We are just trying to get rid of these people and prevent them from coming to our town to solicit themselves for sex.

We're 85 comments deep already and nobody's really pointed out the sheer horror that this statement conveys.

We are just trying to get rid of these people

Do you know what "Christian" means? I've been amazed in my life how many people I've come across,... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by allkindsoftime at 3:23 AM on March 4, 2008

your favorite band may suck, but this certainly doesn't.
posted to MetaFilter by snofoam at 4:07 PM on February 29, 2008

McMansion has been the new derogatory for any middle-class greenfield suburb in America. Why do you care so much about how other people want to live? I agree the buildings are poor aesthetic taste but that is something of personal preference. This is sort of like the French blaming the stupid people of Algeria for the lack of non-arable land. Same sort of elitism, right?

The definition of McMansion is cheap construction coupled with poor location and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tkchrist at 9:57 AM on February 29, 2008

- Whites commit as many crimes as blacks, but the cops just don't notice.
- Whites commit as many crimes as blacks, but the jury lets them off.
- Whites don't commit nearly as many crimes as blacks, because they have a far better chance of receiving the middle-class upbringing and education which makes crime inappropriate.

Actually, it's a little from each column. If you compare the economic background of those... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Davenhill at 2:57 PM on February 28, 2008

If you favorite this comment I'll send you a mushy MeFi mail love note, possibly with integral equations in them.
posted to MetaFilter by onalark at 8:53 PM on February 24, 2008

I have deeply mixed feelings about Joseph Cornell as a person. I do love his art. I was introduced to Cornell when I was 11. The person who introduced me had been told by a renowned art collector that "Joseph likes quiche lorraine and little girls". I was taken out to his place, 37-08 Utopia Parkway, Flushing in 1965 with that person, who had also purchased a quiche lorraine for the occasion, in case I wasn't a suitable offering. She wanted his art and I was going to be the bait used... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 8:52 AM on May 24, 2006

In deference to Jess, I won't write the Tom post.

For the people who are interested in knowing what the heck she and I are talking about:

In the late 90s, the Internet was -- well, we were all there. A luminous chandelier of possibility. It was not hyperbole to say that the universe was unfolding in front of our eyes. Home pages were being bought and sold for frankly unrealistic sums of money. And there, face pressed wistfully up against the... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by felix at 12:41 PM on February 6, 2007

It's so profoundly frustrating. Almost impossibly so.
Sitting across the table with someone - right after church, and they say something homophobic, and you confront them about it.
And they say, "but it's an abomination! The....in the Bible!"
And you've taken all these classes, studied all these languages and the history of the ancient near-east and you completely grok how the scriptures have been spun and twisted and misrepresented and used as a... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Baby_Balrog at 8:57 PM on February 18, 2008

So, comrade, let us proceed quietly down the street with a minimum of fuss, yes?

Get behind me, Santa.
posted to MetaTalk by Armitage Shanks at 9:12 AM on February 18, 2008

ludwig_van, you say:

Anti-war people in your example and vegetarians in my example are not groups in the same sense that religious denominations are. I think a political party is a group that makes for a much more reasonable comparison to a religious faith.

This is where your reasoning is heading off in the wrong direction. With all due respect, your literacy about religion is not very high, and it might be a good idea to do... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Miko at 7:04 AM on February 18, 2008

konolia, my sister:

That stuff bothers me, too. It seems to me that a lot of our fellow MeFites try awfully hard to be fair-minded to most points of view, but don't even bother when it comes to certain groups, and Christians are one of those groups. Otherwise discerning people spout the most ignorant and specious nonsense about Christian origins and beliefs. Otherwise gracious people assume that the worst Christian behavior they've encountered is standard operating... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Pater Aletheias at 2:13 PM on February 17, 2008