Friday, February 17, 2006

 

Black-and-white world


I wish I were in a land of black-and-white -- not where issues and ideas were "black and white," which they never are, but a place where everything was just toned down.

Color is highly overrated.

--ER

Comments:
one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes comic strips revolves around this idea. While looking at an old photo album with his Dad, Calvin asks when color film was invented. His dad proceded to tell him that film was always 'color'; the world used to be black and white. Thus, old pictures were actually color pictures of a black and white world.
 
My favorite Calvin was the one where he asked his dad where the sun went as it went down. His dad said it crashes out west somewhere, Arizona I think, and burns everything up.
 
ER,

What makes you say that? Seems like something is up.

SuperB
 
Gotta go with Super B on that'n, ER. You've got to be one of the most colorful personalities I've ever met, so eliminating color in life will, well, eliminate you.
 
Teditor! Get over to your blog and post something. And make it good. We've got to give E.R. some reason to stay colorful!

(I blame the advertisers myself for taking away the color.)
 
Eh. Just wore plumb out, I think. Had some scabs picked at lately. ... Debts ... unresolved anger ... just plain ol' regular human crap, is all.

Let it snow.
 
OK. I'm not worn out physically, really.

I think I let the Anons get me down.

It just makes me nuts. This is a rowdy place, by design. I like to mix it up -- and, as y'all know, I don't get all het up about staying on topic. And, I don't mind getting it across the chops sometimes in the heat of an argument, because I administer same myself sometimes.

What gets me is when someone comes along, willingly enters and stays in the ER Roadhouse, and then lambasts the place because of the kind of place it is, and me, because of the kind of me I am. I just don't get it.

I could go Haloscan. Should I? I don't like the idea of "banning" people. But shit.

Yep, my big ol' redneck feelers are hurt some. So, come on, Anons, pile on. I'm already in a dark mood.

Mean people suck.
 
Hey, it's your blog, but I vote against haloscan. I visit only two blogs that use it (Dr. B's and Tug's), but I have trouble loading the comments near about everytime. I usually have to refresh the page a few times before they load. Also, there is not a preview with haloscan.
 
BTW, Dr. ER shot the pic. That's my shadow. In the South Dakota Badlands, July ought-4.
 
Thanks, amigo Nick.
 
Maybe I've missed out, but it seems the Anonnies generally don't say anything worse than Maness does, but you often make it a point to declare your brotherly fellowfeeling there...I don't get it. Is it just their anonymity that pisses you off so much?
Haloscan is funny. One can indeed censor with it, but as Mr. Maness recently found out with something I said, the main reason not to censor is to give your opponent an opportunity to make an ass out of themselves.
(And I found out that basically calling him a chicken for not posting my comments will artificially draw him to the above "conclusion", but that's a whole other subject.)
 
Mark has never come in here and bitched about the very NATURE of the place. THAT's what pisses me off.

Be like coming into my house, when invited to argue or debate about some -- anything -- but then saying my carpet was dirty. Or I was fat.

That's the difference.
 
People suck. Eff 'em.

I am going to get into a fistfight with the next holier-than-thou ass who says another mean thing about Eddie Sutton.

He's not a drunk. He's got constant debilitating pain, so bad that pain pills no longer work, and he got so desperate he "went and got a bottle" again after 16 years on the wagon, and he drove and he wrecked and he's been properly charged with aggravated something or the other.

The news coverage has been good.
But sports columnists who don't know shit about shit but think they should have an opinion about a 69-year-old HERO's pain make me want to throw up.
 
OK, OK. Here's something else for me to whine about:

I will be on a panel of historians tomorrow at the local college, to review papers by a grad student and two undergrads. (Pssst. I haven't done the work yet! I've read the things, but I haven't dissected them. And Bird and her Yankee Beau and their doglet are en route, and I'll be working on that tonight instead of enjoying their company.)

And the Daytona 500 is Sunday but I'll probably be here at work because I just. can't. get. caught. up.

Grrrrr.
 
i know where the black and white came from, i listend to the president make a speech today and when he was done everything was in lower case and black and white i knew i should not have listened to the whole thing but i was facinated that he actually was dividing the country up into black and white and them and us right in front of me and then he opened it up for questions and an old fat home builder praised bush and complained about jimmy carter, yes jimmy carter and much better it was under bush, and then the color went out on my tv and the men's hair styles got longer i looked outside and then i knew it had finally happen the final dichotomy had come and i was them
 
ok i posted that
 
Mr ER, you need to visit my Valentine posting on my sight and meet my HOOTERs girl.
JTB
 
Shoot, I've even been gettin' a little endorphin infusion lately. Sunday will be two weeks of daily treadmilling!

Man, I'd be a total whinebag if not for that.
 
I am THERE, Junior. ... Wait. I don't have the link here at work ...
 
That was very darkly poetic, by the way, Drlobojo.
 
http://www.xanga.com/Juniorthebear
 
Well, Junior, that's quite a Babe you got there. Can't leave a comment from here 'cause I can't remember my passwords!
 
First off, ER, we all get to that point, so I'm glad you seem to be workin' through 'em. You're my bloggin' hero.

As for Eddie, the man's illness is called alcoholism, and he has fought it much of his life. He's been in recovery 19 years or so. But recovery is only staying away from alcohol, and any alcoholic is looking for a reason to step away from recovery.

God bless him, because he's not the first nor the last to have failed to remain sober. But he made a mistake, getting behind the wheel while knowingly impaired.

Not sure I would've done any differently had I been him. I just hope I would have.

As for my blog, ain't got the motivation nor the ability right now. I average writing four stories a day for the Guymon paper and am working on freelance stuff. Blog takes third, fourth or fifth fiddle.

Oh, and then there's the ongoing love affair, which is only better. Blog takes 10th fiddle. That woman and her beautiful daughter are my priority.

Oh, and because of that, I'm interviewing for jobs closer to her hometown, so I've been outta town two of the last three weekends.

So now ya know
 
where is her hometown?
 
Northwestern Missouri. North of K.C. a couple of hours. 'Twas an 18-hour round-trip in two days. Still feel sleep-deprived.

But while there, I asked her folks if I could have her hand in marriage. They not only seemed OK with it, they were plumb excited.

So I've been plannin' that, too. :-)
 
Dude!

Well, if you have a weddin' I would 'preciate an invite!

I am right happy for ya!

Wait a minute: How does SHE feel about it? :-)
 
Woo hoooooooo!!!! You MUST keep us all informed!
 
"Color is highly overrated."

oh, yeah?!

my friend, elderta, gets the hat tip for this site.

KEvron
 
It is far to easy to hide in the shadows ER. Along with breeding color, sunlight is the most efficient disinfectant.
 
Oh man, a sports coach is a "hero." No offense, but that's a crime against the language. And to the extent it's sincere, it's a crime against humanity, which ought to choose the people to whom it looks up with an extreme and minatory eye, presuming that people rather than deeds ought to be so characterized at all. Entertainers needs not apply.
 
Granted, hero might be a tad strong, but to folks who've lived in Stillwater, Okla., and who care about the Cowboys, Eddie Sutton is an Oklahoma State University icon they all revere.

Eddie Sutton is a good man, and good men falter. When I was there, I went to church with the Suttons and worked part time at the convenience store Eddie frequented. I also know him to be a very caring man who gave of himself frequently.

Good men falter, and Eddie faltered. He's no less a tremendous icon in many people's eyes, and those people, who like ER get caught up in the moment, will refer to such icons as heroes. Please cut the host here some slack, TStockman. Tain't easy to see a man revered falter.

I'll keep y'all posted on my plans. Hopefully I can reveal some information in eight days, but, then, I might be a tad bit busy, if ya know what I mean.

:-)
 
Ok, I'm going to be really really careful and try not to set you off. Nothing about your carpet or weight. But can you explain to me the difference in ragging on Sutton and ragging on Chenney. PLEASE DON'T FREAK OUT!
Enquiring minds want to know. I hope you can pass up the urge to make a crack about how I must read the Enquirer.
 
TStock:

Eddie Sutton is an icon to me personally, and to most of us who "bleed orange" -- that is, are grads and fans of Oklahoma State.

But he is a certifiable hero to hundreds of young men he has TAUGHT, as a coach, for so many years. That's Sutton's reputation, as a teacher who is a coach -- and as one who takes chances on kids others had given up on. More than a few inner-city kids have wound up on the ugly plains of north-central Oklahoma, playing basketball and learning under Eddie Sutton's tutelage. He's pretty old-fashioned and increasingly rare.

Also, I detect more than a hint of the old academic-athletic divide. Well, that don't -- bad grammar for emphasis -- really wash in this state.

As much as it pains me to say it, if OU didn't have the success of the foot ball Sooners, most people wouldn't know this state exists. And if Oklahoma State didn't have Sutton, as well as the best college wrestling team in the country most years, most Oklahomans -- those in Oklahoma City and Tulsa anyway -- wouldn't know Oklahoma State exists. (Farm types and rural people know OSU because of the extension service).

Anyway, lots more than a "sports coach" got shaken when Eddie Sutton fell. And most of us -- "most" because a downside to my beloved state is its shifting pluralities of holier-than-thou jerks -- are praying for him, his family and those under his influence, and stand and applaud him for his forthrightness and honesty. And we will not begrudge nor wish to lessen the punishment he has brought upon himself.
 
Anon, your last comment asnd mine crossed in the mail. I think a lot of my last post answers it.

Besides, if you mean ragging on Cheney for the shooting, you'll have to find where I did -- other than a jab or two the day the news broke. I agree with the Anon who thought it "cute" that the Corpus Christi paper got to break the story and that the White House press, especially David Gregory, who I otherwise like, showed their collecive ass by whining about not getting the story first.

Also Anon: I do not freak out when engaged. I freak out when attacked. This was not attack. Ergo, no out-freaking. I honestly don't know how the difference is not obvious. But, hey, I'm too human sometimes.
 
Both public figures, both picked on by the press over nothing of any importance to anyone other than the people involved.
 
I guess we crossed again. Ok, I'm cool. The white house press just had a bad week.
 
I very much disagree ER, there is all the difference in the world between Cheney and Sutton. Cheney's behavior and attitude and power and position are killing people 24/7. His association with the neo-cons and the Federalist Society pose a threat to the fabric of the American soul and to millions more over the next decades. And yet he hides like a goher poping up here and there avoiding the light of day like he was an 18th century Lord in England instead of an elected 21st century represenative of all Americans and a heart beat away from being the leadership of the world.
Sutton coaches for a small Western A&M university fell off the wagon and wrecked his car. His KIA rate is rather low and the potential is too.
To equate the two for a microsecond is ....beyond....my power of wonder...
 
hides like a gopher...
 
NO. Both Sutton and Cheney are puboic OFFICIALS, not just public figures, and therefore have responsibility to the citizenry. Their actions are not their own as long as their paychecks come from the government -- the state to which I pay taxes in Sutton's case, and the nation to which I pay taxes in Cheney's case.

My gripe is not with the reporting of either. It's with the timing of the commentary. In Sutton's case, the columnists were kicking a man when he was down. In Cheney's case, they were kicking a man who knocled (shot) another man down. Big difference.
 
Drlobo, I think yer disagreeing with someone else. ... ?

I'm off to see if the college is open in this ice storm.
 
ER you really think The Cheney thing is just about his hunting accident?
Do you really think a coach has the same responsibilities to the public as a VP of the U.S.?
You are bleeding orange!
 
I didn't say they were comparable, I don't think.
 
No my friend you didn't say they were comparable you were comparing them, ipso facto, you were treating them as comparable. You placed them in the same catagory. You compared the attacks on them as though the events concerned were all that were behind the attacks.
You were implicit in their comparability.
I know what you ment. But you transmitted something different.

Have a good day at UCO, they will enjoy your insight I think.

On another thread, I worked on a Jounalism degree and took Jounalism classes at OU in the 60s. I also once dated an Home Economist Major there as well. Now neither of those degrees or courses exist. Interesting isn't it.

Say hello to the bird and boy and bitty dog from me, and to Dr. ER as well.
 
I started a while back to comment on the cold and ice and snow here and then didn't. I was going to use the phrase cold as a witche's tit. I only recently found out what that ment, by the way. Witches had a third nipple (that would really confuse a country boy who is only used to four). The third one was used to nurse the witches familiar, a.k.a. cat. It produced a very cold product.
 
What the hell are you guys talking about?! Look at that photograph... I don't care if it is black/white or in full living color. There is something at you six-o'clock position that looks meaner than Hell! (Mark perhaps?)
 
Huh? That's a shadow of me with a Western hat on. I think the thing sticking to the left is the top of my truck door. :-)

Oh, wait. (Click). Now I have my imagination on: It's a shadow of me, wearin' the aforementioned hat, plyus the shadow of the Badlands Rock Monster sneakin' up on me. :-)
 
How did uco turn out?
 
Very well! Thanks for asking. Smaller-then-inspected crowd because of the weather, which meant it was a distilled crowd of real history freaks. I critiqued three papers -- one by a senior and two by grad students -- and didn't make any of them cry.

(I know some of y'all will find this hard to believe, but in person, in public, I am a lot more gracious, especially with students, than I am in this space, which is meant as a place for me to express all sorts of thoughts and emotions. A couple of regulars here also know that I can be a hard man, so to speak, when dealing with reporters. But I truly am kinder to students!)
 
That academic/athletic divide doesn't play in your state? Well, perhaps that's why without a nationally known football and basketball program - at best entirely irrelevant and at worst a very serious distraction to the mission of a real university - you say nobody would know of Oklahoma. I mean (and I hope this smarts as it should) University of Texas (!) is known for things besides the Longhorns. Yeah. watching people play games - you might as well have nationally-known Dungeons and Dragons sessions in the dorm.

An icon. Like every other relisious symbol imported into a secular context, it means "stop thinking here." Out of idleness I checked the graduation rates on the 2005 NCAA tournament schools:
O State manage 11% - boy, THAT'S a program, although it did manage to surpass a few schools that had zero graduation of their "student"-athletes, even in the vastly watered down "college" program that most members of major athletic teams get. I'm sure they get lots of character, though - anything unquantifiable and anecdotal is easy to claim. Like the benefits of snake-handling faith-healers.

And this is not a call to go out and treat academic figures as "icons" - I mean, George Lakoff or Northrop Frye or Harold Bloom - the stomach clenches. But people don't tend to do this (and when they do, it's always a delight to see them get burned, as with Paul De Man) Or ballet dancers or playwrights or
ANYONE. But people don't. Only the fans of actors and singers and athletes and politicians, the MOST brainless of activities.
 
It seems as though TStockman has spent many hours amont the Dungeons and Dragons sect. Movies have a place in our society, whether you'd like to admit it or not. Concerts have a place in our society, whether you'd like to admit it or not. Sports has a place in our society, whether you'd like to admit it or not.

Politicians ... well, they do have a place in our society, though I don't like to admit it. :-)

Without entertainment, however we see fit -- whether its crying at a sappy movie or rockin' at a concert or cheering for our favorite teams -- is an intregal part of daily lives. To dismiss it because it's brainless is asenine. News programs, newspapers, Web sites devote segments specifically to those things that entertain us.

To view a coach as an icon for only what he does on a basketball court is no more, no less a fact of life than anything else we do -- go to church, go to work, spend an hour at the dentist, etc.

And for the record, I didn't even know the University of Texas had anything special as far as academics, as I would imagine MOST Americans would admit, but I do know the Longhorns won the 2005 NCAA Division I football championship.
 
Teditor -

You have an icon for a dentist? A hero? Your boss is your hero? Your minister is your hero, with all that special knowledge of the Infinite he has? Maybe your especially speedy 7/11 clerk? Icons all.

Ah, what's the use - anyone who uses "most Americans" as a positive modification of knowledge
shows Mencken - another newspaperman - really did live in vain.

There's no question that all those activities have their place. And no quesiton that's not what they occupy.

And I'd have used bowling as another game that excites contempt, but I didn't know anyone in college who did. We'll compromise on Risk.


Although I do feel bad about ragging on you in the face of your joyful and much more important news. Congrats to you and best wishes to her.
 
TStock,

Your elitism is showing. Pull your britches up.

If a "real university" is one totally sans sport to attract the itnerest of the uneducated and to help maintain the interest of aging alumni, then it's a university that has private benefactors and thus needs no state money -- or it's the kind of place that serves only, or mainly, to perpetuate the kind of arrogance and elitism that does nothing but contribute to yet another divide in this country.

BTW, appropo of little, I'd LOVE to see even Baylor, God love 'em, play, oh, Dartmouth in football. It'd make Baylor feel better and teach Dartmouth something about football.
 
Ooh! Ooh! Can we talk about GUNS now? I loves me some guns. And I loves me some venison, and bacon-wrapped dove with jalapeno -- and even some quail.

Inspired by these funny links swiped from Bitch, Ph.D.:

http://cheneyplaysfolsom.
cf.huffingtonpost.com/

http://www.toonedin.com/
cheney.html
 
ER - this is the first time, the very first time, that anyone has connected what my britches cover - any of part of it - with elite , although I have always sort of suspected it. Thank you, from the bottom of my nevermind. As your friend Bitch might say about her own moniker, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

The point remains: icon - why does it happen among the lowbrow more frequently than the high? Not that Yo-Yo Ma outranked Sonny Bono in some kind of cosmic hierarchy, but I haven't seen anyone making the leap that he'd make a damn good anything else than a cello player, or a conductor at the outside. Closest I can think of is Albert Einstein being offered the ceremonial Presidency of Israel. Which he declined.

But the idea of being united with MFA,* well, for my taste division is a good thing. Theirs, too, I think - they don't need me around socially either. Every day we see answered Rodney King's immortal, but by now surely rhetorical question: "Can't we all get along?" Umm, no, we can't. We don't. Icky.


*My Fellow Americans, the ones who believe in UFO's and carrying a credit card balance
 
TStockman,

Thanks for the congrats, but you're only reading what you want and not what was written. Please do yourself a favor and read it again before you go off blabbering at the keyboards.

I did not call my pastor nor my dentist an icon. That wasn't even the flavor of my post, so don't look down your nose at what was said when you're ignorant to what was actually being posted.

I said entertainment in whatever form is as much of our society as visiting the dentist, going to church, etc. Getting that tweeter feeling in my stomach the day I visited with George Strait is pretty damn awesome experience, and getting a football for Christmas with all the players from the Kansas City Chiefs is a wonderful experience for me.

I'm saying that dismissing things I would enjoy or ER would enjoy or whomever else would enjoy because it's brainless is showing your own ass.

I can't stand Star Trek or any other form of science fiction. I think it's a stupid waste of time, and I just don't understand why anyone would watch the show. But to those who enjoy it, it's a wonderful escape and terrific form of entertainment. If they like it, who am I to discount something that brings them joy.

You are looking down upon me because I enjoy sports. You probably look down upon me because I acted like a little school girl when I met a country singer or that I took the time at this last year's NFR to tip my hat and say an Oklahoma howdy to Reba McEntire and tell her that I know her sister, Susie, very well. But that's OK, because I'm quite happy with my life.

Maybe if you flipped on a TV every now and they, you might find more joy in your own life.

P.S. The contents of this post have been edited to remove the words "asshole," "elitist" and "sonofabitch." :-)
 
Well, I guess if you read this whole thread, you can see why Baskin-Robbins had more than just vanilla in the freezer case.

But to get back to the original post, I happen to like color as well as black and white. Depends on the circumstances.

Now, I am going to go eat some ice cream -- Phish Food from Ben and Jerry's.

*BTW, I may be the only Sooner alum who never attended a football game. And I don't necessarily agree with E.R. about journalism education.
I also don't like Moon Pies or cockfighting. But that's all OK. It doesn't make any dang difference to anyone.
 
TStock,

I don't think that "icon" means "stop thinking," either in religious or pop-cultural terms. Maybe that's the fulcrum of our disagreement over their value?

In fact, in religious terms, I think an icon is more of a signal to think deeply and meditate. In pop culture, an icon can have a similar role as a marker, something to cause people to pause and assess, or reassess: "Ah, so Britney Spears is passe? Who are so many of us thinking about now? Oh, Garth Brooks is no lonber on the charts? Is country music in decline? What's next, then, as a source of social communion for the broadest (I won't call it "lowest") common denominator?
 
Black and white? Toned down? What? And miss the brilliance of a vivid orange sunset? The deep aquamarine of the wild and wasteful ocean breaking against a pristine expanse of a white sand beach? The tranguility of watching a fawn blissfully dancing in a sun-dappled woodland glade? A rose in bloom? The vivid neon of city lights against a backdrop of a velvet, deep purple twilight sky? No, thank you. No, I thank you, and again, I thank you.
 
Hmmm, looks like Mark broke out his thesaurus. Thanks for the imagry, Mark.

:-)

When a person who has as colorful a personality as ER looks through his black-and-white frame, you know he's troubled. And I'm hoping his writin' this thread helps him move beyond.
 
Sports: bah humbug; Icons: best left on alters with lighted candles; Coaches: the worst thing that every happened to government and civic classes in the school system (my brother was one);Sports Heros: when I was at OU Joe Don Looneytunes and Lance Rentzle were campus heros. I was insulted by Joe Don once when I tried to interview him, Lance was a friend of mine & in photography class we shared a lab room together.Lance went to prison for child molestation where he could watch his wife, Joey Heatherton, slither around on a Perfect Serta Sleeper Matress in a TV commercial. Joe Don fissled early. True Heros: I've watched true heros get shit on by The Man for Profit and Politics and Power all of my life, anyone is a damn fool who wants to be a hero. If by chance you ever accidently become one, run away, change your name, deny everthing. Black and White: look again at the reality of the photo, there are no Blacks or Whites, it is all shades of gray (or grey) that fool you into seeing what is not there.

Teditor, grab all the lovin you can, tingle when it comes you way, smile as often as you dare.

ER, ignore your friends comments, shades of grey become you.

TS, you are among the Elite, you are one of two memembers in the whole world of the John Spruce Society.

Mark, "...watching a fawn blissfully dancing in a sun-dappled woodland glade..." you need better acid.
 
LOL, drlobo, That was my father's saying! When he took music appreciation in college, he said the teacher played music and asked the students to raise their hands when they heard the fawn dancing in a sun dappled woodland glade.

He said he never heard the fawn, never heard the sun, and never heard the woodland glade.

It was one of his funniest stories. You should have heard him tell it.
 
???Huh???

Not sure what that has to do with all the flowery sh(tuff) you painted with your ... uh ... (prose?) sh(tuff).

Twas almost as if you'd been readin' certain magazines or books and were inspired. But instead of writing, "My throbbing, hot, spectacular specimen was craving the warmth moistness of ..." you wrote "The deep aquamarine of the wild and wasteful ocean breaking against a pristine expanse of a white sand beach."

Is that transference?

:-) Sorry. I just couldn't resist.
 
Teditor: I'm sorry - can't get beyond the hand-in-marriage and moving-to-be-with-her-and-her part. What am I missing?

In descending order: no, I think watching sports is no more lamentable that playing Microsoft solitaire, which I do.

I think the autographed football thing is a little weird, but only in the way of observing an odd fetish one doesn't share but doesn't condemn.

Yes, I would find it deeply mortifying to witness you acting like a schoolgirl over any celebrity. My face actually grew hot just imagining it. But I don't believe objecting to fangirling over a member what passes for an elite in the sports-and-entertainment US means I'm the elitist. In fact, liguistically...

Interesting, though - for none of my friends, past or present, would "elitist" figure as an insult, as it does for you and ER, who must be mediocrists or something. At first I thought it was a feature of the lamentable topography out there (being an incorrigible geographist) but remembered it was EXACTLY like New Zealand, a small town of a country, with its "tall poppy gets the chop." Maybe I need to reassess my literarist dismissal of Sinclair Lewis, because he certainly nailed the small town - or perhaps Willa Cather more exactly in this instance, in "The Sculptor's Funeral." I guess that makes me an urbanist.

As a fake sociologist, my theory on why elitism is a small-town concern: people thinking they're better than other people would be socially destructive in a comparatively small social group. The ones who feel that way move away, leaving resentment (and insecurity) among those who remain, who become more adamant in their insistence that they're every bit as good as anyone else. Except the football coach.

Oh, I plead guilt to "asshole", which is personality, but ask you to reserve judgment on "son-of-a-bith", which is character.

DrL: That honor has been what sustains me in the Wilderness.
 
I find it hard to believe, and a little sad, that the following wouldn't be considered an insult:

elitist: Characteristic of or resembling a snob


But that's OK. I'm a NASCAR snob. If you don't like NASCAR, it's because you don't "get" NASCAR and are to be pitied.

I'm a newspaper snob: If you work for television "news," I think you're beneath me.

I'm a bibliophilic snob: If you don't read, a lot, then you're wasting a lot of time.

I'm some other kinds of snob, too, TStock. Maybe I meant to suggest that you were unaware that you were showin' your elitism, which is why I asked you to pull your britches up, because I thought you might've been showin' more than you meant to.

Apparently, it was NOT an accident, and yer just wearin' low-ridin' britches.

Carry on. :-)
 
Dang, this is, like, a Seinfeld thread; A thread about nothing! :-)
 
Nah, snob isn't an insult, or, if it is, it's also a backhanded compliment. That I don't find being caught out even mildly embarrassing indicates that in my culture that exposing that region of the anatomy has never been taboo. Of course notably stupid snobberies are as lamentable as any other kind of stupidity, but it's not a redundant phrase.

Unsolicited advice: on a practical level, well-tempered snobbery will serve adolescents better than anti-elitism as they launch into the world. On, in terms of some of the posts, prigs outscore and outrebound the pious.
 
Wow, TStock, that sounds ...

...

...

... Oh, excuse me. I fell asleep reading whatever the hell he just wrote.

:-)
 
Hah!

The surest sign of a true score is when your opponent puts her fingers in her ears and says, "Na-nan-na-na - I can't HEAR you anymore!" :-D

Not that I'm denying that I AM tedious windbag.
 
I think TStrock just used a buncha big words to call you a girl, Teditor, and us both a coupla kids! :-)
 
Teditor, don't be a writin' snob!

:-)

TStock, do you speak Engish as a second language? I am not kidding. Maybe you're from part of the English-speaking world that is so far removed from these hereabouts that we just don't connect well.

In any case, I'm with Teditor: I have no idea what you're trying to say. Ah. Maybe that's it. Maybe you're trying too hard?

Words are just tools. I think you reach for a Crescent when you just need pliars sometimes. Or a socket set when you just need an open-end wrench.

Fog index: I give it a 17, which is never EVER necessary. An 8 or 9 always does nicely. :-)
 
Ah, see THAT'S the issue. You see words as a tool to accomplish something, like mutual understanding, whereas I see them as an end in themselves, so what you just said about tools sounded like, "Why try for the Maya when you could draw a stick figure with boobs?"

Huh - we might reach Seinfelderie yet.

Anywya, autism is covered by the ADA so you can't discriminate against me.
 
OK, TStock, you just kicked me right square in the funnybone. The love of my life is wondering why I'm laughing at my laptop. Not sure I should explain, either.

Needless to say, touche. En guarde. I think I shat myself. Whichever.

:-)
 
Hrm.

Maybe words are more like bricks. In college, I used to wonder about people who tried to use them to build grand castles and artistic edifices of supposed architectural renown (English majors) -- before they learned to build something realtively simple like a planter or backyard barbecue pit (journalism majors).

But then, I've always tried to keep close to everyday reality.

My political science degree emphasis was "state and local government" rather than "international relations" or "comparative politics" or whatever. I figured I'd be covering city councils and state legislation, rather than the war in Central America -- and I was right.

And, my late history master's emphasized American Indian history and history of the West, because I live in Oklahoma, and my secondary interest is the Reformation -- all of which are close to my interests and experience.

Not, like, say, the ancient history of China and, say, the history of medicine, which, while interesting, don't seem that applicable in the everyday sense.

And now I've taken the Seinfeldian theme to a new level! Call me George Costanza, faking another career. :-)
 
I always thought Seinfeld was pointless. Informed that that was the point, I placed it in the catagory of sports and never bothered with it again. Were the lives of the people who watched it so pointless that they needed to watch a show full of people living lives more pointless than theirs in order to give meaning to their pointless lives?
TS is right, there are no stretch limos in small country towns, no matter how rich you may be. Tie a red ribbon around the turkey's neck and watch the other turkeys kill it.
"Got what he deserved..." is a standard small town refrain.
To live well you must live unseen.
 
Doc Lobo,

I'll pass along a little free advice that I've given ER: Do not blog when you're drunk.

:-)

OK, so I feel as though I'm the sports defender on this thread, and that's OK. I attended my first two years of school on a football scholarship, otherwise I might not have been afforded the opportunity. From there, I received academic scholarships to complete my bachelor's degree.

I completely disagree that sports is pointless. I can make the same argument for Star Trek, Doc, but I won't go there.

To say sports is pointless, you are saying any extracurricular school activity is pointless. Debate. Speech. Drama. Quiz Bowl. Band. Etc.

Sports teaches lessons, from fundamentals to coordination to competing. Sports provides entertainment, giving millions of people joy each day. Sports allows for innovation. Gotcha on that one, didn't I, doc.

We would not have day surgeries and medical procedures -- like arthroscopic surgery -- without sports.

Look, I'm not a sports nutjob like many of my friends, but I enjoy athletics. I marvel at true athletes. I wish my own athleticism -- oh, and maybe a little height to go with my bulk -- would've allowed for me to line up against football's superstars.

I love the intracacies of football more than most other sports. I delve deeply into the X's and O's of the game and believe some people are true scientists when it comes to that aspect of it. I get excited at a well-executed cross block that allows for a streaking running back to gain an extra few yards. I love to use deception as a means of overtaking my opponent, from the play-action pass to the fake dive to the crossing pattern.

So I guess you can see why I don't agree with you, Doc. No offense, sir, but I've gotta defend things about which I hold a strong passion.
 
So many jocks who gave of their knees that others might walk.

True enough, but an awfully weird formulation.
 
Uh ... what's a weird formulation?

Uh ... some of the country's best orthopaedic surgeons were college athletes or have a history with sports.

Uh ... is it just hard for you to admit that jocks can have minds, too?

Not all of us are Jason White.

OK, it's Monday morning, TStock. You can get over yourself now.
 
Teditor said, in defense of perceived slights of his own self.

Sheesh. I WILL separate you two and put you in separate corners!

Besides that Teditor, you don't defend all sports, just those you like!

:-)
 
Teditor,
I'm not anti-sports I'm a-sports.
I played baseball all of my life in school, ran track and Lettered in basketball. I also played intra-mural in College the first two years. But I also held down two jobs in High School and always had at least one in college.

I don't get drunk then blog, hell I don't get drunk.

Sports have been part of all cultures for thousands of years, they are an obvious offshoot nad training ground of the skills needed for hunting and war, just like dancing is formalized sex. I say why go for the socially acceptable substitute? Go right to the real thing.
I do think that American sports are arrogant and off target however and that is how we came to believe in such shit as an "Army Of One".
 
ER, I hate to argue with you, but ...

I defend all sports where athleticism comes into play. The only athletes in NASCAR are the fellers on the pit crew. :-)

Sorry, couldn't resist. You're correct. If I'm going to defend sports, I should defend NASCAR. Not sure I can. :-)
 
Boys, y'all take a chill pill. This is still America. People can pursue whatever interests them. Some like sports, some like knitting. It makes not one dot of difference what the interests are, everyone can pursue whatever turns 'em on. Although in some cases it is called stalking.

Anyway, Teditor, you made some good points about innovation and sports. Good on you.

Who knows... maybe tonight I'll open up one of the bottles of wine in the house, down it all and then blog. Hooweee boys! Watch out.
 
Trixie in her cups! That might be fun to see! :-)
 
NEWS FLASH. teditor.blogspot.com
 
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