First they ignore you: Open Thread

By Edward _

OK, so I've poked around in the typepad adminterface and cannot locate how to make the byline appear at the top of the page (anyone who knows how to do that, please let me know...I'll sing your praises far and wide), but in order to help readers know before they commit to a post who the author is, I'll recommend all ObWi authors begin subsequent posts with a byline. Then readers can follow this sequence as outlined by Ghandi

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Or not.

Comments

[blogbudsman]

Don't be alarmed by a bit of http://www.extension.umn.edu/extensionnews/2004/greeneggs.html>green color on the hard-cooked eggs or baked ham that you may be serving at Easter.

The green ring around the yolk of a hard-cooked egg is harmless and safe to eat, says Suzanne Driessen, University of Minnesota Extension Service educator specializing in food safety. And if there's a greenish or yellowish tinge on the ham you've bought, this is also normal and the ham is safe, Driessen says.

The green ring around the yolk of a hard-cooked egg is due to hydrogen in the egg white combining with sulfur in the yolk. This is apt to happen when the eggs are boiled too hard for too long. But Driessen says the green ring can also be caused by high iron levels in the cooking water.

[double-plus-ungood]

...but in order to help readers know before they commit to a post who the author is, I'll recommend all ObWi authors begin subsequent posts with a byline.

Yay!

[kenB]

Boo! I enjoy the game of guess-the-author. Between the distinctive styles and the choice of subject matter, it's usually pretty obvious after three or four sentences.

[double-plus-ungood]

You should, however, be aware that the green portions of potatos may contain glycoalkaloids, a toxic substance that may cause headaches, diarrhea, cramps and in severe cases coma and death. The green coloring is an indication that this portion of the potato was exposed to light, and should probably be cut off the potato before cooking. And potato poisoning is quite rare.

Also, green ham is right out. Presence of the pigment may indicate spoilage or mold.

[Edward]

Between the distinctive styles and the choice of subject matter, it's usually pretty obvious after three or four sentences.

I always think so too, but let's give this a try and see how it works.

[Edward]

As art and nudity is clearly on everyone's mind...ok, so maybe that's just me...This was an amusing story:

A strip club in Boise, Idaho has found an artful way to prance past a city law that prohibits full nudity. On what it calls Art Club Nights, the Erotic City strip club charges customers $15 for a sketch pad, pencil, and a chance to see completely naked women dancers.

In 2001 the Boise City Council passed an ordinance banning total nudity in public unless it had "serious artistic merit" -- an exemption meant to apply to plays, dance performances and art classes.

"We have a lot of people drawing some very good pictures," said Erotic City owner Chris Teague, who has posted many of the drawings around the club.

Teague said he got the idea when a customer asked if he could get in for free to sketch the dancers. Realizing that "art classes" were exempt from the law, Teague decided to bill Mondays and Tuesdays as art nights, and let the dancers go without their G-strings and pasties.

In the two months since they began, Art Club Nights have drawn full crowds of 60 people but no police citations, he said.

[fdl]

let's go to Mars.

no, i'm serious. we should make a real commitment to a permanently manned Mars station. I like the Mars Direct plan I read in SciAm a few years back. You don't send people until you know you have enough fuel made on Mars to get them back.

why? It'd be fun. interesting. we can show the rest of the world what the West is capable of. we might even learn something.

come on, everybody. let's leave soc. sec. and foreign policy debates alone for a thread. Should the US govt dream big?

Francis

[Nell Lancaster]

Between the distinctive styles and the choice of subject matter, it's usually pretty obvious after three or four sentences.

But every so often that's three or four sentences of wasted reading time ...

Thanks for the new byline feature!

[Jesurgislac]

Thank you, Edward.

[rilkefan]

A favorite sentence from Borges - from "The Lottery in Babylon":

Once, for an entire lunar year, I was declared invisible - I would cry out and no one would heed my call, I would steal bread and not be beheaded.

Will miss the guess-the-author game too, and the let's-ignore-posters-who-annoy-us tack is not in my view going to lead to long-term harmony. Everyone should find a way of coexisting together. We will all hang etc.

[rilkefan]

Let me rephrase that: this sucks and Edward's ruining the site.

[Edward]

Will miss the guess-the-author game too, and the let's-ignore-posters-who-annoy-us tack is not in my view going to lead to long-term harmony. Everyone should find a way of coexisting together. We will all hang etc.

I suspect you're right (and am rather sure about the last line), but, again, let's give this a go, as it's been recommended numerous times.

[Edward]

this sucks and Edward's ruining the site.

Ahhh, the nostalgia of it...I do fondly recall the days back when I was the source of such sentiment. {wiping tear away}...sniffle

[Nathan Williams]

I usually read by way of the RSS feed and Bloglines, which already puts the name of the poster at the top, so I found your question puzzling for a while.

[kenB]

Great link, Edward. It's that sort of ingenuity and resourcefulness that restores my faith in this great country of ours.

[bob mcmanus]

Is this an open thread?

My eggs (and being an Atkins guy, I eat eggs a lot) are green because I add lots and lots of dill.

And I approve of nudity in art, tho preferably not green.

"As art and nudity is clearly on everyone's mind"

I hope Edward hasn't been reading...never mind. My art moment of the week came at the Weblog when one of the bloggers posted a Grosz grotesquerie and proclaimed:"Now this is what I call good art!" Convinced by his enthusiasm, I am now restricting myself entirely to Otto Dix and Egon Schiele. Not.

[Edward]

I hope Edward hasn't been reading...never mind.

tell me! what? a blog about art? a blog about nudity??? come on...that's cruel.

[rilkefan]

"Ahhh, the nostalgia of it...I do fondly recall the days back when I was the source of such sentiment. {wiping tear away}...sniffle"

You wanta piece of this, big guy?

[Edward]

That was priceless rilkefan! I trust Charles was flattered by the effort.

[bob mcmanus]

Have mercy. Michael Blowhard had a guest post by his visting professional nude model on the social & personal ramifications of the "spread shot."

In some fit of madness I contributed one of my weaker yet too revealing comments.

Umm, can we talk about art? Is Gauguin's early impressionism underrated? Should more people know about George Bellows? Was Albert Bierstadt the Thomas Kinkade of his era? Do we prefer vertical stripes, an simple triangle, or untrimmed?

[rilkefan]

Charles, Timmy, who can tell the difference? Me, I'm a cat person.

The point is, a little respect please, or ...

[aireachail]

Eh, bob-

Aesthetically, I'd prefer the word "implications" to "ramifications" when discussing the "spread shot" ;)

[Edward]

Gaugin: yes, underrated

Bellows: nah, boxing schmoxing...next thing you know folks will start valuing those Dogs Playing Poker paintings.

Bierstadt: Much better than Kincade. Bierstadt was exploring a mine more than a foot deep.

Here's my question. Who's seen the Gates and what did you think?

[blogbudsman]

The heart shape on a dancer named Cherry.

[von]

As art and nudity is clearly on everyone's mind...ok, so maybe that's just me...This was an amusing story:

Outrage! Are you suggesting that we post nude pictures of ourselves in lieu of bylines!!??!?!

Well, OK. So long as it's tasteful ....

[Gromit]

But paint me on velvet,
and do not disguise
the bright silver teardrops
that you brought to my eyes.

Hang me up by the roadside
for the whole world to see
Jesus and Elvis,
the Confederate flag,
And Willie and me!

-from "Paint Me on Velvet" by the Austin Lounge Lizards

[Edward]

Are you suggesting that we post nude pictures of ourselves in lieu of bylines!!??!?!

Only if John Ashcroft gets to do the styling.

[fdl]

i think the unnamed blog is "Unfogged"

francis

[Dave Schuler]

How much would it be worth to you not to put nude pictures of yourselves in lieu of bylines?

Not that you aren't all cute as buttons, of course.

[Edward]

How much would it be worth to you not to put nude pictures of yourselves in lieu of bylines?

Hmmmm...I smell a fundraiser!

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

I'm not sure if my nude pictures are tasteful. But they definitely aren't for public consumption. Fortunately we don't have a huge audience so.....

link to horrifying pictures

[hilzoy]

Oh goody, it's one of those rare moments when Edward and I disagree.

Edward: it's Gandhi, not Ghandi. 'Gh' in the relevant languages is a different letter altogether (sort of like a french throat-rolled r), and 'dh' is a different letter from 'd' (softer, related to normal 'd' as the 'wh' in 'whisper' is related to 'w').

[rilkefan]

Those who care about blog community whateverness may want to send Instapundit good wishes - his wife is having to get a pacemaker.

[Jesurgislac]

Von: Outrage! Are you suggesting that we post nude pictures of ourselves in lieu of bylines!!??!?!

Er... *stares wistfully at Hilzoy*

No, I'd probably better stick to my fantasies. I think of Hilzoy as tall, gorgeous, scarily intelligent, and with the kind of sweet, sharp smile that skewers me.

And while I know for sure about the "scarily intelligent", the rest is none of my business.

(And I really only fantasise about meeting any of you clothed, for coffee. Honest.)

[double-plus-ungood]

Well, this thread got interesting real fast.

[Anarch]

Well, this thread got interesting real fast.

*busts out the popcorn*

Grab a chair, folks, it's gonna be good!

[rilkefan]

Let this be a warning to y'all.

[kenB]

'Gh' in the relevant languages is a different letter altogether (sort of like a french throat-rolled r)

I think you're thinking of Arabic, where gh is the standard way to transcribe the letter ghayn, a uvular consonant. In Hindi, 'gh' is an aspirated g, sort of like the gh in "foghorn"; similarly with dh (except that Hindi d is a true dental, not alveolar as in English).

BTW, many English dialects (including mine) don't distinguish between the wh of "whisper" and the w of "wisp." Although I have some memory of my 1st grade teacher trying to get us to say hwisper, hwale, etc., without much success.

[liberal japonicus]

I wasn't going to say anything, but since kenb leapt in, let me add my 2 yen. The fascinating thing about aspiration is that it occurs in English, yet we are oblivious to it. I ask my Japanese students if the sound at the beginning of the word 'pin' is the same as the second sound in the word 'spin'. Of course it is, it has the same spelling. I then pronounce the words with a piece of paper held in front of my mouth. The sound in 'pin' makes the paper fly forward, but it doesn't move at all when I say 'spin'. (Lest they think this is just one of those bizarre things about English, I then point out the three different sounds Japanese has for the final nasal (which looks like this ん))

But back to the point, the p in pin would be spelt ph in Hindi romanization and if we substituted the p in spin for the one we normally use in pin, we would perceive it as 'bin', but I think a Hindi speaker would write it as p. (Hindi has p, ph, b, and bh) This is one of the reasons why Indian English has a rather unique quality to it.

As for whisper and whale, Scottish and Irish English famously retain that distinction. For a nice explanation, go here

And since I'm babbling on this open thread, go here to see the wonderfully named McGurk effect. Close your eyes the first time you listen and then watch the movie the second time. There are a number of more detailed pages about the phenomenon, but I think this is the clearest movie file.

Sorry for taking the attention away from nude pictures.

[blogbudsman]

Sebastian, you otter shave more often, in more places.

(There I go, violating comment rules again)

[felixrayman]

Speaking of horrifying nude pictures, art, and bylines, there's another masterpiece at Billmon's.

[Edward]

Edward: it's Gandhi, not Ghandi.

Being perhaps the worst speller in the blogosphere, I concede with no effort to defend, except to note that your way just looks wrong. ;-)

[rilkefan]

Maybe I still haven't graduated from high school - I really like this stuff. The series improves when it gets to the bunnies.

[cleek]

did y'all hear? we've found the WMDs!

all hail the GOP

[Bernard Yomtov]

Quick. rilkefan needs help.

[Jesurgislac]

Disturbingly, both Body and Soul and TalkLeft seem to have left the building - Body and Soul is password protected, which it never was before, and TalkLeft just doesn't seem to be there.

Anyone got any news about what's going on?

[rilkefan]

I can see talkleft.

[hilzoy]

rilkefan: put down the computer. Move slowly towards the door. Go for a nice long walk to clear your head. If you still like them after a month, start saving up.

They remind me of my own personal antithesis-of-Larry-Summers'-daughters moment, when some unsuspecting relative gave me a doll and I dissected it.

[Anarch]

They remind me of my own personal antithesis-of-Larry-Summers'-daughters moment, when some unsuspecting relative gave me a doll and I dissected it.

And thus was a bioethicist born...

[sidereal]

rilke: reminds me of the Bunny Suicides. Also of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, which is like holy writ for the high school goth kid in all of us.

lj: All well and good about getting English speakers to detect their aspiration. . . the hard thing is getting them to perform it. I still have to practically inhale to get myself to deaspirate the p in 'pin'. Real pain the ass since every language I know/am interested in has less aspiration than English. The English are just natural spitters.

[Dianne]

Edward: "Who's seen the Gates and what did you think?"

I've seen them and they're excellent. They add the perfect je ne sais quoi to wintertime Central Park. As an added bonus, the Central Park loop roads are closed to automobile traffic during the exhibit. I've long felt ambivalent about living in NYC, but now I've found something I unequivically like about the city: NYC is a place where art is more important than traffic flow.

[Edward]

I've long felt ambivalent about living in NYC, but now I've found something I unequivically like about the city: NYC is a place where art is more important than traffic flow.

Thanks Dianne,

I'm going tomorrow for the first time. (Was out of town when it openend). Considering it's supposed to snow tonight, it could be quite dramatic.

Regarding being ambivalent about NYC, I hear you. Each time I return from some time away, I ask myself as I'm riding back into town, through the graffiti covered neighborhoods, onto the garbage strewn streets, and up into my tiny apartment why I live in this incredibly inhospitable place. Then I go to my gallery and have a conversation with an artist or collector and I know.

[Katherine]

"Who's seen the Gates and what did you think?"

me.

I liked them better than expected, and I'd expected to like them.

It's wonderful how they're drawing people into the park in the middle of winter, and they're drawing New Yorkers in even more than out of towners. I was there on a weekday, and it seems like every school kid in Manhattan is getting taken there on a field trip.

When you first walk in and see a few by the road, you think, "eh. This looks like a construction zone. How many millions did this cost"? But if you keep walking, see them in the wind and the changing light, come to a spot where you see them weaving and converging along the paths, it's really quite special.

My favorite spot was the promenade of elm trees just south of Bethesda Fountain. (The fountain itself, which I'd never been to before I saw that HBO version of Angels in America I gushed about, has become probably my second favorite spot in New York after the Brooklyn Bridge walkway.)

It made me very, very sad that I won't be living in New York City for three more years at least and may never get to live there. Boston (where I am next year) and Chicago (for two to five years after that and maybe indefinitely) are my third and second favorite cities in the country, so it's not such bad fate. (I've never been to San Francisco, I should note). But there's no place like New York.

And hey, check this out:

"American want Democrats to stand up to Bush," the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reports. "Fully 60%, including one-fourth of Republicans, say Democrats in Congress should make sure Bush and his party 'don't go too far.' Just 34% want Democrats to 'work in a bipartisan way' to help pass the president's priorities."

I still say the winning theme for the midterms is "end one party rule," elaborated as a reform platform that's all about stopping corruption and abuse of power.

[felixrayman]

A truly sad day. Hunter S. Thompson commits suicide at 67.

[Katherine]

My current hometown of Somerville has a Gates Exhibit of its own.

[Edward]

Just returned after an art-saturated day (toured the Gates and finally got myself up to see Dia:Beacon).

The Somerville Gates have a bit more of what I missed most in Christo's version: poignant humor. My partner, who wasn't all that impressed with either (although he liked the Richard Serra's and Fred Sandback's* at Dia) decided, with no evidence, the saffron curtains were manufactured by totally bemused Chinese workers who just laughed and laughed at the stupid Americans who ordered over 7000 of the darn things. He then proceeded to tear apart the swatch he accepted from the frozen volunteers to prove they were manufactured in China. I kept mine...I've been wrong about artists before and don't want to kick myself later.

I enjoyed the Gates more at the beginning of the hour we spent in the park until slowly it dawned on me what I was enjoying was the park itself, which may have been Christo's point but which could have been made with a tad bit less than $20 million, methinks.

I'm glad I saw it, but it did confirm my previous suspicion that Christo is overrated.

*Which demonstrates remarkable insight and taste in my opinion, as Sandback is a God in my book.

[Edward]

another great Gates parody

[Jesurgislac]

Edward, had you seen this news story?

DARE to struggle, dare to win ... as married gays. After raiding a few Army camps, two communist guerrillas hid in a forest gorge and fell in love.

Deeply.

That was three years ago. On Friday, under a romantic drizzle in a muddy clearing in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao, Ka Andres and Ka Jose exchanged vows in a heavily guarded ceremony before local villagers, friends from the city and their comrades in arms.
....
Throughout the ceremony, a choir serenaded them with revolutionary love songs. After they signed their "wedding contract," the newlyweds kissed amid the usual applause.

I thought it was really terribly sweet. "Make love not war"...

[Jesurgislac]

How easy is it to get a day pass to the White House?

With regard to the claim that Gannon/Guckert received no special treatment, a blogger decides to find out: Exactly how easy is it for an average no-name journalist with no special connections to get access to the White House?

(I can't believe we've gone two weeks without an open thread??)

[Edward]

Edward, had you seen this news story?

Jes, that's awesome! Don't know Phillipines politics well enough to comment in that context, but I do see any social struggle in which gay marriages are recognized as heartening.

I'll open a thread.