Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

A consequence of cucumbers

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

This fight is for everything.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The revolution will be supervised.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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Ship of fools

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There are some very frightening things going on at Instapundit this week. McMegan, Ed Driscoll, Michael Totten, and Ann Althouse are all guest-blogging at the same time. Here’s a sample:

I dated a medievalist in college, who frequently commented that I looked like an elf. When I protested that at 6′2, I was hardly elf material, he looked at me with weary contempt. “Real elves,” he told me, “are tall.”

I think we may be nearing the end of civilization.

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  1. 1.

    Martin

    There are some very frightening things going on at Instapundit this every week

    Well, there’s your problem.

  2. 2.

    Bret

    Oh, so she’s a giant elfish woman who dates apparent LARPers. That sure does explain a lot.

  4. 4.

    Bullsmith

    Yes it’s frightening It’s also hilarious. Putz should consider letting them drop by and help mess his place up on a regular basis.

  5. 5.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Huh. What college did McMegan go to where a “medievalist” thought LOTR was an historical document? Explains a lot about her own thinking and writing.

  8. 8.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Everyone gets elves and dwarfs confused. HellifIknowhy. Dwarves are hearty, good fighters, ugly. Elves are smart, good with magic, fun to look at.

  9. 9.

    JonathanW

    I guess she only posts corrections about other people’s fantastic opinions.

  10. 10.

    Bob

    I swear to god. Not. Clicking. Over.

    And I was just noting a couple days ago that Glenn Reynolds has his own circle of bloggers he made popular back in the day that still are.

    Army of Davids? Army of Elves I guess.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    If I plant some ents in my backyard, will they do my yard work?

  13. 13.

    NonyNony

    @Bret:

    Hey now – I’ve known some very nice LARPers in my time. In my experience they tend to be good people. Nothing wrong with dating LARPers.

    McArdle’s problem is that she’s spent her life LARPing her way through life as a character from “Atlas Shrugged”. That kind of LARPing I’d be willing to denounce – far more dangerous than pretending to be a vampire on the weekends.

  15. 15.

    BGinCHI

    He says she looks tall and elfin and she responds, no, actually I’m short and dopey/grumpy.

    Sounds about right.

  19. 19.

    jeffreyw

    I lusted after a gal once, she did “magic” and claimed
    Elven heritage. Turns out it was a hidden battery. Bitch.

  24. 24.

    cyntax

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Everyone gets elves and dwarfs confused. HellifIknowhy. Dwarves are hearty, good fighters, ugly. Elves are smart, good with magic, fun to look at.

    In other words, elves are everything McMegan isn’t.

  26. 26.

    Comrade Luke

    Too bad Sullivan isn’t there too. We’d be able to concentrate all the stupidity into one lone URL.

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @slag: Yeah, I am not convinced that this conversational interlude was the key to the contempt.

  31. 31.

    Bobby Thomson

    Time for the obligatory John Rogers quote:

    There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

    Talk about your star-crossed romances.

  34. 34.

    Tonal Crow

    McMegan is embellishing her resume again.

    What really happened was that she crashed a meeting of the Mythopoeic Society because she thought — based upon her usual seat-of-the-pants flying — that it was devoted to the techniques of Republican rhetoric. But she was immediately accosted by person after person complimenting her on her Orc costume. She’s never gotten past the humiliation.

  36. 36.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    Not getting out of the boat. See previous thread title. Also, I’m still using these brain cells.

  37. 37.

    Jazz Superluminar

    @DougJ: Robert Plant title? Nice!
    Also, went to their FP, scrolled down, and came accross this:

    ALTHOUSE’S WORST NIGHTMARE: Markdowns on Men’s Shorts.

    Posted at 3:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds  

    I probably do not want to know the story behind that.

  38. 38.

    Spaghetti Lee

    I suspect a liberal ACORN plot to further the Wingularity by condensing so much stupid into one place until it collapses.

  40. 40.

    fhtagn

    You want something really crazy, try Texas:

    http://governor.state.tx.us/news/proclamation/16038/

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal way of life.

  41. 41.

    freelancer

    Jim Gereghty at NRO (no link, via memeorandum) is reduced to bafflement, no analysis. Just shock:

    Wow! The AP poll has Obama’s approval rating hitting 60 percent! And 53 percent say he deserves to be reelected!
    __
    And on the economy, 52 percent approve of the way Obama’s handling it, and only 47 percent disapprove! He’s up 54–46 on approval of how he’s handling health care! On unemployment, 52 percent approval, 47 percent disapproval! 57 percent approval on handling Libya! Even on the deficit, he’s at 47 percent approval, 52 percent disapproval!

  42. 42.

    taylormattd

    I keep deleting the comment I am trying to write. I really have nothing constructive to add; I just want to write wildly inappropriate, nasty Wonkette-like statements about this horror show.

  43. 43.

    Bulworth

    I think we may be nearing the end of civilization.

    Also, too, the fonzi of freedom has his own very special book thing coming out next month–Declaration of Independents. Something about how libertarianism solves all of America’s problems.

  46. 46.

    cleek

    “Real elves,” he told me, “are tall.”

    depends on which country and century the elf was born in. in many places, elves are more like fairies and sprites than the tall, thin graceful warriors that Tolkien wrote about. ex. the Keebler Elves…

  48. 48.

    Lev

    Is Ann Althouse still going the Zell Miller route of pretending to be a Democrat? Or is this her admission that she’s not one?

    Also, I just went ahead and checked something on Google Reader. McArdle has about 185 subscribers on Reader, just as a point of comparison, Andrew Sullivan has 65,000. I sure hope they weren’t drawing the same pay at the Atlantic. Shit, McArdle’s blog has fewer subscribers than most part-time, amateur bloggers. I’d like to hear a supply-and-demand explanation of that.

  50. 50.

    trollhattan

    McMegan, Ed Driscoll, Michael Totten, and Ann Althouse are all guest-blogging at the same time.

    I’m envisioning box wine chugged from carved Himalayan salt stemware while taking potshots at squirrels from the front porch while Frau Ol’ Professor lectures all on how poverty causes poverty. Galty!

  51. 51.

    Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity

    Elves. Dwarves. Bleep, bloop, blorp!

    (Hi, Chet!!)

    Actually, while it’s true that in the course on medieval history I took the instructor somehow managed to gloss over the differences between elves and dwarves, I did once have a love interest who fancied me elven (she was being generous; I’m well under six feet). She, however, took the time to explain the differences with great enthusiasm. I suspect the weary contempt McArgle’s alleged boyfriend sported was the accumulated result of having to listen to her babblings for however long he had slogged through dating her.

  52. 52.

    fhtagn

    @Lev:

    When shit is widely available, the value of any particular instance is reduced, as is demand for that instance.

  56. 56.

    Mark D

    Well, that sure does explain McBargle, doesn’t it?

    She’s created an entire belief system based on the writings of a second-rate hack and rank hypocrite, all while punishing all of humanity for her poor choices in men, inability to do basic math, and love of beating people with 2 x 4s.

    Oh, and she’s not an elf. She’s a Randbuggery Wraith, spawn of Cockface the Clinically Stupid from Franziashire.

  57. 57.

    Tonal Crow

    @fhtagn: Now that’s crazy. And what’s even crazier is that they’re fighting every effort to, you know, prevent the much-worse droughts that AGW is going to bring.

  58. 58.

    Martin

    @fhtagn:

    I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal way of life.

    Wouldn’t that then be proof of anthropogenic climate change?

  60. 60.

    Mandramas

    Your lack of popular nerd culture is disturbing.
    I think they are talking about Daione Sidhe elves, the original ones. Or Picts, depending of the etymology you are talking. In fact, elves, as any fae, can apparent to be taller that they really are, since they use glamour.

  61. 61.

    freelancer

    Also, The Wire got there first, conservatives:

    SEAN: Santa’s elves are short.
    MICHAEL: Santa’s elves aren’t real. The elves in “Lord of the Rings” are, like, real elves.
    McNULTY: Real elves?
    SEAN: They should be short then.
    MICHAEL: Dwarves are short, hobbits are short. Elves are tall and immortal. If you weren’t too scared to watch the movie, then you’d know all about it, doofus.
    SEAN: Bite me, dick breath.
    McNULTY: Sean, knock it off.
    SEAN: He started it.
    ELENA: Hey, okay, upstairs right away, brush your teeth, pajamas. It’s a school night, Sean.

  62. 62.

    fhtagn

    @Martin:

    Well, I did rather think that the references to record droughts and temperatures might have given Governor Goodhair a clue, but, alas…..

  63. 63.

    bemused

    @Mike Kay ( Geronimo!!):

    60%! Whoa, I can’t even fathom the wingnut freakout insanities that will ensue. They’re at strait jacket level already. The more that Obama succeeds, the greater the hysterical, unhinged tantrums.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    McArdle’s blog has fewer subscribers than most part-time, amateur bloggers. I’d like to hear a supply-and-demand explanation of that.

    Isn’t “part-time, amateur blogger” the very essence of what makes McMegan, McMegan?

    Similar to the “Anybody can become a billionaire!” meme that keeps the poor in check, McMegan supposedly earning a living blogging gives hope to cube and basement dwellers everywhere.

  65. 65.

    RossInDetroit

    Speaking of elves, it looks like Elfquest will finally make it to the big screen. This is after 25+ years of trying and long after anyone who cared grew up and had kids of their own.

  66. 66.

    fhtagn

    @Mandramas:

    I have a terrible fear that you’ve started something that can only end with matoko ranting about evolutionary memes, Assange and “America’s big white Judeoxian ass”.

  67. 67.

    kdaug

    @JonF:

    I’m happy that the world is ending soon.

    Query: Will the true believers who think there are 10 days left self-inflict their own private endtime at 12:01 on 5/22?

  68. 68.

    fhtagn

    @trollhattan:

    Indeed. Anyone can grasp the ring and win themselves a life-time supply of Himalayan rose-pink rock salt cheetos. All you need is a pair of pyjamas, boundless ignorance, and a belief in your own virtue and wisdom.

  74. 74.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    Heh. I heard from someone who worked in casting during the LOTR. They put out an open call for elves, and for the week had the office filled with tall, blond, good-looking people. She said that everyone in the office wanted to kill themselves after that week out of sheer feelings of inferiority.

  75. 75.

    Martin

    @bemused: I think most of all it’ll add fuel to the Bin Laden conspiracies. The approval rating will be used as evidence that we didn’t kill him/he was stashed in the Lincoln Bedroom until Obama needed the approval boost/Obama was Osama all along/etc.

  76. 76.

    RossInDetroit

    @fhtagn:

    What is this Elfquest of which you speak, very old person?

    This was an entertainment from a previous century. It is neither electronic nor shiny, so it may be safely disregarded. carry on.

  78. 78.

    fhtagn

    @RossInDetroit:

    Do the warriors of your tribe sing songs of it around their camp-fires, O venerable sage Ross of Detroit? Tell me, for I would know. Also too, is it portable and do I need batteries?

  79. 79.

    Scott P.

    What college did McMegan go to where a “medievalist” thought LOTR was an historical document?

    Tolkien didn’t invent the idea of elves. In early Germanic mythology, elves were tall.

  80. 80.

    RossInDetroit

    @fhtagn:

    Do the warriors of your tribe sing songs of it around their camp-fires,

    It is much celebrated in the folklore of my people.

  83. 83.

    Mandramas

    @fhtagn: She is very quiet today. I only saw a couple of rants about hipster music this morning.

  84. 84.

    Valdivia

    McMegan is 6’2??
    I am 6 and having seen pics of her I would have thought she was much much shorter than I.. hmmm.

  85. 85.

    Jay in Oregon

    There are some very frightening things going on at Instapundit this week. McMegan, Ed Driscoll, Michael Totten, and Ann Althouse are all guest-blogging at the same time.

    If ever there was an example of Lovecraftian horror, this would be it.

    Oh, and I’m not getting out of the boat. No fuckin’ way.

  86. 86.

    RossInDetroit

    @NonyNony:

    However if you look you’ll probably find the whole run scanned and being distributed via bittorrent…

    I’m not involved. My sister is a talented illustrator and had some business with WARP Graphics at one time. I’m sure she’s interested in the Elfquest film, though not as much as a 51 year old nurse as she was when she was as a 25 year old student.

  88. 88.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Valdivia:

    I am 6 and having seen pics of her I would have thought she was much much shorter than I.. hmmm.

    I’m 6’3″, 200 lbs. I bet I can kick her ass.

  89. 89.

    fhtagn

    @Jay in Oregon:

    Speaking as a Lovecraftian horror, I vehemently object to being classified with that bunch of self-soiling wannabes. Some of us have standards and personal dignity to maintain.

  90. 90.

    Ash Can

    I think we may be nearing the end of civilization.

    Nah. Those mindless babblers and Instapundit are a match made in heaven (or somewhere). Now, if all those idiots were to show up guest-blogging here, then that would be awesome beyond belief the end of civilization.

  91. 91.

    bemused

    @Martin:

    Hiding bin Laden in the Lincoln is pretty good but I’m sure they can be much more inventive than that. They will have to because the ludicrous bar just keeps getting raised higher and higher.

  93. 93.

    Anonymous37

    I dated a medievalist in college, who frequently commented that I looked like an elf. When I protested that at 6′2, I was hardly elf material, he looked at me with weary contempt. “Real elves,” he told me, “are tall.”

    And of the two of them, he was the less ridiculous one.

  94. 94.

    RossInDetroit

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Was that the game where the little pieces vibrated up and down the game board with the application of electricity?

    No, that’s the Republican presidential debates.

  96. 96.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Whenever elves are viewed as short or small (or tiny: remember the tiny elf in Adventure) it’s because they are using magic to make you think they are little.

  98. 98.

    RossInDetroit

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    Sure, but you know, it’s retro.

    Dragging your feet for 2 and a half decades might position you for the nostalgia crowd but it’s still a lousy business plan.

  100. 100.

    gogol's wife

    I have no idea who any of the people mentioned in the original post are, but this thread is cracking me up.

  101. 101.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @fhtagn:

    Real Lovecraftian horrors destroy the very concept of sanity until it is reduced to a black void of non-existence. These guys just take sanity and fart on it for a little while.

  102. 102.

    FlipYrWhig

    @fhtagn: Maybe the dude who hooked up with Megan McArdle ended up with the woman who desperately wanted Ross Douthat.

  104. 104.

    Ash Can

    @Valdivia:

    McMegan is 6’2??

    “When you say that you spotted me in the Himalayan salt section of Bloomingdale’s and that I’m nowhere near 6’2″, you’re missing the entire point of why I said I was 6’2″. My friend’s height-based prejudice on this subject is merely a continuance of his inability to judge me on my innate abilities, as I clearly said by characterizing his attitude toward me as ‘contemptuous.’ So by saying that I’m ‘nowhere near 6’2″‘, as you put it, you’re exhibiting the same disregard for fundamental truths as he was, and might I add exhibiting the same erroneous world view as he did.”

  107. 107.

    RossInDetroit

    @singfoom:

    Elf-Quest rocked.

    Good times.

    They were good stories, and quite ahead of their time. It’ll be weird to see 50 year old dads in pleated khakis, corporate golf shirts and belt clip cell phones hollering about how the movie ruined the original elf comic.
    No, actually that’ll be perfectly ordinary.

  111. 111.

    slag

    @Omnes Omnibus: Seriously. She probably has to say that so often, her life would be easier if she just shorthanded it.

    When I protested that at 6′2, I was hardly elf material, he LAMWWC.

    And yet she claims to care about efficiency.

  115. 115.

    Gravenstone

    @NonyNony:

    That kind of LARPing I’d be willing to denounce – far more dangerous than pretending to be a vampire on the weekends.

    Several years back, when GenCon was still in Milwaukee, I was wandering outside the site with a couple friends, past a bunch of WW LARPers. My buddy casually says. “I burn a rage point.” The ensuing comedy was tremendous. Everywhere you looked, angsty, black clad teens were going “Obfuscate! obfuscate!”

    Guess ya hadda be there…

  116. 116.

    fhtagn

    @RossInDetroit:

    It’ll be weird to see 50 year old dads in pleated khakis, corporate golf shirts and belt clip cell phones hollering about how the movie ruined the original comic .

    At least you’ll feel the pain of Atlas Shrugged fans…

  117. 117.

    khead

    Elfquest, electric football and rock’em sock’em robots?

    Thanks for triggering a midlife crisis, y’all.

    I’m gonna go hook up the Atari 2600. Or maybe the 800 computer.

  118. 118.

    RossInDetroit

    May I please be excused? The plumbers are hollering over the water heater and may have set something on fire.

  119. 119.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @khead:

    I’m gonna go hook up the Atari 2600.

    Can I recommend a River Raid allnighter, or at least until the walls start undulating?

  121. 121.

    FlipYrWhig

    @gogol’s wife: @fhtagn: Just imagine their conversations.

    “In college, I met this guy at a party, and I tried to kiss him, and he muttered something about natural law and eternal moral strictures, and then practically ran away.”
    “Weird. When I was in college, I was with this really tall woman who kept saying she’d had sex at least 100 different ways.”

  124. 124.

    khead

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Kaboom. Maybe some Stampede. I have those around here somewhere. I love old games.

    M.U.L.E. (for the 800) is flat out awesome for its time.
    Maybe it’s just because we played it every Friday as a head start to happy hour in college – but we loved us some MULE.

  125. 125.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Ooh, this is like a mad-lib:

    I dated a surrealist artist in college, who frequently commented that I looked like a fire hydrant. When I protested that at 6′2, I was hardly fire hydrant material, he looked at me with weary contempt. “Real fire hydrants,” he told me, “are not fire hydrants.”

  126. 126.

    Alex

    I’m here studying for a law school final exam in one of the most abstruse subjects ever known to man — on my birthday. But this amused me. Thank you.

  128. 128.

    fhtagn

    @Alex:

    Happy Birthday. I am afraid I have to bill you for this letter and the time I spent composing it though.

  130. 130.

    RossInDetroit

    @Alex:

    I’m here studying for a law school final exam in one of the most abstruse subjects ever known to man—on my birthday. But this amused me. Thank you.

    Good luck, and happy B-Day.

    I’m off work because I woke up to a flooded basement and a wounded water heater. It’s been hilarious.

  131. 131.

    kc

    I dated a medievalist in college, who frequently commented that I looked like an elf. When I protested that at 6′2, I was hardly elf material, he looked at me with weary contempt. “Real elves,” he told me, “are tall.”

    Lemme guess – Totten, right?

  132. 132.

    4jkb4ia

    If you get out of the boat, you will see that McArdle is being Ginia-Bellafante-level snide there.

    ETA: The SCA heralds did have problems with people wanting Elvish names, so you can be interested in the real and fictional Middle Ages together. One person that I knew was working on a PhD in medieval English literature and was originally “Maegril”.

  133. 133.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Alex: Also too, you should have planned better and had your birthday at the beginning of August. That way it more or less coincides with the end of the bar exam and you can go on a multiday bender. Not that I would know anything about that.

  134. 134.

    4jkb4ia

    @khead:

    This is one of the wonderful things about this place. The commenters are my age. The nostalgia is not boomer nostalgia. Not to disparage the boomer commenters.

    @alex:

    Happy birthday.

    @John Cole:

    Since I have written two sappy comments about your site today, I apologize for any and all going beyond the normal giving you a hard time, especially the paranoia and the references to being ignored.

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    @NonyNony:

    McArdle’s problem is that she’s spent her life LARPing her way through life as a character from “Atlas Shrugged”.

    A person who started her career using the pseudonym “Jane Galt” has no room to mock someone else’s interest in imaginary creatures.

  136. 136.

    Marmot

    @khead: I can’t remember, so please tell — is the 800 just a 2600 in a different box? Is it the 400 that I’m thinking of?

    This thread is making me laugh instead of work. Well done.

  137. 137.

    Uloborus

    @cleek:
    Tolkien was taking his races out of the Norse Poetic Edda, of course. Since the Poetic Edda is about 10 damaged pages, half of which are genealogies, he got to describe the races however he wanted.

    He did this by throwing in English folklore, and I’m sure that’s what any ‘medievalist’ would be referring to. Fae came in a bewildering array of sizes and shapes and varied from country to country, but English ‘elves’ were *mostly* tall and beautiful and leaned towards the sociopathic. Obvious associations with Gaelic Sidhe, but of course there was huge cultural leakage in folklore.

    @RossInDetroit:
    I’m sorry, but that’s just more blatant pedophilia than I’m going to be able to deal with on the big screen. Although come to think of it, they’re unlikely to go beyond the original four books. It was really only a vague suggestion in those. Once you moved onto the second generation it started creeping ME out, and I’m a hardcore ‘fantasize about whatever you want, I don’t care’ moral thinker.

    PS – I highly recommend anybody who’s curious about mythology to look up the Norse Poetic Edda. It’s brief and weird and fun and represents the sum total of all we know about Norse mythology. The Prose Edda is much longer, but contains damned little mythology – it’s hero stories. Our culture is quite gung ho about a mythology we know almost nothing about.

  138. 138.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Uloborus:

    Our culture is quite gung ho about a mythology we know almost nothing about.

    Free market economics?

  139. 139.

    Bill Murray

    On the assumption of McMegan being an elf, I guess that makes Dr. Levenson a

    Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee, kicker of elves

    On high seas you search of
    The sickly sweet milk of selfish love
    And knife these for warm fresh blood

    In studded crown the thief of souls
    The parasites – the bugs of gold
    This fertile land now spoiled and sold

    Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee, kicker of elves

  141. 141.

    Richard Fox

    I happen to be an elf in good standing with my long form gold certificates in order and all ready for inspection.

    I am 5’5″ in heels.

    Therefore someone REALLY screwed up somewhere, and now I KNOW this is the end of civilization.

    Crap.

  142. 142.

    khead

    @Marmot:

    800 was the computer. It was a crappy computer, but it was an awesome little game machine for it’s time.

    @4jkb4ia:

    I catch a lot of shit from friends for being nostalgic for the 80’s – of all decades – but I was 12 in ’80 and 22 when the decade was over. My entire teenage life is referenced against a music video, video game, or movie reference from the decade.

  143. 143.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @khead:

    I catch a lot of shit from friends for being nostalgic for the 80’s

    Surely not from the polyester and silk-clad denizens of the 70s?

  144. 144.

    khead

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Amazing, isn’t it? My older sis is class of ’76. Bro is ’79.

    There’s no way toe socks, vans and disco were better than big hair, camaros and videos of English bands on Night Tracks.

    Plus, Pong really sucked.

  145. 145.

    goblue72

    @freelancer: When the GOP sucker nominee gets impaled on the spear of Obama’s 2012 victory, the gnashing of teeth amongst the Tea Party/NRO/Reason crowd is going to be truly epic.

  146. 146.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @khead:

    There’s no way toe socks, vans and disco were better than big hair, camaros and videos of English bands on Night Tracks.

    The 80s was the first generation that figured out how to dress well (without looking like their parents).

  147. 147.

    Rhoda

    @freelancer: He’s actually blaming the sample, saying it’s to heavily democratic. So the AP emails him that there is no statistical difference in the sample from their last poll; and he posts their email and again repeats this is all because of the sample size.

    Then again, the NBC/Wall Street journal poll had Obama at 57% too. He doesn’t talk about that at all.

  151. 151.

    jake the snake

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    The 80s was the first generation that figured out how to dress well (without looking like their parents).

    I think I threw up in my mouth.

    Every generation thinks that.
    I was class of ’70.
    My daughter (class of ’96) and I were watching Monterey Pop a few months ago, and she spent the whole movies laughing at what people were wearing. Which, even in retrospect seemed pretty normal to me.

  152. 152.

    Uloborus

    @khead:
    What I LIKED about the 80s is that we KNEW we were dressing and acting like idiots. We enjoyed it anyway. In the 70s they somehow thought those outfits were classy.

  154. 154.

    Robert Waldmann

    I swear to Elron that I once witnessed a debate between my daughter and my mother in law about whether real mermaids went topless. My daughter was 5 at the time. My mother in law wasn’t.

  155. 155.

    Tom Levenson

    Started to say something. Thought better of it.

    Edit(2): Just caught Bill Murray @139. I like the title “Kicker of Elves.”

    Thank you.

  156. 156.

    PanurgeATL

    The ’80s were an incredibly weird decade for me. I’m half-nostalgic for them, but what I mostly pine for is what they should’ve been, not what they were. Now any cultural movement after the ’60s that tries to make haircuts cool–after all the grief over the preceding ten years, and playing right into the neo-square agenda–really should get an automatic FAIL, but there was enough left over from the ’70s that an unrepentant longhair could just about get by (it did turn out to be the Golden Age of MET-ALL, after all). I’ve spent most of my life not feeling really at home anywhere scene-wise, and I started way too late (or, if you want, better than never) to try to fix that. The ’70s had their problems, but the ’80s created as many problems as they solved (as did everything since then). Occasionally in the flow of fashion something good will pop up, and I’m happy to incorporate it. After all this time I suppose I’ve built up a pretty extensive esthetic tool box. Making it all work together might be a different story, though…

    I was never into Elfquest, for some reason; maybe it’s because the characters look just a little too conventionally “elfin”, which I’m sure was the point. I started with Tolkien, and just really never felt the need to search further afield (which I probably should’ve done just to keep JRRT from eating my brain totally. I did read C.S. Lewis’ “space” trilogy, though). I understand about Orlando Bloom, but, well, wigs turn me off. (Apparently only one male LOTR cast member in the entire film trilogy, Peter Jackson’s son in a cameo, wears only his own hair. Everyone else is wearing a wig.) Speaking of which, Hugo Weaving’s “conventionally elfin” arched eyebrows and sharp features probably got him that part; he’s a little too stern for Elrond for my taste (JRRT calls him “kind as summer” in The Hobbit, plainly not knowing summer in the Deep South, but I don’t know who I would’ve cast. TBH, Stuart Townsend might’ve worked.

    ETA: I don’t know if Elfquest is “ahead of its time” so much. Is it possible for an entire society to be behind its time??

  157. 157.

    Josh

    I had a friend in college who compared me to Harlan Ellison. When I protested that, as a 5’2″ tall petulant Jew from Ohio, I was hardly . . . oh.

  158. 158.

    Church Lady

    To be really entertaining, perhaps they could ask commenters to give suggestions for songs to emote to while singing karaoke. That would certainly spice things up.

  160. 160.

    Paul in KY

    @jake the snake: I grew up in the 70s & I think the 80s had better clothes. I wore some things in the 70s that I hope no one took a picture of.

  161. 161.

    Paul in KY

    @PanurgeATL: He is half-elven, so you would expect a person who wasn’t quite so elvishly beautiful. Weaving (IMO) wasn’t a good fit.

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