And, per the Stranger‘s book reviewer, Paul Constant, someone has:
I saw the weakest minds of my occupation destroyed by blog comments, hate-eating hysterical shivering, dragging themselves through message boards at dawn looking for a troll to fight. I started writing professionally about eight years ago, just as comments became less a curiosity and more a given. But many of the journalists I met who’d been in the business before the arrival of comments could already become flushed with outrage about the very existence of reader feedback. Their faces would get red and they’d scream—and, yes, sometimes sob—about every mean thing someone left in the wide-open space below their stories….
When novelist and poet Travis Nichols worked for the Poetry Foundation, one of his jobs was to oversee a project in which comments were allowed on poetryfoundation.org. Perhaps the foundation expected an Athenian discourse about the nature of poetry and art in the digital age. And I’m sure the comment threads inspired some of that. But they also fomented a slew of bullies, off-topic comments, conspiracy theories, ax-grinding, and treatises on the sad state of American poetry. In an interview with Paul Killebrew, Nichols admitted that the negative comments made him feel “deeply, deeply bonkers for a few months, largely because I took a lot of the rote online bullying personally.” The comment section was soon scrapped entirely, which caused several angry commenters to create their own sites accusing Nichols of fascism.
And now, finally, Nichols gets his revenge, in The More You Ignore Me (Coffee House Press, $15.95), a novel in the form of one ridiculously long blog comment posted by our narrator, known only as linksys181. He’s recently been banned from a wedding blog (for a young couple he has never met) for excessive trolling, and he’s taking one last opportunity, on an unrelated blog called BrendaCooking Fun.com in response to an unrelated comment from someone called cookiekitty7, to justify his online existence…
Baud
Poets are so emotional.
Thoughtcrime
Some actual reporting on CBS Evening news apparently:
raven
“Athenian discourse” I just had one of them at the Pulaski BBQ!
NotMax
@raven
I’ll have the spanakopita for discourse, and the moussaka for datcourse.
schrodinger's cat
@raven: How was your trip to Rhode Island?
Spaghetti Lee
@Thoughtcrime:
I’ve heard people on the left who normally hate the MSM say that Scott Pelley’s a cut above the rest. I don’t watch him so I don’t know if that’s true, but it would be nice if it was.
jamick6000
whats a good conservative blog i can troll? if it helps, i think i would be Libertarian_1776weedman, socially conservative/fiscally conservative libertarian who is semi-positive about obama, likes weed a lot.
Violet
Posted this below, but in case anyone missed it, there’s a new app that helps you boycott products from companies you don’t like:
Yatsuno
@NotMax: Mmm…spanakopita. Probably one of my favourite Greek foods.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: It was very good. The reunion was a lot of fun and it was good to reconnect after 45 years. My fishing plans got rained and blown out so I spent Saturday driving from Narraganset, Newport, Fall River and then to the Whaling Museum in New Bedford. Hit a campus pizza joint near Brown and went back to the hotel. The boat called and cancelled. I woke up at 4:30am and it was pouring so, since I was right next to the airport, I burned way too many FF miles and came home.
Suffern ACE
@Thoughtcrime: I wonder if we can have months of hearings into the process of editing those memos in a way that cast asparagus on the state department.
? Martin
Spaghetti Lee
Nichols admitted that the negative comments made him feel “deeply, deeply bonkers for a few months, largely because I took a lot of the rote online bullying personally.”
Yep, sounds about right. Not to sound melodramatic or self-aggrandizing, but there was a period of about 2 1/2 years where I was constantly getting into fights with the same two guys on this art site-they were both libertarian objectivists, which should tell you all you need to know. Not trolls in the traditional sense-they believed every word of that garbage. And I got so, so ridiculously invested in it, and I eventually decided “this is making me crazy” and bid them both adieu. Haven’t had any trouble with either one since, although friends on the site tell me they’ve both gotten even crazier. I can’t imagine dealing with that crazy obsessive bullshit on top of all the other crap from last year.
Anoniminous
Anybody having problems sending email to AOL? A friend has been ‘there’ since forever and now they are claiming they never hear of him.
MattR
@Violet: I’m gonna download it once it goes back on the market for Android. I think my favorite part of the article is the author’s interaction with the commenters.
Randy P
@Yatsuno:
Speaking of spanakopita…
I was a little sad to miss a Greek Festival near my home (in PA) this weekend as I am in CA for the weekend.
Just discovered today that here in Oakland there is ALSO a Greek Festival on the same weekend. So I get my baklava, greek coffee, etc after all.
I suspect this isn’t a coincidence. Is there some reason why this weekend of all weekends would be chosen for Greek festivals?
About article comments, I keep making the mistake of perusing comments when I check online news sources. Without exception my blood pressure starts rising within the first 10 comments over the right-wing idiocy (not always the same ratio of idiot-to-thoughtful, but always a solid contingent of Fox News-spouting idiots). I get depressed just thinking people like this exist. I have to stop reading those things, they add no value to my day whatsoever.
ruemara
I find trolls fascinating, in a car wreck sort of way. I know they intend to hurt, I know that there’s some internal issue going on, but it’s amazing how proud they are of trolling. It’s almost like being the world’s top scat porn actor. Sure, it’s great to be tops in your field, but have you considered the field? They get boring real fast though.
Yatsuno
@Randy P:
Dunno. Maybe eemom can enlighten us on this point.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@NotMax:
And plenty of Ouzo.
Anoniminous
Paul Constant. America he’s given you all and now he’s nothing. America fifteen dollars and seventy-seven cents* May 16, 2013.
——————————————————————————————————————-
* inflation
PeakVT
In case anyone has forgotten, there’s still a jobs crisis in this country.
schrodinger's cat
@PeakVT: I wrote about it on my tinee tiny blog this morning. The root cause of all our economic is the devaluation of labor compared to capital.
schrodinger's cat
@raven: Sounds like you had fun, despite the rain. I bet this week the weather’s going to be perfect.
srv
@jamick6000: Well, since raven won’t troll Pat Lang, you could try him. I can only do so much between bans.
Internet life haz been pretty boring since Darrell left and the truthers left reddit. You could try reddit/r/mensrights or climate change denier Fabius Maximus (he’s actually a lefty, but nuts on the entire atmospheric/climate scientist being involved in a vast global conspiracy).
mainmati
I like intelligent commentary and good snark is always a good thing. And even a venting that is substantive, ok. But self-indulgent, unintelligent, spewing (usually from the right) does not deserve a response at all. Too much attention to the morans and sociopaths.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: Yep, once in a lifetime. When you want to fish there are lots of things you can’t control so I made the best of it.
raven
@srv: He’s been really fucking nasty about Cleveland and abortion rights lately.
BGinCHI
That Nichols dude would last about 10 seconds around here.
When is Cole going to write a thinly-veiled novel about a large man with pets and a blog called West Virginia Gatsby?
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: With green balloons rather than a green light?
MikeJ
JOSS WHEDON IS IN SEATTLE AND I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT IT.
FUCK ALL OF YOU,.
Schlemizel
funny but neither TNC or Scalzi has troll problems. They make it very clear you can say anything you want as long as it is not excessively offensive or obvious trolling. TNC has the best comment section on the Intertubes
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: And probably green sweatpants and flip flops.
NotMax
While the blog is sort of focused on ‘manly men,’ have you folks seen this strange ad?
Wouldn’t buy it anyway, but the ad certainly provides nothing whatsoever to encourage purchase.
Omnes Omnibus
@Schlemizel: Well, according to T&H (who is obviously a reputable source), Cole pays trolls to post here.
BGinCHI
@MikeJ: You gave us Starbucks so suck on it. Oh, and Bill Gates.
And yes, I spotted you Hendrix.
Heliopause
As a veteran of the latter glory days of Usenet I find the hand-wringing about “trolls” (hell, even the concept itself) amusing. Not many things in life are simple but this one is:
Once you identify someone as a “troll”, if you engage that person you do so voluntarily.
If you rip the “troll” a new one, good for you.
If you ignore the “troll”, good for you.
If you subsequently complain, fuck you.
Funny thing is, the alleged problem of “trolls” was dealt with far more effectively in the pleistocene era of Usenet than now.
Baud
@Schlemizel:
That would cure a lot of troll problems at a lot of sites.
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemizel: You like TNC’s comment section? Its so goody goody and fake polite. Quite tiresome if you ask me.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: Pants? Even sweatpants? I think not. Or is that part of the thinly veiled thing? Roman à clef can get so complicated.
MattR
@NotMax: I like that I had to watch a commercial before I could watch that commercial.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: He has to veil his lower parts, OO, or this book is never going to be allowed on bookshelves. My god, just think of the pantsless version. There’s no rating that could contain it.
Yatsuno
@MikeJ: Psst. Joss Whedon is in Seattle. You’re welcome. :)
srv
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m pretty sure DougJ makes a lot more money than John. Kid must be a trustafarian, or the real Patrick Kennedy. Back in the day, we wondered if DougJ was real and John was fake.
(I mean, really, how many guys mop naked or get trapped on their roofs?)
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI:
No.
raven
Anyone know what the sewer line easement is for Athens? We may be fucked.
MikeJ
@Yatsuno: We would have hung out and become best friends and he would have either cast me as the pilot on the sequel to Firefly that he would be compelled to make, or at least based it on me and we would hang out all the time and kill vampires.
BGinCHI
@raven: Ort will know.
Anne Laurie
@Schlemizel:
As I understand it — and I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong — both TNC and Scalzi ‘moderate’ comments, either remove those that don’t meet the local standards or read all comments and never allow unacceptable ones to show up. The Blogmaster here is philosophically opposed to that kind of moderation (insert ‘or any other kind’ joke here), so it’s the rare genuinely unhinged commentor who isn’t allowed to fling feces here, for better or worse.
BGinCHI
@MikeJ: I’m pretty sure that’s going to Johnny Knoxville, top actor of his generation.
Anoniminous
@raven:
I know Josh Weldon is in Seattle.
(Call the town clerk or the Dept. of Water and Sanitation, either one will know.)
IowaOldLady
Mr IOL dragged me to a meeting on preparing financially for retirement tonight. The speaker wasn’t bad but the place was full of odd ducks. One guy asked what the odds were on the government taking over eveyone’s 401Ks. The speaker looked startled and said not very high. The guy said he’s heard this and he wouldn’t put anything past the government.
Is this a thing?
raven
@BGinCHI: His FB post today:
Baud
@IowaOldLady:
That guy was probably screaming about death panels two years ago. I wish the speaker’s response was “Very high. The only way to prevent it is to move to Canada.” (Sorry, Canada.)
BGinCHI
What’s a “Yaz lawsuit”? This keeps showing up in my spam.
Who would sue that band? Alison Moyet could not have hurt anyone.
Or are they suing the former outfielder from the Red Sox. That sounds more likely.
Mr Stagger Lee
@MikeJ: What!!! You are not outraged that NBA Commissioner David Stern screwed the Seattle sportsfans by denying them the Sacramento Kings???? I bet you have been going to Starbucks too!!! (there is a boycott by Seattle sportsnuts of Starbucks, because the CEO sold the Sonics to an Oklahoma businessman and the rest is history, of course the rest of Seattle ignores the boycott)
raven
@Anoniminous: It’s WAY past that. The grader hit a 5″ pipe and then we learned that the main sewer line runs across the far edge of the addition. The city engineer came out this afternoon and now we are holding our breath. Any change to the exterior requires us to go back to Historic Pres and that will take at least a month. White people prob.
gogol's wife
@MikeJ:
I’m supposed to go hear a speech by Joss Whedon in the line of duty next week. I’m hoping to get out of it. I have no idea why I should be interested.
BGinCHI
@raven: That is fucking classic.
Oh, Consistency! (The Ort Musical)
Corner Stone
@srv:
What do you mean, “back in the day” ?
It’s very clear they are the same person.
BGinCHI
@raven: Sorry to hear that. Bribe time.
I’d go with pecan pie and a pricey bourbon.
jamick6000
@srv: thanks! those mens rights people are the worst by the way
SiubhanDuinne
@Yatsuno:
Opa!
:: throws melted cheese ceilingwards ::
Anoniminous
@raven:
YIKES! My sympathies.
Suffern ACE
@IowaOldLady: it’s been around. I first heard about it in 2008 during the meltdown, in which a whole bunch of folks at the Econ blogs were convinced that we were either living in Weimar or Argentina or Zimbabwe and the most likely course of action was the Argentine solution of seizing your savings and giving you worthless bonds.
I have to admit, as startling as the meltdown was at its peak, and that fall was wild, I never got the sense that Paulson was the kind of guy to seize assets. Also, the bars didn’t start carrying fernet until much later.
Yatsuno
@MikeJ: Would you have hugged him and squeezed him and called him George too?
BGinCHI
@Suffern ACE:
I had to read that three times, since on first read it said:
“the bars didn’t start carrying ferret until much later.”
Suffern ACE
@Corner Stone: not at the start. There’s kind of a Pirate Robert thing that happened. The original John Cole is living off a MacArthur Foundation grant. Doug J is actually the fourth John Cole.
ruemara
Hey, AL, do you recall any details or links to something you wrote about an age ago about comic con scholarships and Wil Wheaton?
mai naem
I used to go to the Excite politics chatroom back in the mid to late 90s. There were trolls back then too. This was in the not quite the height of the Clinton hate machine. I just remember there was a racist anti semite supposedly from Garden Grove, supposedly an accountant. He had several kids because he wanted the white race to continue. He would talk about his wife and him being northern european. And then there was a whackjob woman from Hawaii who would go on about the free market, who seemed to spend a lot of her employers time online. I felt my personality changing and I stopped going there and moved onto Salon’s table talk. TT is where I saw the intertoobz tradition of putting up recipes when a troll was taking over a thread.
Anne Laurie
@IowaOldLady:
Back around February the Greek Government — or, if you prefer, the German-led Eurocrats looking to conquer Greece in a bloodless coup — mooted the idea of a “surcharge” where all banking depositors over a certain threshold would have to chip in to pay the government’s debts (to global megabanks and the EU). Understandly, people who have always been suspicious that Tha Gubmint wants to steal everybody’s money decided this was the beginning of the End Times, where all the governments are finally going to implement their long-held plans to loot our savings, pensions, Social Security, etc. Buy gold! Hide your cash in jars in your back yard!
Some days it can be difficult to navigate the line between ‘reasonable suspicion’ and ‘paranoia’.
Eric U.
@Heliopause: one of the usenet news groups I was nominally interested in (com.sci.dsp I think) was dominated by a single troll.
Anne Laurie
@ruemara: If you’re thinking of this post, it was John Scalzi (in the end, all fandoms are one fandom). Con or Bust website is here, Not sure if they can help with ComicCon, but if you contact them, they can probably point you in the right direction…
rammalamadingdong
@Mr Stagger Lee: The only thing that matters is the Warriors game tonight. The only thing.
Culture of Truth
The original John Cole is living off a MacArthur Foundation grant.
Isn’t that a ‘genius grant’? No offense, but isn’t it more likely he’s opened up a giant no-kill shelter?
Chris
@IowaOldLady:
Everything is a thing. One of the thing about Fox News listeners, especially those who like to make a public scene, is to show how smart they are by coming up with their own scares and conspiracy theories – based on carefully understood principles of human behavior, like “government sucks and is out to get you, at least when a Democrats’ in charge,” or “poor people and nonwhite people are cheats and greedy,” or “liberals hate America,” or “Muslims want to kill you and steal your women.”
Apparently someone somewhere (whether it was this guy, one of his friends or one of the many sections of the wingnut blogosphere) came up with the “government coming for your 401K” theories, and voila.
ruemara
@Anne Laurie: Grazi, Ms. Laurie
NotMax
@ammalamadingdong
Sampler hung on the wall of houses in ancient Sparta?
Anne Laurie
@ruemara: Also, do the ‘This Week in Blackness’ people maybe have some leads for you, links into the entertainment end?
NotMax
@Chris
Psst.
Obama plans to convert all the 401Ks into 666Ks.
Pass it on.
/make their heads explode
Suffern ACE
@Anne Laurie: I think Cyprus was fairly bad. But 401-k holdings are likely to just go poof on their own than the government confiscate them wholesale.
It’s been awhile, but I those articles still pop up at the bottom of blogs and news sites “Why Warren Buffet is Leaving Stocks” or “10 things the government won’t tell you about the next crisis” that look newsy. That’s where a lot of this paranoia comes from. It’s made easier because a lot of people don’t understand what those mutual funds are doing with the money.
catclub
@IowaOldLady: There was a NYT editorial today that Obama is considering limits on _tax deductible_ contributions to retirement accounts.
Now, this may actually affect a few thousand people. It would be a limit if your retirement can fund $205k per year starting at age 62 — about $3.4M today.
I think Dean Baker eviscerated the arguments as blather from the brokerages.
They have no real argument so they just make up shit.
lojasmo
Will somebody please track down the troll who hounded poor Gex out of here and nuke his IP from orbit, please?
catclub
@Anne Laurie: They did not just moot the idea, they implemented it, and it has dropped out of the news. The world has not ended.
beltane
@catclub: This would affect Mitt Romney and his plutocrat buddies. My heart bleeds.
catclub
@beltane: I had a favorite teacher whose expression of sympathy was: “My heart bleeds peanut butter “( for you).
The prophet Nostradumbass
@BGinCHI: It’s a contraceptive. The manufacturer is being sued for glossing over safety concerns with it (per Wikipedia):
BGinCHI
@The prophet Nostradumbass: I would have thought “Put Yaz in your Vagina” would have been an early deal breaker.
/pretending not to know how contraception works
Suffern ACE
@beltane: yep. That 28 million IRA that he somehow obtained. I’m still not certain what stuff he undervalued to put in there.
pokeyblow
There is no excuse for threatening to kill your co-workers.
Redshirt
I’m endlessly fascinated by trolls. Because they are a pure manifestation of a portion of a person’s mind – usually hideous.
Think of it – there’s never been a medium of communication like the internet. Instant. Global. Anonymous. It’s released new aspects of humanity, and one of those is Trolldom. Let loose on an unsuspecting Net.
magurakurin
@BGinCHI:
I know it’s SOP to bag on Bill Gates, who now spends his time trying to cure diseases, but as time has gone on I have come to the realization that Bill Gates saved us from Steve Jobs…
Omnes Omnibus
@pokeyblow: Do you have any awareness of the back story?
Culture of Truth
It’s great that Gates is trying to cure diseases, but MS was pretty much a negative. He’s making up for it.
lojasmo
@pokeyblow:
I agree. You should never have done that.
Calouste
@srv: @Suffern ACE: Originally Cyprus was going to take part of most bank accounts, but after protests, they changed that to a larger chunk of all the accounts over the nationally insured limit (100,000 Euro IIRC). The Cypriot in the street didn’t really care about that, because that mostly meant that the Russian Mafiosi who were attracted to Cyprus by ridiculously high interest rates lost part of their hookers and blow money.
The same thing can happen in the US. Bank account are covered by the FDIC up to $250,000 and everything above that is covered by your trust in the bank and nothing else.
lojasmo
@pokeyblow:
Know what’s worse than a troll?
A well known troll’s cock-holster.
Corner Stone
@lojasmo: Hilarious dog.
Wait. I take that back. Your threatening to “go postal” and kill your coworkers is absolutely nothing to joke about. I mean, your company certainly didn’t find it amusing since they gave you an official reprimand and suspended you and everything.
Please don’t hunt me down and kill me and my family.
Corner Stone
@lojasmo: Damn.
I hope pokeyblow has a good life insurance policy, for his and his family’s sake.
Please don’t hunt him down and kill him and his family.
Get some help man.
lojasmo
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fixt for clarity.
lojasmo
@Corner Stone:
You’re enough help, dickhead stalking creep.
You keep my temper down ’cause you’re so precious. It’s like surfing LOLcats, without all the intellectual stimulation.
lojasmo
@Corner Stone:
See, I’m a pacifist. I haven’t been in as much as a slapfight in thirty years.
Troll on, ass.
pokeyblow
Why on Earth would it be controversial to take a stand against threatening to kill co-workers?
Also, it seems like discouraging people from killing the families of their co-workers would be something we could all agree on.
lojasmo, wtf?
The prophet Nostradumbass
Well, the comments have taken an interesting turn, considering the original subject.
Suffern ACE
@Calouste: Russian oligarchs aside, there were people who probably lost savings. The reason I thought the earlier plans were outrageous was that the Cypriots weren’t honoring their depositors insurance. In the end, they did. I would expect the FDIC insured accounts to be protected in the US and would be burning mad if they weren’t. I would not be mad if uninsured deposits weren’t protected. Because its very clear what the insured levels are. Obviously I don’t want even large depositors to loose their bank deposits. But if someone has 300k, he might want to think of splitting that between banks.
mclaren
Ah yes, “Athenian discourse.” Like the habitual comments left by our greatly lamented General Stuck, for whom John Cole pined a few days back.
Yes indeedy, “Athenian discourse.”
General Stuck’s total contribution to this forum consisted on “You have butt rabies” and “You’re off your meds” repeated to anyone who criticized Barack Obama. And our host John Cole weeps with angst that the purveyor of this Athenian wisdom is no longer offering such nuggets of golden insight.
You get online and comment on a forum, you better have tungsten-alloy skin. I learned that back in 1985 in FIDOnet, and most of the commenters there had masters and doctorates.
Get some spine or go away. The internet is red in tooth and claw. Deal with it.
Corner Stone
@lojasmo: Too bad your company wasn’t so sure about that.
Get some help man. Before the worst happens.
Omnes Omnibus
@pokeyblow: Anything else you want to weigh in on? In favor of getting enough fiber? Against eating lead paint chips? One awaits your next “random” pronouncement with antici … pation
pokeyblow
@Omnes Omnibus: Probably not tonight. Had a nice dinner, some good wine… busy day tomorrow.
But I am fervent about this “don’t kill your co-workers and their families” thing, so you can expect me to preach about it again.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: What backstory?
lojasmo
@Corner Stone: @pokeyblow:
See, here’s the thing. I did not “threaten to go postal” on anybody.
Your intellectual capacitors need retuning.
Look at the transcript.
Please proceed, governors.
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: was there a “kill your coworkers” thread?
Corner Stone
@lojasmo: How many days were you suspended?
From work I mean. Your work. Where you scared the shit out of someone so badly that they felt compelled to make and enforce an official reprimand.
How many days off was that again?
pokeyblow
I commented here a few weeks ago and lojasmo, whom I was completely unfamiliar with, opened up immediately, saying FOAD. At first, I thought that mean “far out and dynamite!”… but, alas, I was wrong about that.
Then I heard from very reliable sources that lojasmo might be part of the pro-kill-your-co-workers-and-their-families-including-innocent-children-and-handicapped-elders movement, which competes for funding with the don’t-kill-your-co-workers project I support.
That’s my backstory.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: Not that I know of.
@Corner Stone: You know it and are having “fun” fucking with lojasmo over it. Pokeyblow seems to have it from you; it’s a bit sad.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: I agree, it is a bit sad. Actually, it’s a lot bit sad.
It’s not really on me that someone here has threatened to kill their coworkers, to the point where their employer felt compelled to take official action.
Now, you can feel secure in that lojasmo doesn’t work with you, and so as far as you’re concerned he’s a really swell guy. Of course, you work in a courthouse with a metal scanner and armed guards. So, there’s that and all.
pokeyblow
@Corner Stone: We’re all going to die somehow.
We’d rather it wasn’t at the end of some internet punk’s gun barrel, but ultimately that’s out of our control.
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m confused. I’m supposed to read the transcript. But all I have is pokey blows summary and corner stones hearsay.
If there is a transcript, how can I get it. Do I need a subpony or a walnut or one of those legal writ things?
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: I am sure CS has the link handy.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Why would you think that I wou…
Oh, right. Here it is.
Postal
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: Ah. I see. So, basically, you’re just an asshole.
eemom
@pokeyblow:
um, you of all people really should be above twisting someone’s words on a highly charged subject to mean something they didn’t say.
@Corner Stone:
You are a once and future asshole. Nothing to see here.
eemom
@lojasmo:
fwiw, I remember your original account and you don’t deserve this shit.
Steeplejack
Anybody got any suggestions on things to do or places to eat in Baltimore, specifically Little Italy? Bro’ man is taking a day off work tomorrow, and I’m always ready to drop or procrastinate on my piddling little projects, so it’s road trip time!
The leading restaurant suggestion so far is Sabatino’s, specifically the chopped salad.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: Of course. What else did you expect?
Corner Stone
@different-church-lady: That hurts dcl. That hurts.
Almost as bad as getting killed by a coworker who’s on record as threatening coworkers.
Almost that bad. Almost.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: When in B-more, I go for crab. Crab is good.
pokeyblow
@eemom: Me of all people?
I’ll submit you know vanishingly little about me.
Combining the original account with my own exposure to lojasmo’s absent self-control… I’d say those co-workers were lucky to still be alive.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Damn man. You too?
Jesus that hurts.
Not as bad as being killed by an on the record fucking psychopath, but it still hurts.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: I see I’ve still got more work to do then.
Corner Stone
@different-church-lady: Just make sure it’s not with lojasmo. He doesn’t exactly seem to work well with others. But don’t take my word for it, he has an official file at work you could refer to.
Hate to see something happen to a shining light such as yourself.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Yeah, I feel your pain. Or something.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: I’d watch your back if I were you since MN is a heck of a lot closer to WI than TX.
Be thankful you work for the people and have a nice buffer between you and crazy ass psychopaths like lojasmo. Must be nice to be so nonchalant about an officially reprimanded threat.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone:
I burn so brightly you’d think someone stuffed a laser up your butt.
BTW, I notice you didn’t deny the charge.
Corner Stone
@different-church-lady: If you’re the one burning brightly then why would a laser be stuffed up *my* butt?
Not that I’m complaining or anything. At this point I’m down with whatever kind of kink gets your motor purring. Rawr.
pokeyblow
@Corner Stone: It’s not healthy to lose sleep over the threat of some specific psycho killing you after sixteen slap-fight-free years. As the Bard tells us…
There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: I notice you still didn’t deny the charge.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Good suggestion, but I did that last time, at a really good but out-of-the-way place whose name I can’t remember now.