Comments on: I flipped a coin and decided to ask this question

I flipped a coin and decided to ask this question

ferociouskitty — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:46:42 -0800

Someone answered an AskMe question with a little poem about flipping a coin - help me find it? If I'm remembering correctly, it was in a question about making the decision whether or not to get married or move or have a baby or some other emotionally charged thing, and the premise of the poem was that, regardless of the outcome of the coin flip, it would reveal the true desire of the decision maker. Thanks for your help!

By: amyms

amyms — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:01:36 -0800

This comment from Pater Aletheias in the A Tale of Two Pretties thread:

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind.
And you're hampered by not having any.
The simplest way to solve the dilemma you'll find,
Is simply by flipping a penny.

No, not so that chance shall decide the affair;
As you're passively standing there moping.
But as soon as the penny is up in the air,
You'll suddenly know what you're hoping.

--Piet Hein

By: ferociouskitty

ferociouskitty — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:06:27 -0800

That's the one!
Thank you.

By: amyms

amyms — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:07:30 -0800

You're welcome :)

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:20:41 -0800

Yeah, well, you might have seen it here, first.

By: amyms

amyms — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:29:21 -0800

Ahhh, MrMoonPie, props to you. Sorry I didn't see yours when I went searching (I was only looking in AskMe comments because that's how ferociouskitty posed her question).

By: ferociouskitty

ferociouskitty — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:51:31 -0800

Thank you, too, MrMoonPie!
amyms, just out of curiosity, what did you search on to find it? I did a bit of looking around and came up empty.

By: amyms

amyms — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:57:26 -0800

just out of curiosity, what did you search on to find it?

I remembered that it was about "flipping a penny" so I put that phrase into the search box and then chose "Comments" and "Ask Metafilter" as the search options.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:12:13 -0800

The temptation to retcon this poem into one of my earliest AskMe comments in order to claim precedent is not quite overwhelming, but it is at least whelming.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:24:11 -0800

Shenanigans, again. You're a tricksy one, cortex.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:26:49 -0800

cortex, that'd be some serious shenanigans, since my citation predates AskMe by more than a year.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:36:52 -0800

Predates the current origin of AskMe, you mean.

*wiggles eyebrows*

By: found missing

found missing — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:43:13 -0800

What is the point of ruining everyone's fun?

By: roombythelake

roombythelake — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:12:07 -0800

Hah, fun poem. I actually do this in real life; that is, I do a thought experiment to think how I would feel if I did flip a coin for an answer. Except I pay attention to which result I'd be disappointed by, rather than which which answer I am hoping for. It's easier to gauge that way, somehow.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:13:34 -0800

The ruining, mostly. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wallhack in Counter-Strike.

By: that girl

that girl — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:36:16 -0800

I favorited this comment a while back. It is great.

By: Gary

Gary — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:47:53 -0800

Is cortex's plan why the early MeFi posts start at 19, and have lots of convenient holes in between the ids? Is Matt going to silently add a bunch of posts predicting technology trends and a young Illinois senator named Barack he thinks might go far?

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:40:29 -0800

The ruining, mostly. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wallhack in Counter-Strike.

Huddled around the dull glow of the monitor, someone's grandfather was telling us about how the end times would come when an upstart young moderator, drunk with his own power, would seek to alter the past, and in so doing, break the world.

Nonsense, we said, just stories told to scare children.

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:43:54 -0800

Ooooo! I was in the right answer to a Metatalk question! I win!

I'm retiring from Metafilter now. Thanks for the good times, everyone!