Today is what Metafilter is all about. November 24, 2008 10:04 PM Subscribe
Yet another shoutout for a MeFite going above and beyond the call of duty in real life: HopperFan.
Anonymous poster asks about pulling his or her own tooth. HopperFan offers to cover Anonymous' bill in honor of Soulbee.
After reading the comments today, the kindness and support that's overflowing (especially now, looking at the posts here on the gray)... today has definitely brought out the best in people.
Stay awesome, Metafilter.
Anonymous poster asks about pulling his or her own tooth. HopperFan offers to cover Anonymous' bill in honor of Soulbee.
After reading the comments today, the kindness and support that's overflowing (especially now, looking at the posts here on the gray)... today has definitely brought out the best in people.
Stay awesome, Metafilter.
I just saw that, pretty cool. Also, I can't imagine how crazy you'd have to be to even think about ripping out your own teeth. Yeesh.
posted by puke & cry at 10:26 PM on November 24, 2008
posted by puke & cry at 10:26 PM on November 24, 2008
P&C, apparently it is pretty common. It's less crazy than ignoring the problem indefinitely which seems to be the default option for impoverished sufferers of tooth pain. Still, dental school seems to be the smart option if you don't have the scratch or an awesome benefactor like HopperFan.
I remember a show a while back about a guy who made his own set of false teeth and pulled out all of his real ones.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:42 PM on November 24, 2008
I remember a show a while back about a guy who made his own set of false teeth and pulled out all of his real ones.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:42 PM on November 24, 2008
Holy crap a lot of MeFites have been awesome lately. I fucking love you guys. Everything in the gray today is getting favorited for the next time I'm feeling down.
posted by Caduceus at 11:12 PM on November 24, 2008
posted by Caduceus at 11:12 PM on November 24, 2008
Yes, awesome indeed! Good on ya, HopperFan! (Is that Edward Hopper of whom you're a fan, I wonder? In which case, you have kickass taste in art as well as a heart of gold.)
posted by scody at 11:26 PM on November 24, 2008
posted by scody at 11:26 PM on November 24, 2008
I have no choice but to attribute this wave of good behavior to the aftershock of solidarity achieved by the people who elected President Obama.
Obama saved Metafilter (and i'm only half joking).
posted by pwally at 11:56 PM on November 24, 2008
Obama saved Metafilter (and i'm only half joking).
posted by pwally at 11:56 PM on November 24, 2008
There's this great essay I read years ago: middle-class guy is musing about watching, with his midde-class kid, a Disney film about some idyllic and happy farm, a Disneyfied farm where, the author explains, it appears the animals are raised for no explicable reason, and certainly not to be slaughtered and eaten.
Author then recalls his own childhood, growing up on a real farm, where his family worked long and hard days raising animals with the explicit purpose of slaughtering and eating them. His own family was poor but owned the farm; their hired farmhands were even worse off.
Old grizzled farmhand living in a shack for the hired hands has a painful festering smelly rotting tooth, and no means to see a dentist, so finally one night he gets drunk, and get a pair of pliers. And rips his own tooth out of his mouth, accompanied by blood and howls of pain. Howls the author, as a child, hears from his own bed.
Author concludes that that's what farm life really is, and always will be for him (if not for his more comfortably raised kid): not Disney's fanciful softness, but instead poverty, tough choices, and pain for animals and humans.
Great essay, wish I remembered the title and author.
posted by orthogonality at 12:11 AM on November 25, 2008 [3 favorites]
Author then recalls his own childhood, growing up on a real farm, where his family worked long and hard days raising animals with the explicit purpose of slaughtering and eating them. His own family was poor but owned the farm; their hired farmhands were even worse off.
Old grizzled farmhand living in a shack for the hired hands has a painful festering smelly rotting tooth, and no means to see a dentist, so finally one night he gets drunk, and get a pair of pliers. And rips his own tooth out of his mouth, accompanied by blood and howls of pain. Howls the author, as a child, hears from his own bed.
Author concludes that that's what farm life really is, and always will be for him (if not for his more comfortably raised kid): not Disney's fanciful softness, but instead poverty, tough choices, and pain for animals and humans.
Great essay, wish I remembered the title and author.
posted by orthogonality at 12:11 AM on November 25, 2008 [3 favorites]
I have no choice but to attribute this wave of good behavior to the aftershock of solidarity achieved by the people who elected President Obama.
Um, no, I think the awesome people here have always been so, quietly and without fuss -- confirmation bias. Obama is not the universal answer to all problems.
posted by gac at 1:50 AM on November 25, 2008
Um, no, I think the awesome people here have always been so, quietly and without fuss -- confirmation bias. Obama is not the universal answer to all problems.
posted by gac at 1:50 AM on November 25, 2008
great stuff, HopperFan.
we ought to set that tooth up somewhere as a memorial to this outpouring of niceness. maybe in a public park, next to a tablet inscribed with the ten commandments, for example.
we could name it The Tooth of the Unknown Poster.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:59 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]
we ought to set that tooth up somewhere as a memorial to this outpouring of niceness. maybe in a public park, next to a tablet inscribed with the ten commandments, for example.
we could name it The Tooth of the Unknown Poster.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:59 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]
Obama is not the universal answer to all problems
Take that back you damn, dirty progressive.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:14 AM on November 25, 2008
Take that back you damn, dirty progressive.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:14 AM on November 25, 2008
MetaTalk is starting to hurt my teeth this week. What the hell, people.
posted by Plutor at 5:19 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Plutor at 5:19 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]
Thank you, HopperFan. I have been planning for some time to get involved with a local charity, and you have motivated me to stop thinking about it and just do it. Today.
@ orthogonality: Another rotting tooth story you might find interesting is Ernest Gaines' "The Sky is Gray." I can't find the full text online unfortunately, but don't read a synopsis, it won't do the story justice.
posted by headnsouth at 5:44 AM on November 25, 2008
@ orthogonality: Another rotting tooth story you might find interesting is Ernest Gaines' "The Sky is Gray." I can't find the full text online unfortunately, but don't read a synopsis, it won't do the story justice.
posted by headnsouth at 5:44 AM on November 25, 2008
I saw that too and thought it was awesome! well done Hopperfan!
posted by Wilder at 6:25 AM on November 25, 2008
posted by Wilder at 6:25 AM on November 25, 2008
Great gesture from HopperFan and great bonus pointers to rotting-tooth literature from others!
This officially negates the hour I spent in the dentist chair TWO WEEKS AGO listening to christmas music, hating Christmas more every second. Thank you for restoring the holiday vibe. I don't even mind it's not even Thanksgiving yet.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:59 AM on November 25, 2008
This officially negates the hour I spent in the dentist chair TWO WEEKS AGO listening to christmas music, hating Christmas more every second. Thank you for restoring the holiday vibe. I don't even mind it's not even Thanksgiving yet.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:59 AM on November 25, 2008
This is an excellent Thanksgiving story. Well done, HopperFan, and Good Luck, Anonymous.
posted by theora55 at 7:41 AM on November 25, 2008
posted by theora55 at 7:41 AM on November 25, 2008
Also, I can't imagine how crazy you'd have to be to even think about ripping out your own teeth.
"Man, this is starting to drive me nuts... can't sleep... however painful yanking it would be, it couldn't hurt much more than it already is... and that tooth wouldn't be hurting if it didn't need, nay, want to be pulled, it should come out easily... can't sleep... where did I put that toolbox... ?"
Long story short: The disinfected needle-nose pliers slipped, and yes, Virginia, I ended up with the damn tooth still in my mouth and in more agony than before.
The moral: Affliction by Russell Banks is in many ways a very good book, but as an orthodontic procedure manual, it sucks donkey-balls.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:41 AM on November 25, 2008
"Man, this is starting to drive me nuts... can't sleep... however painful yanking it would be, it couldn't hurt much more than it already is... and that tooth wouldn't be hurting if it didn't need, nay, want to be pulled, it should come out easily... can't sleep... where did I put that toolbox... ?"
Long story short: The disinfected needle-nose pliers slipped, and yes, Virginia, I ended up with the damn tooth still in my mouth and in more agony than before.
The moral: Affliction by Russell Banks is in many ways a very good book, but as an orthodontic procedure manual, it sucks donkey-balls.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:41 AM on November 25, 2008
I really shouldn't be reading this thread before my dental appointment this afternoon. Nope.
posted by gingerbeer at 8:38 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by gingerbeer at 8:38 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]
"Yes, awesome indeed! Good on ya, HopperFan! (Is that Edward Hopper of whom you're a fan, I wonder? In which case, you have kickass taste in art as well as a heart of gold.)"
As soon as I saw his name, I thought, hmm, Dennis or Edward?
posted by klangklangston at 8:59 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]
As soon as I saw his name, I thought, hmm, Dennis or Edward?
posted by klangklangston at 8:59 AM on November 25, 2008 [1 favorite]
Hello everyone, and thanks - right after I posted that reply, I kind of wished I had just emailed him via the throwaway gmail account (so I didn't look ostentatious etc...), but it was pretty spontaneous.
As for what I offered to Anon, it's pretty small compared to what MeFi has given me. In a large part, this is not only where I come for general info, but for very specific emotional and social knowledge. I'll give you the latest example. Yesterday, Brandon Blatcher asked how Soulbee passed - I had wondered that myself, but was unsure if I should ask. Loquacious then responded with a gentle but very firm "not appropriate," which Brandon accepted. At first, I thought, "Hey, who made loquacious the Sole Arbiter of Good Taste?" Then I pondered it a bit more, and I remembered an incident on Wednesday after the "showing" (ghastly word) for my boss's mother. A client asked me "How did she look?" - referring, I assume, to the presentation and/or skills of the funeral parlor staff and embalmers. I was really taken aback, but I realized that for some people/cultures/social groups, it's normal and ok to ask this kind of stuff. For others, it's not - and that's what loquacious was pointing out - it's better to take the safe route. Lesson learned.
So yeah, pretty much every day, I use or think about something I learned here. I can't go out and surf, but I try to do similar things, thanks to UbuRoivas. I refer back to orangeswan's posts and mess around doing crafty stuff. I re-read allkindsoftime's response to my AskMe to get a little inspiration. And on and on and on... so I'm turning this shoutout right back on MeFi. :)
For those who were curious, I'm a big fan of Grace Hopper, and also Edward (Automat!), and definitely Dennis (True Romance!) - so the username seemed appropriate.
posted by HopperFan at 9:17 AM on November 25, 2008 [3 favorites]
As for what I offered to Anon, it's pretty small compared to what MeFi has given me. In a large part, this is not only where I come for general info, but for very specific emotional and social knowledge. I'll give you the latest example. Yesterday, Brandon Blatcher asked how Soulbee passed - I had wondered that myself, but was unsure if I should ask. Loquacious then responded with a gentle but very firm "not appropriate," which Brandon accepted. At first, I thought, "Hey, who made loquacious the Sole Arbiter of Good Taste?" Then I pondered it a bit more, and I remembered an incident on Wednesday after the "showing" (ghastly word) for my boss's mother. A client asked me "How did she look?" - referring, I assume, to the presentation and/or skills of the funeral parlor staff and embalmers. I was really taken aback, but I realized that for some people/cultures/social groups, it's normal and ok to ask this kind of stuff. For others, it's not - and that's what loquacious was pointing out - it's better to take the safe route. Lesson learned.
So yeah, pretty much every day, I use or think about something I learned here. I can't go out and surf, but I try to do similar things, thanks to UbuRoivas. I refer back to orangeswan's posts and mess around doing crafty stuff. I re-read allkindsoftime's response to my AskMe to get a little inspiration. And on and on and on... so I'm turning this shoutout right back on MeFi. :)
For those who were curious, I'm a big fan of Grace Hopper, and also Edward (Automat!), and definitely Dennis (True Romance!) - so the username seemed appropriate.
posted by HopperFan at 9:17 AM on November 25, 2008 [3 favorites]
Nice gesture, HopperFan.
I have no choice but to attribute this wave of good behavior to the aftershock of solidarity achieved by the people who elected President Obama.
In addition to that, consider the baby boom in about eight months that will cement Democratic Party solidarity for generations to come.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:19 AM on November 25, 2008
I have no choice but to attribute this wave of good behavior to the aftershock of solidarity achieved by the people who elected President Obama.
In addition to that, consider the baby boom in about eight months that will cement Democratic Party solidarity for generations to come.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:19 AM on November 25, 2008
From the wikipedia link above
"1969 – She won the first "man of the year" award ..."
OK, awesome.
posted by desjardins at 9:21 AM on November 25, 2008
"1969 – She won the first "man of the year" award ..."
OK, awesome.
posted by desjardins at 9:21 AM on November 25, 2008
Oh my gosh, how have I never heard of Grace Hopper before? She's amazing! When I was a female CS major in undergrad, there was always lots of hubbub and fanfare about encouraging women in computer science. I can't believe they didn't wallpaper the hallways with her picture. She would have deserved it.
posted by vytae at 10:41 AM on November 25, 2008
posted by vytae at 10:41 AM on November 25, 2008
I can't go out and surf, but I try to do similar things, thanks to UbuRoivas.
hey, cool! :)
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:32 AM on November 25, 2008
hey, cool! :)
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:32 AM on November 25, 2008
UbuRoivas - that's my methodology too, when I'm within reach of the water. Let's ride together when I finally make it to your corner of the world.
posted by allkindsoftime at 11:49 AM on November 25, 2008
posted by allkindsoftime at 11:49 AM on November 25, 2008
it's a deal - as long as you realise that beer will somehow work its way into the picture as well sooner or later.
the main principle there is just getting outside of society & back into nature. a walk in the forest or a hike up a mountain or a nice bike ride would also do the trick; a bit of perspective, you know.
but there's something so much more visceral & simultaneously calming about bobbing around in the water, especially in full view of the city - at Manly, Bondi, Cronulla or any one of a couple of dozen lesser-known city beaches; one of the great & simple luxuries of Sydney life.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:11 PM on November 25, 2008
the main principle there is just getting outside of society & back into nature. a walk in the forest or a hike up a mountain or a nice bike ride would also do the trick; a bit of perspective, you know.
but there's something so much more visceral & simultaneously calming about bobbing around in the water, especially in full view of the city - at Manly, Bondi, Cronulla or any one of a couple of dozen lesser-known city beaches; one of the great & simple luxuries of Sydney life.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:11 PM on November 25, 2008
OH YAY, HUGS ALL AROUND!!!
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:19 PM on November 25, 2008
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:19 PM on November 25, 2008
I just read the bike thread -- muy awesome.
It would be pretty neat if there was a projects-like page where someone could say "Hey, I'd like fund project-of-poster's-suggestion, who's in?"
Reminds me how I've often wanted to have a holiday party/get-together organized around a charity activity (sorting clothes, making cards , bagging lunches for the needy/elderly, etc etc). This too could make a good Metafilter meetup, though I believe I'm in a low-active-meta-filter-participant-area, so I doubt I could wrangle enough folks for a meetup in my 'hood.
I'm a little bit rambly this morning, excuse the derail.... and, yay for HopperFan!
posted by NikitaNikita at 8:42 AM on November 26, 2008
It would be pretty neat if there was a projects-like page where someone could say "Hey, I'd like fund project-of-poster's-suggestion, who's in?"
Reminds me how I've often wanted to have a holiday party/get-together organized around a charity activity (sorting clothes, making cards , bagging lunches for the needy/elderly, etc etc). This too could make a good Metafilter meetup, though I believe I'm in a low-active-meta-filter-participant-area, so I doubt I could wrangle enough folks for a meetup in my 'hood.
I'm a little bit rambly this morning, excuse the derail.... and, yay for HopperFan!
posted by NikitaNikita at 8:42 AM on November 26, 2008
Yeah. That was a Good Thing. Another inspiring post/thread. Between these, and the help/kindness I've personally experienced here, makes me want to help out others even more. And lets me ignore the nastiness/snark/hissy fits as well.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:00 AM on November 26, 2008
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:00 AM on November 26, 2008
It would be pretty neat if there was a projects-like page where someone could say "Hey, I'd like fund project-of-poster's-suggestion, who's in?"
I don't like that idea. The beauty of HopperFan's gesture is that it was spontaneous and personal. Institutionalizing generosity strips it of some of that beauty (kiva.org excepted).
Reminds me how I've often wanted to have a holiday party/get-together organized around a charity activity
If you're moved by HopperFan's action, pay it forward and take action yourself. That's what it's all about.
posted by headnsouth at 2:12 PM on November 26, 2008
I don't like that idea. The beauty of HopperFan's gesture is that it was spontaneous and personal. Institutionalizing generosity strips it of some of that beauty (kiva.org excepted).
Reminds me how I've often wanted to have a holiday party/get-together organized around a charity activity
If you're moved by HopperFan's action, pay it forward and take action yourself. That's what it's all about.
posted by headnsouth at 2:12 PM on November 26, 2008
yes, and if you're in the mood, here are a couple of places to pick up worthwhile christmas gifts.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:41 PM on November 26, 2008
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:41 PM on November 26, 2008
Oh, I totally agree that the spontaneity is awesome. I'm just saying a collaborative website of some sort would be cool, and that kiva.org site is similar to what I was trying to describe/locate -- s0, thanks! :)
posted by NikitaNikita at 7:40 PM on November 26, 2008
posted by NikitaNikita at 7:40 PM on November 26, 2008
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posted by lunasol at 10:14 PM on November 24, 2008