This??

December 23, 2009 3:19 PM

Where did "This." come from?

I've noticed that when some people agree with a comment, they will express agreement by saying "This." and that's it. Does anyone know where this came from?

This comic suggests that it might not be peculiar to metafilter, but I've only seen it here.

posted by AceRock to MetaFilter-Related at 3:19 PM (153 comments total)

WIN
posted by snsranch at 3:24 PM on December 23, 2009

Do you really think it came from anywhere? I think it's a pretty obvious things that's going to crop up anywhere people can quote text by other people. I would assume it's been discovered independently by lots of people.
posted by floam at 3:25 PM on December 23, 2009

The.
posted by grouse at 3:28 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

Where did "This." come from?

There.
posted by backseatpilot at 3:30 PM on December 23, 2009 [28 favorites]

Definitely not a MetaFilter thing. Peruse LiveJournal - at your peril.
posted by desjardins at 3:30 PM on December 23, 2009

Do you really think it came from anywhere?

This.
posted by Askiba at 3:30 PM on December 23, 2009

It's a Fark thing, I think.
posted by zarq at 3:37 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

They are seconding someone's idea.
posted by marimeko at 3:39 PM on December 23, 2009

..(oops) personally, only seen it is at Metafilter.
posted by marimeko at 3:43 PM on December 23, 2009

what
posted by The Whelk at 3:45 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

That cartoon was awesome.
posted by TooFewShoes at 3:48 PM on December 23, 2009

Don't forget EPIC!
posted by TooFewShoes at 3:49 PM on December 23, 2009

It was around on Usenet in the 1990s.

It's very common on LiveJournal and Fark.
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:50 PM on December 23, 2009

What she said.
posted by box at 3:52 PM on December 23, 2009

I wish it would go away.
posted by odinsdream at 3:56 PM on December 23, 2009 [8 favorites]

this.
posted by The Whelk at 3:58 PM on December 23, 2009

Of all the bizzaro 'in' things on MeFi, and this is the one that beguiles you? I mean, it's a simple indexical. Now taters, there's a question worth asking.
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:59 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

I prefer this to ditto. Ditto is so 1991.
posted by crossoverman at 4:01 PM on December 23, 2009

Why Tatters?

Why not Tatters?
posted by edgeways at 4:01 PM on December 23, 2009

Of all the bizzaro 'in' things on MeFi, and this is the one that beguiles you? I mean, it's a simple indexical. Now taters, there's a question worth asking.

@ BIZZARO METAFILTER WE SAY 'THAT".
posted by The Whelk at 4:02 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

EPIC THIS.
posted by katillathehun at 4:04 PM on December 23, 2009

Definitely not a MetaFilter thing.

This.
posted by fire&wings at 4:07 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

odinsdream, I agree. Cannot stand the pretentious "This."

Find another way to concur, people!
posted by torticat at 4:09 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

Find another way to concur, people!

This.
posted by Lutoslawski at 4:14 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

Awesomesauce. woot!
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:15 PM on December 23, 2009

My friend concur. I concur you. Why this?
posted by Babblesort at 4:16 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

From the same clumps of neurons that spawned the Nth.
posted by Burhanistan at 4:16 PM on December 23, 2009

It came from The Big Book Of Stuff Everyone Will Say For A Couple Months Until They Get Tired Of It Wand Find Some Other Hip Thing To Say All The Time.

Over the summer it was "what." Next spring it'll be, I dunno, Moses' 'taint or something.
posted by bondcliff at 4:16 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

That.
posted by dortmunder at 4:17 PM on December 23, 2009

And the other.
posted by jgirl at 4:21 PM on December 23, 2009

Moses' 'taint

So that's where Staind got its name from.
posted by Babblesort at 4:23 PM on December 23, 2009

Over the summer it was "what." Next spring it'll be, I dunno, Moses' 'taint or something.

That would be kind of strange since a Moses Taint is a technical designation used by hydrological and geological engineers to denote an embankment or resulting patch of land caused by artificially diverting or separating bodies of water. Look it up if you don't believe me.
posted by Burhanistan at 4:25 PM on December 23, 2009 [15 favorites]

and
posted by ardgedee at 4:29 PM on December 23, 2009

Actually, this (used non-ironically) poses an interesting question. Back in the day, a certain amount of textual analysis, time, and library resources used to be able to determine the first, or at least a very early, usage of terms, phrases, or words. In these days of servers and electrons - can we continue to discover similar origins in etymology?
posted by Sparx at 4:36 PM on December 23, 2009

i lay awake at night wondering what a tater could be.
posted by nadawi at 4:36 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

"This" comes from Cockney rhyming slang.

No it doesn't.
posted by qvantamon at 4:43 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

In these days of servers and electrons - can we continue to discover similar origins in etymology?

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Usenet archives, various mailing list archives, and revision control systems are all large sources of time-stamped digital content.
posted by jedicus at 4:45 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

according to Cockney rhyming slang., Cooking Fat is the best name for a housecat.

So there.
posted by The Whelk at 4:45 PM on December 23, 2009

I always thought it was short for "This is the cancer that is killing /b/."

Then, the phrase metastasized and spread to the rest of the internet, making /b/ be replaced by wherever it's posted.
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:50 PM on December 23, 2009

Cooking Fat is the best name for a housecat.


The girlfriend wouldn't let me name one of our cats Emergency Meat. I should point this out to her.
posted by backseatpilot at 4:50 PM on December 23, 2009 [17 favorites]

Cooking Fat and Emergency Meat would love to play with my kitty Fried Spam.
posted by Babblesort at 4:51 PM on December 23, 2009

Frak.
posted by MikeHarris at 4:55 PM on December 23, 2009

Morrigan is the obvious first choice, but Leliana won't break your heart in the end. And you can always benefit from having a proficient lockpick in skimpy chasind robes watching your back.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:59 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

ditto.
posted by empath at 5:01 PM on December 23, 2009

This is where I contribute my obligatory "I fucking hate memes."

I fucking hate memes.
posted by Afroblanco at 5:03 PM on December 23, 2009

etc.
posted by snsranch at 5:03 PM on December 23, 2009

The girlfriend wouldn't let me name one of our cats Emergency Meat.

If we ever get get two more animals, we're naming them Kung and Pao.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:07 PM on December 23, 2009

Burhanistan, you totally had me for a second. I started thinking maybe I didn't in fact pull that out of my ass (so to speak) but must have heard it somewhere else. I suppose that's still possible.
posted by bondcliff at 5:09 PM on December 23, 2009

When we got two cats I wanted to name them Tango and Cash, but my wife wasn't down with that. She said I could name one of them whatever I wanted and she'd name the other, but really...you can't have Tango without Cash or vice-versa.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:10 PM on December 23, 2009

I've noticed that when some people agree with a comment, they will express agreement by saying "This." and that's it. Does anyone know where this came from?

Larsson (1932) suggests that it was present in Late West Saxon, but his only evidence is an undated gloss of a medical treatise. A more sensible view is found in Richter (1991), who states, "The use of the deictic demonstrative pronoun as an apparently complete sentence is first recorded in early 19th century execution broadsides. For instance, William Jones, hanged in 1826 for horse-rustling, is recollected with the dying words 'This.' It is believed to be in agreement with the dying words of his co-accused, John Smith, who had previously uttered "unnmgngugngmg" as the drop was released."
posted by Sova at 5:10 PM on December 23, 2009 [12 favorites]

Using "this" is not really a meme, it's just a slangy agreement that caught on. A meme usually involves something more than a binary denotation.
posted by Burhanistan at 5:11 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

When we got two cats I wanted to name them Tango and Cash, but my wife wasn't down with that.

I'm mad at you just for reminding me of that movie. Your wife must be made out of patience.
posted by Burhanistan at 5:13 PM on December 23, 2009 [7 favorites]

"Fucking" as in "I fucking hate $X" is a meme. An old successful one.
posted by dirty lies at 5:14 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:14 PM on December 23, 2009

I'm surprised by the disinterest in the question here, beyond commenting that it probably didn't start here. I think it's especially interesting because it's so hard to find instances of this using traditional search methods.

This is a classic plate of beans. Get to overthinking, people!

And to those who think that it's a pretty obvious things that's going to crop up anywhere people can quote text by other people, I challenge you to find a single instance of this being used prior to... let's say 2002.
posted by ErWenn at 5:17 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

"Fucking" as in "I fucking hate $X" is a meme. An old successful one.

If fucking can be considered a meme, it is indeed one of the most successful (and viral!) of all time.
posted by Afroblanco at 5:22 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

I got it from the LJ community OhNoTheyDidnt. It's not really any more of a meme than other shortened words or phrases. IMO.
posted by saturnine at 5:28 PM on December 23, 2009

Find another way to concur, people!

I came. I saw. I concurred.
posted by HiroProtagonist at 5:33 PM on December 23, 2009 [3 favorites]

I can't take credit for the "Emergency Meat" name, unfortunately. It's from one of those cat name threads that I got a hearty laugh out of and failed to favorite.

We ended up naming our cats after scientists, as is required of all good and proper nerds.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:37 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

keswick.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:42 PM on December 23, 2009

It generally strikes me as incredibly sententious and I hate it.

Now can we get on to exploring more important issues, like where "I loves me some X" comes from?
posted by chinston at 5:45 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'd be "This."ing constantly if we'd had favorites taken away.
posted by Caduceus at 5:50 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

It generally strikes me as incredibly sententious and I hate it.

Agreed. I actually have an extreme dislike of people who do this. Self-important twats, every last one of 'em. Not even joking.
posted by dhammond at 5:56 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

It's for people who use favourites as bookmarks.
posted by goo at 6:03 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

i think i saw it on USENET. i've definitely seen it many other places besides mefi.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:04 PM on December 23, 2009

If we ever get get two more animals, we're naming them Kung and Pao. (Brandon Blatcher)

I used to have a fish named Gefilte, and if I get another one, I'm naming it Lox.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:09 PM on December 23, 2009

Dis.
posted by fourcheesemac at 6:12 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

Find another way to concur, people!


Hippy: Right on, man!

Valley: OMG, me too!

French: Exactement.

Judicial: I concur.

Australian: Too right, mate.

Old school: You said it, buster.

Ned Flanders: Yes indeedy!

MeFite enthusiast: I'd like to favorite that comment a zillion times!
posted by bearwife at 6:13 PM on December 23, 2009 [5 favorites]

What?
chicken butt

This.
chicken kiss
posted by subbes at 6:20 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

When we got two cats I wanted to name them Tango and Cash, but my wife wasn't down with that.

Then, am I not the only person in the world who loves this movie for being so bad that it is totally fun to treat it as a great comedy?
posted by bearwife at 6:24 PM on December 23, 2009

Word.
posted by HuronBob at 6:38 PM on December 23, 2009

Find another way to concur, people!

I came. I saw. I concurred.

Vidi, vici, vicopedia
posted by Sparx at 7:02 PM on December 23, 2009 [5 favorites]

It makes me imagine Peggy Noonan as the commenting party. Bleh!
posted by mimi at 7:13 PM on December 23, 2009

This. Kiss. This. Kiss.

So it was those two sister rockers then. OK.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 7:14 PM on December 23, 2009

Australian: Too right, mate.

Kiwi: true.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:25 PM on December 23, 2009

Jeepers.
posted by ~ at 7:28 PM on December 23, 2009

Mmhmm.
posted by davejay at 7:34 PM on December 23, 2009

Rad
posted by special-k at 7:38 PM on December 23, 2009

True dat, motherfucker.
posted by Duke999R at 8:00 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

Like, totally!
posted by qvantamon at 8:01 PM on December 23, 2009

Balls.
posted by "Elbows" O'Donoghue at 8:15 PM on December 23, 2009

strewth.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:15 PM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

Strip Poker!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:28 PM on December 23, 2009

&nbsp
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:36 PM on December 23, 2009

Crap ... I messed it up.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 8:37 PM on December 23, 2009

p<0.05
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:44 PM on December 23, 2009 [4 favorites]

Vague assent. Something, probably. Maybe.
posted by ~ at 8:53 PM on December 23, 2009

p<0>
This,

provided, of course, that you have corrected for multiple comparisons.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 8:53 PM on December 23, 2009

shit. I don't even know what p<0> would mean.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 8:55 PM on December 23, 2009

Surely this...
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 8:57 PM on December 23, 2009

Indeed.
posted by wv kay in ga at 9:24 PM on December 23, 2009

I, for one, this.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:39 PM on December 23, 2009

These.
posted by armage at 9:54 PM on December 23, 2009

.
posted by GuyZero at 10:21 PM on December 23, 2009

It's from an old Eurythmics song, specifically the free-meter couplet

Sweet dreams are made of
This
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:27 PM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

I think Spartacus started it.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:59 PM on December 23, 2009

Come to think of it, maybe it was King Wozzname, and Spartacus was the, er... city?

I'm obviously not up on my ancient history, and have not seen the movie. Oy.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:01 PM on December 23, 2009

Australian: Too right, mate.

No, no, no. It's either "Bloody oath", or "Fuckin'/Fuck oath" for cases where you really agree.

Too right. Pffft. What is this, Young Talent Time?
posted by smoke at 12:03 AM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

When my high school did a production of A Chorus Line they wouldn't let them sing "tits and ass" in that song where she's talking about getting plastic surgery. Instead they changed it to "this and that" with some miming in the general direction of said parts (at least I think; I was in the pit orchestra facing away from the stage the whole time and it was actually pretty darn hard to catch a glimpse of what was happening during any point when there was actual music to be played.)
posted by Rhomboid at 12:46 AM on December 24, 2009

Dude? Duude...
posted by pupdog at 12:57 AM on December 24, 2009

Sweet dreams are made of
This

If Cortex says it, then who am I to disagree?

The guy who got the veni, vidi, vici joke horribly wrong earlier in the thread, that's who!
posted by Sparx at 12:58 AM on December 24, 2009

Tango & Cash is one of my favorite movies. Everything about it is great, but the scenes that really speak to me are the ones with the evil villain. SPOILER ALERT! I mean, the fact that he has constructed a labyrinth and gotten some mice just to show his partners in crime that he will trap Tango & Cash puts even the most diorama happy James Bond villain to shame. And that he has built a hall of mirrors in his secret hideout is pure genius. If ever a evil villan was prepared, it's him. I'd like to think that he has a few additional rooms/traps somewhere in the back - rooms that we viewers never see - like a pit full of alligators and a room with collapsible walls.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 1:21 AM on December 24, 2009

That
posted by Elmore at 2:28 AM on December 24, 2009

Morrigan is the obvious first choice, but Leliana won't break your heart in the end. And you can always benefit from having a proficient lockpick in skimpy chasind robes watching your back.

God that game is tedious.
posted by Netzapper at 2:31 AM on December 24, 2009

This doesn't bother me nearly as much as FTFY.
posted by cj_ at 4:09 AM on December 24, 2009

Thither.
posted by kaspen at 4:12 AM on December 24, 2009

Whenever I see pronouns being thrown around like this, my brain always regurgitates 'sup thou. It's a lot funnier if you a) played Ultima Online in the pre-trammel days and b) know who B0N3D00D and pLaTeDeWd are.

Ah well.
posted by Pragmatica at 4:22 AM on December 24, 2009

> Find another way to concur, people!

QFT.
posted by bjrn at 4:34 AM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

This whole thread is sic.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:29 AM on December 24, 2009

Synchronicity.
posted by preparat at 6:11 AM on December 24, 2009

I saw "This." first used on LiveJournal, then shortly after that on Facebook. I thought you all were copycats!
posted by kalessin at 6:27 AM on December 24, 2009

Seriously.
posted by 23skidoo at 6:45 AM on December 24, 2009

srsly
posted by subbes at 7:56 AM on December 24, 2009

Sith.
posted by effluvia at 8:00 AM on December 24, 2009

I really dislike posts that say "This." There's something nauseatingly about the tone of voice which my brain relates it to me, something teeth-grindingly awful about the person that I imagine would use it. But I also occasionally want to express the same succint agreement & I could almost consider using "This." except that I then remember how very, very much I dislike it. Having said that its never occurred to me to wonder where it came from, except to think that it must be a bad place.
posted by criticalbill at 8:03 AM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

SAM
God, I love her. I love her so much.

ODA MAE
He says he loves you... so much.

MOLLY
(shaking her head)
No. He would never say that.

SAM
(his eyes brightening)
This. Tell her "this".

ODA MAE
This? What's that mean, this?

Molly starts, an expression of true astonishment shining in
her eyes.

MOLLY
Sam?
posted by Kabanos at 8:07 AM on December 24, 2009

This.
Thread.

What Mean?
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:09 AM on December 24, 2009

i press post, why?
posted by The Whelk at 8:12 AM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Where does any of this. come from?

(i really have to stop posting this.)
posted by ~ at 8:13 AM on December 24, 2009

Tango and Cash is just more proof that Kurt Russell is one of the single greatest action stars of all time.

Sure, it also has Stallone, but to quote Tango, "Rambo? Rambo's a pussy."

Russell has given us Jack Burton, Gabriel Cash, Jack O'Neil, and Snake fucking Plissken, not to mention Todd (Soldier), Wyatt Earp, and Captain Ron.
posted by quin at 8:44 AM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

"this" is the equivalent of someone poking their index finger in your chest while making their point. People, please stop it.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:49 AM on December 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

acerock FTW (for teh win) goatse fuck bush
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:03 AM on December 24, 2009

Yes
posted by ob at 9:05 AM on December 24, 2009

The metafilter backend should auto-delete the popular "I agree and have nothing more to contribute" posts (this, qft, nth).
posted by a robot made out of meat at 10:19 AM on December 24, 2009

The metafilter backend should auto-delete the popular "I agree and have nothing more to contribute" posts (this, qft, nth).

Nah, then instead of just a pity "nthing this" people would feel compelled to open up a vein and hyper-contextualize exactly why they nth this, leading to rambling personal narratives. Best to let them have their "me too" to spare the rest of us the excruciatingly boring minutiae that factors into why they agree.
posted by Burhanistan at 10:23 AM on December 24, 2009

Don't.

Less this-er than "not this".
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 10:41 AM on December 24, 2009

YETI!
posted by yeti at 11:32 AM on December 24, 2009

Hell. It came from hell.
posted by dirtdirt at 11:34 AM on December 24, 2009

Hell. It came to Frogtown.
posted by quin at 11:55 AM on December 24, 2009

Is it time for voting yet? i vote for "&nbsp"
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:03 PM on December 24, 2009

Meep.
posted by blaneyphoto at 2:13 PM on December 24, 2009

I think it's funny that the anti-this crowd derives its ire from the imagined personalities of thisers. Meanwhile, I imagine that those who have a problem with this as all eating their own children. Therefore every post that doesn't consist entirely of this, I hear in a multi-phase demonic voice. You're all possesed.
posted by Netzapper at 2:22 PM on December 24, 2009

This gives me the GRAR. Not just the use of the word itself, but this post. Here I was crafting a post made up of ever incidence and skewer it with bile and snark, but here comes this little post. There's always more than this.
posted by scruss at 2:29 PM on December 24, 2009

There's always more than this.

There's nothing more than this.
posted by various at 4:29 PM on December 24, 2009

what

While we're all here, can someone explain "what" to me? It's very hard to google "what" and get meaningful results. I read an article about it (that I can't find anymore) on languagehat's site, in which he praised it as a really apt new coinage, but still don't get it. How is "what" different from "what?"?
posted by grumblebee at 5:15 PM on December 24, 2009

this.delete( this );
posted by grumblebee at 5:29 PM on December 24, 2009

As a data point:

Fark, about five or more years ago.
posted by sourwookie at 8:40 PM on December 24, 2009

'what' originated at somethingawful according to encyclopediadramatica [site always NSFW].
posted by Rhomboid at 10:29 PM on December 24, 2009

I JUST WANNA SPRAY HOT LIQUID FAVORITE ALL OVER THAT COMMENT
posted by tehloki at 11:40 PM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

ew.
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:37 AM on December 25, 2009

Deez.
posted by Minus215Cee at 2:32 AM on December 25, 2009

'what' originated at somethingawful according to encyclopediadramatica

That doesn't explain why it's "what" instead of "what?" I would normally assume that a bit of lazy punctuation caught on and then it became an arbitrary ritual with no meaning -- except languagehat made it sound more profound than that.
posted by grumblebee at 6:59 AM on December 25, 2009

Well, but the beautiful thing about "what" is that it's meant to express a kind of stunned incomprehension, where you can't even muster the necessary affect for the rising inflection denoted by the question mark at the end.
posted by chinston at 7:34 AM on December 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

Exactly what chinston said. In fact, I found lhat's blog entry just now by googling for languagehat what affectless, which makes me happy because I can't think of a better characterization than "affectless" for the specific necessary tone of a proper

what

maneuver. It's not just an expression of confusion, a vanilla prompt for clarification. It's a spoken artifact of temporary mental short-circuiting. The thing encountered is not merely confusing or dumb: it is so keenly honed by the forces of flabbergastery that it pierces the expression centers of the mind. A bolt of stupid.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:51 AM on December 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks. That makes more sense to me.
posted by grumblebee at 8:22 AM on December 25, 2009

It's funny, though, how punctuation (or lack thereof) affects different people differently. I can see what you're saying, but that interpretation never would have occurred to me without your explanation.

In my head, "what" reads as less confused than "what?" or "what?!????" I hear it as affectess, too. But the lack of affect hits me not so much as bafflement as lack-of-interest.

I hear it as the tossed-off "what" of someone who is not paying much attention -- with a little contempt mixed in: "Sorry. Could you repeat that... oh, never mind. I don't really care."
posted by grumblebee at 8:35 AM on December 25, 2009

wat

is far superior to

what

and don't even think of saying

what?

or

what.
posted by tehloki at 10:15 AM on December 25, 2009

wots' all this then?
posted by The Whelk at 10:20 AM on December 25, 2009

LOL WUT
posted by infinitewindow at 11:36 AM on December 25, 2009

cf. "what ho, varlet"
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:28 PM on December 25, 2009

What?!?? Ho! Harlot!!
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:30 PM on December 25, 2009

grumblebee: "But the lack of affect hits me not so much as bafflement as lack-of-interest.

I hear it as the tossed-off 'what' of someone who is not paying much attention -- with a little contempt mixed in: 'Sorry. Could you repeat that... oh, never mind. I don't really care.'"

I have read and perceived it both ways, and also as an ironic gesture to the l-hat approved 'stunned incomprehension.' Interestingly, as it must be presented noncontextually, the variances in meaning must necessarily spring from me rather than the author of the post.
posted by mwhybark at 10:17 PM on December 25, 2009

mwhybark, can you go into a little more detail about "ironic gesture to the l-hat approved 'stunned incomprehension'"? I understand everything you wrote except that.
posted by grumblebee at 8:08 AM on December 26, 2009