MetaTalk Holiday Queue in the Queue

December 21, 2012 9:23 AM

We're going to be queuing MetaTalk posts from December 24th to January 1st.

Around the holidays and New Year when MetaFilter mods have more plans with family and friends, we like to queue MetaTalk posts instead of posting them to the site immediately. This gives mods a chance to review the post and approve it when there are a few people around to help answer questions. If the post is about something a mod can address directly with the poster they can do that too. On January 1st MetaTalk will go back to business as usual.

Thanks, and hope you have a great last week of December.

posted by pb to Uptime at 9:23 AM (41 comments total)

And happy solstice and lack of end of the world!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:25 AM on December 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

jessamyn: "lack of end of the world!"

Sssh! Don't jinx it!
posted by boo_radley at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Happy impending heat death of the universe, everybody!
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:32 AM on December 21, 2012 [11 favorites]

Christmas on Metafilter - when we have to watch flameouts in real life around the dining room table instead of online
posted by Razzle Bathbone at 9:44 AM on December 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

Happy impending heat death of the universe, everybody!

I'm still clinging to my belief that there's enough dark matter to draw all this in for another big bang, so I'm a bit offended by your dismissal of my culturally valid worldview.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:46 AM on December 21, 2012 [6 favorites]

Come to think of it, there have been very few flameouts so far this holiday season. I wonder what's up? Are people happier now?
posted by Melismata at 9:46 AM on December 21, 2012

Thanks, and hope you have a great last week of December.

Was going to crack about a joke about Metafilter's war on Christmas, but came across this video of reunion between an man and a gorilla, so there you go.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:49 AM on December 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

lack of end of the world

i am disappoint
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:50 AM on December 21, 2012

Melismata: "Come to think of it, there have been very few flameouts so far this holiday season. I wonder what's up? Are people happier now?"

I credit the butts thread for inspiring cheer and goodwill.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:57 AM on December 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

On January 1st MetaTalk will go back to business as usual.

So... wait. We are going to post all the contentious threads while the mods are nursing hangovers? That's crueler and less usual than normal....
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:59 AM on December 21, 2012

I'm too late with this, right?
posted by maudlin at 10:11 AM on December 21, 2012

And happy solstice and lack of end of the world!

I'm choosing to believe that the world's continued existence following this morning's scheduled apocalypse was thanks to the tireless efforts and heroic sacrifices of a tiny band of ragtag misfits fighting back the forces of darkness and destruction.

It adds needed verve to this wet, grey day.
posted by gauche at 10:11 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I love this! MetaTalk queue is one of my favourite things. I love to see what makes it through and spend time smiling while imaginging all the clicks the contact form is getting.

Happy Holidays, mods!

~G.
posted by batmonkey at 10:12 AM on December 21, 2012

"lack of end of the world!"

Prove it...


we are all stuck in a Jacob's Ladder-is cycle being expected to let go of all our worldly attachments and failing repeatedly.
posted by edgeways at 10:12 AM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

the mods are nursing hangovers

While the luck of the draw/calendar gave cortex the lion's share of New Year's Day this year, I should probably swap with him since I am fairly teetotally around holidaytime.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:16 AM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'll run Bartertown MetaTalk for you on New Year's Day, if you want. I'd make a great hanging judge temporary Mod.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:20 AM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

No, no, I don't have to be up until 1pm that day and nothing helps motivate me to crack skulls like nursing a headache.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:41 AM on December 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

Seriously, I don't mind at all. Anything to help out. By the way... where do you keep the keys to The BanHammer? Just in case, you know. Can never be too careful.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:44 AM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

I think we could all probably use a rest.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:49 AM on December 21, 2012

Maybe all of Metafilter should be closed down on Christmas, save for a few automated posts about Movies and Chinese Food.
posted by chococat at 11:05 AM on December 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

OMG - THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS HAS REACHED METAFILTER!!! RUN!!! J-RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 11:07 AM on December 21, 2012

cortex: "No, no, I don't have to be up until 1pm that day and nothing helps motivate me to crack skulls like nursing a headache."

"I'm here to kick ass and play banjolele... And I'm all out of ukulele strings."
posted by boo_radley at 11:11 AM on December 21, 2012

oh! And if things do go all apocalypsey for whatever reason, remember to pray to the pop-culture patron saint of survival.
posted by boo_radley at 11:19 AM on December 21, 2012

gauche: I'm choosing to believe that the world's continued existence following this morning's scheduled apocalypse was thanks to the tireless efforts and heroic sacrifices of a tiny band of ragtag misfits fighting back the forces of darkness and destruction.

Million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
posted by misha at 11:23 AM on December 21, 2012

Will there be a Mod or Modesse around on the 24th (Monday) to count and put up the result of this weeks-just-finishing MeFites' Choice Contest?
posted by Wordshore at 2:29 PM on December 21, 2012

I'm choosing to believe that the world's continued existence following this morning's scheduled apocalypse...

Is it really scheduled for the morning? Or will the world end when December 21, 2012 ends at the international date line? I don't think we're out of the woods yet!

What do you mean, the Mayans didn't have an international date line?
posted by TedW at 2:32 PM on December 21, 2012

Will there be a Mod or Modesse around on the 24th (Monday) to count and put up the result of this weeks-just-finishing MeFites' Choice Contest?

Yes. We work here all the time. We are not not-working we are just limiting the ability of MetaTalk to completely fuck up what might otherwise be a decently restful set of days. There is no such word as Modesse here.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:54 PM on December 21, 2012 [8 favorites]

Wasn't Modesse a brand of "feminine hygiene product" back in the day? And how badly am I giving away my age here?
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 3:11 PM on December 21, 2012

Yes! My early googlin' didn't find it but my later googlin' did.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:14 PM on December 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

I remember my mother having some of the old pads with the belts when I was young . . . you know, there's something really creepy about the sheer volume of advertising bullshit, logos, and jingles I have in my head. Blech. And I could really use that valuable real estate for other purposes. In the last few years, I've started doing a lot of that, "what was his name, you know, that guy that was in that movie . . . " stuff and it's irritating.
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 4:27 PM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Denham's Dental Dentifrice!
posted by Meatbomb at 5:39 PM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Modess! Yeah, I believe Modess-branded metal dispensers or receptacles were in some restrooms of my youth - can't place where though. 50s-built elementary school? summer camp? something like that.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 8:35 PM on December 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Woo, from jessamyn's link, pics of some old dispensers.

I think maybe I'm also remembering branded sanitary napkin disposal bags (scroll down for sample pics), which seemed to be from the 1940s even when I first encountered them. I wonder if the school or camp had a stockpile and kept refilling, or if they just never got used so stayed.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:01 PM on December 21, 2012

Maybe we could create a Clippy-like character for Metafilter, except it would be a Modess sanitary napkin saying, "It looks like you are trying to make a Metatalk post..."
posted by taz (staff) at 10:09 PM on December 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yep, I remember the Modess dispensers in restrooms. I don't think I ever used any of those bathroom dispensers--they were always so old and beat up that I didn't feel very optimistic about the state of their contents.

God, I remember those bags, too. Yikes. Love the one with the silhouette of the woman hanging her head in shame over her lady parts. Those pictures are totally giving me childhood period shame flashbacks.
posted by WorkingMyWayHome at 10:25 PM on December 21, 2012

I'm still clinging to my belief that there's enough dark matter to draw all this in for another big bang, so I'm a bit offended by your dismissal of my culturally valid worldview.

I'm still a big fan of Hawkings really nice probabilistic insight:
In the heat-death phase of the universe, you have lots of particles wandering around at random, in a kind of brownian style. As time goes to infinity, all possible events will occur, including all of the particles converging to a single point and setting off another big bang. (Which, of course, is possibly how our own big bang transpired.)
posted by kaibutsu at 11:55 PM on December 21, 2012

That moment where you check back on a MetaTalk thread and really regret typing just one extraneous word.
posted by Wordshore at 4:27 AM on December 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

As time goes to infinity, all possible events will occur

At my age, life experience bears this out.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:01 AM on December 22, 2012

Someone upthread makes reference to a butt thread. Which thread is the butt thread?
posted by ocherdraco at 9:32 AM on December 22, 2012

This one about replacing 'heart' in IMDb movie titles with 'butt'.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:37 AM on December 22, 2012

lol
posted by carsonb at 11:44 AM on December 22, 2012