MeFi Callout

January 16, 2007 2:01 PM

I don't usually call out bad posts in MeTa, but a Single Link Op Ed (to the WSJ OpJournal, no less) by the author of the classic racist screed "The Bell Curve" (though I Foody may disagree) which is a classic of "stating the obvious" ("Half of all children are below average... except in Lake Wobegon") is NOT the Best of the Web. It's not even worthy of me making a smart ass comment in the thread. Delete with extreme prejudice, mattamyn.
posted by wendell to MetaFilter-Related at 2:01 PM (78 comments total)

Why not just refute the op ed's claims in the thread itself? Why does it have to be deleted? Seems to me the best way to deal with offensive claims is to prove them wrong, not pretend they don't exist.
posted by pardonyou? at 2:10 PM on January 16, 2007

Lame callout. On preview, what pardonyou? said.
posted by dhammond at 2:12 PM on January 16, 2007

This MeTa callout is average, in that it sucks.
posted by found missing at 2:13 PM on January 16, 2007

This will....
Oh.
Hi, wendell.
posted by Floydd at 2:21 PM on January 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

And the sequel, "The Poisson Distribution?" Yech. You can tell he used up all his ideas on his debut.
posted by cortex at 2:21 PM on January 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

SLBOE
posted by koeselitz at 2:28 PM on January 16, 2007

at least she didn't link the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (that's in the subscribers-only WSJ pages)
posted by matteo at 2:32 PM on January 16, 2007 [3 favorites]

Delete with extreme prejudice, mattamyn.

I'll bet they really like that.
posted by cribcage at 2:33 PM on January 16, 2007

I'll bet they really like that.

Compared to the other things we've been called, it's fine.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:41 PM on January 16, 2007

pardonyou?, this particular OpEd doesn't even rise to the level of offensive. It's so stupid, just reading it costs you IQ points. (And the discussion thread just multiplies the effect) I'm just trying to protect other MeFites from further brain damage.

And cribcage, I go way back with the MeFi Admins. But they still don't return my phone calls.
posted by wendell at 2:42 PM on January 16, 2007

Wendell on the problem with this FPP: it's not offensive, worthy of him being a smartass, or the best of the web, it's just not smart enough.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 2:51 PM on January 16, 2007

ITYM "half of all childern are below the mean"
posted by Rhomboid at 3:05 PM on January 16, 2007

Couldn't the poster have at least waited until the series had been completely finished?
posted by drezdn at 3:11 PM on January 16, 2007

Actually 1/2 of all children are below the median.
posted by Mister_A at 3:12 PM on January 16, 2007

The meridian?
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:32 PM on January 16, 2007

I never call out bad posts in MeTa. It's really easy not to do.
posted by Elmore at 3:38 PM on January 16, 2007

i love the tags on that post. I guess it's humor? Right? Eduacation?
posted by Mister_A at 3:38 PM on January 16, 2007

1/2 of all Metafilter posts are below average.
posted by The God Complex at 3:41 PM on January 16, 2007

doh. I meant to say median. mean is average.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:43 PM on January 16, 2007

Actually 1/2 of all children are below the median.

Most children may or may not be the mode, but at least two of them are.
posted by CKmtl at 4:01 PM on January 16, 2007

Rhomboid is mean.
posted by Mister_A at 4:07 PM on January 16, 2007

Rhomboid is parallelogram.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:12 PM on January 16, 2007

Both mean and median are measurements of the average. That's why we say mean when we mean the mean.
posted by grouse at 4:13 PM on January 16, 2007

Mexico is the walnut.
posted by atchafalaya at 4:15 PM on January 16, 2007

... And it is mean.
posted by Elmore at 4:16 PM on January 16, 2007

Who the hell do you think you are, Wendell? Dios?
posted by Dave Faris at 4:17 PM on January 16, 2007

what do you mean by mean?
posted by Mister_A at 4:18 PM on January 16, 2007

I must be below the mean, because I don't understand why the guy's argument is stupid. Makes me queasy, yes. But wrong? Please refute him with facts.
posted by atchafalaya at 4:18 PM on January 16, 2007

The average meaning of mean.
posted by Elmore at 4:19 PM on January 16, 2007

The center will not hold.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:34 PM on January 16, 2007

wendell is full of vitriol!
posted by knave at 4:37 PM on January 16, 2007

I mean, c'mon.
fuck.
ryan.
out.
loud.
—whether you mean mean mean or mean, the post still sucks.
posted by carsonb at 4:47 PM on January 16, 2007

wendell is a simmering cauldron of rage!
posted by cortex at 4:47 PM on January 16, 2007

pickles!
posted by Rhomboid at 4:58 PM on January 16, 2007

Thanks, Rhomboid. I somehow managed to shoot spit out of my nose. That's a new one.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 5:02 PM on January 16, 2007

Mexico is the walnut.

I am the walrus.

Shut the fuck up, Donnie.
posted by adamgreenfield at 5:08 PM on January 16, 2007

Any article by that corny old racist is basically going to be a troll even if it isn't overtly meant as such. That having been said I am consistently non-deletion except for double posts and self-links, but I long ago gave up hoping that my viewpoint would carry the day.

I will say this:

I wish that "mattamyn" would be discontinued voluntarily by the community as a matter of aesthetics.
posted by Divine_Wino at 5:51 PM on January 16, 2007

Half of all children can be so mean.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:57 PM on January 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

I wish that "mattamyn" would be discontinued voluntarily by the community as a matter of aesthetics.

"If wishes were fishes horses would ride."
posted by carsonb at 5:58 PM on January 16, 2007

I'm not a fan of the term mattamyn either.
posted by delmoi at 6:00 PM on January 16, 2007

Mess?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:15 PM on January 16, 2007

Second "Mess". "Jatt" just wouldn't do.
Move the question, put it to a vote.
posted by yhbc at 6:30 PM on January 16, 2007

i like messja-thowie. like a monarch in a country that most people wouldn't know existed. or the bad translation of the name of an end-boss in a video game.

son, turn off your nintendo and go to bed.

but mooooooom, i'm at messja-thowie! just let me finish!
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 6:31 PM on January 16, 2007

messjathowamyn
posted by empath at 6:37 PM on January 16, 2007

What the flying fuck is wrong with you people? It's just a fucking post on some fucking website, for fuck's sake. It's not like he sneak-goatse'd us. Jesus. Get the fuck over yourselves.



YAY I FINALLY GET TO FLAME OUT AGAIN
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:48 PM on January 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Now that's the dirty bagel boy we know and love!
posted by yhbc at 6:56 PM on January 16, 2007

Oh fuck off, yhbc. The only thing you love is the first Tuesday of the month when you get your new copy of Fast Food Backroom Bitches and hide in your mother's basement with a jar of Crisco.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:58 PM on January 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

If loving the first Tuesday of the month is wrong, I don't want to be covered in dirty bagels. Or I do. Decisions, decisions.
posted by hangashore at 7:09 PM on January 16, 2007

Damn, did someone steal dirtynumbangelboy's eyeliner or something?
posted by shmegegge at 7:21 PM on January 16, 2007

Okay, no more mattamyn. It's just that "Matt & Jess" is too similar to "Mutt & Jeff", and that's a bad image to get stuck in your head. Like Rhomboid's pickle gif, which makes me happy that in-line images are disabled.

Anyway, you'll be happy to hear that I have turned off the heat under my simmering cauldron of rage and had my vitriol surgically removed. I was considering taking this opportunity to flame out, if only to free up some time usually spent MeFi-ing for other activities, but now that Dirty-Num(ber)-BANG-ElBoy has beaten me to it, I've decided against it.
posted by wendell at 7:26 PM on January 16, 2007

Just a personal pony request:

Matt, when you close a MeTa thread early, would you change the "This thread is closed to new comments" message to "This thread did not wendell"?
posted by wendell at 7:28 PM on January 16, 2007 [6 favorites]

Is it OK with you guys if I eat this paste?
Advise, please.
posted by Dizzy at 7:39 PM on January 16, 2007

ESSIE.

JOWIE.

JEWIE?
posted by The Straightener at 7:41 PM on January 16, 2007

NO DON'T EAT THE PASTE.

Eat this Playdoh. I mixed it myself. It's got mucilige and white out in it.
posted by loquacious at 8:07 PM on January 16, 2007

Fast Food Backroom Bitches

Thanks for keeping my publishing empire alive yhbc, you might be interest to know, I have a couple of new periodicals coming out: Fat hookers and Oreos, and then there's Pirate Wenches: Hot amputees, wooden-legs and Parrots, and my personal favorite Drunken Sorority Girls in Trees. I'm betting that last one is going to be huge.

Can I sign you up for a subscription?
posted by quin at 8:08 PM on January 16, 2007

hide in your mother's basement with a jar of Crisco

wouldn't shortening be a bad thing to put on your penis? I'm just saying.
posted by jonmc at 8:30 PM on January 16, 2007

Here, jonmc. Have some of these delicious massivebread cookies.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:40 PM on January 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

wouldn't shortening be a bad thing to put on your penis? I'm just saying.

That depends. Are you planning on deep frying it? If so, nothing works like shortening.
posted by loquacious at 8:44 PM on January 16, 2007

"If wishes were fishes horses would ride."

If wishes were fishes I still wouldn't have a lifetime subscription to Chunky Asses and unlimited pie coupons at Trollops and Pies down on Route 19 and I'd have a mess of fish, which is bullshit.

I meant I hoped motherfuckers would stop saying mattamyn because it's only two fucking people and it's not like they're called dirtybagelnumberbumble or whatever, it's easy names folks, shit... Don't let the Entertainment Tonight-ering of America seduce you with its convenient concatenations of names! That way lies bell curves and median I.Q's and two year vocational schools where you learn to avert your eyes when a dude who came in third on Grunting With the Stars drives by in his Bentley, that's right... an Associates Degree in fucking forelock tugging, don't do it Brothers and Sisters, stay free.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:51 PM on January 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

a Single Link Op Ed (to the WSJ OpJournal, no less)

a) Obviously you don't agree with Murray's or the WSJ's politics. That's the worst reason for a callout I've seen in a long time. Stuff it.

b) One of the hidden reasons that this FPP is a useful link is that, just in the last couple of weeks, the WSJ Online, formerly subscription-only, has put a large amount of free content online. A lot of people might not have known about that yet.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:52 PM on January 16, 2007

Divine_Wino---
I have activated my Emergency Prayer Group Alpha Force across three states to assist you in your enlightenment.
Open your door.
Please.
Open. Your. Door.
posted by Dizzy at 9:13 PM on January 16, 2007

I don't dislike the WSJ OpJournal because it is dominated by Conservative Opinion, I dislike it because it is dominated by stupid (i.e. below average IQ) Conservative Opinion. And the news that they are now providing more of it free online is not good news.
posted by wendell at 9:14 PM on January 16, 2007

WHAT.
THE.
FUCK.
WENDELL.
BASHERS?!?

He seriously doesn't deserve to be shat on like this.


Also, go to hell, dnab.
I think visors and polyester are sexy.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:22 PM on January 16, 2007

Threads have been deleted for less. I recommend Jessathowie delete the post, just because wendell is so dog-gone likable.

Does this mean that now wendell owes me one?
posted by spock at 9:31 PM on January 16, 2007

Mentioned by name this is going in my scrap book.
posted by I Foody at 10:19 PM on January 16, 2007

YAY I FINALLY GET TO FLAME OUT AGAIN

Whoopee. Release the doves.
posted by frogan at 10:21 PM on January 16, 2007

The FPP's comment thread contains not one but two (more?) examples of utterly lame comments: those left by "important" people who cannot bother to read the comments to date but feel compelled to add their thoughts anyway, usually at length, usually without adding anything which hadn't already been hashed out earlier in the thread. The rest of us thank you for dashing through and shitting your 36th-percentile pearls of wisdom (which we could give a flying fuck about), before you rush off to do whatever else it is that's so important.
posted by maxwelton at 11:01 PM on January 16, 2007

messjathowamyn

leave me out of this.
posted by nanojath at 11:32 PM on January 16, 2007

I don't dislike the WSJ OpJournal because it is dominated by Conservative Opinion, I dislike it because it is dominated by stupid (i.e. below average IQ) Conservative Opinion.

OK, objection withdrawn.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:06 AM on January 17, 2007

YAY I FINALLY GET TO FLAME OUT AGAIN

Please don't turn all AlexReynolds/Rothko on us. Seriously, don't turn into a one-note drama queen. That would be sad.
posted by blasdelf at 1:20 AM on January 17, 2007

But a Theatrical Matriarch would be just fine. We've had an opening for one of those for a while.
posted by loquacious at 1:31 AM on January 17, 2007

I've always thought of myself as more of a princess.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:23 AM on January 17, 2007

Princess Thespian does have a nice ring to it. You could vacation on Bespin.
posted by loquacious at 3:46 AM on January 17, 2007

I like this new DNAB FWIW KTHXBYE.
posted by Mister_A at 7:38 AM on January 17, 2007

mattamyn is better than jessowie, which I've seen a few times. mattamyn tracks really well; it's candy for the eyes and teddy bears for the ears. Sing it with me: mattamyn, mattamyn, mattamyn!

jessowie is a stumbler. You start off ok, "jess..." Then you get to this "ow" thing, and you think about how to proceed, and separating them introduces an uncomfortable pause, which doesn't sit well-"jes-sow"-so you sort of slide the two syllables together into jessssowwie. But that sounds lazy and more to the point like you're still not pronouncing it quite right, so you're all like, "there must be a better way," but there isn't. So you softly and gently cry yourself to sleep and pry to your deity of choice for guidance.

Bottom line: if no one likes mattamyn for referring to Matt and Jessamyn together, I'm going to use it to refer to matteo and Jessamyn together, even if there's no discernable reason for ever doing that.
posted by Kwine at 9:26 AM on January 17, 2007

S/pry/pray, though the idea of prying to your deity is somewhat charming. Bring me the sacred crowbar!
posted by Kwine at 9:28 AM on January 17, 2007

> Princess Thespian does have a nice ring to it.

Already taken. That's the famous suppressed Narnia book, where Aslan goes all New Wavy and starts up a coven with Shirley MacLaine.
posted by jfuller at 3:07 PM on January 17, 2007

jfuller FTW.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:16 PM on January 17, 2007