Do MeFites have Permanent Records?

December 14, 2010 6:21 PM

Do MeFites have Permanent Records?

I've been a fairly active member over the past few years, and even though I try to be a good guy I know that my conduct hasn't always been exemplary. I've derailed a few threads and gotten into some fights that required mod intervention. So that got me wondering: do we have Permanent Records, like they threatened us with back in school? If I do something to annoy jessamyn or cortex, do they call me up in some kind of database and review all of my past deeds before passing judgment? Do they keep notes on us? Is there a collection of manila folders with our names on them stored in a secret filing cabinet?

posted by Faint of Butt to MetaFilter-Related at 6:21 PM (106 comments total)

Cortex sees you when you're sleeping
Jessamyn knows when you're awake
They know if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake?
posted by jerseygirl at 6:24 PM on December 14, 2010 [13 favorites]

MeFites? No.

You? Yes.
posted by Eideteker at 6:27 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

me Dar sees you when you're sleeping
me Ma knows when you're awake
They know if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake?
posted by jerseygirl at 6:24 PM on December 14


Praise Jebus for the Liverpudlian Mefi greasepony.
posted by special-k at 6:29 PM on December 14, 2010

I think it's pretty clear that in your case, they █████ █ ███████ ███████ ███ in addition, they ███████ ██ ████████ ████, which is actually quite frightening.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:31 PM on December 14, 2010 [17 favorites]

Yes they do, and yours says you're on double secret probation.
posted by flabdablet at 6:32 PM on December 14, 2010

What's a secret filing cabinet? I mean, if you have a filing cabinet, well there it is. A filing cabinet. A secret desk compartment, secret wall safe, secret floor hatch under the bed I get, but a secret filing cabinet is what? Invisible? Camouflaged?
posted by longsleeves at 6:34 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd guess that cortex eschews the database for a Roman Room System with usernames and offenses tastefully organized in logical progressions of rooms and hallways, probably branched out in some of nerdy fractal pattern. Updated in real time on minecraft.
posted by empyrean at 6:34 PM on December 14, 2010 [7 favorites]

I hope you know that this will go down on your permanent record. Oh yeah? Well don't get so distressed; did I happen to mention that I'm impressed?
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:40 PM on December 14, 2010 [7 favorites]

There is no cabal, but if there were, this is certainly the kind of thing

+++ATH NO CARRIER
posted by chndrcks at 6:41 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I know I have one. Everything I've posted is recorded right on my profile for everyone to see. It's like they're rubbing my nose in it or something.
posted by Hoopo at 6:44 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Semi-seriously: not really. We have an admin-facing user page for each user which has such boring things as "send password reset email" and a few other little functions. We have a list of comments/posts that you've had deleted. We have your IP history. We know who has flagged you. We don't know who you have flagged [except by working backwards, or by seeing it at the time]. We can leave notes to each other but in practice we rarely do this. We'll leave a note if we banned/time-outed someone, or if someone seems to be on a weird tear, or if we noticed something interesting about them in a comment, but it's a rarely-used thing. Mine, for example, only says

"7/5/07: Jessamyn making tedious feature requests on mailing list again. Consider timeout. -c"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:47 PM on December 14, 2010 [23 favorites]

I wrote the FBI a letter and asked for a list of all the lists I was on. They sent me back a page to fill out for a Freedom of Information act. It asked for more personal info than I was comfortable giving out.

I wrote cortex a similar email and he sent me the same form!

Now, I ask you what does the FBI and cortex need to know ███ for?
posted by cjorgensen at 6:48 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

jessamyn is on record as knowing that I am a kitty bus.
posted by Artw at 6:50 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

Yes, duh.
posted by nomadicink at 6:52 PM on December 14, 2010

Ow!

Um no, that's a stupid question why would you ask that?

ow!
posted by nomadicink at 6:53 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yes, but my lawyer says he can get mine 86'd.
posted by jonmc at 6:54 PM on December 14, 2010

damn, damn, damn... how do you do those blank space thingies blue beetle??? I'm too lazy to figure it out...
posted by HuronBob at 6:55 PM on December 14, 2010

mathowie's only says

last name pronounced HOWIE
posted by mathowie
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:56 PM on December 14, 2010 [5 favorites]

damn, damn, damn... how do you do those blank space thingies blue beetle??? I'm too lazy to figure it out...

Just go to http://█████ click on ███████ then copy and paste.
posted by special-k at 6:57 PM on December 14, 2010 [5 favorites]

It's easy: you can either press Ctrl-█ or right click on the █████████ and select ██████.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:57 PM on December 14, 2010

Or copy and paste. I found mine on Twitter.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:58 PM on December 14, 2010

My file burns contentiously but is not consumed in a bright green flame.
posted by The Whelk at 6:58 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

Aw man I am gonna call that wikileak guy and get all our secret mod-noted profiles wikileaked up in here! Speaking of which, have there been any posts about this guy? He like wikileaks things and he went to jail but Micheal McDonald busted him out. Hold on I'll go make a post.
posted by ND¢ at 6:59 PM on December 14, 2010 [8 favorites]

Double SECRET probation!
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:11 PM on December 14, 2010

I'm going to make a FOIA request on sixcolors' record.
posted by special-k at 7:12 PM on December 14, 2010

The posts, they keep on coming!

I CANNAE TAKE IT CAPTAIN I NEED MORE SNARK!

*throws Shit Value*
posted by The Whelk at 7:13 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm going to have to say: Yes.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:21 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's true. You justcan't join, you know. It needs an atmosphere where your
natural bastardness can grow and develop and take a
meaningful shape in today's complex society

But that's not why I want to dedicate the Post to MeFi. I
mean, the job that they have to do is a drag. I mean, they have
to follow people around, you know. That's part of their job.
Follow me around.
posted by santaslittlehelper at 7:27 PM on December 14, 2010

Yeah, the notes we have are mostly "this is why we banned this spammer", with occasional bits of "hey this person works for NASA!" or "this person posted FUCK YOU ALL in seven askme threads last night, gave them a week off" making up the balance.

Most of the per-user record keeping we do is in our heads, and I think all of us prefer to keep that to a minimum as much as possible. Good recall is helpful when absolutely necessary, but a short memory makes for more pleasant interactions the rest of the time.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:37 PM on December 14, 2010 [6 favorites]

a short memory makes for more pleasant interactions the rest of the time

I think I'm going to make that my new internet motto.
posted by immlass at 7:46 PM on December 14, 2010 [8 favorites]

a short memory makes for more pleasant interactions the rest of the time.

This is why cortex's scotch is a business expense.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:52 PM on December 14, 2010 [41 favorites]

Somehow I think I'm better off not knowing what's on MINE. But at least I hope it notes my disdain of cilantro.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 8:01 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

cortexAdmin: "hey this person works for NASA!""

I would like this added to my file, please. It'll be the first step in my new personality when I go on the run (but take my Metafilter account with me).
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:02 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

I also would like "does not know how to delete unnecessary text" added.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:02 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

We categorically deny all allegations that chndrcks was cut up into tiny little pieces, each sealed in a ziplock sandwich bag, and sold to tourists at the zoo for feeding to the polar bears.
posted by the Cabal at 8:06 PM on December 14, 2010

Oooh oooh tell me who's flagged me I'll bet it was that fucker Iridic
posted by shakespeherian at 8:08 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

I would like this added to my file, please.

Duly noted.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:11 PM on December 14, 2010 [5 favorites]

Why keep track of who has flagged us?
posted by crunchland at 8:12 PM on December 14, 2010

█ █████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ nipple clamp ████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ██ █ ███.
posted by slogger at 8:13 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Why keep track of who has flagged us?

Because it's useful to see if the flags are coming form a lot of different people or maybe there are just a few users who don't get along so well.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:16 PM on December 14, 2010

Yes, but my lawyer says he can get mine 86'd.
posted by jonmc

Mookie Wilson is your lawyer? That is *awesome*!
posted by Ufez Jones at 8:23 PM on December 14, 2010 [3 favorites]

Why keep track of who has flagged us?

And as much as anything, the "who has flagged you" thing is more a by product of the more general (if still mostly just special-occasion) "what's your being-flagged history like" view of things. If there's something weird going on and a name rings a bell but I can't remember why, I can take a look at the flagging history and be like "huh, looks like this is probably a one off", or alternatively, "oh, this is the guy who did that thing two years ago, maybe this needs a closer look".
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:46 PM on December 14, 2010

cortex: ""this person posted FUCK YOU ALL in seven askme threads last night, gave them a week off" "

Um.... does that really happen? I mean, I know that some users drunk-post, and some post when they're running on very little sleep *coughitwasn'tmecough* but do people really go on tears through the site like that?
posted by zarq at 8:50 PM on December 14, 2010

cortex: " And as much as anything, the "who has flagged you" thing is more a by product of the more general (if still mostly just special-occasion) "what's your being-flagged history like" view of things. If there's something weird going on and a name rings a bell but I can't remember why, I can take a look at the flagging history and be like "huh, looks like this is probably a one off", or alternatively, "oh, this is the guy who did that thing two years ago, maybe this needs a closer look"."

Does the history specifically tell you what it was that was flagged, like a specific comment or post? I'm sure that some of my deleted posts were probably flagged to death before being axed....
posted by zarq at 8:52 PM on December 14, 2010

Um.... does that really happen?

Clearly you don't pay much attention to my activity every Thursday at 4am.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:55 PM on December 14, 2010

We see something like this:

mefi 97993 display error zarq

What section of the site it's in, clickable link to the thing, why it was flagged, who flagged it. So in this example it's clearly you letting us know there was a little thing to fix in one of your posts.

And yeah people really do go on tears through the site. It's not that frequent but maybe once every few months? A few times a year?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:55 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

but do people really go on tears through the site like that?

It certainly does. Not often, which is nice, and form varies a bit (sometimes it's FUCK YOUish stuff, sometimes it's weird nonsense, sometimes it's custom jokey-stupid answers to each question, sometimes it's SILENCED ALL MY LIFE stuff across any available thread on the blue, etc), but it's definitely a thing that happens.

Does the history specifically tell you what it was that was flagged, like a specific comment or post?

Yeah, it's basically a line-by-line dump of the flag record for each item in reverse chronological order. So an excerpt from my flag history, names changed to protect the innocent:

askmefi_comment 	2363602 	derail 			CaptainCrotch 
metatalk_comment 	808358 		fantastic comment 	a borehole 
mefi_comment 		3218344 	noise 			Dogboat

So, content type, content id, flag label, flagging users. id and username are links for quick cross-reference if we need them, the link on id to the original content being more useful by far.

Note that while we've got flagging user in this and some other detailed flag views, we don't bother with that on the main admin flag queue page we reference throughout the day.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:05 PM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]

Neat. I rather like that you can pull up someone's history at a moment's notice like that.

BTW, have I thanked you both for fixing my html fail on that post, because if I hadn't, thanks! :)
posted by zarq at 9:09 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

jessamyn: " And yeah people really do go on tears through the site. It's not that frequent but maybe once every few months? A few times a year?"

cortex: " It certainly does. Not often, which is nice, and form varies a bit (sometimes it's FUCK YOUish stuff, sometimes it's weird nonsense, sometimes it's custom jokey-stupid answers to each question, sometimes it's SILENCED ALL MY LIFE stuff across any available thread on the blue, etc), but it's definitely a thing that happens."

Ugh. Well, I'm glad for your sakes that it doesn't happen frequently.

I wonder if most users -- casual users -- would even notice someone making asinine comments in multiple threads like that. I mean, I know I don't read AskMe that often. When I do I focus only on questions in categories I'm interested in. If someone were to spam every post on the AskMe front page, I wonder if most of us would even notice.
posted by zarq at 9:13 PM on December 14, 2010

We know who has flagged you.

Do tell!

No, seriously, do!
posted by dersins at 9:14 PM on December 14, 2010

Hey, I know someone IRL who works at NASA! He works with Robonaut 2. I am so jealous.
posted by IndigoRain at 9:47 PM on December 14, 2010

SO DO I!
posted by The Whelk at 10:15 PM on December 14, 2010

If someone were to spam every post on the AskMe front page, I wonder if most of us would even notice.

The nice thing about having so many eyes on the site is that most of you don't have to notice. As long as a few of you do, we see flags and get email. And in fact there's enough people seeing the front page that we usually get a very prompt response if there's anything even kinda-sketchy on the front page of any of the sites.

For weird comments in threads themselves, there's a bit less of the lightning-round feel to responsiveness but stuff still tends to pick up a flag or two and, I think, someone coming across something buried in a thread is more likely to drop us an email as well to say "hey, weirdness here" than if it's something on the front page where obviously a lot of people will notice and be flagging. And I think often someone will see a weird comment, click through to the user's profile, and if they see two other comments that are also weird that sends up a red flag that makes letting us know via email even more likely.

Weird/spammy/junko comments really do stand out like a sort thumb on this site. Makes our job slightly easier. I review new comments in old threads, and all comments from very-new users, every morning, and for the stuff that no one has already given us a heads up about it's not really hard to pick out the troubling stuff—three dumb micro-comments in a row from a new user, or some user dropping a comment with a suspiciously-prominent link into one or two months-old askme threads—just at a glance. Just plain doesn't look right.

Really, one of the most annoying things that can happen on that front is when someone signs up, starts leaving totally dumb "HI I'M CLEARLY GONNA SPAM SOON" quota-filling comments but then doesn't get around to spamming. They just keep dropping another generic five-worder here or there every couple days, and I'm waiting the whole time for the hammer to drop. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often either.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:28 PM on December 14, 2010

cortex: with occasional bits of "hey this person works for NASA!"

Does asavage's page say, "hey, this is Adam Savage!!11!!"?
posted by Night_owl at 10:34 PM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]

What's the duration record for the five worder every couple days before it went to spam? Do you ever see them where suddenly it's like they've practiced enough and now they can pass a Turing test and become an active member of the site without spamming?

Also, how often do people have trouble with the problem room mate or some such screwing with their MeFi account? I realize every other problem child probably claims this is the case but I would assume it's pretty obvious when borderline case finally crosses the line versus the model user appears to have gone mad.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 11:24 PM on December 14, 2010

So wait, if a mod looks at my profile you'll be able to see my ill-fated first Ask question, when I thought this place was like Reddit? Augh... I've been a model citizen since, I swear...

Make a note of that on my profile page
posted by malapropist at 11:34 PM on December 14, 2010

I work for NASA.

FUCK YOU ALL.
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:22 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

(Around the NASA office, my codename is "CaptainCrotch.")
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:25 AM on December 15, 2010

Around the nuke proof NASA Secret Underground Vaults, I don't have a codename.
posted by The Whelk at 12:31 AM on December 15, 2010

They do not forget, they do not forgive. They are legion. Expect them.

Oh wait. That's Anonymous.

The Mods? Nah, you're good with them.
posted by Infinite Jest at 2:19 AM on December 15, 2010

My file burns contentiously

No it doesn't!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:39 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Those crazy multi-dimensional cube things that Cortex has been building in Minecraft?

Our aggregrate crimes are encoded in their structure.
posted by Happy Dave at 3:49 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

He's named it The 9 Billion Deletions Of Meta.
And when finishes enumerating every transgression.... MetaFilter will quietly turn off.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:53 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Will there be an exam later? Hope not, because the cat ate my homework.
posted by arcticseal at 4:09 AM on December 15, 2010

We have your IP history
Just to clarify, you have a permanent record of the IP addresses I log-in from linked to my account?
What would happen if I closed my account?The FAQ isn't clear on this point, I presume you'd retain the data (in case I came back as a spammer, for example).
posted by SyntacticSugar at 4:59 AM on December 15, 2010

Your.presence.has.been.logged.
posted by h00py at 5:58 AM on December 15, 2010

And in fact there's enough people seeing the front page that we usually get a very prompt response if there's anything even kinda-sketchy on the front page of any of the sites.

If you see something, say something.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:11 AM on December 15, 2010 [3 favorites]

FUCK YOU ALL.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:14 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

Just to clarify, you have a permanent record of the IP addresses I log-in from linked to my account?

More specifically, of the IP addresses you take certain significant site actions from (commenting and posting, basically).

What would happen if I closed my account?The FAQ isn't clear on this point, I presume you'd retain the data (in case I came back as a spammer, for example).

Yeah, it sticks around, and it has been specifically useful on a number of occasions to correlate a new account with an old account when a troublemaker has made some sort of effort to sneak back under the radar.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:21 AM on December 15, 2010

You can tell it's winter break because MeTa lights up like a Christmas tree!
posted by frecklefaerie at 6:26 AM on December 15, 2010

Yeah, it sticks around, and it has been specifically useful on a number of occasions to correlate a new account with an old account when a troublemaker has made some sort of effort to sneak back under the radar.
Well, there goes my cunning retirement plan.

Sorry to bang on about this, but when I hit the shiny red 'Close My Account' button or you banhammer me, the log-in is disabled and the account is marked as such in the DB. Everything else is otherwise preserved until it succumbs to bit-rot?
posted by SyntacticSugar at 6:33 AM on December 15, 2010

Everything else is otherwise preserved until it succumbs to bit-rot?

Or until you write to say "I'd like back in", yes. The latter case happens on a somewhat regular basis, but in either case the account goes dormant but is not wiped. Aside from disabling login, we also note the account's disabled status on the user page and remove almost all profile info. In the rare case of us being made aware that someone has died, we'll provide a short note to that effect on the userpage as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:45 AM on December 15, 2010

Cool, thanks for clarifying cortex.
posted by SyntacticSugar at 7:02 AM on December 15, 2010

My file burns contentiously

I think they have a lotion for that.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:38 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

I think they have a lotion for that.

I use something similar for the bit-rot that shows up in the warmer, wetter months. It smells of cheese and gasoline.
posted by quin at 7:43 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

C'mon, we all know the Metafilter server farm is hosted on NSA mainframes. There's a hidden door in Matt's basement that leads to an underground maglev train that goes straight to Fort Meade. Your file (or rap sheet) contains the time and date of every breath you ever taken and every word spoken. The newest NSA keylogger can actually detect your DNA, so go ahead, be as anonymous as you want, they will know every instance of your fingers touching a keyboard. This is why I have tinfoil covering my monitor and keyboard and I have special underwear that acts as a Faraday cage. I'm invisible.
posted by doctor_negative at 8:25 AM on December 15, 2010

I just had a daydream that somebody leaked a text file that contained a list of who tagged whom. Even though it only happened in my imagination, I still feel like I should apologize to the mods for the unpleasantness.


Maybe I'm wrong about this. Maybe everybody would be cool and not take it personally. But I like to think of myself as generally really laid back. And I still think this would perhaps drive me a little crazy. Of course, my crazy would be internalized. But I bet a lot of folks' wouldn't. Sorry if I'm not giving you enough credit.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:57 AM on December 15, 2010

My belief is that most people would not care much, and that a number of people would take good-intentioned stabs at doing all kinds of interesting impersonal analyses of the data as a view into how community feedback dynamics work. But that a fair number of folks would also be uncomfortable with it, and at least a few folks would have genuinely hurt feelings. So it's the sort of thing that, yeah, isn't going in the infodump.

That said, I might do some aggregate analysis some time, where looking at patterns of flagging behavior stripped of any specific user context could be neat.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:22 AM on December 15, 2010

You are the moon and I'm your Secret NASA.
posted by Free word order! at 10:27 AM on December 15, 2010

No, seriously, do!

Unlike the congenial and forgetful mod staff, y'all are like elephants in that no-forgetting thing, so we're unlikely to give you any information you can use against each other unless it's Nerf crotch bats for everyone.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:33 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

Speaking of which: look under your chairs!
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:56 AM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

*AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!*
posted by The Whelk at 11:58 AM on December 15, 2010

*Whack, Slap, Flail, Collapse, Die*
posted by The Whelk at 11:59 AM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

Does anything actually get deleted, as opposed to just marked so?
posted by mkultra at 1:18 PM on December 15, 2010

Not much, no. I think favorites and tags that have been removed do disappear into the aether, though.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:53 PM on December 15, 2010

Weird. Someone just managed to fave a deleted thread of mine.
posted by Artw at 1:58 PM on December 15, 2010

You Can Check Out Any Time You Like! But You Can NEVAH LEAVE!
posted by ND¢ at 1:59 PM on December 15, 2010

Artw, your deleted threads are still better than 80% of the threads that aren't deleted.





Naaah, just kidding, they suck.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:00 PM on December 15, 2010

This one sucked - it was a link that turned out to be bollocks, so I'm a bit wierded that someone is finding their way to it and favouriting it somehow (and I didn't think you could do that anyway)
posted by Artw at 2:14 PM on December 15, 2010

I have an irresistable urge to drunk post but there's a problem. I'm not drunk. Can I get voted best new user name instead?
posted by The Lady is a designer at 2:58 PM on December 15, 2010

I have an irresistable urge to drunk post but there's a problem. I'm not drunk.

An unfortunate state that could easily be remedied, dear Lady.
posted by zarq at 3:02 PM on December 15, 2010

Was it the one about digital comics? Because seriously, that thread was in the process of being rescued by turgid dahlia, and I wish it hadn't been deleted.
posted by Gator at 3:19 PM on December 15, 2010

It was the making-ferrofluid-out-of-MCIR-toner one. I'm not seeing it now. Maybe I hallucinated the whole thing.

(There were some perfectly fine digital comics posts after that one, IIRC)
posted by Artw at 3:23 PM on December 15, 2010

Have I ever mentioned how much I wanna see the flag queue all of the time
posted by tehloki at 4:36 PM on December 15, 2010

If there really were a permanent record, then three years of my activity on this site wouldn't have fallen into the memory hole.
posted by yesster at 7:56 PM on December 15, 2010

There was a memory hole, wasn't there?
posted by yesster at 7:56 PM on December 15, 2010

We had some budget cuts, so now it's just a memory half.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:49 PM on December 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

drink moar scotch plz kthx.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:52 PM on December 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

You are referring to the Memory Fifth.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:54 PM on December 15, 2010 [4 favorites]

Memory Fifth: nomologically enticing, with a hint of nutmeg. Volume discounts here.
posted by yesster at 3:40 PM on December 16, 2010

drink moar scotch plz kthx.

Is that official? Site policy? Man I love this place! (Um jessamyn could you give me a note to give to my boss to explain why I am drinking Scotch at like 8.30am?)
posted by Infinite Jest at 12:14 AM on December 17, 2010

Single malt is better in the morning. Or *eyes the red wine*
posted by The Lady is a designer at 2:53 AM on December 17, 2010

jessamyn could you give me a note to give to my boss to explain why I am drinking Scotch at like 8.30am

Of course!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:00 AM on December 17, 2010 [1 favorite]

I just wanted to drop in briefly to mention that this is the thing I really don't think I'm supposed to be talking about. Which I'm not. Except now. But just for the purposes of this conversation, and then never again.
posted by krinklyfig at 10:24 PM on December 17, 2010

In 1980 my grandfather had a heart attack. His cardiologist told him to have a scotch or two every night. He didn't visit another doctor for 17 years for fear of getting a second opinion.
posted by bystander at 3:08 AM on December 20, 2010 [4 favorites]

because of my low HDL, and already doing the top things on the list (exercise more, don't be overweight, eat less red meat, etc.) I get down to the lower level stuff like eat more spinach and avocado, and have a serving of alcohol a day. so now I drink a beer every day for medicine.



the other ones are still for fun though.
posted by garlic at 3:54 PM on December 20, 2010