Put Daisy Oolong in the Sidebar

January 8, 2003 7:36 PM

The Daisy Oolong Thread should go on the sidebar. It's important, touching, and humanizes Metafilter.
posted by ParisParamus to Feature Requests at 7:36 PM (31 comments total)

agree
posted by y2karl at 7:41 PM on January 8, 2003

yes
posted by ac at 7:55 PM on January 8, 2003

Agreed, I just added a note. I never thought some guy with a bunny and some wacky ideas could be touching, but it's really sad. It surprised me this morning when I first saw it, and I just got the same feeling now.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:03 PM on January 8, 2003

Thank you, Matt. I had to put down my almost-19 year-old cat a little bit ago, and seeing the tribute to Oolong really brought home just how universal the love we have for our beloved pets is. It was very, very sad, but also nice to see, in a way. The site, and our response to it, deserved the special recognition.
posted by yhbc at 8:26 PM on January 8, 2003

I think it's very interesting that we isolate and applaud the thread about the death of an animal, but we condemn and bemoan threads about dying famous people.
posted by crunchland at 8:51 PM on January 8, 2003

crunchland: animals are cute and fuzzy.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:55 PM on January 8, 2003

If any dying famous people put pancakes on their head, I suppose we could re-examine our collective stance.
posted by poseur at 9:06 PM on January 8, 2003 [1 favorite]

Silly humans. Trix are for rabbits. And cats.

Sidebar: Yes. Think I'll send a condolence e-mail to Oolong's owner, if his addy is on the site. A deluge of condolences would be touching, if it doesn't overload his e-mail.
posted by Shane at 10:24 PM on January 8, 2003

Crunchland - do we? What threads are you referring to? Serious question, not disagreeing with you, but just curious. I mean, we also feel a generic affection for a random pet, cause it reminds us of pets we've had, whereas none of us had a Joe Strummer in our house (other than in audio form) to get emotionally attached to.
posted by jonson at 11:04 PM on January 8, 2003

[e-mail]
posted by y2karl at 11:05 PM on January 8, 2003

Jonson, check out this and this and this.

I guess we're humanized now. ;)
posted by RJ Reynolds at 11:27 PM on January 8, 2003

If this thread doesn't PROVE I'm an ENFP, nothing ever will!
posted by ParisParamus at 11:49 PM on January 8, 2003

Paris, what's an ENFP?
posted by jonson at 11:56 PM on January 8, 2003

Google, sugarpie, google. It's your friend.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 12:15 AM on January 9, 2003

we condemn and bemoan threads about dying famous people.

If those threads linked to pictures of the people concerned in their last few moments and their final succumbing unto death, I think there would be less complaints.
posted by Summer at 6:00 AM on January 9, 2003

Oh, I don't know. I think there'd be substantial outcry if someone had posted pictures of James Coburn's final moments when he died last year. And some would probably cry foul at the exploitational, sensational aspects of it. I certainly wouldn't wanted to have seen them. And I imagine Douglas Adams was a little fuzzy in his final minutes, even if he might not have been cute by most people's standards. (Not to mention that no pancakes were involved.)
posted by crunchland at 8:00 AM on January 9, 2003

If I contract something terminal anytime soon I'm wearing pancakes on my head immediately. No, seriously. Then I'm posting the pictures. Or I guess someone else is, after I'm gone.

Man's Humanity's Search For Meaning in Death.

Through Pancakes.

("Man's" = sexist.)
posted by Shane at 8:27 AM on January 9, 2003

Paris, what's an ENFP?

It's a Meyers-Briggs personality type (Google it). I'm currently working through the reality that I'm too touchy-feely to ever be a happy lawyer; only about 3.0% of lawyers are ENFPs, but probably the percentage of people who shed a tear for a distant bunny is a lot higher.
posted by ParisParamus at 8:43 AM on January 9, 2003

I can just hear Paul Harvey covering this sad event, concluding:

"And on his grave...two carrots were placed to resemble Daisy's ears..."
posted by ParisParamus at 8:59 AM on January 9, 2003

Crunchland, a sequence of photos from a celebrity's final day would likely be exploitative if it were presented in that manner because it's pretty much the sole reason we take photos of celebbrities. A four page spread in People/Enquirer/US would be exploitative. The reprints on the nightly news would do the same. The whole idea of "celebrity" evokes a tainted feeling of exploitation.

Having an artistic photographer take somber shots in black and white at the request of the dying, and presenting in a gallery format isn't really all that exploitative.

This rabbit owner's actions were a lot closer to the later than the former. I'd be just as sad about the passing of any other pet photographed online. It's not just pets. If someone who posted a lot of photos of their child growing up suddenly lost their child, I'd be sad as well.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:19 AM on January 9, 2003

Just so there's no mistake... I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being somehow more intimately touched by the death of this rabbit than the death of some movie star or author. I'm just saying it's interesting that it is so.
posted by crunchland at 9:29 AM on January 9, 2003

Yes, but we don't know celebrities. We knew Daisy Oolong. Do you not see?
posted by Summer at 9:41 AM on January 9, 2003

I'm currently working through the reality that I'm too touchy-feely to ever be a happy lawyer

Who'd have guessed?
posted by Summer at 9:42 AM on January 9, 2003

I think it's very interesting that we isolate and applaud the thread about the death of an animal, but we condemn and bemoan threads about dying famous people.
posted by crunchland at 8:51 PM PST on January 8

crunchland: animals are cute and fuzzy.
posted by mathowie at 8:55 PM PST on January 8

Then why wasn't there an obituary post for Jerry Garcia?
posted by timeistight at 9:53 AM on January 9, 2003

Because Jerry Garcia was hideous and fuzzy? I'm just saying.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 2:23 PM on January 9, 2003

If those threads linked to pictures of the people concerned in their last few moments and their final succumbing unto death, I think there would be less complaints.

Or if there were photos of their corpses surrounded by little stuffed animals.

Yes, but we don't know celebrities. We knew Daisy Oolong.

You have an interesting way of defining "knew"...

If this thread doesn't PROVE I'm an ENFP, nothing ever will!

Oh, dear...that explains a lot! ;)

rushmc - INTJ
posted by rushmc at 2:48 PM on January 9, 2003

If someone who posted a lot of photos of their child growing up suddenly lost their child, I'd be sad as well.

I'm assuming that you don't mean to imply that the two scenarios are equivalent? (Because it makes a lot more sense if you aren't implying that, but it's unclear.)
posted by rushmc at 2:51 PM on January 9, 2003

I guess the rabbit's only name was Oolong; daisy must be some other rabbit or something.
posted by ParisParamus at 3:00 PM on January 9, 2003

You know, I don't think anyone's actually met the bunny in person have they? And if you look closely, you'll see that many of the photos seem a bit pixelated and altered in photoshop. The funeral website and the original site share the same IP address, and I don't think anyone has found an obituary yet. Oh and look! I just found a bunny in Oklahoma named Julie that looks exactly like Oolong! I don't think Oolong ever existed!

*runs*
posted by Stan Chin at 4:46 PM on January 10, 2003

Funniest. Comment. Ever.
posted by rushmc at 7:03 PM on January 10, 2003

You have an interesting way of defining "knew"...

JOKING
posted by Summer at 7:05 AM on January 13, 2003