Hello Kitty's Happy Fun Post

This is where all the nasty comments people want to leave on the other thread now belong.  By all means, say what you will ... just remember who you're saying it in front of.

(Also: the first person to contact someone's employer loses the Internets.  I'm not kidding.)

Comments

[SEK]

For the record, J.S. Nelson won the Internets a few days back. Sometimes I wonder why I even try.

[The Constructivist]

Feel free to raid my archives for more cuteness from Japanese pop culture. You may have to deploy My Melody down the road, is all I'm saying.

[Karl Steel]

In response to a question below

Who is JP?

God if I know. I think I decided that Patterico's first name was "Jason," but I have no idea where I got that: maybe it's the echo of one of the dustups in various spots over the years. But his blog doesn't give his first name, and lord knows if he doesn't make his first name easy to find, I'm not trolling, I mean trawling for it. Let's just assume that I meant it to stand for Just Patterico and leave it at that.

Okay?

[KWK]

At first I thought your "Happy Fun Post" was going to lead with the news that all was right with the world:

• that you've been reinstated as a UCI student with profuse apologies from both the Chancellor and the Governator,
  
• that the karmic cycle was thrown back into whack when The Library encountered students having sex in its office,
  
• that your oncologist has deemed your cancer to be permanently in remission and that Rachel's tumors likewise have gone the way of the dodo,
  
• that your erstwhile Stalker has been apprehended for, I don't know, tax evasion or some such, and has been locked away until the coming of Elijah,
  
• that your vehicular assailant has had an attack of conscience and tracked you down via the internets solely to write you a middle-six-figure check,
  
• and that your impending dissertation means that you have a passel of interviews slated for the MLA.
  

But alas, the smiling countenance of Hello Kitty was nought but a cruel ruse beguiling me into thinking that happy pictures meant, you know, happy things had happened.
Damn you, Hello Kitty!

[Rich Puchalsky]

Karl Steel: "Rich doesn't foreground his profession, whatever it is, as an authenticating device. He has, instead, facts. And bile."

If only I could figure out what my profession is. Seriously, it's difficult. But of course everyone here knows the answer I usually give.

(to the vaguely remembered tune of half-a-dozen drinking songs)

In the bar, with the rest of the crew
Sometimes they'll talk of Rich P
He was the scurviest scalawag
That sailed the stacks instead of the seas

Oh, the freelance librarian's life for me
And the dynamically created Web site
The hits come in, asleep or awake
So stupid poems there's time to write

[Begin Chorus]

Facts, stupid poems, and bile, my friends
Facts stupid poems and bile
Oh we'll make a database or a graph
Or a mocking rhyme, and then a laugh
We're not settled down on a permanent staff
Not for us fetching books with a smile --
We'll bring facts, stupid poems, and bile

[End Chorus]

Oh looking out at this country of ours
And tracking what's been done to it
With pollution records, corruption too
Why be nice to right-wing twits?

And the use of one's name is a badge of the free
No worries about people to offend
After lawsuit threats from multinationals
Internet stalkers don't seem like the end

[Chorus]

So hoist another one for Rich P
Librarian, or maybe public access database guy
Or consultant of some kind to activist groups
Maybe he'll figure it out by and by

[JAKE]

That was beautiful. Belt out another tune, will ya Mr. Puchalsky?

[Vermont Neighbor]

Rich, you are one heck of a writer. Had to follow this Adkins phenom, and honestly, I can't figure out if the guy's real. It's like a parody, like LonelyGirl15 or something.

I have to wonder if Adkins is a take-off on 'protein' -- as in the Atkins diet, and maybe an inside joke on Protein Wis-dom. Maybe we've all been punk'd!

Anyway, you do indeed have a persona just as much as the folks in question here (not counting Chuckie out of Michigan). So keep writing, keep righting, and keep on fighting. It all makes for good reading. Scott's excellent as well. Glad I found this site. (PS- any traveler would love 'Rosy Angel'. Terrific.)

[scrumptious]

I just took a look over at the P-blog, and they seem to be congratulating him for politely responding to all the comments people aimed at him in the other thread.

I must have missed something. He didn't answer a single one of mine.

[scrumptious]

I just took a look over at the P-blog, and they seem to be congratulating him for politely responding to all the comments people aimed at him in the other thread.

I must have missed something. He didn't answer a single one of mine.

[Laughing at Jane]

For those who want to return to the Kerry info
I'd recommend
http://www.mekong.net/random/malkin.htm#nlink97

This is one of the best Malkin analysises I have seen. He crucifies her Defense of Internment claims and addresses the Kerry wounds very well. Unlike Eric Muller he wraps it up in a couple of well written paragraphs - Muller took on the internment debate in a very lengthy posting - informative but very long.

As for Patty boy - he won't answer questions that don't make him look smart.

[j.s. nelson]

" i beat the internet
the end guy is hard"

Seriously though I always like getting mentioned because as a non-blogger, I live vicariously through other people's posts. I just wish that lately it hadn't been under circumstances involving dark prophecies, etc. Seems like when I'm not recounting a tale of my own woe, I'm offhandedly anticipating yours.

[Dan Collins]

I can assure Vermont Neighbor that Adkins is not a creation of Protein Wisdom. We are not that perverse.

Perhaps this will llft Scott's spirits.

[Karl Steel]

Thanks for the song Rich. Just reading it make me feel all drunk.

[Josh]

Hello. Re Malkin playing fast and loose with the facts, I was surprised brought up this:

http://www.isthatlegal.org/archives/2005/05/nine_months_lat.html

Makin had to retract and apologize, but only after 9 months and legal action was threatened. Maybe even Patterico would admit that making a libelous smear and then stonewalling about it is playing fast and loose with the facts, but I doubt it.

[Maydayog]

Scrumptious,

I don't think he mentioned in that interview to the Crimson that he attempted to obtain a deferment, just that he asked his draft board about it. In the end it would have been a deferment, though.

Here is what the Crimson article stated:

When he approached his draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy.

In an interview with Senator Kerry in 2003, the Boston Globe wrote the following:

As graduation approached, Kerry knew that he had three choices: be drafted, seek a deferment for graduate school, or join up and position himself to become an officer. ``It was clear to me that I was going to be at risk,'' Kerry recalled. ``My draft board . . . said, `Look, the likelihood is you are probably going to be drafted.' I said, `If I'm going to be drafted, I'd like to have responsibility and be an officer.' '

From both the Crimson and the Globe article, it appears as if Kerry actively sought an alternative to service in Vietnam. This, of course, does not take away from Senator Kerry's service or actions in Vietnam, but I think it provides important context to the discussion.

Not trying to diss your point, just pointing out the distinction.

No dissing at all perceived! If we're aiming for accuracy, let's make sure I'm accurate too.

[Vermont Neighbor]

Dan Collins: I meant the guy was possibly a creation designed to get hits and agitate people. The name, maybe riffing on a well-known blog as its starting point. I didn't mean the blog was connected to Protein Wisdom.

Anyway, it looks like this kid is real. Birthdate, home phone and address right there on the worldwide web. Geez. Hope he stays in Michigan. How did Townhall hook up with this one...

[Maydayog]

Karl Steel

Whatever that means.

It means that I found Senator Kerry to be an individual who did not seem disconnected from reality. It means that, in my estimation, Senator Kerry does not seem the type to exaggerate his service.

Bush looks into people's eyes and thinks he sees something there, and Patterico fantasizes about having a beer with Scott.

OK? I'm afraid I'm a little lost on what this has to do with Senator Kerry or President Bush.

Give me facts.any day, for example, which rich kid checked what box back in the 60s. Fuck "genuine."

I believe that you may use the term "fact" quite loosely in your everyday life. Good day.

Rich Puchalsky

For whatever reason, the spam filter is refusing to let me post a response. I promise you it isn't filled with invective of any sort, and I'll keep trying. Any idea on why the spam filter is working overtime at this point?

TO ALL:

Have a Happy Holidays and I wish you all the best!

[Rich Puchalsky]

Yeah, there's another drinking song for Scott waiting in the queue somewhere. The spam filter is getting everybody.

(Stupid spam filter. Here it is.)

Vermont Neighbor, thanks. Jake and Karl, it appears that drinking songs may be my poetic metier, so to speak.

Here's one for Scott:

[Begin chorus]

They tell of a man from Californiay
Who thought that his diss would be done some day
The Devil looked up, said "I'll make him pay"
So drink one for the troubles of SEK

[end chorus]

Now SEK's list of trials is long
And we'll see who's still standing after this song
He was beat up in high school, he didn't belong
But it was in grad school that things went wrong

[Chorus]

The doctor told him about his thyroid
He didn't want his wife to be annoyed
"If I hide it from everyone I'll stay employed"
So four months of concealment he enjoyed

[Chorus]

Now SEK came to his office door
And found two students going at it on the floor
"This will make a good story" he thought before
The Sexual Harassment Office sent letters galore

[Chorus]

And when he was down, and his thoughts were thick
His gloom was interrupted by Honda Civic
The car slammed into him and was gone in a lick
At least six months of rehab went by quick

[Chorus]

But the most annoying were Internet trolls
Threats of bodily harm will take their toll
They sent letters to his boss, and to every soul
They could find in the whole county's Email roll

[Chorus]

After all those troubles, he still wasn't drowned
Well, it was absurd, but this might be the crown Overpayment of library fines will bring him down
He's no longer a student, just a proper noun

[Chorus]

[many more verses, of course, to be added along with events]

He told us all this when he started a blog
And how fate or the Devil made him jump like a frog
The hiring committee looked on agog [pessimistic last line] If we hire him -- then our luck will fog [vaguely "optimistic" alternate last line]
If we hire him -- then he'll work like a dog

[chorus]

Rich Puchalsky,

It appears as if TypePad is firmly convinced my post is spam so it probably isn't worth posting in the first place! ;-)

Anyways, we can agree to disagree. I believe President Bush and Senator Kerry made the same types of decisions in their service to their country. To quote the Boston Globe article from above:

"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

I'm not going to criticize either Senator Kerry or President Bush for their actions. It is apparent to me that both loved and still love their country. Neither loved the conflict in Vietnam.

[Maydayog]

Rich Puchalsky,

It appears as if TypePad is firmly convinced my post is spam so it probably isn't worth posting in the first place! ;-)

Anyways, we can agree to disagree. I believe President Bush and Senator Kerry made the same types of decisions in their service to their country.

I'm not going to criticize either Senator Kerry or President Bush for their actions. It is apparent to me that both loved and still love their country. Neither loved the conflict in Vietnam.