This has been bouncing around for a while, but as far as I can tell Hugh MacLeod, the brilliant scribbler and crafter of bon mots said it first in May of 2022.
The Metaverse is The Segway of our time.
What else can you say of something even the developers refuse to use?
Ah, memories. This was a small place across the street from LA City Hall (I worked at City Hall East for five summers).
This LA Times article from 2001 describes it this way:
(O)n a typical day, the stand sells about 100 namesake Kosher burritos–which include pastrami, chili sauce, dill-pickle chips and chopped onion wrapped in a flour tortilla–in addition to burgers, fries and fried chicken.
As I always relate at this point, one time I went there and was asked, “Do you want cheese on that?” Which, of course, would make it trayf (not kosher).
I declined. I wanted the original experience.
Still, for its aspirations of serving hot food to City Hall grazers for lunch, it was a great place.
“Marge, if you’re going to get mad every time I do something stupid, then I guess I just have to stop doing stupid things!” (S04E09, “Mr. Plow”)
This also works from our perspective as well, to wit:
“If you’re going to get upset every time we call something you did stupid, then I guess you’ll just have to stop doing stupid things!”
From the Analects of Kǒng Fūzǐ (15:19), who is frequently Anglicized as Confucius:
Ames & Rosemont: The Master said, “Exemplary persons are distressed by their own lack of ability, not by the failure of others to acknowledge them.”
Lyall (Proj. Gutenberg): The Master said, His shortcomings trouble a gentleman; to be unknown does not trouble him.
Legge: The Master said, “The superior man is distressed by his want of ability. He is not distressed by men’s not knowing him.”
A. Charles Muller: The Master said: “The noble man suffers from his own lack of ability, not from lack of recognition.”
So the next time you’re thinking you don’t get enough comments…
Made by our friend Moshe Feder in New York.
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” — John Muir
I have long misquoted this (I’m pretty sure I first read it in Steven Minkin’s otherwise fantastic novel, …A No Doubt Mad Idea), but according to the Sierra Club I’m not the only one. So, now I have the authentic quote to go by.
I’ve used it for years to describe how my mind works, and why I digress as much as I do. The digressions aren’t intentional, it’s just that picking at things leads me to those hitches.
And while I’m on the topic, listen to this:
Oh, boy, is this Lexicon.
Yet Another Movie About Dorks. The principle lurking behind YAMAD is, no matter how stupid, or clutzy, or socially inept you may feel, here’s a movie (or TV series, these days) about people stupider, less graceful, etc., so a broad audience can look down on them.
Origin: There we were, dear reader, at one of our weekly movies (we cut the cord before a whole lot of people) in 1998. We were being subjected to a trailer for A Night at the Roxbury for the 35th time. It was obvious this thing was incredibly stupid. It was obvious it was going to flop. But still, some studio exec had greenlit spending $17M of budget to make and market this steaming turd.
Why? Who did they expect to show up?
Possibly fans of Will Farrell, the Godfather of YAMAD. Chris Kattan, the co-star, never really showed up too much after this. (I mean, Sharknado 5?)
No, this is a movie of consolation. No matter how bad your life is, here are some clowns who are even worse. Dumb and Dumber is YAMAD. Wayne’s World. Anchorman. Kevin Smith is the Orson Welles of YAMAD — his characters are dumb on the surface, but there’s more there than you think.
Kardashians is YAMAD plus money. Most descendants of Candid Camera (think Ridiculousness on MTV; or nearly all of MTV, these days) are YAMAD plus voyeurism.
No big summation. “I alone escaped to tell thee.”
A song by Tim Minchin. A song about scale.
Thing is, when he sings,
This is my brain
And I live in it.
It’s made of love,
And bad song lyrics…
It’s hard for me not to think of this MRI image of, yes, my brain from October, 2011:
It’s not perfect (lord knows)… but it’s mine.
Made by leaning out our top-story mansard window. The middle of the 5e arrondissement in Paris, looking northwest up the Boulevard Saint-Germain. The thing about making black and white photos in Paris is, so many older buildings are still extant your image can be compared to classic images from the past.
Just in case it’s not obvious, all the header images are either by me, or of me. The woman shown across multiple headers is my beautiful, smart, and forbearing wife Ulrika (who also made many of the images of me).