From: geoffm@purplehaze.Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: Contest!
Followup-To: alt.peeves
Date: 4 Sep 1992 16:25:26 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Ca.
NNTP-Posting-Host: purplehaze.corp.sun.com
Keywords: Losers



In article <1992Sep04.065140.3788@gateway.ssf-sys.DHL.COM> corby@ssf-sys.DHL.COM (Corby Anderson) writes:

>I wish I could name a couple of those oh-so-great smash hits or specify 
>their era with some degree of accuracy (black and white...lessee... 
>that would place it some time after 1860 but before the great media-
>marketeer uprising of '59...) but I'm sure that the moment I say
>something concrete I'll make an entire brand-new circle of friends who
>are just dying to tell me all about how Nick and Nora didn't *really* start
>making movies until such-and-such a year, and Asta was *really* played
>by two different dogs.  Well I won't stand for it!  Knock it off!


That stuff happens, Corby; be careful what you post.  Last week, I made 
the mistake of mentioning on AFU (and, alas, crossposting to rec.amateur.-
radio.pocket-protector or some such 'froup) that as far as I could recall,
UHF TV channels only went up to some arbitrary numerical value.  This was 
an assertion made in good faith, but from the standpoint of someone who
watches very little television.

Well, almost instantaneously, followup articles and email started appearing,
the purpose of which was to set me straight.  I appreciated the helpful 
information, but I was a little taken aback at the sheer volume of 
communication resulting from my more-or-less offhand post.  I think I 
must've gotten email from every single denizen of the ham radio newsgroup 
-- they all felt that they personally had to enlighten me.  The funny thing
was, it never seemed to occur to any of those guys that (a) they should
perhaps finish reading the available articles in the newsgroup before 
reacting, to see whether anybody had beaten them to the punch, or (b) that
considering the date of the original article, perhaps others had already
emailed me with the Real Info (tm).  I was still getting email about this
earlier this week.  That kind of BDI behavior sure as hell wouldn't fly
in rec.aviation, Orville.

But what really got me was the sardonic tone of some of these replies, and
the underlying implication that I somehow was neglecting my duties as a 
modern citizen, or even worthy of scorn, because I wasn't up on TV techno-
trivia.  The phrase "get a life" came quickly to mind.  One of these
taped-glasses types even had the nerve to tell me that I should "get out 
of the house more often."  I thought that was especially humorous, and I
replied that my spending so little time in the house is perhaps the very
reason that the intricacies of my television set aren't foremost in my
consciousness.  I ended the missive by suggesting that perhaps literacy
has its price.


Geoff


-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
"I suppose I can sum up the point I'm making here most succinctly by simply
saying, "Nyah, Nyah, Na-Nyah, Nyah, Go fuck yourselves,"  but I wouldn't do 
that because I have to come back." -- Tim Mefford
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-