…and this is a 
Merry Mollydays!
Category: Weblogs
Posted on: April 19, 2007 7:48 PM, by PZ Myers
It's that time again … time to nominate your favorite commenters for the Order of the Molly. Leave a comment saying whose name you like to see popping up in the comments threads, a few words about why you think they're molly-worthy would be nice, too, and on Sunday I'll tally them up and bestow the honorable OM on someone. You can find links to previous nomination threads on the commenters page, if you want to see what deserving people were passed over last time.
Comments
I am have vote for Steve_C.
Posted by: stogoe | April 19, 2007 8:36 PM
If I had to pick a single person, I'd go for Torbjorn Larsson. He's clear, funny, and devoted to including URLs in his comments. Plus, I figured he was going to get it last time.
Posted by: Blake Stacey | April 19, 2007 9:06 PM
I nominate Great White Wonder. His caustic wit has brightened up a rainy day on numerous occasions.
Posted by: Great White Wonder's Mom | April 19, 2007 9:16 PM
I nominate Great White Wonder's Mom, for being such a prolific -and-totally-not-a-sockpuppet poster.
Seriously, second Steve_C. I can't immediately recall him saying anything stupid, which puts him ahead of many other posters here.
Posted by: Caledonian | April 19, 2007 9:19 PM
I also vote for Torbjorn. (I know that's not the right spelling, but I'm an idiot when it comes to extra letter marks on keyboards.) His comments always cut to the point.
Posted by: Carlie | April 19, 2007 9:20 PM
I nominate Caledonian. When I see that he's made a recent comment, I always pop in to read it, even if the particular subject doesn't interest me much.
Posted by: abeja | April 19, 2007 9:43 PM
PZ,
Apple Security Update 2007-004, which came out today, broke my Mail and Safari apps. Be warned!
Posted by: Jeb, FCD | April 19, 2007 10:01 PM
I have a negative nomination for Skatje, who gets lots of "promotion" from pharyngula, but never seems to have time to come join in the fun with the grown-ups. *snicker*
Of course, as a lurker, I only get 1/10th of a vote, but still, it's a (-) 1/10th.
Posted by: Randy | April 19, 2007 11:15 PM
You must not have any teenage daughters. It's a positive thing that she doesn't come around here and boss me about.
Do you really want a lot of comments here that consist of a roll-eyes emoticon and a "whatever"?
Posted by: PZ Myers | April 19, 2007 11:24 PM
I would like to cast 1 vote against Caledonian. I hope this does not backfire and end up counting as a vote for him. 'Twould be a tragedy. The reason, simply that he trolled me for being new. Nobody deserves to be trolled, especially if they are new. Also, I would like to nominate myself, for the simple fact that I agree with everything PZ says, but not in a brown-nosing type way.
Posted by: Scholar | April 19, 2007 11:42 PM
You all think Hypnotoad's comments are the best.
Posted by: Hypnotoad | April 20, 2007 12:10 AM
I think Hypnotoad is the best. It was much better than "Cats". I'm going to see it again, and again...
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 12:20 AM
I second (third?) the nomination for Thorbjörn Larsson, even though he is a Swede.
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | April 20, 2007 12:36 AM
Larsson! Although I know some regard him askance because of that trendy diacritical mark in his first name. Not to worry! I've been told that there are countries far far away where people use funny symbols on their letters even when they're not in heavy-metal bands. Such a surprise to me!
I also appreciate Scholar's self-nomination, particularly for that part about agreeing with PZ all the time even though he is not a brown-noser. Good for him! I, for one, also refuse to be PZ's sycophant. That is, of course, unless PZ likes sycophants, I mean.
Posted by: Zeno | April 20, 2007 12:55 AM
Caledonian, for bringing the liberal Libertarian perspective to things.
Posted by: archgoon | April 20, 2007 1:31 AM
Please explain? You mean the thread where you advised him to accept the fact that not everyone believes in God?
If so, I don't think he trolled you. I don't have an axe to grind, I don't have a dog in this fight, I don't have a bone to pick or a metaphor to flog, so FWIW, IMO:
It was a simple misunderstanding on your part, and he toyed with you, rather gently, to the harmless amusement of just about everyone who knew the truth. I urge you not to take that (or this) as any kind of insult. Hey, navigating the ideological terrain around here is tricky enough without being expected to grok, at first sight, all the personalities involved, too. I doubt anyone was seriously whacking you for one misconception.
Zeno: Diacriticals impress you? Hah! Ok then! I'd like to nominate myself for having a cool non-Anglo name (like Skatje) that's even cooler by virtue of being commonly written in a completely different alphabet, and for not trying to capitalize on that meaningless fact in a cheap grab for some unwarranted recognition, and (unlike some people) for not transparently currying favor by name-dropping the daughter of the Bloglord.
Errrm... On second thought, never mind. :-)
I, too, would like to cast a vote for Mr. Diacritical, Torbjorn Larsson, not for any one post but for the overall excellence of his contributions. And his wit. And his cool name. And his hair. I bet he has nice hair.
Posted by: Ксения | April 20, 2007 1:46 AM
Anyone but Kristine, who cooks in a cauldron.
GrrRRrrRRrrr.
Posted by: Rich | April 20, 2007 2:18 AM
i don't have a nomination... but i'd just like to chime in with a little molly anecdote: my special lady friends (also named molly) likes to go to stores around her dad's place in rural delaware to buy books... because leftish or science-ish books are always cheap because *those* people don't buy them.
and the last time we went we found molly ivins book... on sale!
:)
Posted by: dan | April 20, 2007 2:53 AM
I'd like to nominate Michael Egnor who has given us loads of laughs over the past couple of months and who has worked tirelessly to undermine the creationists cause from within the Disco institute. He hasn't been on pharyngula that much but those few times have been comedy gold (who can forget his likening of gene duplication in biological evolution to someone putting the same post on a messageboard twice !) We need more Egnor!
And less fr#m%s!
Posted by: MartinC | April 20, 2007 7:18 AM
Ever since "Ed Darrell made such a comprehensive comment on the question of whether Darwin was as wicked a racist as the illiterate ideologues of Uncommon Descent would like you to believe", I have been waiting to nominate him; and my chance finally came.
There are a lot of criteria for good comentating, but adding valuable information on a topic surely is one of the most important. So I hope you pick Ed.
Posted by: JimV | April 20, 2007 7:44 AM
I re-second El Senor Mister Torbjorn Larsson, Esq. His diacritical marks nicely complement his lack of hypocritical remarks.
BUT... and this is a huge but (so to speak), we need a bit more info on TL. Is he a hard-drinking, Abba-loving, aurora-watching, always-neutral-at-least-since-The-Thirty-Years-War, Swedish Swede, or one of those "all hat and no reindeer" Minnesota Swedes who hang out Cato Cailin-like at PZ's Squid^H^H^H^H^HDude Ranch and Tiki Bar?
Posted by: xebecs | April 20, 2007 8:02 AM
Another for Thorbjörn Larsson, even though I have to copy-and-paste to spell his name right. We need more diacritics! ;-)
Posted by: David Harmon | April 20, 2007 8:26 AM
"please explain"
You REALLY must be new here! LOL
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 9:39 AM
I also vote for Larsson. He writes clearly, concisely, and he gets his point across well.
Posted by: ordinarygirl | April 20, 2007 9:53 AM
Maybe we need to nominate Rich, so he can have something to focus on instead of witch-hunting. It's ok as a weekend hobby, but when it starts taking over...
Posted by: Carlie | April 20, 2007 9:54 AM
I can't believe no one has suggested the most obvious choice, so I'll do it. (But I reserve the right to also nominate someone else later):
Sanjaya Malakar!!!
Posted by: Greg Laden | April 20, 2007 10:10 AM
Scholar, LOL... but... huh? No, really. If my general admiration for Caledonian is causing me to glossing over something, please tell me. I have admiration for you, too; and I've called Caledonian on what I sloppily term his "cryptic arrogance" and tendency to slap the idiot tag on those who don't immediately solve his puzzle-bombs. But... Ok, enough. I spend too much time talking about this.
Re: JimV #20
Yeah, I'm not changing my Larsson vote, but you're right - Ed's post was superb, and was useful as a sort of micro talk.origins on the racism and puppy-beating questions. :-)
Posted by: Kseniya | April 20, 2007 10:21 AM
I'm jumping on the Larssssssson bandwagon, not only because he is insightful and adds to our understanding, but because I have 50% Swedish blood coursing through my arteries and I am making a nationalist vote.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich | April 20, 2007 10:22 AM
It seems that Larsson's time has come, so I will vote for him as well. But you guys need to work on that spelling some more: it's Torbjörn.
Posted by: windy | April 20, 2007 10:26 AM
I vote for Thornberg Lars:en.
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 10:50 AM
Why don't we just call him Thor to make our lives easier.
I'm a lazy american, I know.
Posted by: Steve_C (Secular Elitist) FCD | April 20, 2007 11:00 AM
Right on the spelling, Windy. The Thunder God is implied. ;-)
Posted by: Kseniya | April 20, 2007 11:08 AM
Torbjörn Larsson.
Because of his great comments. And because his name would be great to hear announced from stage. "And the Order of the Molly goes to ... (opens envelope) ... TORBJORN LARSSON!" (wild applause)
...
Note to PZ: Did you decide not to use the Molly bug, or the certificate?
Posted by: Hank Fox | April 20, 2007 11:38 AM
I can see which way the wind's blowing here, but I'm gonna go ahead and put in my vote for Glen D.
Comment #21 on "Virginia Tech on Everybody's Mind" is pretty much the most thoughtful comment on that thread, one of many from Glen D. I don't always agree with him 100%, but he always keeps it logical.
Posted by: Johnny Vector | April 20, 2007 12:21 PM
I too support Tjolbin Larsson.
Tojobon Larson.
Tojoebin Larsin.
That swedish guy.
Posted by: Baratos | April 20, 2007 12:25 PM
Great music is coming from Sweden these days.
Everyone should check out Peter Bjorn & John.
Posted by: Steve_C (Secular Elitist) FCD | April 20, 2007 12:27 PM
Thanks for the nods stogoe and Cal.
But I'm sensing the Hammer of Tor is a mighty weapon not to be taken lightly.
Posted by: Steve_C (Secular Elitist) FCD | April 20, 2007 12:31 PM
Torbjörn (sorry, Americans, but I have an Ö key on the keyboard), and Kseniya for comment 16.
Posted by: David Marjanović | April 20, 2007 1:13 PM
I vote for that one Swedish dude too because his comments are always very interesting and smart, even if his name does sometimes cause my computer to reboot itself! Wow!
Posted by: 386sx | April 20, 2007 1:24 PM
You know, I can usually count entries by just searching for the name and hitting command-F, and counting how many times I have to press the key. It's easy. This Törbjörñ Lârrrssssöñ character is totally messing up my schema.
Posted by: PZ Myers | April 20, 2007 1:48 PM
Another vote for Torbjörn Larsson- I may as well help make it a landslide. He deserves it.
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | April 20, 2007 1:59 PM
[Stands up behind keyboard, bows left and right.] Why, thank you, fans! [Sits down. Grabs coffee glas -its starting to get cold again.]
This month my vote goes to Greg Laden. He writes interesting comments, he can make us smile, and he has taught us about using f-words.
Zeno, you should polish up on your Venn diagrams! How do you know I'm not in a band?
(As it happens, I'm not. But I love to move to music so it happens that I listen to HM too. As long as it gets my groove on.)
More? Um, let's see, I've already mentioned elsewhere about my education and profession for the google-savvy. I can add that as a modern Swedish Swede I don't wear hat - and it messes with my nice hair.
Oh, come on, you really wanted to write Thaurghbj@#&!rn Laaargh-sszzonn here. You can as well admit it.
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson | April 20, 2007 2:14 PM
Have you ever just gotten a negative impression of somebody, based on what you have experienced? I personally feel that way about Caledonian, at this juncture. Then again, I haven't condemned him to hell, just expressed my opinion that I don't think he deserves a Molly (I could name about 25 people who commonly post here who I think are more deserving). Feel free to ignore me or to take (stay on) his side, since I could be just jumping to conclusions. (In which case, his character strength, intelligence, wit, and kindness will speak for itself over time.)
Maybe its that I am jealous of his popularity, or that I misunderstood that he was actually laughing "with me" rather than "at me". Whatever it is/was, it was a very real feeling that I experienced, and I felt like sharing it. In this sense, it would be accurate to accuse me of retaliation, if you so chose.
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 2:21 PM
Scholar, Think you might be investing a tad too much real feeling into a blog?
Well if you feel that way, I'll vote for you, cause it doesn't matter a flake of snow and maybe you'll feel better.
Posted by: sailor | April 20, 2007 2:37 PM
I also vote for Ŧĥôŗбĵőřņ--as "Thor's bear", he's a godly killing machine.
Posted by: RavenT | April 20, 2007 2:48 PM
Sailor, I was politely asked to elaborate on my (rushed?) judgement of Caledonian. I was quite willing to leave it at "simply because he trolled me for being new" which is still the case, in my mind. (and that what counts in my mind, ironic, I know)
Actually, when Blake Stacey won, I had not really discovered him yet. I went and investigated, who is this guy everybody likes? Indeed, he (Blake) is a wonderfully brilliant commenter and deserves to win another 28 Mollies if just for his daily comments this month. Further, I feel that the community would have missed out on quite a bit, if Blake had not won. I don't (yet!) put Caledonian even in the same stadium as Blake or Toby L. If all you have learned from this is not to piss me off, or face unfair retaliation, you could be right. What's done is done, but I'm sure if I slandered Blake Stacey, he would still deserve 2 Molly's a day. I am still willing to read Caledonian's posts with an open mind, what more can anyone ask?
BTW, that's 2 votes for me now. (thanks to scholar and sailor)
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 3:00 PM
I'd support Torbjorn Larsson -- as long as Greg Laden gets the OM soon.
Posted by: Sonja | April 20, 2007 3:20 PM
(Sounds like Scholar is the Rookie of the Month, though.)
Just reading these postings, I'm reminded of the opening credits to "Holy Grail." I just can't place a finger on it.
A little help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Heck, I'll vote for Thorson Larson too.
Posted by: MikeM | April 20, 2007 3:30 PM
Do not worry, the last commenter has been sacked. Please continue commenting.
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 3:44 PM
Thank you.
Posted by: MikeM | April 20, 2007 3:57 PM
The person(s) responsible for sacking the previous commenter been sacked for failing to properly sack said commenter.
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 4:01 PM
BUT... and this is a huge but (so to speak), we need a bit more info on TL.
I heard that a møøse once bit his sister...
Posted by: windy | April 20, 2007 4:16 PM
I heard he was in ABBA.
Posted by: Steve_C (Secular Elitist) FCD | April 20, 2007 4:22 PM
I heard he was björn in a fjörd.
Posted by: Suze | April 20, 2007 4:57 PM
Is he perhaps a Norwegian Blue?
Beautiful plumage.
Posted by: kmarissa | April 20, 2007 5:02 PM
He was a bear where?
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | April 20, 2007 5:04 PM
LOL @ all y'all, for the moose bytes and for the lesson in diacritical thinking!
And hey, Scholar for Rookie of the Month works for me, even if it's not really a category, Scholar is cool, and hey Scholar, just because I defend Cal doesn't make me anti-You, I respect your feelings, I'm just going for fairness and I like to think I'm brave enough to back a newbie if I thought the newbie was being treated unfairly, and I hope you vote for me for run-on-sentencier of the month, thank you very much.
So can you tell that I'm a Big Sister to two brothers who are 5 and 7 years my junior, one who spent lots of time and energy trying to get Thing One and Thing Two to play nice and to learn to resolve their differences? *grin*
Posted by: Kseniya | April 20, 2007 6:31 PM
No kite flying in the house!
Posted by: Steve_C (Secular Elitist) FCD | April 20, 2007 6:37 PM
Has Karl Rove endorsed anyone in this campaign yet?
Posted by: Zeno | April 20, 2007 6:58 PM
Another vote for Torbjorn Larsson.
Glen D. has also been pretty darn hot recently (though as I recall he had a bit of a name-calling meltdown in one of the threads.)
Still, I'll cast votes for both. Torbjorn looks like a shoe-in, and Glen is a favorite of mine.
Posted by: Sastra | April 20, 2007 7:09 PM
Scholar:
Many thanks. I'm glad to hear that at least one person thinks my post-Molly rambles are as good as my pre-Molly rants!
Posted by: Blake Stacey | April 20, 2007 7:30 PM
Another vote for Tõrbjórn here.
Posted by: Greco | April 20, 2007 7:31 PM
I recommended TL last month, thank you very much, so I'm glad that so many have come around to my way of thinking. His comments are thoughtful, frequently sourced (which is always appreciated) and from time to time sprinkled with an extremely dry wit....SH
Posted by: Scott Hatfield | April 20, 2007 8:10 PM
Awww, Blake, you're always on my A-list. :-)
Scott, it wasn't a matter of coming around with regard to Торбёрн Ларссонь, it was only a matter of time. Having only two winners per month means that even the greats have to wait. ;-)
Posted by: Kseniya | April 20, 2007 9:11 PM
I'm feeling the love K, thanks. A good tip, for those run on sentances. Is just to put periods. In there.
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 11:17 PM
Okay sentence, sorry. Anyway, I think I might just go ahead and nominate Scott Hatfield for next month :)
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 11:24 PM
Great White Wonder deserves this more than anyone. His posts are probably the most congruous with the spirit of Molly Ivins.
Caledonian does not need to be associated with Molly Ivins in any way, whatsoever. If there's ever an award for being a useless smug malicious narcissistic self-righteous bigoted moral conventionalist with a histronic streak, I'll vote for Caledonian.
Posted by: Dustin | April 20, 2007 11:32 PM
Oh, and Blake, since you are listening, I have one suggestion which could seriously improve your posts. You may want to try harder at Grooming your arguments toward your audience, in a way that they understand, and are not alienated. I will elaborate if you wish...
Posted by: Scholar | April 20, 2007 11:39 PM
Ah, you mean "The Caledonian".
Damn! He just got two more votes from Dustin and me.
PZ, this counting votes as absolute values of yours loses a certain amount of nuance.
Posted by: Prudence | April 20, 2007 11:57 PM
correction: three more votes.
Posted by: Prudence | April 21, 2007 12:17 AM
Scholar: I appreciate the thought, but I already wear the last two letters on my name here with pride. Speaking of two letters:
TL!
TL!
TL!
Posted by: Scott Hatfield, OM | April 21, 2007 10:35 AM
"Grooming"! What a relief to get away from "framing"! Thank you, Scholar. It's an excellent choice, too, because "grooming" isn't a word that many of us need in daily life. For me, for example, it's a complete non-issue! That's right: no horses in my bachelor pad.
Posted by: Zeno | April 21, 2007 11:11 AM
Zeno:
I must confess I find myself mildly puzzled. Do you mean that horses come with marriage?
Re "grooming" in general:
If I can't say exactly what I mean in a Pharyngula comment thread, where more than anywhere else on the Net my audience will contain Giant Flame-Spouting Floating Atheist Heads, where can I speak my mind? One should preach to the choir when the choir is present in force!
If I'm ever hard to follow here, well, I'm happy to take suggestions for improvement — but you should see me elsewhere. For one thing, I don't use equations at Pharyngula! I don't even make LaTeX jokes. (It was over at Rosenhouse's place that I spelled Torbjörn, Torbj\"orn. But Rosenhouse is a mathematician, after all.)
Posted by: Blake Stacey, OM | April 21, 2007 12:09 PM
What, Blake, you never heard of bridal [sic] and bit? Or animal husbandry?
Posted by: RavenT | April 21, 2007 12:19 PM
RavenT:
Well, I did grow up in Alabama, where the mud is red, the chicken is fried and the textbooks are disclaimered.
Posted by: Blake Stacey, OM | April 21, 2007 1:33 PM
Blake, if it is any consolance, I appreciate that reference, and I avoid math if at all possible.
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | April 21, 2007 2:15 PM
Me, too. I miss two of the three things you mentioned; I bet you can guess which they are. Fortunately, I'm old enough to have gotten through school unscathed by the disclaimers; that crap kicked in only after I had left.
And I'd add lightning bugs and real thunderstorms to the list. Mind you, not worth leaving Seattle to go back for, but I still miss them.
Posted by: RavenT | April 21, 2007 4:42 PM
We've got real thunderstorms here, and also real snow and real cold. They are kind of neat, but I agree -- Seattle is an awfully tempting kind of place.
Posted by: PZ Myers | April 21, 2007 5:01 PM
Well, looks like the award will be going to Torbjörn Larsson. Congratulations! It is well deserved. :)
Posted by: archgoon | April 21, 2007 5:10 PM
archgoon - The voting's not over.
I'll put in a vote for Greg Laden.
Posted by: Odonata | April 21, 2007 5:36 PM
But how can we be sure that we're all voting for the same person? Perhaps there are a dozen Swedes with variants on the name, and we're each voting for a different one of them. :)
Posted by: Carlie | April 21, 2007 9:48 PM
Odonata:
I'm the news media! I call it before its over to discourage voting!
My apologies.
Posted by: archgoon | April 22, 2007 1:55 AM
Well, since Torbjörn Larsson (any of them) have never complained about impersonation, we can conclude that if Torbjörn Larsson is indeed multiple people, its some sort of hive-mind deal, so we may treat them as a single entity without disrespect.
Posted by: archgoon | April 22, 2007 1:58 AM
Having read some of his offerings, I have to say it would not surprise me in the slightest should TL turn out to have access to more than one mind at any given moment. He's, um, really smart.
Posted by: Scott Hatfield | April 22, 2007 4:06 AM
Self-righteous, I'll grant, but bigoted?
And there is neither anything "moral", nor "conventional", about the vast majority of my opinions.
Posted by: Caledonian | April 22, 2007 7:56 PM
Ooh, I still have time to make a comment about an award I find repugnant. ;-)
Well, I did up the whole year, so I would stop being snarky about this, but I won't post the whole year (and will there be a OM Poster of the Year award?) I have to go back to my last suggestions, because the posters who have been around for a while deserve note, and then I can just refer back here:
Ed Darrell
Steve LaBonne
Steve_C
Torbjorn Larsson (go Sweden!)
Molly in NYC
Red Molly
Kesinya (note age for year-end)
Kristjan Wager
George
Mike Haubrich
Caledonian (when he's right he's very right, when he's wrong he's obtuse...or Libertarian, but I always read him.)
Greg Laden
Carlie
Max Udargo
...leaves November and December.
Orac and Coturnix don't count because they have their own Science Blogs, but everybody should follow their writing skills as well as PZ's, of course.
Posted by: Observer | April 23, 2007 3:41 PM
Caledonian, Moral Conventionalist does not mean one who has conventional morals.
http://faculty.mc3.edu/barmstro/ethicalisms.html
Posted by: archgoon | April 25, 2007 2:30 AM