…and this is a 
The October Molly should go to…
Category: Administrative
Posted on: October 19, 2007 5:04 PM, by PZ Myers
With so many delightful and extensive conversation examples lately, this must be the perfect opportunity to mention that it is time to select the new Molly winner for October! Leave a comment here naming names of the people you like to read in the comments, and I'll tally them up at the end of the weekend.
Since there is a wee bit of acrimony going on right now, I'll remind everyone that this is to be a positive process — no howling against any nominee. If you think someone mentioned is just awful, please instead of trying to cast negative votes (I don't count them), get behind someone you do like.
Comments
No brainer. Cuttlefish, tentacles down.
Posted by: CJO | October 19, 2007 5:08 PM
The guy that wrote that incredible poem in the past week or two. I can't remember his name, but I was in stitches. I'm sure you all know who I mean.
Posted by: zer0 | October 19, 2007 5:09 PM
Ditto on the Cuttlefish nomination. Also, I'd like to voice a word of praise for AJ Milne and that wonderful sweater nightmare.
Incidentally, Dan Gardner has a new column in the Ottawa Citizen which people 'round these parts might like. He's the one who said, back in May,
His new thesis:
Posted by: Blake Stacey | October 19, 2007 5:12 PM
Can we get some people in the OM who actually do things the way Molly Ivins did?
Put my vote in for Graculus, Steve LaBonne or Great White Wonder, whoever is closest to winning when this thing is done.
Posted by: Dustin | October 19, 2007 5:13 PM
AJ Milne for comment #45 in the post "Bill Dembski 'Apologizes".
Posted by: Hap | October 19, 2007 5:13 PM
Cuttlefish for this one, has to be.
Posted by: PsychoAtheist | October 19, 2007 5:17 PM
CUTTLEFISH!
Posted by: zer0 | October 19, 2007 5:26 PM
That list is like a who's who of witchcraft.
NOT JEALOUS AT ALL.
Posted by: Rich | October 19, 2007 5:36 PM
Cuttlefish.
Posted by: HP | October 19, 2007 5:40 PM
Cuttlefish. Best random poetry ever.
Posted by: Dan | October 19, 2007 5:53 PM
Cuttlefish rocked this month. A Molly or a Grammy? Either way, it's well deserved, IMO.
Posted by: jeffox backtrollin' | October 19, 2007 5:56 PM
Dammit, I wasn't finished my 'Ode to Cuttlefish' yet, PZ.
Anyway, my vote this month is for Cuttlefish, because s/he's a lyrical gangsta.
My second vote is for Sastra, because s/he's to a bad argument as a Ginsu is to shoes.
My third vote is for Dustin, because what the world needs now/is clever sarcasm/sweet clever sarcasm.
My fourth vote is for--wait. How many do I get?
Posted by: Brownian | October 19, 2007 6:05 PM
I thought the post was going to pre-emptively give it to Cuttlefish! 'Cause, yeah.
Posted by: Carlie | October 19, 2007 6:06 PM
One for Cuttlefish and one for Graculus.
Posted by: speedwell | October 19, 2007 6:15 PM
Cuttlefish, obviously.
Don't Mollies go out in pairs, though? If so, and if LaBonne hasn't got his yet, surely it's well past time?
Posted by: Mrs Tilton | October 19, 2007 6:17 PM
Sastra.
Posted by: Dave M | October 19, 2007 6:18 PM
Cuttlefish, obviously.
Posted by: Brain Hertz | October 19, 2007 6:27 PM
I'm voting for Cuttlefish. Anyone who gets away with blank verse on Pharyngula deserves kudos.
Posted by: Michael X | October 19, 2007 6:29 PM
I was going to nominate Cuttlefish even before I saw everyone else voting for Cuttlefish, too. His/her poems are not only funny, but s/he's got a sense of rhythm Pope would envy (that's Mr. Alexander, not Mr. Ratzenberger).
Posted by: Sastra | October 19, 2007 6:44 PM
lolife!
I don't deserve it but I just can't handle all of this agreement.
Posted by: lolife | October 19, 2007 7:07 PM
Not that my voice carries any weight, but I'd like to vote for singular they - they beat s/he hands down.
Second vote goes to Cuttlefish (obviously), though I have to thank Hap for reminding me of AJ Milne. That piece of introspection was well worth a reread.
Posted by: Sili | October 19, 2007 7:14 PM
First of all, it is hard for me to not cast a negative vote here. I just had to say that.
However, it's easy to vote for Brownian. He's gotta be a scientist; he knows more than I do.
Posted by: MikeM | October 19, 2007 7:23 PM
Mine goes to AJ Milne; I have been meaning to put in for him for last two months, and this month is no different. Still a Molly in my book.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | October 19, 2007 7:32 PM
I think it was MartinC who referred to A** C****** as Eva Braun, so he gets my vote.
(Not entirely consistent with my stance that name-calling is a pretty useless rhetorical device, but I thought it was justified in this case.)
Posted by: Christian Burnham | October 19, 2007 7:37 PM
I vote for Spaulding, primarily for this post, which is exceptional not only for itself by in comparison to the posts surrounding it.
Yes, Cuttlefish is certainly funny. But Spaulding is the better reporter. And isn't that what an award named after Molly should be all about?
Posted by: Caledonian | October 19, 2007 8:06 PM
Okay, cuttlefish seems to have it tied up hands, er, tentacles down. HOWEVER, I'd really like to see SASTRA honored some way because her/his post on why Coulter's comment (about Jews needed to be perfected by becoming Christians) was not anti-semitic was excellent and made me change my mind.
I RARELY read something that makes me change my mind on a philsophical point.
Posted by: Texas Reader | October 19, 2007 8:18 PM
The Cuttlefish Poet.
Just because he says it in verse,
It certainly don't make it worse
Than all those who voice in prose style
Opinions well-put or that make you smile
Sure, poems can be made by fools like me
But a cephlapod like that - 'Mollied' should he be.
Posted by: bebopfaye | October 19, 2007 8:31 PM
Cuttlefish. ("The film clearly shows / That stupidity flows / Just a little bit faster than light.")
And AJ Milne.
Yeah, I know, I've promised lots more people a nomination over the last month. Next time. :-)
BTW, the nomination for Spaulding above fails to notice Spaulding's assumption that geographic subpopulations of people are reproductively isolated or nearly so. That's an error.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 19, 2007 8:46 PM
It's the "or nearly so" that's the important part. Which is why populations that aren't completely isolated can still have substantial adaptation to local conditions and founder effects.
Posted by: Caledonian | October 19, 2007 8:47 PM
Torbjörn Larsson, Ichthyic, and I all got one alone.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 19, 2007 8:50 PM
It's the "or nearly so" that's the important part. Which is why populations that aren't completely isolated can still have substantial adaptation to local conditions and founder effects.
The extent of isolation is usually not even the important bit, it's the strength of selection.
Posted by: windy | October 19, 2007 8:54 PM
"Okay, cuttlefish seems to have it tied up hands, er, tentacles down."
Arms? Legs? Tentacles? WHAT'S THE CORRECT TERM, DAMMIT?!
Posted by: Laser Potato | October 19, 2007 8:56 PM
In keeping with the verse theme I'll vote with a haiku.
See the Cuttlefish
slicing through murky waters
to claim his Molly
Posted by: Steve LaBonne | October 19, 2007 8:56 PM
Steve: I guess you've read Startide Rising?
Cuttlefish'll probably win anyway, so I'll give my vote to Christian Burnham this time :)
Posted by: windy | October 19, 2007 9:04 PM
Mollies go out one at a time unless PZ forgets a month and needs to catch up, as he did last summer. (I'm sure that's how I managed to slip in, and not because I actually used to be a journalist.)
Posted by: Zeno | October 19, 2007 10:58 PM
My votes are for Cuttlefish and AJ Milne, for the consistent funny.
Posted by: Buffybot | October 20, 2007 12:30 AM
Well, it's as I said last time, if Cuttlefish is inducted, say goodbye to his poems. I believe he/she/it has his/her/its own blog anyway.
That being said, since I'm sure they won't win this month, I'll give my votes to Sastra and Kagehi.
Posted by: Rey Fox | October 20, 2007 1:15 AM
Also, other than that catch-up month, the other times there were two Molly winners were just months in which two people both got about the same amount of votes.
Posted by: Rey Fox | October 20, 2007 1:18 AM
#32,
Dangly bits?
Put me down for Cuttlefish btw.
Posted by: Alan Kellogg | October 20, 2007 2:24 AM
Plenty of excellent candidates this month, but for all round goodness, time and time again, it just has to be Cuttlefish.
Posted by: John Phillips | October 20, 2007 4:25 AM
Come late to a thread on Pharyngula and you'll have to wade through a great deal of muck before you reach the end. But the trudge here is more invigorating than it is on any other blog I've been to--science, political, philosophical literary, etc.
One of the things that makes this site refreshing are PZ's curious tangents into sci-fi, cuttlefish and Morris.
Nuf said...cast my vote for Cuttlefish.
Posted by: caynazzo | October 20, 2007 9:52 AM
I'll vote for Windy, just for mentioning Startide Rising in this very thread. Love those Uplift books.
But, my heart really goes out to Cuttlefish. A brain that works so differently than mine, seeing the world in verse instead of brushstrokes of oil....excellent.
Posted by: The Flying Trilobite, fcd | October 20, 2007 10:09 AM
windy and Sastra, I learn a lot from both, and have fun while doing it.
I must admit that Cuttlefish and AJ Milne each has managed to tickle my fancy... or feet or whatever.
Graculus, Steve Labonne and Dustin each deserves a Molly for constant high quality.
(Christian Burnham too, but seeing he promised to stay away a few weeks perhaps this isn't the time.)
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson, OM | October 20, 2007 1:11 PM
Just like PZ instructed, I vote for Shelley Batts!
Wait, there's more than poll?! You vertebrates and your social behaviors!
Posted by: Space Parasite | October 20, 2007 1:53 PM
[Kseniya misses Anton Mates]
[Kseniya jumps on the Cuttlefish bandwagon]
I'd like to add a thanks to Steve LaBonne for the Anatole France recommendation.
I was talking about the forthcoming Golden Compass movie with my dad, and I mentioned France's The Revolt of the Angels. His face assumed a thoughtful expression, and he said "Hmmm, wait a sec..." and went to look through some books on my mom's special bookshelf - and pulled out an old, soft leather-bound volume. Sure enough, it was the book you mentioned, an hundred-year-old book in excellent condition. The original owner had written her name on the inside front cover in simple but fluid script; she obviously hadn't used a felt-tip or ball-point (heh) and the flat tipped fountain pen had left a signature that had its own clarity and life.
I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it's a treasured possession, in no small part because it had last been my mother's. Serendipity!
Posted by: Kseniya | October 20, 2007 2:09 PM
Umm, OK, clearly my memory is somewhat selective.
So: Cuttlefish, obviously.
But if Steve LaBonne doesn't have an OM yet, something is very wrong with the state of the universe. Yiz are all godless here, so you won't buy this argument, but: the Lord demands that Steve be mollyfied.
Oh, and by the way: I'm an atheist now. I've been dithering for years, but tonight's RWC final made everything clear for me.
No, that's a joke, sadly enough. I'd like to be an atheist, I really would. But I can't get past the cosmological argument. Still, even if I recognise the existence of some sort of god, s/he is obviously interested in neither justice nor attractive rugby.
Posted by: Mrs Tilton | October 20, 2007 6:45 PM
There are so many good ones, but a recent one by J Myers really hit a chord with me, so that's my vote. Looks like Cuttlefish has the inside run this time, though. :)
Posted by: efrique | October 20, 2007 11:35 PM
Chris Clarke. MA Jeff.
For hardiness through travails, I also nominate Christian Burnham.
Posted by: Mandolin | October 22, 2007 1:25 AM