Posted by PZ Myers on May 16, 2008 
We’re all caught up on the new Molly inductees: for March, it’s Glen Davidson, and for April, brokenSoldier. Give them your attention when they comment!
Of course, now we have to gather nominations for May. Who are the commenters who make you perk up and think? Name them in the comments to this post.
Huzzah!
Congrats to Glen and brokenSoldier! For May, Etha Williams. She is always succinct, to the point, and humorous. Definitely deserving of a Molly!
Congrats!
Congrats to Glen and BrokenSoldier!
Without doubt, Etha gets my vote for next month.
Must be Etha Williams, sir.
I nominate Kenny! And Hugh Slaman! And David Mabus!
Gold: Etha
Silver: Ichthyic
Bronze: Kseniya
Too many honorable mentions top list.
Anti-Molly: David Mabus
Hooray for Glen and brokenSoldier.
I’m definitely going with Etha, too. I suspect it may be a bit of a landslide this month.
Anti-Molly… hmmm. The Stein?
Hey Congrats Glen and brokenSoldier!
There are so many others whose comments I love reading, but I have to add my voice to the chorus of “Etha for Molly!”
Hands down, Etha Williams.
As always, it’s hard to pick one person without implicitly slighting twenty, but though she be new to the ‘hood, small in stature and too young to buy a beer, my vote for May has gotta go to our hugely personable, imposingly bright, and unfailingly eloquent little sistah, Etha Williams.
Speaking of beer… hey, aren’t you 21 today, EJ? Or is it tomorrow? A friend of mine has a birthday tomorrow, so I may be confusing/conflating yours with hers… either way, Happy 21st!
Oops, almost forgot to extend Gratz to Glen D. and to brokenSoldier! Well done, sirs!
Etha!
Congratulations, Glen! Congratulations, brokenSoldier!
Ooh, I hate going with the flow, but Etha is, definitely, the most deserving commenter (and so young! Kids today, sheesh!)
Honourable mentions: I’m a big fan of Lee Brimmicombe-Wood and Jason Failes, whose comments are pithy, incisive, and generally make me laugh (like Odin’s minion, Dustin). Jason, give us more of what you do so well. And Bride of Shrek is chock-full of some kinda crazy matronly down-to-earth wisdom that I always look forward to. And I’d like to give a special mention to PZ’s Pitbulls, Stanton and Owlmirror, who could always be counted on to route those creos who love lurking in past threads that most of us aren’t checking up on. Ichthyic’s pretty tenacious too, hence his Molly way back when. Windy’s gotta be due to win one soon for her all-around Molliness.
And if there’s ever a best of the best yearly Molly award, I’ll bet a C-note that Kseniya wins the first in a landslide.
Also, that Brownian guy is sexy. I’d have his babies anytime.
P.S. PZ, I like the new Molly icon. (At least I don’t think I’ve seen it before.) It’s kind of nice to put a face to her.
And if there’s ever a best of the best yearly Molly award, I’ll bet a C-note that Kseniya wins the first in a landslide.
I think it would be a toss-up between Joe Blow and ftk.
Wow. Thanks, guys…I really can’t think of what to say without running the risk of false modesty.
In any case, my vote goes to Bride of Shrek.
And today is indeed my birthday . If I’m not around tonight to fight the good fight against Kenny et al, it’s because I’m out celebrating.
Congrats! Happy B-Day
Etha, Etha, Etha…
Vote early and vote often.
She’s pretty much a rookie here too, right? Nice job, rook.
Why don’t you make this a poll so we can crash it?
Etha. (refresh page)
Etha. (refresh page)
Etha. (refresh page)
Does that count?
Vote early and vote often.
That would be un-Etha-cal.
Congratulations to the lucky winners, and happy birthday, Etha! In my drinking sessions before and after Carl Zimmer’s talk tonight, I’ll be sure to toast your health in absentia. (My co-workers wanted to go to a bar beforehand. Rebecca Watson wants to go to a bar afterwards. . . .) I’ll chime in with everybody else that you merit a Molly, although I think Lee Brimmicombe-Wood and Bride of Shrek have been pretty deserving, too.
Congrats to Glen Davidson and BrokenSoldier!
(PZ used my Molly Award bug! Hoo-haa!)
James F (number nine, number nine, number nine…):
Anti-Molly… hmmm. The Stein?
Ha.
I think it would be a toss-up between Joe Blow and ftk.
A toss-up of what? Cookies?
Happy Birthday, Etha!
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! Which, come to think of it, doesn’t really restrict you all that much.
Happy Birthday…Molly
Prediction:
Etha: Many,many votes
William Wallace: 1 vote.
I’m voting for Mrs Tilton and so should everybody else. Thanks!
I nominate Charlie…
He’s the smartest, cleverest son of a bitch that ever posted here!
(and he LOVES music)
Bride of Shrek. Jazz hand tentacles held high.
I like the Molly Ivins’ picture; is it from Hank Fox? If so, good bug.
I think it would be a toss-up between Joe Blow and ftk.
Joe Blow + ftk = wtftk
“There’s no place in this world where I’ll belong when I’m gone
And I won’t know the right from the wrong when I’m gone
And you won’t find me singin’ on this song when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
And I won’t feel the flowing of the time when I’m gone
All the pleasures of love will not be mine when I’m gone
My pen won’t pour out a lyric line when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
And I won’t breathe the bracing air when I’m gone
And I can’t even worry ’bout my cares when I’m gone
Won’t be asked to do my share when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
And I won’t be running from the rain when I’m gone
And I can’t even suffer from the pain when I’m gone
Can’t say who’s to praise and who’s to blame when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
Won’t see the golden of the sun when I’m gone
And the evenings and the mornings will be one when I’m gone
Can’t be singing louder than the guns when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
All my days won’t be dances of delight when I’m gone
And the sands will be shifting from my sight when I’m gone
Can’t add my name into the fight while I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
And I won’t be laughing at the lies when I’m gone
And I can’t question how or when or why when I’m gone
Can’t live proud enough to die when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here”
Phil Ochs”"
I always enjoy Bride of Shrek. I always enjoy Etha, too, but not for as long.
Etha Williams comes out of nowhere and stuns me with erudite comments. Pharyngula is richer for them, so I nominate Etha.
Joe Blow + ftk = wtftk
Kseniya = Warrior Princess???
William Wallace: 1 vote.
I’ll second that! I thought Wallace was great as Mel Gibson in Braveheart!
another vote for Etha
Oh, and I forgot Gerald Spiezio. That should generate some peeyar!
Etha gets my vote, too. If she is representative of the current crop of youngsters, we are in good hands overall, and if she is a statistical outlier she definitely brings up the curve. I’ve been looking forward to voting for her.
Hank, please explain this? I feeling unusually dense…
(PZ used my Molly Award bug! Hoo-haa!)
Does that mean the “Molly Awards” photo/logo thingie up top is your design?
(I think of a “bug” as a little system-tray app like a weatherbug… but that can’t be right, unless a client-side script on a Pharyngula page is covertly installing a “Molly Vote Collection Agent” on all our machines now… LoL)
I will join the mob by placing my vote with Etha.
As we say in the software industry: it’s not a bug, it’s an undocumented feature.
Gotta be Etha, who barnstormed into town and took the place over.
Kenny should get some kind of “Coulter” award, for poisoning the well of discourse.
Congrats to the winners, and my vote added to the pile for Etha.
New here and enjoy so many posters, but if I have to choose for the period I have been here, then Etha for the Molly. And a “Stein” for Kenny and redf.
Ciao
Well, if she hasn’t won already (there would have to be some serious influx of competition to dethrone her), I vote for Etha. She can speed type witty and elegant responses all day long, and apparently still keep up with her day job. 
Oh, and happy birthday, Etha!
And congrats to Glen and brokenSoldier!
Etha has my vote, our little pocket-sized evolutionary gangsta (evogangsta?). Happy Birthday Etha- watch out for the crushing hangover on Saturday and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do (heh).
Etha. I may not have been here long, but she seems to post well thought out and interesting comments. Plus, she introduced me to Mr. Diety . Happy Birthday Etha!
When I saw the Molly photo I immediately thought of Etha: she’s fast, witty, always to the point and quite a surprise.
I always read with much attention comments from people like MAJeff, Bride of Shrek, Brownian, Kseniya and many others. Even though my vote goes for Etha I hope you all keep on commenting. Your opinion is very much appreciated.
BTW, Happy Birthday!
I forgot to congratulate Glen and brokensoldier for their awards. Silly me. Congratulations to both of you!
Meh. Drinking to excess is overrated. Hangovers suck. So does waking up with bruises you can’t recall getting. So does waking up to all kinds of strange looks from your friends that you don’t understand.
Not that I would have any first-hand knowledge about such things.
(And that’s getting off easy.)
Ah well. Like most, I survived a few nights of utter, rank stoopidity. If you’re gonna get stoopid, at least try to stay smart. No driving; no unprotected sex; no unprotected sex while driving; no unprotected sex at 5 a.m. while puking out the car window at 80 mph on a highway in a state you’ve never been to before; no getting your ex-lover’s name tattooed on your…
Errm… Not that I would have any first-hand knowledge about such things.
Kseniya, it all depends on how you define “to excess.”
Etha Williams, as I thought her worthy of a molly within days of her appearance. Managing to blaze a bright clear trail across the blog from the off.
Happy Birthday Etha.
And that’s getting off easy.
Exactly why I like to tip a few back!
Kenny.
Not Etha! she hates christains she likes pie and the ACLU.
that is my OPIOION. typical
Your OPONION?
Revealing.
Hangovers suck
ahh, but the really horrendous ones are at least, memorable.
umm, so where ARE Glen and Broken Soldier?
*looks at watch*
oh, and it would be ridiculous not to nominate yet another newcomer that has added much to the blog:
Etha
Congratulatons Glen and brokenSoldier. Time to disappear!
Etha has really stood out for me, as for everyone else. In the humongous comment threads we get these days, I skim to hers a lot.
ahh, but the really horrendous ones are at least, memorable.
wLoL, yes.
Kseniya # 45: “Does that mean the “Molly Awards” photo/logo thingie up top is your design? / (I think of a “bug” as a little system-tray app like a weatherbug…”
Yep, I designed it some time back, sent it to PZ. As to “bug,” maybe I should have said “badge”? I’m not current on all the whatchamacallums.
Congratulatons Glen and brokenSoldier. Time to disappear!
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | May 16, 2008 5:29 PM
I certainly won’t be doing any disappearing anytime soon — this place is way too much fun… I might be absent from commenting for a few days at a time every couple of weeks or so for reasons related to the first half of my pseudonym, but I’m usually keeping up.
As for this month, definitely Etha…and happy birthday!
Etha (obvious) and windy (long overdue).
I’ll second that! I thought Wallace was great as Mel Gibson in Braveheart!
Keep it up, and get rid of your unknown number of homonyms, and you’ll get the next nomination.
Meh. Drinking to excess is overrated.
Drinking is overrated. Alcohol stinks. (And where I come from you can buy beer and wine from age 16 onwards, and hard stuff from 18 onwards.)
And where I come from you can buy beer and wine from age 16 onwards
(Which, of course, doesn’t mean that the 14-year-olds never drink to the death.)
I think you should use http://redmolly.com/ for the Molly iconography. They’re faces that would be much nicer on a badge (not that I’m sure the Molly in use is a wonderful woman, or anything).
My stupidity tonight will probably be limited to making a fool out of myself at the Chicago El station. Which I do pretty much all the time anyway, without any help from imbibed substances.
Etha for the Molly; MAJeff for 2d Molly with oak-leaf clusters.
Well, thank Goodness Glen finally got the Molly — I was getting damn near sick of voting for him. And brokensoldier — as one of our new “faces” — was likewise deserving. We want to encourage good people to stick around.
So I will vote one old, one new again:
1.) windy
2.) Etha Williams
Etha is “new,” but posts so often she probably also qualifies as a veteran. We love the obsessed.
Hank: “I’m not current on all the whatchamacallums”
Me neither! Thx for clearing that up for me.
I think you should use http://redmolly.com/ for the Molly iconography
(Sheesh. Freakin Duke Levine is everywhere.)
Uh… what? Oh. Well, the Molly you see at the top of the pages is THE Molly – the late columnist Molly Ivins, for whom the award is explicitly named. It kinda makes sense to use her picture, y’know?
yeah, I’m embarrassed to have forgotten Windy again.
Windy first, then Etha.
I 12,730,080th the “Etha” vote!
Kseniya, you have not been totally drunk until you wake up three days later, three states away from where you started, and wearing someone else’s clothes.
Or so I have heard, I only take a little sherry to aid my digestion while reading the bible aloud in a cold bath.
Happy Birthday Etha, and congrats to Glen and brokenSoldier, two whom I also enjoy reading.
Ciao
I’m a newbie here myself, but I always enjoy Etha Williams’ illuminating comments. She gets my vote.
Jeffrey: Whew! I guess I’ve never been drunk, then!
Seriously, that reminds me of a story my dad once told me, one of those stories he heard in AA, about a woman who came out of an 18-hour blackout to find herself in a car with four other people, hurtling down an unfamiliar stretch of highway in an area she could not identify.
She didn’t know any of the other people in the car.
She was driving.
The car was not hers.
Classic!
Kseniya, re #80, that may have been my car. Pretty sure she was blind though, may not be the same woman. The rest of us were too drunk to drive.
Ciao
Have fun tonight, Etha. Let us know if you learn anything about How Randomness Rules Our Lives.
yeah, I’m embarrassed to have forgotten Windy again.
That’s alright, sometimes I forget about myself too. At least the “commenting on Pharyngula” part. I don’t think I’ve commented enough this month to qualify, unless I am best appreciated in very small doses?? 
As for my vote: Etha, of course.
Congratulations to the Mollified!
Lilke everyone else: Etha Williams. Too much goodness to mention, but if for no other reason, then because she’s made me realise that the religidiot mindset is Peter Pan like in it refusal to grow up and develop an enlightenment moral system. (I forget where she first brought that up, so no link.)
Many other worthies, obviously. I only recently realised just how long windy‘s been around when one of the old posts was referenced, and I’d certainly like to nominate her for a retroactive Molly.
Bride of Shrek is witty, intelligent and loveable (who knew lawyers could be either?) – and she has a platypus in her backyard. I guess, that’s reward enough in itself, though. I’d certainly rather have a platypus than a Molly (not bloody likely – in either case).
And that’s just who I can recall off the top of my head. I know there’ve been plenty of others where I’ve thought they deserved the nomination in this past month. And I haven’t read even a tenth of the comments!
As a long time lurker, it’s struck me that many (possibly most) of the comments that I’ve been impressed with over the last month or two have been from women. I’m not usually one to push the women in science thing, as generally it’s not an issue for me – there are many talented people out there, and to me, their sex is irrelevant. Also comming from a biological background, most of the places I’ve worked have had a large female representation. However, it seems that recently I’ve read/heared a lot about the under-representation of women in science, and rubish about how womens brains are fundementally different blah blah blah, so it is refreshing to see all the female commeters here more than holding there own, both in number and quality of content.
So, to Kseniya, Etha Williams, Bride of Shrek, Mrs Tilton and all the others who I’m sure will come springing to mind as soon as I hit ‘send’ – You go girls!
Well, congrats to Glen D. and Broken Soldier.
As for next one, I’d say Bride of Shrek, Mrs Tilton or The ever-popular Etha Williams.
Etha!
And this made me miss Molly Ivins again. I live in Austin not far from where she used to live and I would see her in nearby restaurants and coffee shops. Always friendly and engaging with everyone, even total strangers.
Go get drunk girl and celebrate your 21st,we will manage briefly without you !
But only briefly hey,and when youre done and the headache is over,come back here and write more of your witty knowledgeable and enlightening comments.
So,ehm,where was I ?
Oh,that : Etha Williams for the Molly !!!
Btw,Etha has a very nice blog too !
I like Bride of Shrek and Mrs Tiltons comments as well.
Girls month hey
Etha Williams. Insightful, inciting, and very readable commentary.
Etha for sure. I think I’m developing an internet crush on her.
The rest of us were too drunk to drive.
LOL the whole story sounds like something out of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
Raoul Duke: [commenting on the song "One Toke Over the Line" playing on the radio] “One toke? You poor fool! Wait till you see those goddamn bats.”
Congratulations Glen.
Warmest congratulations, brokenSoldier.
Etha for a Molly!
“Anti-Molly”… “Coulter”… “Stein”…
I’ve been pushing D’Order of D’Souza for a while now… is this just not as amusing as I think it is?
Etha for Rookie of the Year! Happy Burfday, Kid!
I also like (in no particular order) Ichthyic, Bride of Shrek, Kseniya, and Mrs. Tilton.
Oh, and can I vote for Skatje too? OK, so she doesn’t hang out here, but it never hurts to suck up to the Blogmeister, does it?
Nope, it never hurts. I said some nice things about Skatje during Molly Week about 18 months ago, and 45 days later I had my very own “OM” title even though nobody had actually voted for me.
Sychophanty: Not just for your actual professors anymore. ®
I’ve been pushing D’Order of D’Souza for a while now… is this just not as amusing as I think it is?
there already is an “anti-molly” for this site:
I’m going to join the rush to vote for Etha Williams this month.
But I would also like to mention Bride of Shrek for consistently clever and amusing comments, and Raven for going out of her (?) way to provide links and support for everything she writes.
Happy Burfday, Kid!
LOL! Is this as sick as I assume it is?
even though nobody had actually voted for me.
The Incredible Shrinking ????????…?
LOL! Is this as sick as I assume it is?
No, not at all. It’s just phonetic slang…
Twelve months? Oh! Right. I guess I should have checked. I dunno why I thought it was earlier in the year…
Glen and brokenSoldier:
Well-deserved wins.
Etha:
Deserving to win.
Add my votes for Etha and Bride of Shrek.
Yes, Etha Williams. And since it is her birthday, it prooves that God exists… no ! no ! don’t hit me !
I don’t think I’ve commented enough this month to qualify, unless I am best appreciated in very small doses??
even if it’s only homeopathically this one month, windy’s got a long track record here and elsewhere in the blogosphere of smart, funny, and pithy comments. as I’ve said elsewhere, I wish I could be as witty and knowledgeable in my first language as she is in her (I’m assuming here) third*.
windy, definitely, for Molly.
Congrats to Glen & Broken Soldier for their well-deserved Mollies.
I’d like to see Russell Blackford get one. He’s not one of the most prolific posters, but he’s always good.
Am I the only person in the universe who does not know who Etha Williams is? Can someone help me out here?
Etha Williams played viola and banjo on the last Slayer tour. She holds a patent for glow-in-the-dark organ tattoos. Once filled in for the local desk on the third highest rated newscast in Fresno, ratings increased slightly. Bats .357 and possesses a mean outside jump shot. Credits include Gary Oldmans stunt double (not in the movies. Just for, ya’know, everyday) and The Voice of Reason(TM).
Hope that helps.
Another vote for Etha.
Brownian @ 16 wrote:
“I’m a big fan of Lee Brimmicombe-Wood and Jason Failes, whose comments are pithy, incisive, and generally make me laugh (like Odin’s minion, Dustin). Jason, give us more of what you do so well.”
Thank you, Brownian, but that is unlikely as I do not actually have an internet connection of my own, but have to run around with my Mac and try to tap into wayward wi-fi signals just long enough to transmit my 2 pennies to the comments page.
Again, thank you. It’s an honor just to be noticed.
Yes, thank you, Oaksterdam. The Yankees could use her.
I think she’s already signed with the Cubbies.
Sastra, for (OM)². Because sometimes you just start reading this particularly well-reasoned argument, and then get to the end and see that once again it was “Posted by: Sastra”.
And Etha, because insight, knowledge, intelligence, lucidity, and eloquence are qualities to be lauded and encouraged in everyone, but perhaps most especially in the young.
Its just occurred to me. I have the same colour hair as Molly. Cool. Gingernuts unite.
During the next month, may I ask people to pay some attention to Russell Blackford?
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