Open Thread

Say, participants in the undying thread, did you know that immortality can be a curse? 39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo. (Current totals: 11,566 entries with 1,223,814 comments.)

This priest says there's something wrong with you if you have an imaginary friend. We all agree, don't we, Threadketeers? (Current totals: 11,548 entries with 1,220,945 comments.)

Did you hear? Captain Beefheart is dead, but the weird thread goes…with the world's weirdness diminished a little bit. (Current totals: 11,538 entries with 1,219,079 comments.)

As the steady paycheck from the old Addams Family series slowed to a trickle, and as the heady days of the Hollywood films ended, the Thing descended to working in porn to support his manicure addiction, performing degrading acts for the jaded, cynical crowd at The Thread. That's creepy as hell. If people get into it, fine; the upside is that no women need to be involved. At all. I just hope they have a disclaimer on the game to let buyers know this is not a training video. (Current totals: 11,532 entries with 1,217,663 comments.)

Don't say I never do you any favors, acolytes of the endless thread. I'm about to spare you the need to see the latest cheap, unimaginative Hollywood dreck to hit the theaters by showing you the ending of the new Yogi Bear movie. Bring the kids around, tell 'em to see what the new kiddie movie is all about, and watch their little faces fall and the tears flow and the screaming begin. Of course, if they get really excited and demand to go see it right now, you'll also know that you need to book a psychiatrist, stat. (Current totals: 11,523 entries with 1,215,620 comments.)

Time for a new open thread

Yarr, ye scurvy dogs sailin' on the Flying Dutchman thread — it's the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides. Hang on there, though : On Stranger Tides is a fantastic novel by Tim Powers, my favoritest pirate/zombie story of all time. What abominations will Disney be performing to warp a mad, wild standalone novel that doesn't have any of the characters of the franchise into a continuation? Powers approves, at least, although that may mean he's just overjoyed to be about to be rolling in money. (Current totals: 11,507 entries with 1,212,649 comments.)

You're all writing, writing, writing in the very long thread… but can you rap while you write? (Current totals: 11,497 entries with 1,210,370 comments.)

By popular request sunspot has his/her own thread. This is the only thread that sunspot can post to, and all replies to any comment to sunspot should go here.

So you filled up another bucket in the endless thread…I really should get that leak fixed someday. Meanwhile, here's a little something from the Institute on the Environment at the UM. (Current totals: 11,487 entries with 1,207,883 comments.)

I told you people I'm eyeballs-deep in work, and what do you do? You go ahead and fill up the chore that never ends. Just for that, I'm going to reply by giving you the bird. (Current totals: 11,475 entries with 1,205,928 comments.)

The Harry Potter series came to an end, but it looks like our own serial thread never will. I Am Harry Potter from Daniel Radcliffe (Current totals: 11,462 entries with 1,203,875 comments.)

Oh, no. It's December. We're having another snowstorm. The thread of a thousand mysteries has filled up again. And people are singing Christmas carols. I'm not a fan of most of them, but this one at least is crude and funny. Don't listen at work. Warning, too: it's mostly an exercise in throwing out phrases for sexual intercourse. Don't let the children listen, unless you want them to ask you lots of questions. (Current totals: 11,446 entries with 1,201,573 comments.)

But, as we all know, complexity and the lack of intelligent design is no barrier to the evolution of the manifold thread. (Current totals: 11,431 entries with 1,199,051 comments.)

The hot topic on the chiding thread is a regular commenter who is planning to do something very, very stupid. I have to chime in: don't. Always drink in moderation, if at all. (Current totals: 11,416 entries with 1,196,543 comments.)

It's Thanksgiving. Only two weeks left in the semester here. And I feel Nicholas Cage's pain. Go ahead and chatter away, all you participants in the chattery thread, but I have to howl at the moon and pound at a keyboard for the next four days. (Video not safe for work. May upset Grandma, too. If you have an appreciation for the craft of acting, it may make you weep, as well. Also, blame Drunken Science for exposing this.) (Current totals: 11,398 entries with 1,194,220 comments.)

Time for more open thread. In an interesting coincidence, Brian Dunning is here in Sydney to talk at TAM Australia, so I thought it would be interesting to go to the TAM fringe open mic night (tonight!) and talk about, oh, DDT.

Time to consider the bad habits of the habitual thread. (Current totals: 11,388 entries with 1,192,580 comments.)

Forgive the neglect lately, but I'm a) distracted by the chaos that is Skepticon, and b) mildly enfreakened out by the fact that my talk is still not ready for prime time, and I have to give it in a few hours. So now I see that the thread of perpetual growth is getting overlong, despite the fact several of the participants ought to be similarly distracted because they're also here at the meeting (Hello, Mattir & Spawn). Oh, well. I babble at 7, ending the agony, and then it's some kind of party time all night long. (Current totals: 11,379 entries with 1,191,005 comments.)

I'm already getting grumbling about the commenting changes, so maybe the rhubarb thread would like to chime in with more. Do it with the panache of a Dawkins, please! Hmmm. Some atheist meeting sometime ought to do this: have a session where the speakers just read aloud from their hate mail for an hour. It could be entertaining. (Current totals: 11,369 entries with 1,187,728 comments.)