Michael Klamerus

@Michael-Klamerus

they/them
virtualmoose.org/

Tabletop RPG, adventure game, and gardening nerd. Co-founder of the Michigan indie games collective @locallysourced, host of @adventuregameclub, and makes tiny games.

Also posts pictures at @compstorevisuals

My Games

michael-klamerus.itch.io/

Michael Klamerus @Michael-Klamerus9/21/2024, 10:34 PM

nicky flowers @nicky

tor @toothandshore9/21/2024, 10:21 PM

reading some usenet posts from the mid 80s

and i needed to bring this commentary here

I don't know why I waste time on this net stuff. I really don't. I've got a pile of unread journals on my desk. My brother got me a subscription to Weekly World News just SIX WEEKS AGO and I'm already behind on that. The effort involved in finding, among all the gibberish, bickering and illiteracy, a new or interesting thought, or a shred of wit, is simply not worth it. I've had it. I'll check back in a few weeks to see if the situation has improved.

mind you, this is from a discussion on net.singles about whether women should shave their pits

#usenet #the internet #posting #armpit hair (merits thereof)#i'll check back in a few weeks to see if the situation has improved

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in reply to @toothandshore's post:

Shannon McMaster @smm9/21/2024, 11:06 PM

I get that the point was how easy it is/was to fall behind in one's reading. (Still, is, looking at my rss feeds.). But... Weekly World News as the example? I loved it in the 80s. But... not my first thought as a counterpoint to gibberish, bickering, and illiteracy.

John Colagioia @jcolag9/22/2024, 1:14 PM

If I remember correctly, WWN apparently ran a shockingly tight ship, back then. Like, yes, the tips were from people with a loose grip on reality, and the quotes were either people going along with the joke or taken far out of context (with permission), but they did a careful enough job that the "multiple Senators are extraterrestrials" story got behind-the-scenes coverage at more respectable outlets for showing how you Do Journalism even for goofy things.

Shannon McMaster @smm9/22/2024, 6:06 PM

Nice!

tor @toothandshore9/22/2024, 8:51 PM

all of this is so interesting!! i had no idea about the publication in question and was just taken with the nature of the lament, but delighted to have learned something in addition.

John Colagioia @jcolag9/22/2024, 9:36 PM

Oh, yeah, they were a lot of fun, and it was kind of funny to see the shoddiest-looking tabloid as quasi-highbrow entertainment. It's almost weird to see it forgotten, but I did manage to scrounge up Time pointing out the best quotes https://time.com/archive/6725436/that-explains-it/

tor @toothandshore9/22/2024, 10:17 PM

that's incredible, thank you. i imagine the main reason this has passed me by as entirely as it has is that i'm not american; in the spirit of cultural exchange i offer the story of cake, a definitely very real drug that plagued europe in the 90s

John Colagioia @jcolag9/23/2024, 12:42 PM

I'm only disappointed that nobody blamed cake on the French, which seems extremely obvious...

But don't worry, it's definitely not you (except that I'm happy to have entertained you, here). Even in the US, it became so obscure that you kind of have to have been here, during a couple of specific years, with a certain set of weird interests, and enough self-confidence to have touched the racks where they put the things that middle-aged women read in public.

Internet Janitor @internet-janitor9/22/2024, 12:10 AM

We can only assume the journals related to the vibrant field of armpit shaving.

Lapis the Nevrean @lapisnev9/22/2024, 1:33 AM

I wasn't ready for the twist at the end

katherine morayati @morayati9/22/2024, 1:37 AM

"What's all this, then?" comin in real hot