Smitty Apologizes . . .

by Little Miss Attila on July 25, 2009

to Cassandra and me. Which is nice.

He also re-asserts his—and Stacy McCain’s—commitment to juvenile humor:

Erin Andrews–A Cautionary Rule 5 Tale
Robert Heinlein: In a family argument, if it turns out you are right — apologize at once!

* Donald Douglas was, eventually, correct concerning the newsworthiness of the crime in the Erin Andrews case. This blog linked to his initial post last Sunday, mocking the title, without bothering to see what the fuss was all about.
* Carolyn Tackett had a humorous take on it.
* Daily Gator agrees that is was a sick trick to pull.

As your Rule 5 Sunday composter, I’d like to reaffirm the commitment to posts that are in good taste (PG 13 or less steamy), positive, and not subject to legal proceedings. Cassandra, Little Miss Attila: I am sorry.

The various female readers seem to be getting bored with the whole concept of Rule 5 Sunday. Possibly the Erin Andrews Incident was when it jumped the shark. It’s certainly fun to construct, and we’ll likely keep it going, slaves to the hit counter that we are. If we can now return to our ditzy sophomoric mode, that would be cool.

Certainly, my darling.

And then, on an entirely unrelated topic, Mr. Smith (not my cousin; the Other Other McCain) runs the “Paul Anka Integrity Kick” video, which has devastated my evaluation of Ace’s originality in phrasing—but nudged up my respect for his level of literary allusion, so the whole thing was, WRT the HQ itself, a wash.

But a fascinating one:

My, my.

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

Ozzy July 25, 2009 at 7:24 pm

Goodness, don’t know if his ire was justified or not, but it went on way too long. Me, I would have quit after the first paragraph, and smacked the arrogant f**ker on the way out…but that’s just me.

Ozzy

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smitty July 25, 2009 at 10:54 pm

I hasten to add, on the Anka topic, that I was Googling based upon Stacy’s post–I’ve never read any Ace usage, and he may register a giant WTF? on this one.
But it all seemed logical at the time.

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Little Miss Attila July 26, 2009 at 6:03 am

Well, Ozzy–it was a roundup, after all.

There’s a link to “The Paul Anka Integrity Kick” on Ace’s sidebar, and there are at least several phrases from that rant that crop up at Ace’s site with some regularity–e.g., “that’s just the fucking way it is,” and “put me some fucking knowledge.”

Seeing that was like watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time, or reading Shakespeare–or Alexander Pope.

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Darrell July 26, 2009 at 6:24 am

Now if they can only stop talking about “Rule 5” and other such bullshit. It was never clever.

Any new content on Sundays will get hits.

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Cassandra July 26, 2009 at 7:32 am

Very classy. Thanks for bringing my attention to this.

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Robert Stacy McCain July 26, 2009 at 9:56 am

. . . like watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time . . .

One of the things I shamelessly stole from Ace is the whole inside-joke theme-park concept, e.g., Valu-Rite vodka, filthy Scandis, etc. It doesn’t matter if 90% of the readership is scratching their heads — “Huh? Why does he repeatedly misspell a simple word like ‘the’?” — so long as the 10% who get it are smiling.

When Donald Douglas started pushing the Erin Andrews nude riff, neither Smitty nor I realized what it actually was. When I found out, I was amazed that he had actually *linked* the video. Given my own tendency to push everything to the outer limit and beyond, it ill behooves me to be judgmental in such cases.

Donald is a good guy, and if y’all would rather blame me than blame him, I’ll gladly be the scapegoat.

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Ozzy July 26, 2009 at 11:26 am

“…or Alexander Pope.

oh…

…OHH!

Ozzy

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Little Miss Attila July 26, 2009 at 11:44 am

They tell me a little learning is a dangerous thing . . .

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Ozzy July 26, 2009 at 12:08 pm

A sobering thought…

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Cassandra July 26, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Donald is a good guy, and if y’all would rather blame me than blame him, I’ll gladly be the scapegoat.

First of all, adults are customarily responsible for their own decisions in life. He’s an adult and he says he doesn’t regret his decision. Can’t imagine why anyone would blame you for a decision made by someone else, Robert.

Secondly, I don’t think anyone’s “blaming” Donald :p Disagreeing with him? You bet. Trying to show why we think he’s wrong? Sure. But despite repeated provocation from him, neither of us has said he’s a bad person (or a sexist, or any of the other ridiculous things he has claimed).

He’s a big boy and ought to be able to defend his own actions, though he certainly doesn’t need to do so to either one of us. As far as Joy or I were concerned, this was over days ago. He seems to be the one who doesn’t seem to be able to let it drop.

And that’s all I intend to say on this subject.

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vanderleun July 26, 2009 at 5:41 pm

“The various female readers seem to be getting bored with the whole concept of Rule 5 Sunday.”

Well, yess, of course…. but he won’t be able to kick the hits. He’s addlehitpated. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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repsac3 July 28, 2009 at 1:28 pm

As someone who’s disagreed with Dr Douglas many a time (both respectfully and… “less so”), I can assure you that his reaction to our hostess here, Cassandra, Cynthia Yockey, Dan Riehl, Chris Wysocki (and any other bloggers who’ve approached him on this subject that I may’ve left out) is not all that surprising. If there’s a gene that controls admitting error, apologizing, and moving on, I’m pretty sure he lacks that one. “The best defense is offense” seems to be his creed, and all of you hypocritical, feminist, Victorian, writers of “lunkheaded prose” might as well just accept that he has done no wrong. Hits is hits, and enemies of Dr D. quickly becomes “nihilists.” (although frankly, even I’m surprised how quickly he turned on y’all…)

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