[lbo-talk] release from mordor, please?

Dwayne Monroe idoru345 at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 9 16:33:26 PDT 2004


budge wrote:

[could you please lose the orcing html -- thanks]

======

Que?

All of my messages - outgoing - are 100 percent, grade A certified plain text. No html leaves these firewalled shores. If you're receiving html marked "idoru345" it's being mangled into this unholy format between me and thee.

...and later, in the same post, regarding the perfidy of LotR fandom on LBO...

it is so cloyingly offensive. it is annoying. and it crops up on LBO all out of proportion with any other place in my life so this is where i'm complaining about it.

=======

I think there's only one person on the list who consistently uses LotR stuff in his posts and even he does it only once in a while so I'm really not getting a sense of a fantasy convention atmosphere that must be smashed via the liberal application of acid.

But your reaction got me wondering and wandering. Wondering where I left my bicycle lock and wandering, virtually speaking, to the archive's search feature to see how many hits are returned using common LotR terms.

Let's see now...

lotr = 9

<http://search.lbo-talk.org/search/swish.cgi?query=lotr&submit=Search%21&metaname=swishdefault&sort=unixdate
>

lord of the rings = 73

<http://search.lbo-talk.org/search/swish.cgi?query=lord+of+the+rings&submit=Search%21&metaname=swishdefault&sort=unixdate>

tolkien = 76

<http://search.lbo-talk.org/search/swish.cgi?query=tolkien&submit=Search%21&metaname=swishdefault&sort=unixdate>

ringwraith = 10

<http://search.lbo-talk.org/search/swish.cgi?query=ringwraith&submit=Search%21&metaname=swishdefault&sort=unixdate>

orc = 11

<http://search.lbo-talk.org/search/swish.cgi?query=orc&submit=Search%21&metaname=swishdefault&sort=unixdate

mordor = 103

<http://search.lbo-talk.org/search/swish.cgi?query=mordor&submit=Search%21&metaname=swishdefault&sort=unixdate>

....

This is a busy list yes? These don't seem to be excessive hit counts to me all things considered.

In contrast, Stalin produces 2572 hits:

<http://search.lbo-talk.org/search/swish.cgi?query=stalin&submit=Search%21&metaname=swishdefault&sort=unixdate>

Clearly, Stalin is a much more popular topic of conversation than any of the fictional inhabitants of middle earth.

I'm thinking that you really, really don't like this thing, this LotR, and grow a bit uncharitable when it's mentioned - particularly here, which should be a sober place for sober minds.

So the um, heat of this seems a bit intense considering the scope of "the problem". Getting back to those pesky flies I mentioned in my previous post, it's a bit like reaching for the 9 millimeter when a simple rolled up Time magazine will do (its only good use as a matter of fact).

But like those other fictional characters - pro wrestlers - I'm tagging out of this cage match and returning to the sunlight.

.d.



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