Is A Part Of
Where was I?
Oh yes, I was explaining about how I like to seed my blog with things I’ve written elsewhere, so I joined the forum at Blank Label Comics, IMO the biggest collection of pretty good and near-great webcomics on the web, but most of what I did there required way too much pre-explanation, like I’ve been working on a blog post reviewing Schlock Mercenary, and one of my major points is that, in spite of its generally violent nature, it has never really killed off a major character, and before I finished writing, it started killing off a major character. So I was looking for another forum to exploit for blog material.
That’s when I learned that record-breaking Jeopardy! champion and Alpha Nerd Ken Jennings had not only started blogging but had attached a Message Board for the contributions of mere mortals such as myself. This was good, because I have yet to come up with a correct answer to any of the trivia questions he raises on the blog, but in the forums, the triviality level is more shall-we-say Wendell-height. In fact, the title directly above these paragraphs was a reference to a forum topic about “favorite Douglas Adams quotes”, at which I not only went moderately crazy…
There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
but while looking up the quotes (hey, you don’t actually have to have ‘em memorized, do ya?)…
Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
I discovered the Random Douglas Adams Quote Generator that I have integrated into this already cluttered site…
`How do you feel?’ he asked him.
`Like a military academy,’ said Arthur, `bits of me keep passing out.’
it’s over there——>> Right sidebar, between the t-shirt ad (Would somebody please buy one of these?) and the Amnesty International Brief Excerpt from Something Somebody Somewhere Is Trying to Censor That Would Be Daring and Dangerous if It Weren’t Totally Out of Context.
But I so wanted to share all these Hitchhiker-isms with the Web Wide World at large…
He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.
yet I didn’t want them to just pop up unannounced, like this one:
One of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them: It is a well known fact, that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. Anyone who is capable of getting themselves into a position of power should on no account be allowed to do the job. Another problem with governing people is people.
…which is a more comprehensive version of the frequently quoted “Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
And this one:
What the hell, he thought, you’re only young once, and threw himself out of the window. That would at least keep the element of surprise on his side.
…to which I can glibly add: because no one expects the Spanish Defenestration!
Or this bit that is clearly more wisdom than wit:
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
Or this very practical admonition that I give myself on a daily basis:
You’re turning into a penguin. Stop it.
Now that I have formally introduced the Ken Jennings Message Board into the tiny universe of WendellWit.com, I can now refer to it casually, free of fears that readers will think I have developed a habit of Game Show Name Dropping that will lead to strange posts about Rich Hatch and Herbie Stempel.
BTW, like so many other things in my life, my participation in the Ken Jennings Message Board began somewhat awkwardly, as I was first motivated enough to sign up when I noticed that Ken’s post promoting his “Tuesday Trivia” contest (again, questions I have been powerless to answer) included an incorrect link, that sent me to the homepage of an entirely different person named Ken Jennings, who already owned kenjennings.com and would not give it up, forcing The Famous Ken Jennings to register ken-jennings.com.
In a rather coy and soto voce small print I commented:
pssssst… Ken… I’m new here but I thought I’d let you know the link in your post goes to the kenjennings.com homepage, not ken-jennings.com. I’m probably the only one who ever clicked it, but if you want to edit your post and delete mine, go ahead. It’ll just be our little blackma… I mean, secret.
And he responded: “Ha! That’s just my hyphen envy, I guess.” and fixed the link.
That exchange occurred a few hours before a morally-bankrupt writer for the New York Post (is there any other kind?) published the intentional misinterpretation of Ken’s comical “Dear Jeopardy!” post that turned into a media firestorm that overloaded his site and forced him to briefly close the Message Board to protect it from troll assault. Apparently, Ken had failed to do the one thing required to get positive coverage from the Post. Pay them. But there I was, ready to begin offering my words of Wit and Wendell to the web’s leading trivia nerds, and a division of NewsCorp had ruined my plans.
(I hate that company for everything it stands for and everyone it steps on, and believe it capable of getting away with murder, which is why, if I should ever disappear entirely from the web, I have prepared a post-dated blog post that will directly incriminate Rupert Murdoch himself – but that’s another story.)
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