In Denmark, where half of me comes from, we had a tactful way in which to break up a social gathering that adopted an extended life. Lingering guests can test one's patience and kindle a desire to end even the most enjoyable evening, but rather than yawning or bringing out coats, a simple tradition made it into Danish social life: "Skrup af te,".
In plain language, that translates into "get lost tea" and was universally understood as a pleasant, subtle cue to drink up and call it a night.
I don't know if they still practice that little ritual back home, but something equivalent might be needed for Pacifica board meetings, such as last night's melé, called to discuss the serious audit problem, but ending up as another study in deliberate disruption.
I mercifully eliminated about an hour of squibble-squabble, but I left intact the longest, most ignored call for adjournment in recent Pacifica mistory.
Breaking up is hard to do...
On the evidence, this is simply all these people are – a long, squalid drift to either further marginal irrelevance or eventual oblivion (choose one).
ReplyDeleteThe mythic Christ is far more likely to stroll, risen and triumphant amongst the living, than WBAI/Pacifica is to emerge from its infinitely hateful and hate-filled self-loathing and irrelevance.
~ ‘indigopirate’
HAHA! I pissed off Emanuelle Goldstein on OTH with my twitter question, "How many hackers does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
ReplyDeleteSDL
Ah, that was you? Yes, that sure didn't sit well with him!
DeleteYup, it was innocent little I. I actually thought it would get a laugh, but I guess Goldstein doesn't have much sense of humor.
DeleteSDL
I think you're right, yet, he has a more pronounced sense of humor than most WBAI people who think of themselves as comedians.
DeleteSo true, but don't confuse a lack of talent with a lack of a sense of humor.
DeleteOhm now it's time for TPCS, which can tell us all about DOS, The emerging technology of push button phones, the new creation known as the microwave oven, etc.
SDL
(JustAListener)
ReplyDeleteHa! I like the OTH but "Goldstein" never struck me as one with a broad sense of humor.
I doubt he found it funny when Joe King would sometimes refer to him by his real name Eric.
In one of the first OTH shows I heard, they were discussing a road trip to Mexico.
They were complaining about the buses tailgating them going so fast on the winding roads and how the police at the checkpoint just wouldn't accept their paperwork - they seemed to want something else... and finally made them drive all the way back to the border crossing.
I laughed wondering what the Mexicans were saying about the mini van of gringo nerds that didn't know how to drive and couldn't figure out the missing "document" had a picture of Andrew Jackson on it!
Aw, the nostalgia on TPCS is comfortable like an old pair of jeans - even if I've heard about Hank's work on the SAGE system about two dozen times.
Heck the few tidbits of current info is more useful than what I could get from a couple of days worth of most of the rest of the programs on the station.
Hey that SAGE was interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-Automatic_Ground_Environment
@JustAListener: That was a funny story. The OTH gang should go to North Korea for an interesting journey.
DeleteYeah, TPCS is like a nostalgic good memory - you just can't let it go. However, you're right that there is more useful info on there than most WBAI programs.
SDL
What is/was the stated association with SAGE?
Delete~ 'indigopirate'
(JustAlistener)
DeleteHank did programming (or something technical ) on the project.
The days of the vacuum tube supercomputers...
SDL, the OTH crew (at least "Goldstein") did go to North Korea.
As i recall they thought it was pretty spiffy. Not sure if they understood they were getting the foreign guest treatment and it bore little relation to the avg citizen's living conditions.
I found this on 2600's archive:
https://2600.com/offthehook/2007/0407.html
It makes no sense for the committees to continue meeting with termed out members. Any recommendations made to the PNB would be dismissed. If it was such an urgent matter, why did they waste all their time on procedural matters? Its pretty clear what's going on. At least they got some nice music in the background. We elected members to the PNB Committees last night at the LSB meeting so hopefully we can get back on track here.
ReplyDeleteI heard this meeting, but heard it as a laudatory example of schism-informed anti-debationism, via praxis celebrating, challenging, diversity through divisionistic nihilistic debate. The obviousness of such, not to be demurred, should serve as exemplory obfuscatory labor focused through the lens of not only selfish predestination but the necessity of necessary immobile governance consistatorily comprised of the difference between difference and no indifference.
ReplyDeleteJim
I couldn't have described it better! :)
DeleteI object! Point of disorder! Check Page 1 of "CereneRoberts Rules of DisOrder, Newly Revised" The official Pacifica Parlimentary Guide. It says that "I AM BEING MUTED!!!!!!!!" um, excuse me I was saying it says "POINT OF ORDER, OUT OF ORDER! I AM NOT BEING HEARD" oh never mind...
ReplyDelete