In a recent post, our guy William commented on his self-censorship:
... I notice how much the kindly Mr. Peebles looks like the evil leader of the Axis during the 2nd World War (Are you crazy? You think I'm going to let either of that name or that word be a search-engine match to my blog? Get the net.)Huh. Is the occasional reference to Hitler or the Nazis really going to flag a site for search engines? If so, will netiquette lead people to be as aware and conscious as William of the potential for unfavorable associations? Will I not be able to say that I don't like Rush Limbaugh or Michael Moore, nor rail against shockingly unprincipled French foreign policy? How will one be able to mention a female friend who thinks that both Lenin and the suited, in-jail Saddam Hussein are pretty handsome guys? Will anyone ever be able to write of Van Helsing again? Will it cut both ways? Will the Aryan Nation and KKK erase all their screeds against Martin Luther King, for fear of lighting up Google under "racial tolerance"?
Even more troubling is Will's admonition to "get the net." I guess it means "get a clue", but specific to the Internet. It's an ill phrase, a vile phrase. I'll lose a lot more sleep over the thought that "get the net" will catch on than that The Hollerer will be universally indexed to that which I loathe.
4 comments:
Huh. Is the occasional reference to Hitler or the Nazis really going to flag a site for search engines? No. (Get a grip!) If that were really true (Fahrvergnuegen) then my blog would be linked to "Frank Goes To The Orient" (Don't have a cow, man) but the search result always comes up with 15 flavors of "Judging Amy" -- A show about a Judge, named Amy, who is being judged because she is a Judge and a woman, did we mention her name was Amy? ("I see," said the blind man to his deaf wife) no, I put that remark in their in keeping with the whole post which is about associating one thing with another thing until things become indistinct and you become like a Smurf (La la la-la LA LA) saying Smurf that smurfy smurfy smurfily (Take a chill pill) Which is a point that you obviously got since your post seems to extend the theme (Hasta La Vista, Baby) which would make this reply totally extraneous (Cowabunga) but at least I get a chance to riddle your site with vile catch-phrases (23 Skiddoo!)
In my rush to write more ill and vile phrases, I didn't read carefully why you didn't like "Get the net"
"The net" is not meant to be a reference to the Internet. That would be vile.
"Get the net" is a phrase that we said in High School and Middle School (making it regional) as a reference to the use of nets to capture launatics and drive them off to the "funny farm"
As such, it is not akin to saying "Get a clue" but more akin to saying "Get a load of this guy, he's crazy and we should use a net to capture him" but this phrase is too heavy so for short we say "Get the net"
What sorts of nets would one use? I can feel you asking that, so I'll head that one off. I think one would use "collaquial" nets since the phrase is a collaqualism.
Yay! I really like "get the net" now. It's like "get a rope", but without referencing a TV commercial.
Guess what? I googled "Frank Goes to the Orient" and your blog comes up as hit #7.
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