Thursday, December 22, 2005

Peeling Off The Watchwords

Just moments ago I promised a friend that I was trying to avoid meaningless posts. And I should really be ashamed, as Vasco and Elizabeth have put up a string of good posts, and subsequent discussions, on what’s going on here in Afghanistan with respect to development and aid. (And Ms. Daisy had a great post/discussion about Zionism/Israel/Palestine a few days back (I hope it’s ok to mention that here, as she did mention it in the comments). The National Lawyers Guild (of which she and I are/were members...i don’t get my dues reminders in Kabubble) has put a resolution condemning Zionism/Israel up for vote among the membership.) Topical, interesting, insightful posts.

But I was talking about promises. I had promised another friend that I was going to post a quote from an email she (KW, she even asked for a "shout out", so here it is) sent me recently. As is obvious on this blog, I’ve been doing a lot of posturing, if not straight out poseur-ing, lately. I’ve even been doing it on other blogs too. It’s wonderful to have friends willing to call you out on a moments notice and rein one back in. It’s invaluable, even, for people such as myself. So the priceless quote:

“Also, what is up with all this hipster street cred on your blog? Methinks you need to own up to the fact that you are friends with two extremely non-hipster, straight arrow, might-as-well-be republican (but we're not, I swear) white people whose idea of fun is an evening at the shakespeare theater, and whose last live concert was the fake Abba band at wolf trap. We deserve a shout out too.”

The sad part is, that had I been invited, I would have been right there at the fake Abba show, the ubiquitous* third wheel.

*Odd side-note: As I was making sure that ‘ubiquitous’ was in fact the right word choice, I mistakenly highlighted the “e” from the preceding word. The MS word dictionary returned the word “the dansant” (a diacritic over the ‘e’), defined as a tea dance. What a great fucking word! It’ll soon be overused. And Chris, as I heard you got the blog address and may now be reading this, I’m officially changing the name of “Le Ballet de Guy” (a diacritic over the ‘u’). “Le Dansant de Guy” from now on. Don’t fret, your coupon, if you ever find it, will be redeemable against it.

**AND Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays....everyone.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

The expression, oh ABBA-loving one, is FIFTH WHEEL.

Thanks for the pimpage!

quasim said...

loving ABBA, and going to a fake ABBA concert at wolftrap are far from equivalent.

But I believe 3rd wheel is as acceptable as 5th wheel and more accurate in the context too. Having a 2nd axle w/ a 3rd wheel is perhaps the only situation where the 3rd wheel is necessary, in contrast to a 3rd axle w/ a 5th wheel. Other axle/wheel configurations for locomotion would generally have the 3rd wheel as superfluous as the 5th wheel.

Anonymous said...

Three wheels bitches - http://www.ccpc.net/~jaho/3link.html

NegativeMode said...

Just out of curiosity, although Kabulog is a clever name for a blog and all, don't you think it would have been more appropriate to call this site Kabulmode? Clearly joining the mode franchise would have increased your readership by untold thousands, thereby spreading your message (whatever that may be) to the world. Just a thought.

You're now on NegativeMode by the way.

quasim said...

Elizabeth,
Unfortunately I wasn't invited. My friends did themselves a favor in doing such. Surely, I would have gone, but mocking my friends, the band, the event, everyone there, and yes, myself. And, btw, you've revealed a bit too much about yourself, you should probably never return stateside.

With a hammer and a blowtorch, almost anything becomes superfluous.

Anonymous,
I like my wheels in pairs.

Rosie,
Thank you for the link. It may be to my best advantage to rename my blog, but I just don't think it's, shall we say my place to be in that circle. I appreciate the thought though.

Shannon said...

Let's get back to meaning, are third wheels ubiquitous?

quasim said...

Shannon,

Are you mocking me? I don't care. Physically, third wheels are not ubiquitous, as E points out. In the context of the post, as I was using "3rd wheel" as a metaphor for myself, in that limited context, yes, I as a 3rd wheel was ubiquitous. So as far as meaning, existentially, for me, yes, third wheels are ubiquitous. Besides, in asking are 3rd wheels ubiquitous, are we talking base-10 or say, base-2. That changes everything.

E,
I readily realize and accept that you are not solitary in your after-hours fandom. Maybe all of you should just converge on some small bavarian town and hangout is a small underground bar. deep deep underground.

Shannon said...

Q.A., I know plenty of gay men, and Erasure's Abbaesque is certainly not limited to a small bavarian underground bar.

E- what's Erasureish? A cover of Erasure doing Abba covers. That's way too fucking po'mo' for me.

Back to Q.A., I'm still not sure of your use of "ubiquitous," but now I feel bad for your situation. Do your friends make out in front of you and make you feel uncomfortable or do you just always seem to be the last one invited to an event? Perhaps you can remetaphorize (I just made that up) yourself as the ubiquitous unicycle crashing into another metaphor.

Forgive me, that didn't make any sense.

quasim said...

Shannon,
I was assuming that E isn't a gay man. Sorry if i've made the wrong assumption. I'll be bigoted and say that they, gay men, can stay in the US while being a fan Abbaesque, but no one else.

And lets ignore my "situation" and get back to important things: the meaning and use of ubiquitious and remetaphorization. (I like that word, btw.) I used to ride a unicycle in a show-troupe, "The Supercycles", in 4th & 5th grade. Crashing into others on a unicycle is no metaphor for me.

Anonymous said...

Quasim, clearly i need to rein you back in as you devolved into a convo about remetaphorization...and to make it clear, you are most definitely our favorite third wheel, as anything more than a three-wheeled vehicle would irretrievably link ryan with automobiles, and you know how he feels about that. And apologies for not inviting you to the abba concert...but at least we always call you when we're about to eat a huge lamb dinner at 10 pm.

happy holidays, new year, etc.

PS- left your email address as requested at soho. In fact, I posted it on the wall for all to see.

quasim said...

NO NO NO!!!. Did you seriously leave my email posted on a wall for evan? In soho of all places? I'll never be able to go to dupont circle again. Take it down, please please. Soho??? Oh my.

No need to rein me in. I've actually had discussions about "remetaphorization" in class before, granted it was the poetry seminar, and we didn't use that term, but still.

Thank you for the kind words. No worries about Abba, i do appreciate a good lamb much more than abba.

Shannon said...

I'm waiting for the post about all the emails you'll now receive and why exactly you won't be able to visit Du pont circle again...hee hee hee.

quasim said...

Shannon,
I'm not. You might have to make space on that misandry boat if the worst happens.

Anonymous said...

Only cads and compensating show-offs use words which aren't in the abridged Mirriam-Webster.

- Old Man Bigot

quasim said...

OMB, AA, Rob...whatever you wish to call yourself today, sir,

A. I believe the name of the company is spelled "Merriam-Webster," "Mirriam" more commonly being a Arabic female name.

B. I believe you intended to use the phrase "over-compensating," no?

C. When using the word "cad," or other such words of the English dialect, rather than words of the American dialect, it would be best to change the whole tone your phrasing and word-choice.

D. I may be a cad, but you're an ass.

E. Use the OED.

Q.A.

Anonymous said...

Q'A, break him off something! Damn typos are for weak-kneed communists, and that bigot is as red as they get!

But don't think you're off the hook. I think that the bigot's poor insult works just fine with regular-strength compensation. Besides, I've got my suspicions about anyone who has institutional access to the OED - you must have done something pretty debasing to get that luxury.

/x/
Mr. D. I. Mouth

quasim said...

Am I going to have to add "Mr. D.I. Mouth" to the list of pseudonyms? Four is a bit much. I like your style though. Props to the initials, but drop the title.

And my typo in the rejoinder was only a missing comma in part C. At best/worst am I a pinko then?

And my access to the OED ended w/ the end of my student days...oh how I pine...