Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Sad Week!

I am sad to say that this week has seen the end of two of my favorite blogs. Scrappleface, a place where I have met like-minded friends, disagreed with fuzzy-logic liberals and sparred with moronic trolls, has been stripped of half of it's fun. Scott Ott, the writer and blogger who created and powered Scrappleface with his witty and satiric takes on politics and popular culture, has decided to remove the "comments" section of the blog. For those who haven't visited this great blog, the "comments" section was a good half of the blog itself. Many very intelligent and thoughtful people, mainly like-minded Christian Conservatives, but also libertarians and even atheists, met there frequently and shared their comments about the issues Scott skewered. We wrote poems, haikus, song parodies and just mainly kvetched about the many things that irked us about the current state of affairs in these United States. By ending the comments, Scott has ended the blog for me. I am not attacking him and am not angry at him, but I am sad to see this public forum closed.

The second blog I mourn today is Villainous Company. I first "met" Cassandra at Scrappleface. Her witty and irreverent comments endeared me to her, there, and her literate and intellectual prose at her own blog kept me entertained and wanting more. She is a great writer, more so than Scott Ott could ever be, though she may be less accomplished. I enjoyed reading her thoughts and the multitude of witty comments provided by her fans, while lurking there. I read the blog often, but posted infrequently. This was probably because I was a bit intimidated by the quality of the writing and the comments of the faithful. I do not say this lightly, as I feel I am usually more than up to the task in any literary discussion, and can write with the best of them. These folks were good! I will miss her blog at least as much as I will miss Scott's comments.

The Scrappleface community-those of you who normally read my scribblings are a part of that-will be most sorely missed. It was the sense of friendship and comraderie that made Scott's site so much fun to visit. Sure, his articles were funny and sometimes grand satire, but it was always the "comments" section that made the blog. He will probably notice this and bring it back, but even if he does, I am not sure I will return.

I will continue to post-irregularly, probably (hey, I'm not all that dependable!)- on this blog, and I hope you folks will continue to stop by from time to time. I continue and will continue to exchange emails with former and present Scrapplers.I will also visit some of the others who frequented Scrappleface and began their own blogs, but I don't think we'll ever return to the zeitgeist that was Scrappledom. I will always cherish that time and that feeling.

You know who you are.

10 comments:

MargeinMI said...

And just what the heck am I supposed to do with all the free time I'll have??? Huh?

Darn that Scott!

Right back atcha Mike!

Beerme said...

kajun,

I know the feeling, brother!
About a year ago, I started getting up an hour earlier than I needed to, just so I could get a little jog in, or lift some weights, you know, get in shape. I can count the times I actually did do some exercises on one hand. I spent the whole time Scrapplin'!

MargeinMI,

See above comment for something to do, but don't expect me to do it, too! After all, Scrappleface is gone, and I'm still typin'...

Camojack,

Now cut that out!

Libby Gone™ said...

Beerme,
I could not have said it better, literally!

camojack said...

Sorry... :-(

Libby Gone™ said...

Beerme,
Good friend at work recommended Blue Moon with a slice of orange. You ever had it?
kabaij@comcast.net
-libby

Beerme said...

libby gone™,

Yes, I have tried it. It's a nice belgian white ale (a little wheat in it). Sweet and spicy but nothing outrageous (not too far from "regular beer"). It's probably the best-selling belgian beer in America. If you like it you can graduate up to some real belgians! Belgium is the Disneyland of beer!

Libby Gone™ said...

HA HA !
Awesome. I prefer the KKKanadian distilled spirits. Now I wonder, hmmmmm. My wife is of Luxomburg decent. She calls herself German Lite. Any good Brews There?

Beerme said...

Interestingly, Luxembourg is very similar to Belgium in that the country is a mixture of several cultures and languages. The beer produced runs the gamut between the strictly German brews (produced in accordance with the Reinheitsgebot) and those more French or Belgian in origin (brewed with grains other than barley and with other ingredients).

The Reinheitsgebot was a law passed in Germany in 1516 which limited the grains used in brewing german beer to strictly barley (some wheat was allowed). It is called the German beer purity law. French, Belgian and Monastic breweries continued to brew beer more inventively, coming up with some pretty interesting brews that made the brewers art more varied and exciting. This is not a knock against German beer which, of course, is wonderful and has a rich and hallowed tradition.

Still Luxembourg is probably more of a wine country than a beer country.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.ont.lu/&prev=/search%3Fq%3DLuxemburg%26hl%3Den%26hs%3D3fn%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official

Danny Dunne said...

Beerme:

It took me a while to figure out your name (Beer-me), but it was cleared up when I read some of your blog. (I'm on the slow side.)

I've enjoyed browsing among your blogs, and I very much appreciate your kind comments on my blogs.

I picked this one to comment on because I didn't know about the comments at Scrappleface being dropped at one point. I just recently discovered the site (a humor writer friend passed it on to me), and the comments have been there since I started reading. So it's good to see you're still commenting.

I like funny stuff, but I'm not too knowledegible about politics.(Apparently, I can't spell either.) But I really appreciate the kind words from you and others from Scrappledom.

Will sign off now before this turns into Washington's Farewell Address (just looked that up--didn't realize it was so long--probably Hamilton's fault as I understand he had a hand in the writing.)

Will check back in with you as I'm sure to learn new things! Danny Dunne

Beerme said...

Danny,

Thanks for visiting! I really enjoy your writing. Very funny stuff!

Look at the first comment on this thread. The poster, kajun, recently had a stroke and hasn't posted much on Scrappleface since. I'm hoping he recovers fast because he was one of the wittiest and most humorous of the group...