ASK JAYMC

I'm old here, so what is... 'Oh, Wrinklepaws'?
I'm new here - so...what is OTM?!

Or more importantly, questions like, "Hey does anyone remember when ilxor#64 posted X thing about vaginas?"

dude sry to hear abt yr layoff http://gawker.com/5428206/the-new-york-times-layoff-victims-allen-salkin-is-among-them whatre u gonna do next

Finish that martini, for starters.

omg john that dude stole your face

I'm gonna go across the street for a sec to pick up some beer, then all y'all homebodies should ask me questions.

Did you ever find the physiological reason for curly hair intellectually dissatisfying? Like your head is some pasta extrusion center?

http://i35.tinypic.com/zv8u4h.jpg

I haven't heard the physiological reason for curly hair! What is it?

I will note that I never had curly hair until I was a teenager.

The physiological reason for curly hair, iirc, is your follicles' shafts are at an angle, causing them to grow out curly.

Interesting. I bought Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA, btw.

What are you up to tonight?

Well, now what I am up to is reading other hypotheses about curly hair, and eating edamame.

I had to answer a lot of questions on "the future of libraries" this week. Do you have a prediction of the future of libraries?

It's hard for me to imagine libraries ceasing to exist. But I think they will have to constantly adapt in the near future.

I use Google Books A LOT when I'm fact-checking at my job.

Do you have a car?

I guess that's a pretty vague response. :/

I don't go to libraries as often as I should. I was in one yesterday, though, and I noticed a whole shelf of books about crossword puzzles (not books OF crosswords but books ABOUT them) and I was like "Hey, I should come here more often." Then I checked one of the books out and read it all in one night.

I do have a car, but I pretty much only use it on weekends to run errands, like grocery shopping. Otherwise, I take the el to work and try to use public transportation as much as possible.

It's ok, jaymc. I think that is a pretty concise summary, which if you like libraries, you know the Library of Congress specializes in them. One sentence summaries of your favorite books hidden among all the disclaimers and copyright info. When I was a kid, I wanted to write those for a living.

I wrote about 6,000 words expanding on your two sentence statement, which I agree with. Something in library literature – they act like they're the only field subject to change, which is very amusing to me.

xp

Ha. Are you in library school?

Don't knock back so much beer that you miss my birthday brunch; unless you can't make it, that is (no problem), in which case, go to town.

Oh, I'm planning on being there, E. I just bought some so I could catch up with Kr, who's at the Violet Hour right now.

I am in library school, and it is a great program for fretting about the future. They assigned us some readings from the early 2000s in which people were still seriously suggesting we assign authority headings to every page on the internet.

Maybe you can help me with this question on ATTN: Copyeditors and Grammar Fiends

xp Well, not really catch up. She'll probably have had a few. I just wanted to be pleasantly tipsy by the time she came home.

"Catch Up (remix)" - R. Kelly

A few at the Violet Hour--that's a lot of potion.

Sorry folks, I misread this thread title as "Gchat with Jaymc."

Ha, well, she was at Big Star first. So combined: a few.

Abbott, I posted on the Grammar Fiends thread for you!

Thanks Jaymc! Another question: I know you like to construct crosswords. The Jumble is the dumb junior brother on the puzzle page – have you ever tried to construct a Jumble? I have made a few and they were not met with praise.

I have not tried to construct a Jumble. The thought has literally never occurred to me.

Why were yours not met with praise?

Btw, I like that you're someone who seems to be attached (even if just nostalgically) to old media and various 20th-century detritus.

I would like to see a resurgence of the rebus.

Well, there are crossword puzzles known as rebus puzzles, in which a square is filled not by a letter but by a symbol, series of letters, or whole word.

This would be an example of one:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fUzorZk31Ss/TEpg44kO4aI/AAAAAAAAHQo/m9yJ5Ztf_UI/s1600/Jul24.jpg

My Jumbles were not met with praise because the final clue, where you make a joke – the jokes were really really bad. Example:

What was Shirley Temple's perk as an ambassador?
Dimple-o-matic immunity.

The hard thing about constructing a Jumble is coming up with six-letter words that have only one possible anagram. I figure whoever is putting the Jumble together just has a database of them.

I like all kinds of "old media" – I have a subscription to the daily local paper, still.

The hard thing about constructing a Jumble is coming up with six-letter words that have only one possible anagram.

I never considered this. I suppose that would be a challenge.

Do you have any holiday traditions?

This letter begins "deer":

http://bancroft.library.ca.gov/diglib/images/lettersheets_orig/web_images/bruffs_rebus_letter.jpg

Do you have any holiday traditions?

Not really, anymore.

When I was younger, I got very attached to Christmas traditions and threw a tantrum one year when my parents decided to put the tree in a different corner of the living room. I was, like, 14.

I guess for the last three years I've gotten into a habit on Christmas Eve of going to my girlfriend's grandma's house for dinner and then driving down to my dad's house to drink whiskey and play the trivia game Stage II with him and my brother.

does it bother you when characters in movies have names that were not likely names for when they would have been born, and were clearly just picked because they are hip names now? I ask because I was watching "Love Happens" (shut up) with Sarah and her mom, and Jennifer Aniston's character is named Eloise which sounds more like something a hip couple would name their baby now and not something a baby would have been named 35ish years ago. I guess it could have been a family name though

Ha, I just had dinner tonight with parents of an Eloise.

It does bother me, sometimes.

The Baby Name Wizard pointed out recently that Kim Cattrall's Sex and the City character is somewhat anachronistically named, since she is supposed to have been born in 1958, and the name Samantha was not at all popular until the debut of Bewitched.

I was also thinking about it the other day with respect to Harry Crane's wife on Mad Men, who is named Jennifer. And while that name was not totally unknown for a young woman in the 1960s, it was probably a little unusual.

But yeah: the character of Madison Sinclair on Veronica Mars? Probably born in 1988 or so, which again: not impossible, but very ahead of the curve.

The history of the name Jennifer is really interesting. Totally rare until the mid-40s and then a steady rise in popularity until 1970 where it's the #1 girls name for 15 years straight followed by a steady decline ever since.

1970 = release of Love Story, in which Ali MacGraw's character is named Jennifer.

that AHA puzzle bugged me but i get annoyed anytime the friday or saturday times is a rebus/themed puzzle, since that's not usually the case

and they're tough enough as it is

But yeah: the character of Madison Sinclair on Veronica Mars? Probably born in 1988 or so, which again: not impossible, but very ahead of the curve.

― jaymc, Saturday, August 7, 2010 12:13 AM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark

WASPs didnt always name their kids shit like that?

there's an Eloise at my work who's in her mid 40s

WASPs didnt always name their kids shit like that?

Well, there were always a smattering of boys named Madison, but girls named Madison were basically unknown until

https://isohunt.com/img.php?mode=release&path=85710.jpg

"1970 = release of Love Story, in which Ali MacGraw's character is named Jennifer."

Sure, but it had been steadily rising pre-1970 and then it held the top spot for next fifteen years!

not really a Q, but i was happy to see you stuck dongs of sevotion as an extra on your sporcle quiz, jaymc

haha just found yr sporcle page

Lol @ last 2 posts.

who is unperson irl

― alpine static, Monday, July 2, 2018 12:04 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ph1l Fr33m@n

― jaymc, Monday, July 2, 2018 1:08 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

man that's not cool, don't you have like a fiduciary responsibility w.r.t all that .xls data

JAYMC WHAT IS(ARE) YOUR FAVORITE SONG(S) BY SEA RAY?

Wow, JAYMC turned 28 near the top of this thread. I feel like we haven’t fully utilized his talents in the last 17 years.

He never answered my query! Perhaps I should have asked in an .xlsx-friendly format...

who tf are Sea Ray?

oh lol I guess my band opened for them 20 years ago. I don't remember, sorry!

wtf indeed.... u r slippin' my dude!

I recently spoke with someone who played flute with them so I searched ILM and you were one of the few mentions of them.

is there an 00s obscurism thread yet? are the 00s "back"?