[Sigia-l] "Don't make me shave"?

[Lori_Rosen at capgroup.com]

This was posted on the North Denver News website, with the plain headline
of "Editor's note"

Editor's Note
Written by Guerin Lee Green
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Strangely, while many readers have grasped that "Surgically alters thumbs"
represents satirical social commentary, many on the internet, alas, have
not.
Careful reading of the piece makes it clear to any critical consumer of
information that the piece is pure humor and not news or reported as fact.

Among the points of the piece: that U.S. society accepts plastic surgery
and decorative deformation of the human body for vanity, but not other
reasons (consider the Bonds steroid stories); that technology has become a
new cult phenomena, in which items are praised or ridiculed based upon
tribal allegiances instead of functionality and performance (and we are
members of the Cult of the Mac- iPhone division); and we like to pretend
that some of our writers have a sense of humor.

For those who have "debunked" the HUMOR piece, thanks for pointing out that
there are no muscles in the thumbs (BTW, there are muscles in the thumb),
and that the timeline from iPhone release to successful surgery is pure
fantasy. Also "whittling"?!?! Come on, pollexplasty, from the Latin for
thumb, pollex, perhaps, but not whittling!!

Additionally, many commentators have derided Mr. Martel for stupidity first
and foremost, which may indicate something about their credulity. In an era
when fake news, like Paris Hilton, has crowded out real news and public
debate, the lesson is that skeptical consumption of information, whether
from the North Denver News, the New York Times, or the National Review, is
a must.

By the way, for odd skeptics, the North Denver News is a monthly community
newspaper serving Northwest Denver, with about 35,000 readers. The North
Denver News is entering our sixth year of publication, and along with our
sister paper, The Cherry Creek News, are the largest community news
presence in Denver. Our web presence, which features stories from the paper
as well as other news, satire and commentary, is updated several times
weekly, and will do about a million page views in calendar 2007.

FYI, there is no Thomas Martel (aka Tommy the Hammer) or Dr. Ben Fox Spars.
The Fox of course, is reference to Fox News (aka Faux News). James Benfly
is fictive as well, the nom de plume of one of our writers. And thanks to
Franz Kafka, who must be smiling upon this whole episode.






                                                                           
             Ziya Oz                                                       
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                                       Re: [Sigia-l] "Don't make me        
                                       shave"?                             
             08/10/2007 01:54                                              
             PM                                                            
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           




Samantha Bailey:

> I don't have long fingernails (piano lessons growing up)

That's the fascinating part. I don't recall anyone accusing Steinway or
Bösendorfer as ergonomic fascists for forcing the stronger sex to
reconfigure their anatomy to play music. Times changed? Blogs? What?

As an example, Apple asks iPhone users to readjust a lot of their past
behavior: email over MMS, no cut&paste, no physical keyboard, gestures over
conventional UI controls, no stylus, acrobatics for self-portraiture, no
texting while driving, keratin maintenance, etc.

If you were to compile a complete list of such changes that require user
adjustment (and, of course, run concordance and publish it on Rosenfeld
Media as scientific insight :-) you'd think, my god, this thing is going to
flop. The reality, however, is that likely millions of people of all shapes
and sizes will gladly part with their money to enter into bondage with the
iPhone. Masochism? Time to rethink, "Don't make me _____"?

--
Ziya

"Don't look where you've fallen. Look where you slipped."




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