Sunday, November 18, 2007

The New England Journal of Forensic Blogginess, Vol II

Gigantic, scary cockroaches, that's what. I'm not saying they should keep you away, but those are the biggest damn cockroaches I've ever seen. I get all crawly just thinking about it.

I'm willing to bet that McArdle's seen cockroaches as big or bigger than the Cambodian variety in her dear old New York but, being a New Yorker, she was brought up to use the classic New Yorker's psychological defense mechanism when confronted by giant cockroaches: "That's not a cockroach, that's a waterbug." Waterbug: gross, but tolerable. Giant cockroach: There Is No God. Since McArdle doesn't live in Cambodia, and has no emotional investment in maintaining a narrative of its livability, the waterbug defense is rendered inoperative, and she sees the thing for what it is.

Althouse never did take me up on my Taser Challenge. She was paid $200 to eat an egg-salad sammich. I wonder, how much money would persuade McArdle to nip over into Thailand and eat these?

Prediction: when the Yellowstone caldera unzips and North America is plunged into ashen twilight, McArdle will be the one hoarding insects as foodstuffs. When starving children come begging for ants and grasshoppers, she'll remind them of Aesop's fable:

Idleness brings want,
To work today is to eat tomorrow.
It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.
You should have brought vouchers


...and close the door.

In other forensic news, McArdle has finally seen the non-strobing light: the seizure-inducing strobovomit adverts are gone. She has tamped down her adolescent individualism and joined the rest of her Atlantic Voices colleagues in putting Atlantic ads on her blog. Just the other day, in comments here, I noted that McArdle and Ambinder were the only Voices who wouldn't shill for their employer. Both have now fallen into line. I shall resolve to use my powers for the betterment of all life on Earth, after directing micrometeorites onto fewer than a dozen people.

7 comments:

M. Bouffant said...

Or as they call them down South, "Palmetto Bugs."

Anonymous said...

I can think of more than a dozen deserving micrometeorite remediation.
~

Anonymous said...

Her "gadget of the week" is still exactly the same as it was when her blog debuted . . . and as a bonus, *still* contains a misspelling of "Dalmatian."

Adam Eli Clem said...

McArdle: "Well, I used to write for a British journal and in England they spell it with an o. I'm surprised that you don't know this."

spencer said...

Please tell me you made that quote up. With McMegan, you can never tell if it's satire or straight up.

Adam Eli Clem said...

I made it up.

gcallah said...

"I'm willing to bet that McArdle's seen cockroaches as big or bigger than the Cambodian variety in her dear old New York."

Bugs are bigger in the tropics, clemtard.