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  • I'm Chris Mohney, and I run online stuff for BlackBook.

    Email: [email protected]

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  • Elizabeth Spiers
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Dating and Cave Painting Don't Mix

12082004 I mean, we only met because she'd seen me painting on the cave wall with ash mixed with boar's blood and berry juice. She was all "Ag, ag, ag, arg," and pointed at this one drawing I did of a bunch of my friends chasing a mammoth. She liked that one and I admit it's pretty good. So she was like "Aaaah, gaaaah, uck," and slapped her chest and waved at some other part of the cave wall, and I went over there and what do you know, she's painting on the wall too! There were some cute drawings of fires and what looked like a bunch of us in the cave, and she also drew a mammoth, but it was with another mammoth. Two mammoths! I banged on the second mammoth and said "Graaaaaaaaa," and she acted like it was nothing that she came up with the idea of two mammoths. Though you know, maybe I was being so complimentary because I just liked the way she stank.

Anyway, I waited until her dad was out of the cave or dead or something -- I'm not really sure who her dad was -- and then I sneaked over and grabbed her and dragged her to my side of the cave. And one thing led to another, oh yeah. It was pretty hot. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, and I was afraid her dad or one of the big alpha males would come over and bash in my head with a rock, but they left us alone. What I'm saying is that it was nice. She was pretty into it.

I might have told my friends about it later, when we were all jumping around and bellowing by the lake, and I know some of them could smell it on me and they're acting like, you're the man. So what, it's how guys talk, and don't tell me that girls don't because I overheard my sister telling her friends once that "oooook ooook oooog" shit, which is just nasty. But then back in the cave one night, this guy I know looked over to where she was sleeping, then looked at me, then looked at the cave wall, then at me. And I was like "Raaaaaaaaagh!" and hit him with a rock. I mean, no way am I going to paint her on the cave wall. Talking to friends is one thing, but anybody can walk by and see a cave painting. Besides, she had started to paint me once, and I didn't like it, so I made low growls until she stopped, and then I urinated on the painting, so I thought we'd reached an understanding that cave painting about each other was off limits.

I saw that guy I hit with the rock later and we were cool, I think he knows I was just playing around, even though I was a little angry. After she came over to my side of the cave for a few nights, I got sort of used to it, everything seemed to be fine. And let me just say that it was still hot and heavy under the bear skins. One afternoon, though, she went out to chew on some grass with her friends, and the brother or father of the guy I hit with the rock came over and grabbed my arm, pulling me across the cave. I thought he was going to kick my ass or hit me with a rock, but then he showed me her side of the cave, where it looked like she had been doing a lot of painting.

Dude, she was doing cave paintings about me! About US! There we were, two stick people talking in the cave, then laying together by the fire, and then there's the stick man still laying there, but now the stick woman is off by herself looking disappointed. But the worst -- the absolute worst -- was showing a bunch of stick men by the lake. OBVIOUSLY it was supposed to be me and my friends, like I have to spend all my time with her now. But in the same drawing, the stick woman is up in the cave LYING DOWN WITH ANOTHER STICK MAN! I couldn't tell who it was, because she drew him sort of anonymously, but I will hit him with so many rocks when I find out ... wouldn't surprise me if it was some other cave painter, the scene is so fucking incestuous. It was absolutely humiliating to know that everyone in the cave saw that stuff. I don't care if it is her art project, you don't get a free pass on being a jerk just because you're an artist.

So that was it. I never went over to her side of the cave again, and when she came to find me a couple times I crawled under the bear skins and pretended I wasn't home. Kind of chickenshit I know, but I didn't want to deal. As for the cave painting, I took the high road. I drew some stick women getting trampled by mammoths, but you can't really tell who it is. I was just blowing off steam. I'm not going to sink to her level. She might still be painting me like a lot of those bitter exes who get into cave painting just to trash people, but that's her problem. But I sure learned that if you get into a relationship with a cave painter, you better be ready for them to paint about you. I mean, I'm not like that, except for this painting of the stick woman getting eaten by a lion. That's totally her. Bitch.

[Editor'z note: This is a parody, inspired by this article (still available here) by this person. The "joke" relies on the fact that the same kind of article gets recycled about email flirting, IMing, text messaging, Google stalking, online dating, and now blogging, etc. The parody contains no resemblance to any persons living or dead besides the cave people described, who are dead, and thus unable to sue.]

December 08, 2004 in Blogs | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Five Stages of Grief at TMFTML's Decision to Stop Blogging

Sadclown

Yes, it's true. Barely pseudonymous media-depressant blogger The Minor Fall, The Major Lift has taken his frequent protestations and/or alcohol-fueled disinclinations to their logical endpoint, and has declared that he's off the job for the foreseeable future. TMFTML's harem of various pretty shiny things are already setting up a hue and cry, not to mention rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, and there is likely more to come. Watch for his fleeting sepia-toned visage in the death collage at this year's Oscars. If none of this means anything to you, stop reading now and go watch TV, because TV is good for you and never leaves you all by yourself. For others, consider the likely stages of grief you'll endure as you go out to present a hopelessly bukkakefied stuffed animal at the street memorial, then pour one out for your homey.

Stage 1: Denial
We deny that the loss has occurred.
We ignore the signs of the loss.

Hey, lookit all the fun posts on TMFTML today! Why, sure, the comments have been turned off, but how many times do you need to read "Ron Mwangaguhunga" anyhow? Besides, there will always be more racy and sassy TMFTML posts tomorrow! I'm sure he's just out in the Hamptons or the Meatpacking District or something. He'll be back soon with one of those crazy little extended metaphors about how he's so hung over that his blood has turned to fire ants or something. Just hit reload again. Again. Again. Oh look, links!

Stage 2: Bargaining
We bargain or strike a deal with God, ourselves, or others to make the loss go away.
We promise to do anything to make this loss go away.
We agree to take extreme measures in order to make this loss disappear.
We lack confidence in our attempts to deal with the loss, looking elsewhere for answers.

Please please please, God, it's not Margaret, but I just don't really need this right now so let's just calm down and check to see if there's a new post. God damn it, I'd give anything for a new post. That's it, I'm going to hold my breath until TMFTML posts again. No, I'm going to breathe a little bit because I'm going to keep drinking this bottle of Old Crow without stopping except to hoover up the last of the peruvian until TMFTML posts again. Oh Jesus, I think I'm going to throw up, I have to find someone who can drive me home. Does anyone know what street this is?

Stage 3: Anger
We become angry with God, with ourselves, or with others over our loss.
We become outraged and incensed over the steps that must be taken to overcome our loss.
We pick out "scapegoats" on which to vent our anger, e.g., the doctors, hospitals, clerks, helping agencies, rehabilitation specialists, etc.

What an asshole. Now what am I supposed to do from 11 am to 1 pm? No matter how many times I hit reload, no new posts appear. Fucking jerk. Could have some consideration for the people who put him where he is. And what are those other assholes going to do now? Some help they turned out to be.

Stage 4: Despair
We become overwhelmed by the anguish, pain, and hurt of our loss; we are thrown into the depths of our emotional response.
We can begin to have uncontrollable spells of crying, sobbing, and weeping.
We can begin to go into spells of deep silence, morose thinking, and deep melancholy.

What is it? No, I didn't say anything. No, I don't want to see what Romenesko has today. Don't care about those those tarts at Mediabistro neither. Look, I gotta go. No, I just have something in my eye. Jesus, leave me alone!

Stage 5: Acceptance
Hey, what's on TV?

September 21, 2004 in Blogs | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Have You Seen Me?

spiers

Whatever happened to Elizabeth Spiers? She seems to have ascended from our sphere, casting down only the (very) occasional bon mot at the Kicker, reserving the gimlet-eyed wit that launched Gawker (and Nick Denton) only for select print media and the feathery inner ears of her circle of intimates.

But no, she has not abandoned her people! She's just looking for a place to live. "I'm looking for a new apartment with a June 1 move-in date, preferably in Manhattan, preferably downtown-ish." Come, trust your fellow Alabamian, you don't want to sully yourself with that downtown-ish rabble. Come to the soothing realm of the Upper West Side. The pigeons coo drowsily at noontime, happy citizens always spare a smile and a wink for their neighbors, and baby carriages groan with the weight of their cargo, ripe and tender as veal. Join us and you can still be cool! I know this perfect prewar walkup next to a subway that goes right to Soho House. Oh, uh, I mean Lever House. We will escort you to the Fishs Eddy for your new housewares, the Citarella for your whipped gourmet meat spreads. Then we will gather round and coat you with scented oils and unguents so that you can, in an impenetrable zen coma of contentment, tell us more of this Graydon Carter, this Fabian Basabe. Don't get us wrong, we love the Choire, but you never forget your first.

May 21, 2004 in Blogs | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)