Sunday, September 19, 2010

We installed a macro on this opinionator's word-processor!

Let's see if he notices!





March 13, 2008:

May 30, 2008:

February 10, 2009:

April 17, 2009:

March 14, 2010:

July 23, 2010:

September 17, 2010:
Evidently not. You'd think his editor would pick it up, though.
--------------------------------------------
UPDATE: Bonus thumblessness from Rich Lowry.
I hope this is just an hommage to the master, and that it's not contagious.
(inspired by Sub McG).

27 comments:

thumbless grasp™³²®© said...

Who is thumbless, now?
~

Thumbless Joe Jackson said...

Why'd I do it!!!
I couldn't catch a ball with a radio telescope dish, what else was I going to do?

mikey said...

I don't get it. I mean, I guess I understand it's supposed to be some kind of a play on opposable thumbs or something, but does it mean a partial grasp, a faulty grasp, a delusional grasp, an ephemeral grasp or something else altogether?

Here. I've got a Sandisk 8 gig usb drive sitting here on the table. I can grasp it with my whole hand. I can grasp it equally well using only my fingers and my palm. So an empirical analysis, complete with real-world trials, isn't helpful.

Thinking a littler deeper, I can GRASP a screwdriver without my thumb, but I cannot USE it effectively in that manner. Is it supposed to communicate some kind of technical, but functionally useless grasp?

Is it a metaphor, simile, an analog? Is it meant to be interpreted literally, or is it merely idiom? Or, at long last, is it directed at that portion of the constituency who have had their thumbs surgically removed, or perhaps those who were born without them? And if so, what does it say about those brave souls who had their amputated thumbs replaced with their big toes?

Smut Clyde said...

I for one am impressed by Jonah's commitment to recycling, and I think you should stop making fun of him.

J— said...

thumbless grasp

Jonah says you're so dumb, you don't have an opposable thumb. Or Jonah says you're so dumb, he has a very strong opinion on how to bench press.

Smut Clyde said...

Further research reveals that Jonah recycled the metaphor from James Wolcott, who described Michael Medved as having "a thumbless grasp of the issues" on February 17, 2005.

Steal from the best!

J— said...

Then comes Joseph Rago in The New Criterion (April 2006): "Dreher’s readiness to impugn is immediately traceable to his thumbless grasp of how the free economy really works."

Smut Clyde said...

And two more occurrences in the Jonah oeuvre, from March 5 and March 20 2007.
As someone once wrote in a TBogg comment thread, vis-a-vis the shimmying of Shakira's hips, "Maybe it's a nervous tic and she doesn't know she's doing it."

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

As someone once wrote in a TBogg comment thread, vis-a-vis the shimmying of Shakira's hips, "Maybe it's a nervous tic and she doesn't know she's doing it."

One of the best comments OF ALL TIME!

P.S. Was it really a Tbogg thread? Somehow I'm thinking Harry Hutton.
~

J— said...

The Poor Man Institute.

Smut Clyde said...

I had no idea when I woke up this morning that I would end up comparing Jonah Goldberg to Shakira.

mikey said...

Which is the best reason I can think of to increase the dosage...

fish said...

Evidently not. You'd think his editor would pick it up, though.

You do realize his editor is Kathryn Jean Lopez, right?

Substance McGravitas said...

The thumbless grasp
Is a partial clasp
Of the kind that helps monkeys swing
But its prosodic use
By an apeman obtuse
Makes the metaphor really take wing

Substance McGravitas said...

Baby, I will mix your metaphors ALL NIGHT LONG.

Smut Clyde said...

You do realize his editor is Kathryn Jean Lopez
No! Really??

Unknown said...

It has finally happened, was bound to, I have no clue as to what you all speak of.../gazes at thumbs/

matedic, no way.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

As someone once wrote in a TBogg comment thread, vis-a-vis the shimmying of Shakira's hips...

Ahem.
~

tigris said...

I had no idea when I woke up this morning that I would end up comparing Jonah Goldberg to Shakira.

Well, it is true the word "ass" springs to minds in both cases.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Well, it is true the word "ass" springs to minds in both cases.

That's where the thumb goes.

Smut Clyde said...

I have no clue as to what you all speak of...

Normal bicycle-and-woodcut-related service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Unknown said...

I talked with the number plates last night and they told me to go with it, that there will be enlightenment through something or other, like voting.

factun, expletive, you factun ma?

M. Bouffant said...

I can only assume "thumbless grasp" has something to do w/ masturbation; am now going to look at cute pictures of innocent animals while trying very hard to think pleasant thoughts.

Smut Clyde said...

something to do w/ masturbation; am now going to look at cute pictures of innocent animals

And people call me a sick man.

mikey said...

I gotta say, I'm with the defective Doktor.

That's even weirder than shit that I do...

Mendacious D said...

Anthropology editor adds:

If thumbless, mammals are unopposable. This explains much about the state of politics today.

Also, the bambiraptor.

M. Bouffant said...

I will not explain myself in such a forum!