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).
Who is thumbless, now?
ReplyDelete~
Why'd I do it!!!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't catch a ball with a radio telescope dish, what else was I going to do?
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?
ReplyDeleteHere. 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?
I for one am impressed by Jonah's commitment to recycling, and I think you should stop making fun of him.
ReplyDeletethumbless grasp
ReplyDeleteJonah 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteSteal from the best!
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."
ReplyDeleteAnd two more occurrences in the Jonah oeuvre, from March 5 and March 20 2007.
ReplyDeleteAs 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."
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."
ReplyDeleteOne of the best comments OF ALL TIME!
P.S. Was it really a Tbogg thread? Somehow I'm thinking Harry Hutton.
~
The Poor Man Institute.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea when I woke up this morning that I would end up comparing Jonah Goldberg to Shakira.
ReplyDeleteWhich is the best reason I can think of to increase the dosage...
ReplyDeleteEvidently not. You'd think his editor would pick it up, though.
ReplyDeleteYou do realize his editor is Kathryn Jean Lopez, right?
The thumbless grasp
ReplyDeleteIs a partial clasp
Of the kind that helps monkeys swing
But its prosodic use
By an apeman obtuse
Makes the metaphor really take wing
Baby, I will mix your metaphors ALL NIGHT LONG.
ReplyDeleteYou do realize his editor is Kathryn Jean Lopez
ReplyDeleteNo! Really??
It has finally happened, was bound to, I have no clue as to what you all speak of.../gazes at thumbs/
ReplyDeletematedic, no way.
As someone once wrote in a TBogg comment thread, vis-a-vis the shimmying of Shakira's hips...
ReplyDeleteAhem.
~
I had no idea when I woke up this morning that I would end up comparing Jonah Goldberg to Shakira.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is true the word "ass" springs to minds in both cases.
Well, it is true the word "ass" springs to minds in both cases.
ReplyDeleteThat's where the thumb goes.
I have no clue as to what you all speak of...
ReplyDeleteNormal bicycle-and-woodcut-related service will be resumed as soon as possible.
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.
ReplyDeletefactun, expletive, you factun ma?
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.
ReplyDeletesomething to do w/ masturbation; am now going to look at cute pictures of innocent animals
ReplyDeleteAnd people call me a sick man.
I gotta say, I'm with the defective Doktor.
ReplyDeleteThat's even weirder than shit that I do...
Anthropology editor adds:
ReplyDeleteIf thumbless, mammals are unopposable. This explains much about the state of politics today.
Also, the bambiraptor.
I will not explain myself in such a forum!
ReplyDelete