# JohnClay, if I might have a word... (not about dieting, I promise) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 16, 2016, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403 "2016-04-16T21:14:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/61 "2016-04-19T23:45:25Z")
I know you’re on the Board a lot. How have you missed the awesome wonder that is **JohnClay**? This thread was on the specific topic of relationship advice (which **JC** should never, ever give, but I’ll try to help out with a few other samples of his genius. [thread=788034]Pit thread he started because he wanted to post about his whacked out diet issues[/thread]. It was shut down because the Pit is not a blog forum. He was asked to stop posting about his diet, so he’s a bit stuck at this point. [thread=740170]This charming note on stealing Legos, complete with poetry.[/thread] [thread=788765]Poll on hairy nipples.[/thread] [thread=779338]He tries to sing.[/thread] [thread=779254]His toys discuss sex.[/thread] [thread=759050]He steals from his wife.[/thread] It truly goes on and on. If you need more evidence, check out his posting history. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/62 "2016-04-19T23:48:08Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Just cite the terrible fucked-up things he has said and I’ll jump on board. The OP just cited opinions on a matter of someone’s depression. Maybe the airplane riff was over-the-top, I’ll admit. But it raises the point that having to _choose_ to live is critical to overcoming depression. Depression is most accurately described not as “sadness” but as chronic apathy. Falling from a plane at 30,000 feet, you are forced to choose to pull the 'chute or not. That’s insightful if also a bit off-color. > > Let’s see the REALLY FUCKED UP SHIT he posted and I’ll get on board with the pitting. > > Or insult my intelligence and high-five your bro’s. That’s insightful also. Only an idiot would use an apostrophe to make a word plural. _Raises hand and looks around_ ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/63 "2016-04-20T00:21:14Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Just cite the terrible fucked-up things he has said and I’ll jump on board. The OP just cited opinions on a matter of someone’s depression. Maybe the airplane riff was over-the-top, I’ll admit. But it raises the point that having to _choose_ to live is critical to overcoming depression. Depression is most accurately described not as “sadness” but as chronic apathy. Falling from a plane at 30,000 feet, you are forced to choose to pull the 'chute or not. That’s insightful if also a bit off-color. > > Let’s see the REALLY FUCKED UP SHIT he posted and I’ll get on board with the pitting. > > Or insult my intelligence and high-five your bro’s. That’s insightful also. Insulting your intelligence has all the challenge of kicking a sick puppy, but OK. 1. On the matter of our illustrious poster and self-proclaimed high intellect and almost-member of Mensa, read what others have said and follow the suggestions to read some of his magnificent proclamations. 2. Depression _ **can** _ be nothing more than sadness, in which case it’s just a normal and temporary reaction to one of life’s downturns. Clinical depression is an entirely different thing and it can indeed be chronic and debilitating, potentially a serious medical problem that is a lot more than just “apathy”. 3. Only a complete idiot would imagine that people jump out of airplanes from 30,000 feet. Think about it for a moment, if you are able. Believing that this is the normal jump altitude for anyone, let alone a beginner, shows a lack of knowledge of more things than I could reasonably try to list. 4. Only a complete idiot would imagine that a first-time or newbie jumper would be entrusted with manually pulling a ripcord. 5. It’s already been noted that only an idiot pluralizes with apostrophes, but that makes it an even 5 idiotic things you did in a post that on my monitor comes out to 5 lines. Happy to oblige. You’re welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/64 "2016-04-20T00:27:08Z")
_high fives **Subterraneus** _ Anyway, Mr. **Bean** , I see on preview that **wolfpup** has already insulted your intelligence so I’ll have to try something else… shouldn’t you be [yodeling into your girlfriend’s cavernous vagina and waiting for the echo](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18567619&postcount=31) right about now? ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/65 "2016-04-20T00:46:50Z")
I think Stringbean was asking what f\*\*\*ed up posts I posted in that depression thread that the OP was talking about. Not about other threads. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/66 "2016-04-20T01:02:32Z")
> [@ddsun](#): > > I know you’re on the Board a lot. How have you missed the awesome wonder that is **JohnClay**? > > This thread was on the specific topic of relationship advice (which **JC** should never, ever give, So none of the advice in the depression thread is any good? Also my mentioning of my friend’s dad’s advice isn’t relationship advice. > [@](#): > > …but I’ll try to help out with a few other samples of his genius… Stringbean was asking about my depression advice. That’s what I was originally pitted for! [thread=740170]…This charming note on stealing Legos, complete with poetry.[/thread] This stopped by the time I started high school [thread=788765]Poll on hairy nipples.[/thread] What’s that got to do with relationship advice? [thread=779338]He tries to sing.[/thread] I don’t claim to be a good singer. [thread=779254]His toys discuss sex.[/thread] No they didn’t discuss sex. [thread=759050]He steals from his wife.[/thread] So about 50% of people cheat on their wives but I don’t and which is worse? > [@](#): > > It truly goes on and on. If you need more evidence, check out his posting history. Having a weird relationship doesn’t prove I’m bad at giving relationship advice. BTW I recommended John Gottman material in the depression thread. Are you saying that is bad advice? ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/67 "2016-04-20T03:05:23Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > [thread=759050]He steals from his wife.[/thread] > So about 50% of people cheat on their wives but I don’t and which is worse?.. By “people” I mean “married men”. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/68 "2016-04-20T03:18:46Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Or insult my intelligence and high-five your bro’s. That’s insightful also. You leave my bro’s intelligence out of this. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/69 "2016-04-20T04:56:03Z")
wolfpup: I see you ignored my reply to reply to a post by Stringbean… That poster wrote: “Let’s see the REALLY FUCKED UP SHIT he posted and I’ll get on board with the pitting.” They mean what I posted in that depression thread because that’s what the pit thread originally was about. They originally wrote “Having not read the thread in question” i.e. they are concerned with the contents of the depression thread, not about other threads. You also said that I am guilty of “dangerously bad advice-giving,” and I replied “cite? If possible more than one cite?” BTW I didn’t say that Quasimodal should jump out of a plane and kill themself. But I did bring up things like Uncommon Knowledge, John Gottman, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dr Glover’s “No More Mr Nice Guy”. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/70 "2016-04-20T05:35:23Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > …4. Only a complete idiot would imagine that a first-time or newbie jumper would be entrusted with manually pulling a ripcord… What about this? > **[SkydiveHelp.com is for sale | HugeDomains](https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=skydivehelp.com)** > > Get the premium .com domain you deserve. Seamless and professional transactions. Payment plans available. > [@](#): > > …Some people, usually the more adventurous types will skip the tandem jump entirely though, and decide they want to do their **first** , second, third or 39th jump on their own. Fair enough, jumping on your own puts you in control and the adrenaline boost you get is much higher than simply letting someone else drive for you. > This of course, will require a more rigorous training regimen… So someone that imagines a situation that appears to be accurate is a “complete idiot”? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/71 "2016-04-20T15:34:42Z")
I’m left wondering how we should indicate the possessive form of the plural of a contraction? If we start with `brother` and make it plural, `brothers`. Now the contracted form is `bro's`, so far so good. So the modern accepted form of the possessive would be `bro's's` which looks just terrible and sounds worser. However, the archaic form has us drop the final `s` and so we have `bro's'`, although the pronunciation is the same as `bro's's`. That’s just not funky enough and sounds like some uptight whitie trying to be hip, like **JohnClay**. I’m going to say that `bro's` is the proper form in Oakland, California … || ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/72 "2016-04-20T21:24:16Z")
I did it to distinguish between the traditional “bros” which means brothers and the hipster “bro’s” which has a different meaning and connotation. Holy shit, string me up on a goddamn flagpole. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/73 "2016-04-20T21:27:37Z")
Also, this literal granularity on a metaphor is hilarious. Who the fuck cares if skydiving occurs at 10,000 feet or 30,000 feet. Tryhard is lol. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/74 "2016-04-20T21:31:35Z")
Finally, your rendition of _Silent Night_ was the worst thing I have ever heard **JohnClay**. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/75 "2016-04-20T21:41:37Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Holy shit, string me up on a goddamn flagpole. Nah. Who wants a high-strung bean? ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/76 "2016-04-20T22:01:11Z")
Stupid _and_ whiny. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/77 "2016-04-21T01:49:15Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Also, this literal granularity on a metaphor is hilarious. > > Who the fuck cares if skydiving occurs at 10,000 feet or 30,000 feet. Tryhard is lol. I think the point was that your post was riddled with errors – by my count, five revealing mistakes in five lines of post. That was just one of them. Some might use this information to conclude that you’re an imbecile. But please allow me to elaborate. There are several foundational principles for assessing intelligence, broadly categorized into problem-solving skills and general life experience and knowledge of the world. Your skydiving comment fails miserably on that latter two criteria. Any person of reasonable intelligence would know that at 30,000 feet the atmosphere is so rarefied that just opening the door of the aircraft would result in explosive decompression, or else the airplane would have to be unpressurized and everyone equipped with oxygen masks. It is also intensely cold, so basically what you’d be wearing is a space suit with self-contained breathing apparatus. And that altitude is also far above the service ceiling of most of the kinds of propeller planes used for jumps, so you’d probably have to go up in a jet and fling your spacesuit-wearing self out into a multiple hundred mile-an-hour blast of air that would hit you like a cannonball. Yeah, that’s just the kind of thing that one would take a newbie first-time jumper out into! Not to mention that for an untrained jumper, getting guided to a safe landing spot is critically important. But you imagine that a first-time jumper leaping out of a jet nearly six miles up – which is practically in outer space – can guide himself to a safe landing right back in the little field where he started from. Oh ,yeah, and his non-depression and life force will be validated by the fact that he pulled his own ripcord! And BTW, there is no “metaphor” here. Nor any “granularity” of anything. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/78 "2016-04-21T05:14:00Z")
wolfpup: I see yet again you are ignoring posts that are a challenge for you while focusing on things that you can handle. Even though Stringbean accepts that you are correct about the jumping altitude you thought that we all wanted to read you spend another two paragraphs explaining why their old error is indeed wrong. Then you ended with two nitpicks. > [@Stringbean](#): > > Just cite the terrible fucked-up things he has said and I’ll jump on board. The OP just cited opinions on a matter of someone’s depression…Let’s see the REALLY FUCKED UP SHIT he posted and I’ll get on board with the pitting. > > Or insult my intelligence and high-five your bro’s. That’s insightful also. Ok out of those 2 choices - back up your earlier statement or insult them, which did you choose? “Insulting your intelligence has all the challenge of kicking a sick puppy, but OK.” So you took the less challenging option. > [@The worst of the worst (SDMB version)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-of-the-worst-sdmb-version/752693/89): > > …Honestly, I think my dog has a better grasp of basic physical sciences than you [watchwolf49] do… Honestly? You don’t seem to care much about the meanings of words sometimes. Perhaps it is an attempt at mean-spirited humour. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/79 "2016-04-21T08:30:02Z")
Meh. I found a lot of JohnClay’s posts rather annoying in the past, but I agree with a lot of what he said in the cited pitting, or at least found that his thoughts had substance and were meant to be helpful. John Gottman is a pretty standard suggestion from qualified therapists, and it’s true that seeking external validation can be an unhealthy issue and that “nice guys” tend to allow themselves to be defined by bad relationships, etc. I also see people attacking him for having his own anxiety and relationship issues, as if that makes him a bad person or unqualified to comment on such matters. If anything, I think naturally happy and well-adjusted people who don’t have difficulties with socialization or healthy relationships really have no perspective about what it’s like to have those issues and typically offer counter-productive suggestions because they are offering advice from the perspective of someone with health self-esteem, confidence, boundary setting, etc, and such advice only works for people with that foundation. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2016, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403/80 "2016-04-21T08:36:00Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > And yet you think clinical depression is “cured” by getting a lover. Dude, you may have a high IQ, but you sure as hell ain’t using it. Just want to go on record that I disagree with this and if JohnClay really believes this I bet he will be suicidal when his wife cheats or leaves him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/johnclay-if-i-might-have-a-word-not-about-dieting-i-promise/752403.md?page=5)