The Washington Post appreciates Billy Rubin

The BBQ Pit
1

Billy Rubin had classic, near legendary, rant in this thread.
Another bathroom etiquette memo: Do you have a prehensile rectum?

I borrowed Billy’s phraseology to castigate Gene Weingarten, a Washington Post reporter mis-behaving at Katherine Graham’s funeral, who described his obnoxious antics in his “Below the Beltway” column at the address below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16874-2001Aug15.html

I emailed him this little love note:

"Per your little missive in the Post about your incredibly asinine behavior at the funeral.

My God you are an ass and no mere ordinary ass. You are a spewing, prehensile rectum of bad form. Hope you got your precious 15 seconds of ass clown fame Gene. Treasure it."
and he emailed this back

“prehensile ass! i love that image. thank you.”
[sub]Hoping against hope that his caps key is busted and that this is not how he normally writes before the editor has to step in[/sub]

2

I’m not sure if I should be or not, but I am. Thanks for the nice reference.

b.

Ditto on the caps, by the way. Hell, I can’t type, but I can damned sure use spellcheck!

3

Good use of quotes in his column. :wink:

4

I don’t regularly read Weingarten’s columns so I have no idea how he normally thinks/writes/acts. Could this just be all made up for comic effect?

5

I’m always amazed at how many people don’t use capital letters when writing emails. I work at a very large corporation. Not using capital letters seems to be a sign that you have been promoted to at least a Senior Vice President. Perhaps they think it represents how busy they are: “I could use proper capitalization, but better to save the .004 nanoseconds per capital letter.”

6

Well, no.

The Washington Post did not appreciate the phrase in question, just the guy who you describe as obnoxious and an ass.

I am surprised that I’m even bothering to write, but I found the thread title concerned repulsive, never opened it to find out what was involved, and was relieved when it sank down to the depths of the lower pages.

I really don’t want to read in these boards about people’s bathroom habits, or smells, or about their sessions of masturbation at work, or details about any bodily fluids, for that matter. No offense, I hope, just not to my taste.

So usually I’m content to let these subjects alone, let those who enjoy them do so, and go my own way without comment, but I’m afraid the OP was too much for me. Please count my vote as against.

bleah.

Redboss

7

So it’s okay for you to cast aspersions on another’s post, though it was a rant, and intended to be humorous. A rant intended to have the effect of minimizing my rage about what to me is a sensitive subject, by sharing and trying to find humor. Which is exactly what happened. It’s past, I’ve dealt with it, and it’s not a big deal anymore.
Did you read the original post, before you said

or are you just saying

because of what you presume it contained?

Well, I do take offense, specifically because you posted this response. If you had gone about your way and said nothing, and had a distaste for posts like mine, fine. But you made a point to come here and cast aspersions.

If you take the time to read the thread in question, you will find that I was disgusted by the bathroom habits of a fellow human being. If you read further, you will find that I confronted the individual, on as decent terms as possible, and learned that there may be a problem which I didn’t understand before. I came away with a different point of view, and a little more understanding.

Along came someone(borborygmi) who added a lot more humor to what was, essentially, a humorous post.

Then, Astro comes along and says, hey, I used that, and someone liked it!

And I was much impressed.

Now, I have you saying

If you dislike a post, fine. If you disagree with me, fine. It’s still a free country.

But to enter this thread and give a nice resounding “bleah.” when in another thread you yourself wrote

(in relation to fisting, specifically anal fisting)
seems fairly hypocritical to me.

Pardon me if I seem a little flustered. I didn’t come here to make enemies or piss people off, but to voice disaproval of my writing, or my humor, or my life’s experiences, without knowing me, is a little irritating.

b.

(Fisting, by the way, happens to be something I’ve never tried, not because I find it objectionable, or questionable, or even unusual, but because I have REALLY BIG hands!!!)

8

Uhh, Redboss, if you “really don’t want to read in these boards about people’s bathroom habits, or smells, or about their sessions of masturbation at work, or details about any bodily fluids, for that matter”, then I suggest you stick to the tamer forums like “Comments on Cecil’s Columns” or something.

I can’t understand opening a Pit thread & being surprised to find out that it is offensive.

Gene Weingarten was an asshole at Katherine Graham’s funeral, but he can be pretty funny.

9

Actually, Valkyrie and I thought that article was quite funny.

Now we’re gonna have to go write a letter of support to negate this.

Neener! :stuck_out_tongue:

10

<applause>
YAY Billy YAY! It’s your party!
God love ya… you giddy, big-handed southern boy. :slight_smile:

11

T’anx. You know what they say about a guy with big hands and big feet, dontcha?

big gloves, big socks.

b.

12

I hadn’t been keeping an eye on this thread, and honestly I didn’t think anyone would respond to what I said. So I hope this isn’t too late a response.

Billy you have won a STACK of points with me - your reply showed the results of research, was restrained, well written and very funny. I really liked the use of repetition - you are a devil indeed!

I hope you feel welcome and will stick around here, because those are the things that make the discussions here so damn interesting. And, mate, you really make good points.

In fact, as I was writing my contribution to the fisting thread, I was actually thinking that about an hour before I had been making spinsterish noises about anal obsessions in others, and it did make me smile.

Look quite honestly I don’t think I’m a hypocrite (and we KNOW all hypocrites always admit that they are hypocrites, don’t we?), and this is how I would explain it.

The other thread was called “Serious question about health risks in anal sex-play”. Any one reading this title knows what they’re in for and can avoid it if they want, or follow their interest if they want. It was a serious discussion, based on evidence and considered opinions, and I think was a reasonable, if slightly dull, treatment of a subject that is distasteful to many, I know.

But because I may be wanting to clear up ignorance about anal sexual activity, and may even have respect for anal eroticism in general, doesn’t mean I am keen on poohs. I don’t have a faeces fascination at all.

Billy mate if your thread was just called Bathroom Etiquette, I’d have been quite cool about it. It was that “prehensile rectum” thing, and the mental images that it gave me that I just found repulsive. And obviously the thread was popular and stayed on the front page and it’s constant presence began to irritate me.

Well, I did what anyone else should do. Ignored it and went about my own business, read the threads I wanted to, and so on

Because of course people should have the right to talk over this stuff. If I’m not feeling like I need to I just stay away. It might be slightly annoying to have some words or (shudder) images thrust into my consciousness, but, what the hell, I’ll live through it.

Although you must admit there’s been an unusual amount of excrement-oriented threads lately - enemas, and “Do you look when you wipe?” and other stuff that seems less than sophisticated to a middle-aged old ponce like me.

So when I opened astro’s thread about Billy Rubin I really didn’t get the comnnection until - TOO LATE!! there were those ass-tentacles groping around in the toilet bowl in my mind - euugrhh!

And astro was saying how terrific it was that this guy from the Washington Post found it an amusing phrase and I cracked it. so that’s why I said what I did.

It didn’t refer to the actual post about prehensile …things, which I still ain’t read. Just a vote against the phrase, and the approbation of the phrase, which now that I’ve used it so often has lost some of its creepy power.

Thanks for listening, if anyone is indeed listening, and I appreciate all your opinions

EXCEPT…

…for that cold-hearted, evil harpie, Stella*Fantasia, who sentenced me to imprisonment in Comments on Cecil’s Columns!!.

You rotten dominatrix! Revenge may be slow coming your way, but one day it will, and then I’ll make that “bwa ahahahaha” noise and you’ll regret your cruel words. Or my name isn’t…
Redboss

13

Oh, I forgot to say…

bleah!
[sub]hehehehe[/sub]

14

Okay, Redboss, I guess I have to do a little explaining about thread titles in the pit.

See, posting here is mostly about getting people to read what you’ve posted. Else, why bother?

Consequently, the title of a thread must be concise, clear, to the point, and descriptive enough of it’s contents to be inviting to people who want to read it.Let’s see: "Any one reading this title knows what they’re in for and can avoid it if they want, or follow their interest if they want. " I’m sure I’ve heard this somewhere. I find absolutely no distinction whatsoever in the possibility that a serious post about anal sex play would be on it’s surface any less objectionable (to someone) as the thread I started.

Obviously you haven’t read the OP, based on your reply above; it is the height of hypocrisy to condemn something about which you know nothing. So until you read and understand the OP, you are intrisically unqualified to say “bleah”, your “bleah” being by definition confined to the title, which is no less descriptive nor potentially objectionable than many others.

I am not here to make judgements or cast aspersions on peoples lifestyles or interests or handicaps or anything.

When a person casts aspersions on a post I’ve made, in the pit, where such things are apropriate and expected, without even having given me the benefit of having read that which they ostensibly find offensive, it’s easy for me to dismiss that person.

And if you feel you’re “a middle-aged old ponce” then you are. I’m fairly confident I’m older than you, but even if I have fewer hours on the clock I’m sure I have more miles, hard, painful miles. But I have maintained my sense of humor. Though the thought of making contact with someone’s excrement makes me gag, I can certainly laugh about it, and even understand why someone might insert their hand in the mother lode thereof.

Show me you understand what “freedom of speech” is. Show me you understand that just because you find something objectionable, you have no right to cast aspersions on it in any way, so long as my “objectionable” behavior does not harm you in any way, which it does not. You are always free to not read. As am I; I find some things I read here objectionable, but unless they are matters of serious principle which I feel strongly about(serious principle NOT having people’s bathroom habits or sexual orientations or practices ANYWHERE in it’s definition)I politely vote “no comment”. Instead of "it’s constant presence began to irritate me. "

So show me those things. Show me you are capable of humor. Show me you understand the tiniest bit about the subject AFTER you’ve read the OP.

Or be quiet.
Billy Rubin [sub]who would much rather be your friend than enemy. Or for that matter, enema.[/sub]

(error corrected - Jill)

[Edited by JillGat on 08-31-2001 at 08:49 PM]

15

Billy, you crack me the fuck up. You’re always funny when you’re tryin to be, and sometimes who knows if you’re tryin or not. But I’m laughin anyway.

Jill
(who sees no humor in bilirubin.)

16

:slight_smile: gotta keep the audience guessing!

b.

17

Bill mate I think our relations are friendly and marked by mutual respect. But I’m still gonna disagree with you.

Well, no. How about we agree that freedom of speech is the right to say what you like as long as it does not incite hatred, violence or physical harm to others.

Then I can keep saying " I haven’t read this thread but I hate the title", and you can keep saying “well, in that case you’re a fool”.

In real life, after about 40 minutes of that one of us crumbles and says “let’s have a beer” and the argument fades away. Either that or one of us pulls out a knife. Obviously, being the smart jokers we are, we’d go for the beer option.

best regards,

Redboss

18

Ah, clearly, you do not in fact understand.

Freedom of speech is just that. Freedom of speech.

By it’s very definition, freedom of speech is in fact the freedom to speak. Any limitation placed upon that freedom destroys it’s nature, and it is no longer freedom. Freedom of speech is an unconditional incorruptable entity. Everyone is entitled to speak their mind no matter how obtuse or ignorant their opinion is.

You have the right to your opinion. I have the right to mine. I have politely and carefully argued that your objection to my use of free speech as guaranteed me by my constitution was baseless and without merit, as in fact it is, since you have not yet read that which you ostensibly find objectionable.

I have tried. I’m sorry I have failed. Pity, you seemed to hold promise.

Regretfully,

Billy Rubin.[sub]who doesn’t drink other than the very, very rare Guinness, and that only with reasonable people, and never, ever takes a knife to a gunfight.[/sub]