So I was sitting in MPSIMS and I had this great idea for a thread. It came to me as I was looking through GD and saw a couple of “gay”-related threads. I thought:
Self, let’s go over to MPSIMS and create a thread called “Yet another Gay Thread”, and in the message we’ll post one line only: “This thread is gay.”
Won’t that be flippin’ hilarious!!! HAHAHAHA!!!
Then I decided not to, mostly because I really didn’t think it was that funny. Which got me on the idea of this thread. A thread about threads that never happened. What might have been, as it were.
So I humbly put the question to you, fellow Dopers: What threads have you almost started, but ultimately forsaken?
One that I thought was a good idea but I didn’t post was a question asking if top athletes are born or made (i.e. if you took an average amateur recreational athlete and gave them the best coaches, equipment, facilities, etc., and sponsored them so their sport was basically their job, could they eventually make it to world-class levels, or is there some innate limit they would hit and could never overcome unless they were lucky enough to be born with good genes?). I decided not to post it because I’m certain the thread would spiral into a “blacks are natural athletes/there’s no such thing as race” pissing contest, a nitpicking over the definition of “sport”, or a debate over the social value of pro sports.
Usually though, the reason I don’t start a particular thread is because someone else has already done one, often at the same time. For example, I was going to rant in the Pit about how I couldn’t find swim goggles in July because sporting goods stores have packed away all their swimming stuff to make room for winter hunting equipment. But today somebody else started this similar thread, so I just posted a comment to that one instead.
I thought about starting a MPSIMS thread gloating about the fact that Pucette, Gadarene and I waited in line for many, many hours in Central Park last Saturday, starting at 3:45 a.m., to see a free performance of The Seagull. Written by Chekhov, adapted by Tom Stoppard, directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Marcia Gay Harden, John Goodman, Natalie Portman, Christopher Walken, Kevin Kline, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Meryl Streep. And it was amazing. Top that!
About a week after Scylla started a thread to tell us about his serious wolf-ass, I had a similar experience that involved jalapeno poppers on Thursday and fried jalapeno bites on Friday. I was going to start a follow-up thread, but interest in the original had pretty much faded away, so I didn’t even bother making it a reply in the original thread.
That actually might have been interesting. I just recently moved up to northern new england, so I have now met some Quebecers (that’s their term) and I’m curious. I am, however, too lazy to do my own research on the subject.
I have thought about starting a “ask the gun guys” thread, where we could clear up some of people’s many. many misconceptions about guns and the existing laws, without geting into a gun control debate. But I don’t know whether the gungrabbers would be able to resist flaming me, and hijacking the thread.
Any number of times I could have started a “YOU CAN ALL BITE ME” thread. It would have covered everyone: the entire Dope, the rest of the internet, everyone I know, and everyone I don’t. Essentially an expression of the inexpressible. I didn’t post it for the same reason nobody else did: it passes, and you feel better.
Instead I chose one of my besieging foes at random and launched this. Felt a whole lot better and the girl never even knew it…
