# What were you THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532 "2023-10-13T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 89
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1761 "2024-03-23T11:56:02Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > So you judge the book by its cover? Well, yeah, and your point is…? Should I go to Goodreads or such and check out some reviews instead? [sometimes I do] The back cover blurb is there to CONVINCE me to spring for the thing. If it fails to do that, and in fact backfires, then it has utterly failed to do its job, has it not? Of course, the things are typically Generic Mass Product designed to appeal to the L.C.D., which isn’t me, so OF COURSE the blurbs will be chock full of fantasy cliches, since that is precisely what appeals to such readers. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1762 "2024-03-23T12:00:23Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Well, yeah, and your point is…? Should I go to Goodreads or such and check out some reviews instead? [sometimes I do] The back cover blurb is there to CONVINCE me to spring for the thing. If it fails to do that, and in fact backfires, then it has utterly failed to do its job, has it not? Naw, no criticism intended. I just wanted to throw out the phrase, because I’d never actually gotten a chance to say it IRL to someone who literally does it. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1763 "2024-03-23T12:01:27Z")
OK, I suspected I was being whooshed, and I was, kudos. 😝 ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1764 "2024-03-23T13:57:33Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > You’re a bit late, he died more than 16 years ago. I am sorry about that. I went to a book signing for Knife of Dreams and then later that year he was diagnosed with primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy. Coincidence? You decide `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1765 "2024-03-23T16:26:47Z")
> [@icon](#): > > I am sorry about that. I went to a book signing for Knife of Dreams and then later that year he was diagnosed with primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy. The wheel turns as the wheel wills. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1766 "2024-03-23T23:21:50Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I pretty much stopped reading more modern SF/fantasy a couple of decades ago. I still revisit old faves from time to time, but haven’t sprung for any new stuff. > > Every time the urge to wander into that section of the bookstores seizes me, all it takes to quell the urge is to read the blurb on the back. After retching at all the cliches I invariably see, I put the book back and return to the history or science section to get my reading fix _De gustibus_ and all that, but you really have missed out on some first-rate literature. If Tolkienesque swords-and-sorcery isn’t your thing\*, there’s plenty of non-traditional fantasy to explore. Last year I discovered N. K. Jemison’s _The City We Became_, which is superb; and China Miéville’s novels are bizzare but fascinating (I especially recommend “Embassytown” and “The City and the City”). Charles Stross’ Laundry Files novels are a fun mix of Lovecraftian cosmic horror and satire of government bureaucracy (in one of them, an eldritch assassination is accomplished via PowerPoint presentation). \*If you _are_ willing to try more traditional fantasy, Lois McMaster Bujold’s World of the Five Gods novels and novellas are a fresh take on the genre. I’ve never before read a medievalesque fantasy where the heroine who saves the day, kills the baddie, and rescues the dude in distress is a middle-aged widowed grandmother. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2024, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1767 "2024-03-23T23:43:04Z")
> [@icon](#): > > I went to a book signing for Knife of Dreams and then later that year he was diagnosed with primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy. This being the Pit … Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is really, really rare. It’s a subtype of the rarest category of cardiomyopathy – **[restrictive cardiomyopathy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictive_cardiomyopathy)** (RCM). I have something called Non-Tropical Eosinophilic Endomyocardial Fibrosis – almost unheard of in advanced nations. My restrictive cardiomyopathy looks with envy at cardiac amyloidosis, because CA – relatively speaking – is ubiquitous, gets all the money, gets all the press, and _always_ gets the girl. While I stay passively informed about CA research, it’s for naught. The various subtypes of RCM are _so_ amazingly heterogenous that – just as Jordan explains vis-à-vis the subtypes of CA – what might save one kind of patient might easily kill another. They just bucket all of us RCM subtypes in order to have enough sample size to not sound like idiots. But there’s no extrapolating from one subtype to another. I just read **[a bit about Jordan](https://www.locusmag.com/2006/Features/03JordanLetter.html)** as he embarked on his CA journey at the MN Mayo, and was inspired. Until I looked up his date of death – some 18 months later. RIP, Robert. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1768 "2024-03-24T00:44:30Z")
Robert Jordan is still my favorite author, despite his having shuffled off this mortal coil. Sanderson did some hard work finishing up the series, but you can really tell the parts where he was given a lot of free rein versus those where Jordan already had things nailed down. Those parts of the story REALLY suffer, in my opinion. I just finished a full re-read a couple of months ago; the first time I’ve re-read the Sanderson entries since _A Memory of Light_ released… if anything, after giving it time, I found I liked them _less_, when I expected I’d be less jaded than the first time around. Umm… back to our regularly scheduled Pit stuff… ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1769 "2024-03-24T01:09:20Z")
Robert Jordan is also rather smooth with the commercial break hand jive. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/NsYv7FbSl6Y/hqdefault.jpg "WGN-TV Anchors Robert Jordan and Jackie Bange`s commercial break handshake") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsYv7FbSl6Y) ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1770 "2024-03-24T15:56:49Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I put my finger on this important issue thousands of times in my medical career. help me out - what tissue are you talking about? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1771 "2024-03-24T15:58:43Z")
You! What were you THINKING with that horrible joke! Go to your room! And go get a title like “Sent to my room without Supper” ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1772 "2024-03-24T16:44:09Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > help me out - what tissue are you talking about?. I will give you a hint: “Turn your head and cough please.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1773 "2024-03-24T22:17:23Z")
**Guapo** just flounced off the board with an on-demand request for immediate bannination after he got a warning for threadshitting about trans issues in the Polarization thread in GD. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1774 "2024-03-24T22:22:55Z")
> [@So how do I delete my login? I’m done](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-do-i-delete-my-login-i-m-done/999304): > > So how do I delete my login? I’m done. Started here: > [@Why does everything have to be so polarized these days?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-everything-have-to-be-so-polarized-these-days/998918/66): > > There seems to uneven moderation in this thread. On the one hand abortion and trans rights are off the table, but on the other hand statements like the above are allowed to remain unchallenged. The absolutism in the trans debate has become almost absurd. There are many issues that are unclear to me and the left seem to be careening ahead with no real thought. Not sure if I can even mention it, but criminalizing mis-gendering seems completely unhinged. Sometimes it reminds me of when Jerry Se… And before someone claims otherwise, he was not moderated for his views but for violating very simple board rules. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1775 "2024-03-24T22:31:17Z")
@What_Exit - I know you get dumped on sometimes, so I understand you wanting the pre-emptive defense. But I think you’re good - they were posting apparently not understanding the basic (and revised within their [short] tenure here) rules on topics the board chooses to no longer debate. Though _they_ blamed moderation, perhaps seeing it as a personal attack, rather than an even-handed application of the rules as written. Though again, I doubt W\_E would have had any pushback from the denizens of _this_ thread. So, take a good job 👍, have a 🍺 or 🍻 , and know that some and likely all of us are thinking it was a job needing doing, which you did with a minimum of fuss. Bravo! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1776 "2024-03-24T22:32:17Z")
Zactly. Nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1777 "2024-03-24T22:33:28Z")
@What_Exit is a mod who gives a damn ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2024, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1778 "2024-03-25T00:08:35Z")
We are so spoiled. I found this place before I’d been tempted to try other “social” media, and so never did experience less-modded sites. But when I hear coworkers’ tales of woe, I pity da fools (no, I don’t tell them about this place. They’re not brainiac boffins…). ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2024, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1779 "2024-03-25T01:05:58Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > **Guapo** just flounced off the board with an on-demand request for immediate bannination after he got a warning for threadshitting about trans issues in the Polarization thread in GD. I feel like it has to be posted _somewhere_. His “cite” supporting his claim that we were at risk of criminalizing the misgendering of people was a Newsweek poll of **1,500** people aged 27-42, of whom **44%** agreed with the statement “referring to someone by the wrong gender pronoun (he/him, she/her) should be a criminal offense,” > **[Misgendering should be a crime, according to millennials](https://www.newsweek.com/misgendering-should-crime-according-millennials-1813178)** > > Among Americans as a whole, most think it should be legal to call someone by the wrong pronouns. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2024, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/1780 "2024-03-25T01:06:13Z")
It also suggests he wasn’t listening to people who were trying to say that not all “extremes” are bad. It’s not hypocritical to have some things where you think the extremes are okay. Heck, that’s what the statement he quoted said. He seemed more interesting in calling people out than listening. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=88) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=90)