Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Thanks a lot, pal. Now, everyplace I’ve ever worked…minus the places where they can’t remember me and don’t care about me (which is probably most of ’em), will be clipping this out and sticking it on the wall. Thanks huge.
Well, there’s a lesson here. Obviously there’s something about that first name. I can tell you it’s not an ordinary experience going through life with it. Beyond that, I can’t say much. Except to promise nobody, anywhere, is ever gonna say “Naw that doesn’t fit the Morgan I know at all…he’s always had great communication skills!” That’s not going to get said.
One thing does jump out at me though. I’ve had my share of dust-ups with people through the years. But the overall pattern for such conflict, especially the conflict that is rooted in differences in communication styles — which is most of them, I think — has been that I’m the guy in glasses. As in, “Waitaminnit, am I really the only one in this room who sees ambiguity here?” Situations such as this, provide the inspiration for Thing I Know #291: Some folks see ambiguity where there is none. These seem to be the same people who don’t see it when it’s there.
I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective. And, I suppose further, I should be pleased to see that surreal Christian name of mine used as a predominantly masculine handle. Four decades of showing the world what it’s all about, maybe they’re finally catching on.
Scott Adams, thanks again. I gotcher communication skills, right here.
Update 1/1/10: Here are the strips from 12/28, 12/29 and 1/1.
That jackass he’s talking to today, I wonder if that’s still “Morgan”? Haircut seems different, and the tie is different. Same loathing of specifics though. Hey, Scott Adams, I am confused by the ambiguity in your comic strip. Your communication skills are being found wanting. And unlike me, you actually do this for a living, so stick that one where the sun don’t shine.
I’m impressed by this observation of his, that details are avoided by people who have “no communication skills.” As I indicated up above, my experience has been precisely the flip-side of this; people with “excellent communication skills,” I call them “Guy Smileys,” always at the ready with the newest hot business cliche from a trade magazine, never show a shred of talent for making something actually work — and they know all the tricks to keep the decision-makers from noticing that.
And because they’re never under any actual, personal burden to make something work, they take in the entire world in terms of an emotional vibe. Because they can afford to. They are the first to form an opinion, and to voice it most forcefully, without any hint of hesitation or doubt…because they can afford to. And because this forms their entire working methodology, they react to specifics the way a vampire reacts to a cross. And when they take on something that absolutely, positively has to work — and break it — they get all pissed off at the next guy for fixing it.
Mr. Adams and I are having an Inigo Montoya moment with that phrase “communication skills.” I do not think it means what he thinks it means. In my world, it is “If you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance baffle ’em with bullshit,” and this Morgan is pleased and proud not to have them.
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Oh yea, try be a youngster in 1971 and having a song about cannibalism named after you –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGNdvKvbxYQ&feature=player_embedded#
Good times…
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Happy New Years Morgan, and all who visit the House of Erasethoseknees, see ya in ’10.
- tim | 12/30/2009 @ 15:34LOL – that’s great. 🙂 At least you’re not from Elbonia…
- Daniel | 12/30/2009 @ 17:41Linked you at Effingconservatives for four letter reasons, obviously.
- smitty1e | 12/30/2009 @ 19:39Happy New Year, small-tee and all the other nobodies.
Smitty, that’s a fucking great site, you should’ve mentioned it before.
- mkfreeberg | 12/31/2009 @ 07:24Smitty, shame on you for hiding that fucking gem.
Morgan, do you know what image pops into my mind every time I read your name?
http://www.greengablesmorganfarm.com/
- Daphne | 12/31/2009 @ 13:02…and you don’t strike me as the kind of a guy who would drive a Morgan.
- vvp39 | 01/01/2010 @ 10:21Yes, and it’s Welsh for water-dweller, and German for “morning,” and…and…and. Conversation always goes the same, I have to find a tactful way of saying “You know, there’s a certain number of years after which this becomes monotonous, and forty-three is more than whatever that number is by a good stretch.” There is no tactful way of saying it, so I end up being the asshole and I didn’t even create the situation.
This is why, when I order a Jamba Juice and they want my name, it’s “Sam.” Conversations about first names represent the ultimate in vapidity. It’s a shame people are trying to make an impression on me, and the impression they really leave is the opposite of what they want. I should’ve put that on my What Gave You Away list, I don’t know why I left it off.
- mkfreeberg | 01/01/2010 @ 10:49[…] That’s easy. You develop a pattern of communicating that is so incomprehensible and wretched that smartass cartoonists start making fun of your first name. […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 06/27/2010 @ 08:10