25 thoughts on “Spam

  1. Did you try whitelisting your regular ensemble cast and setting all other comments to moderation only? A minor inconvenience to new commenters, but most people are used to it anyway, as many blogs work that way already. That’s what I’d do.

  2. I can understand. I quit blogging on any sort of a regular basis when I began to realize it was all the same shit being said over and over again. And politics and power mongering elites just aren’t that interesting.

    I’ve been reading a lot of stuff on canning and preserving. As a result I made some hella good salsa from my garden tomatoes and peppers this year. Had one guy tell me I should slap a label on the jars, sell it and let him invest. Sadly I had to inform him that there’s no commercially viable way to make salsa that good. The vine ripened tomatoes, carefully selected peppers and individual care that goes into making it just isn’t conducive to commercial exploitation.

    But it did make me think… why do people always start looking for a way to make money on everything? I think that’s a clue as to what is wrong with this culture.

    Take care Michael. And do come back and write up a post once or twice a year or whenever the feeling takes you.

  3. Jiminy Effing Crickets! I hope it wasn’t that comment I made!

    You do know how many people look up to you, hanging on your beautifully wrought words (why do I want to say “wroughten”) for a glimpse into what it means to be a capable human? Other people are reading you, beyond the already fluent IOZ’s of the world. Have a heart. Your writing is magic. If it disappears, it’s irreplaceable. Who do you suppose is the Michael Smith in the wings? It ain’t me, baby. If you quit, I’m balling my eyes out, like I was losing a million-year-old coral reef. And I’m just sick of losing.

    It’s been an awesome blog.

    I say everyone get a good night’s sleep before rendering judgment.

  4. I must have missed the spam or maybe I don’t recognize it when I see it. If you, Mr.Smith, are planning a departure from this space, give us a little unambiguous sign and interval of warning so that the long time readers can express their gratitude in fulsome prose for the many interesting posts they have read here over the years.

    Something has happened to the site since paine and schumann abandoned regular (or any) participation. Do they really not exist as separate identities? Could they not return to stir up commentary? I miss them greatly.

    If any of my comments have been “spam”, I apologize. At least some of the other contributors seemed to appreciate some of them.

    I wish you the very best going forward.
    K.C. Gilbert as “Boink” and rather quite a few other handles, now retired.

    • Neither Paine nor Schumann was a sockpuppet for me. I know Paine in the 3D world; Schumann not; but the latter was certainly not me. Even if I suffered from multiple personality disorder, which we do not, no personality hosted in my skull CPU could ever have come up with the wonderful stuff he contributed. I miss them both.

      • Thanks for the clarification. I thought that such was the case but some joking around back at about the time of the change to the new software made me wonder if you were doing Schumann’s stuff (though not Paine’s).

        I hope that Schumann is doing well and would appreciate it if he would send us up a flare before this fading tavern closes down.

  5. MJS — NO, YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO STOP.
    THERE HAS BEEN NO SPAM
    YOU HAVE A BOAT SEA
    SPRAY AND PLANKTON
    TO SPEAK
    ABOUT

    PARTICULARLY AS YOU TAKE IT DOWN THE WATER
    WAY FINALLY CROSSING THE BAHAMA BANKS
    AND TONGUE OF THE OCEAN TO
    TIE UP FOR A BIT IN NASSAU

    WHERE YOU MIGHT TRY LOCATING AN
    OLD ONCE [IN]FAMOUS BAR CALLED
    DIRTY DICKS WHICH ENTRANCE
    WAS [IS?] A ONE HUNDRED
    FOOT TUNNEL

    RETURNING STOP AT N END OF ANDROS
    [MORGANS BLUFF] WHERE YOU MAY
    FIND CENTURIES’ OLD SPANISH
    CANNON BURIED IN THE BEACH

    MIGHT ALSO TRY BIMINI AND
    ASK IF A GUY CALLED RED
    HAMMER IS STILL ALIVE

    HE WOULD TELL YOU TO CON
    TINUE ‘HAMMERING’ OUT
    BLOG ARTICLES OF IN
    TEREST AND WONDER
    FUL PROSE
    ——————–

  6. Oh, you guys. Gals. Whatever. You made my day. Month. Year.

    Thanks for the more than kind words.

    I slogged through and expunged the spam comments, and I’m keeping an eye out. Had a couple of good suggestions about measures one might take.

    Sorry I’ve had so little to say of late. One seems to go through these spells of drought.

  7. Yes I would have to echo the sentiments expressed above (although not nearly as eloquently); this is excellent and quite humorous writing you post on here and have it set to my favorites bar at work to help me get through the drudgery of corporate servitude. Please reconsider!

  8. Good riddance to bad rubbish! I would have said get out while you’re still ahead but, let’s face it, that would be a HUGE lie and from what little I’ve been able to glean from this pile of rubbish, it would seem that you appreciate honesty. Well, at least honesty towards other people.

    Just kidding! Mike or Michael or MJS or ‘guy who writes boring, esoteric blog’ or whatever you would like, you have to understand that while you may accurately perceive yourself as a simpleton with a soap box, this soap box of yours has become in my opinion a bit of a life raft for those of us that created a sort of loose congregation of blog fellow travelers. Over the last year it seems that a lot of blogs shut up shop but I always knew that I could head over to SMBIVA and get that hard headed political contrarianism that I so desperately need.

    I still find your posts to be extremely thought provoking, especially the recent ones on gender issues. What I like most about your writing is that you convey your current opinion based on what you now know, yet it’s clear that you still question your position, not in a wishy washy way but in a still trying to find the truth way.

    Anyway, if you are closing shop, you could at least provide a better farewell than this piece of shit!

  9. Ok, I admit that when I first read Comrade Smith’s announcement, I thought he was just blowing steam and he wasn’t really gonna close down the shop. But I came back a few days later only to find out that the comrades out there are already saying farewell. Oh no! This can’t be happening! And here I was planning on sending him my reportage (or shall we say, my own personal saga!) on the Canadian Health Care system. What’s a woman to do with her latest update on the Quebec Charter of Islamophobia!

    All kidding aside, I do want to express my gratitude for your excellent writing, sharp critique of the system, and above all, your great sense of humor, which is normally missing from the DNA of your garden variety leftist.

  10. F that “all or nothing” s***. Leave it as dormant as you like and stop by whenever the spirit moves you.

    ***unless “as dormant as you like” means “nothin'”–in which case, alles Gute! I have appreciated your e-presence, as well, and you would be missed. (Which is worse, the knowing or the not knowing?)

  11. —-”But it did make me think… why do people always start looking for a way to make money on everything? I think that’s a clue as to what is wrong with this culture.”

    Sorry to be so mechanical but production for sale [commodification] is a basis for capital, which also expands that type of production and its product, commodities.
    Sale and purchase are facilitated through use of a universal equivalent, money — more money then might be seen as a means of increasing ‘realizable’ choice.
    Same time, purchase can provide the illusion of overcoming alienation created in the production process.
    A ‘consumer society’ would seem to be one within which many individuals suffer alienation [from themselves//others].

    MJS – Hope the above does not dent the thread.

Leave a Reply