schmuck

November 29th, 2023

Ladies and gentlemen, the Cosmic Schmuck Principle.


Discussion (12)¬

  1. E.A. Blair says:
    November 29, 2023 at 2:58 pm

    That sounds like John Cleese’s assertion that “…if you’re very, very stupid, how can you possibly realize that you’re very, very stupid? You’d have to be relatively intelligent to understand how stupid you are.”

  2. Bob Seidensticker says:
    November 29, 2023 at 6:28 pm

    This seems to be related to the Dunning-Kruger effect. (see more on Wikipedia)

  3. Succubus ov Satan says:
    November 29, 2023 at 7:27 pm

    are we seeing a significant decrease in intellect with each new ‘prophet’
    Moses : Jesus : Mo : Joseph Smith : Trump

  4. Josh says:
    November 29, 2023 at 7:27 pm

    Interesting idea. I tried to think about some monumental thing that I’ve been a schmuck about, couldn’t think of anything, but then I realized that I think that about myself all the time; it’s typically a feature of depression.

  5. tfkreference says:
    November 29, 2023 at 9:44 pm

    “Being dead is like being stupid; it’s only painful to those around you.”
    -Ricky Gervais

    “Of course I have regrets; if you don’t regret doing stupid things, it means you’re stupid.”
    -Phyllis Diller

  6. M27Holts says:
    November 30, 2023 at 7:54 am

    I got lost up mount Ainos in Kefalonia in 35c heat. But fortunately found myself a road, where a ranger who had been alerted by the islands police found me before nightfall. The Mrs wasn’t impressed, nor was the islands police chief, who gave me a telling off fof wandering about up a mountain alone without a compass…I suppose that was a bit silly of me…

  7. paradoctor says:
    November 30, 2023 at 7:37 pm

    I do admit that I’m a fool, but I hope not a _complete_ fool. I’m wise enough to partially realize my folly. I wasn’t born yesterday; I was born the day _before_ yesterday.

  8. Maurie Beck says:
    December 1, 2023 at 6:14 am

    Here is an article in the New York Times about a giant rat thought extinct in the Solomon Islands. It was rediscovered through the knowledge of the local villagers. It mentions indigenous knowledge, something of a bête noire for Jerry Coyne.

    Dr. Coyne is strident in his aversion to substituting indigenous ways of knowing for science. To a certain extent I agree. But he often makes it sound like he dismisses local knowledge out of hand. I’m sure he doesn’t mean that, since he knows that learning the natural history of organisms in field studies is often ibest accomplished by talking to locals with their lifetime of knowledge.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/science/giant-rat-solomon-islands.html

  9. M27Holts says:
    December 1, 2023 at 9:17 am

    Giant Rats? Nah that just an bunch of escaped feral scousers…

  10. OtterBe says:
    December 1, 2023 at 2:58 pm

    Anyone else immediately think of The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra by Firesign Theatre? It arrived when I was 9, and I blame it for the ensuing years of punful punishments I have inflicted upon those around me.

    Knowing how self-involved Mo is, the punchline here was quite predictable, but it’s Good Stuff nonetheless

  11. postdoggerel says:
    December 9, 2023 at 5:30 am

    I will always be in thrall
    to that first neanderthal
    who was the very first to brew
    what’s well known to me and you
    as fulsome, natural ethanol.

    and let us not be in a rush
    or forget the burning bush
    whose emanations from on high
    caused multitudes to swoon and sigh
    and made the poets croon and gush.

    drinking from a wooden cup,
    cheers, old chap, bottoms up.
    it’s good times at the cock and bull
    with whisky, ale, wine, and mull.
    excuse me while I quaff my sup.

    so now I end my useless ditty;
    be moderate, or you’ll feel shitty.

  12. OtterBe says:
    December 12, 2023 at 10:46 pm

    Cheers,
    postdoggerel!

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