Good morning!
Since Harvey retired — oh, here’s a reminder to hit the “Helping Out Harvey” button in the sidebar — we’ve been trying to come up with a way of keeping content available to you, the Loyal Reader and Most Exalted Member of the Society for the Nuking of the Moon.
For the last several years, Harvey carried almost the entire load at IMAO. Frank’s family life — and his jobs to actually put food on the table for his family — have taken most of his time away from this blog that he started so many years ago. Harvey did the heavy lifting.
Along the way, I came along and contributed a thing or two here and there. Most of my work with IMAO has been behind the scenes, keeping updates in place, and solving issues such as countering hackers and the like. My own personal blog has gone to practically nothing, and my online contributions here are slight.
Oppo has taken up the challenge of writing the most posts, and it’s been quite a challenge for him. He came on board as an occasional contributor, but with Harvey’s retirement, he has stepped up and kept the posts coming. He had to go from “how do you log in to WordPress” to being the primary face of IMAO in practically no time at all. He has my respect and utmost thanks. He deserves yours, too.
Not wanting to leave Oppo with the load that Harvey pulled over the years, I’ve tried to contribute some more. Of course, with my life and work — I have a life, believe it or not, and yes, somebody actually pays me for showing up; go figure — it’s difficult. I don’t have quite the responsibilities Frank has — all of my children are grown — but I don’t have anywhere near the talent Frank has either.
I’ve continued to post nightly Open Thread posts. They’re not as popular as they used to be and I’m uncertain how much longer we’ll keep them. I’ll talk more about those some time during an Open Thread post.
I’ve added a daily Time Machine post. A blast from the past, if you will. Harvey wanted to share some of the older posts, and I’ve been doing that.
And, I’ve added these morning posts. Which I finally get around to talking about.
On special days — there’s one coming up next week, for instance — I’ve often posted something about that day. I’m just posting stuff to open the day. If I have something to talk about, I intended to do it there. But, when I don’t have something to talk about, or if I’m in a hurry or just don’t have much time, I decided to post something about the day in history. Well, it’s turned into pretty much just that. It wasn’t the intent going in, but it’s become that.
The downside is that there’s no funny stuff most of the time. It’s just historical stuff. Which is cool, but doesn’t really fit the whole theme of the blog: conservative humor. Yes, most conservatives have a love and appreciation of history, but there’s not a lot of humor in many things from history. Jerry Lewis tried with the holocaust, and that didn’t work well. (Okay, it wasn’t a comedy film, but it did have Jerry Lewis as a clown, so I’m counting it.)
Anyway, I’m not certain if I should keep doing history stuff in the morning. I’m taking this morning to talk about stuff here on the blog, and despite all that background stuff at the beginning, isn’t really history. I didn’t even mention that it’s the anniversary of the end of the Apollo program.
I just wanted you to be aware that I’m not really sure how to start the day. There’s not a lot to be said for waking up with me in the morning. Just ask my ex-wife.
It likely is time to sunset this blog. Indeed, without Harvey and Frank, the whole point and attraction of this blog is gone, despite the efforts to keep it limping on.
LMAO had a good run, but let it die with dignity.
If there’s anyone you should listen to, it’s someone who doesn’t even know the name of the blog.
Typo. Doesn’t negate the point.
Blarg put it more elegantly and with more detail, but it is reality. I, too, only come from habit, and a hope it would recover.
But it is a cadaver now.
Sad…but true.
Yeah, but read on down and you’ll see that Blarg later said “Basil for President.” Do we really need that?
I much prefer Basil for President and not Basil for President.
I say Nay to closing the blog. There is still much mirth to be had and interacting with adults online is a pleasure.
There’s a giant sign on the moon that says…..
Don’t close down IMAO.
I’ve been reading this blog for a long time. I’d venture to say since almost the beginning.
I still come on and read and comment, but the last few years have been mostly out of habit. It’s an old comfortable place, but it’s a blog with no direction and no purpose other than to exist now. For a humor blog it’s not really that funny anymore.
I think at this point it’s running mostly because some old timers are used to reading it. Like a long-running sitcom that has long since jumped the shark. The writers have run out of ideas, everybody’s having a baby, Cousin Oliver has shown up and Ted McGinley has joined the cast.
For me the “jump the shark” moment was when Harvey announced that “YGDFT!YLTATSOTE” is no longer welcome here because some people might get offended.
Really? a conservative humor blog afraid of offending someone? To me that’s when IMAO lost its teeth. That’s when it stopped being truly funny. That’s when it bowed to political correctness, albeit a much softer fuzzier version of it as it stemmed from a place a lot of us agreed with. It felt like I was politely asked to leave and I was no longer welcome. I still visited from time to time, but considered myself an outsider after that.
Although I would hate to see it go, I think it’s time for it to go. Frank, and I mean the “younger carefree funny Frank”, not the current “employed with a family Frank who is too busy to be funny” was the true voice of this blog. Harvey did a decent job of maintaining the status quo, but now it feels like IMAO is the blog version of Weekend at Bernie’s…and I don’t mean the socialist.
I’ll likely keep popping in as long as it’s running, old habits die hard, but I honestly don’t see the point of it anymore. Rather than continuing to prop up someone else’s project which has been long abandoned except for plugging a book now and then, I think all of you “guest bloggers” could probably use your talents to much greater effect pursuing your own blogs/writing projects rather than dragging this albatross around.
I know that’s some tough words right there, but they come from someone who really does love this blog.
YGDFT!YLTATSOTE!
I don’t recall Harvey doing anything but encouraging “YGDFT!YLTATSOTE!” I’m not addressing the rest of your comments — they are indeed food for thought, particularly for Frank — but I’m not recalling Harvey ever said “YGDFT!YLYATSOTE!” wasn’t welcome, for any reason. Yes, he did say the meme joke had run it’s course, and he wouldn’t play along anymore. Is that what you were talking about? If so, I didn’t take that as giving in to any pressure.
https://www.imao.us/index.php/2013/06/ygdftyltatsote-the-wrap-up/
To Harvey, it was a humorous response to a comment screamer, who uttered the words. We all ran with it, and memes were posted, and everyone but the Original Utterer were amused. Well, maybe not everyone.
I think the Queen of England wasn’t amused, but I could be wrong on that.
The controversy was around invoking God causing some readers’ sphincters to pucker and there were requests to drop it on those grounds. Perhaps the decision to demonetize it had nothing to do with those requests.
And for the record, it’s STILL funny.
I hereby declare “YGDFT!YLTATSOTE!” an acceptable response for, well, anything.
Of course, I don’t have the authority to declare something acceptable or not. I have the power, just not the authority.
The only things not allowed are certain words that the internal filters will catch. That’s not in the list.
The words that are in the list will cause the comment to be moderated until me, Oppo, or Frank approves, rejects(deletes), or edits and approves the comment. I’ll usually replace the objectionable word with enough asterisks to obscure it, but still let everyone know what was actually said.
Is that a good approach? What would be a better approach?
Kaishakunin!
Basil for President!!
well…maybe not right now. How about Prime Minister of Canada? They can use some help.
I don’t even think Canadia is a real place.
Is it really time to uncork that bottle of 1896 Hennessy Cognac?
I think of it as crowdsourcing.
There is weird stuff happening in the world.
If someone just brings up a topic, then the commenters here chime in if they have a funny, useful, sarcastic, or personal take on it. That’s what I come here for.
Yes, FrankJ is a master at all those kinds of zingers, as Harvey was, but I get laughs every day from reading the Moon Nuker comments on topics. And I get exposure to a variety of adult viewpoints (. . . in both senses of that word “adult.”). So I think the Open Threads should continue, since anyone can get something off their chest, which others then can riff on. I throw weirdo random things into the mix just to get the reactions.
You Anarchist bomb thrower you!
Alien Kaishakunin TATSOTE
A.K. a TATSOTE!
Now I have to create a new “Weirdo Random Things” category.
Well strange news stories from around the world (or is that across a flat Earth?) would be interesting.
You sure he wasn’t referring to stuff you send him?
I send nothing to Basil, it all goes to Basil.