Comments on: Too rude?

By: Top Posts « WordPress.com

Top Posts « WordPress.com — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:32:36 +0000

[...] Too rude? Kieran sent me this. I am sorely tempted to use it when people email me to ask, what is your telephone number, mailing [...] [...]

By: silbey

silbey — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:03:27 +0000

You know it strikes me that Eric will be dead for several weeks before he actually starts looking older than, oh, about 12.

By: grackle

grackle — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:53:19 +0000

okay: challenge: use google to find my blog

OK, second item on first Google page. It really wasn’t hard. On the other hand, is it gratifying to be rude in regard to the little exasperations of this modern life? If so, go for it.

By: eric

eric — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:47:25 +0000

The link did not give the information requested

It did for me.

By: びっくり

びっくり — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:36:23 +0000

Rather oblique, no? The link did not give the information requested; it seems more like you are trying to show off your credentials. I assume that had I poked around that page, I might have found a “contact” link. Really, I don’t understand why people feel a need to be rude nowadays. Simply answering the question would not take anymore time than finding out how to send them this link and waiting for their embarrassed, hurt, or perhaps, confused response. I hope more people find ways to take the high road.

By: ben

ben — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:34:52 +0000

Is this it? And would you really not trust what you read on the departmental web page for eric? At that rate there's little reason to trust what you read in his email to you.

By: aanteladda

aanteladda — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:31:40 +0000

Sometimes I just don’t trust what I read. I’d rather check before I invested time and effort in anything. It would be rather stupid to send a message to a dud email Id and wait a fortnight for a reply. Easier to call and check details.
Ever been interviewed by a journalist and woken up the next morning to an article that only vaguely sounds like what you told the person? As they say, when you hear two witness accounts of a traffic accident, you begin to worry about history!

okay: challenge: use google to find my blog
It does not do everything, you know. And familiarity makes it look easy for you, not everybody.

By: fourthreichisrael

fourthreichisrael — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:30:26 +0000

I never give my e-mail address or phone number to acquaintances or strangers.
Stranger – danger.
Especially in the electronic age, even more so. People post addresses and phone numbers as well as e-mails on the net if they happen to not like your politics or for spammers who use the information to steal identities and money.

By: brendalynn

brendalynn — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:30:05 +0000

I sincerely hope no one emails you to ask you for your email address ;)

equal & opposite complaint: When someone writes in an email that you can find this or that file (which they are responsible for) by Googling it. Dude, just send the URL if someone asks, or mention at least the domain name where it’s available. But I think that complaint is based on my experience of being a fervent Google-user; eg, I’ve already Googled it, and am only emailing you b/c it’s not indexed somehow.

By: eric s.

eric s. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:45:23 +0000

If they haven’t learned to use google yet, they’ll just be confused and frightened by animation.

I’ve known people who would shut down their computers (fearing a virus or something similar!) if they saw that.

On the other hand, normally savvy people who are just having a Bush moment might find it amusing.

By: raspberryaunt

raspberryaunt — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:40:16 +0000

As someone outside the academy who has occasional need to contact professors, I have a slightly different take. I routinely find people by Googling them, but I never take for granted that I can actually reach them via the contact information provided on the university webpage. I’ve had people (ones who wanted to talk to me) specifically ask me to use different contact information, or — in one case — tell me they were intentionally ignoring all e-mails to their campus account and that I should phone them instead. I’d argue for giving the benefit of the doubt to anyone who could plausibly just be checking to make sure they have a valid way to get through to you.
That said, I’m sure that some of the senders are as clueless or lazy as their actions make them seem. And I’ve been taken aback by some calls from journalists too. If I can find the answer they’re looking for in under five minutes using a publicly-accessible database, shouldn’t they be able to find it too? Especially when said answer is in an article their own newspaper published a few years ago?

By: chris y

chris y — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:35:30 +0000

Should be used selectively. Taking the piss out of the old, the dumb and the poor who don’t live on line is not cool. Among equals, however, it’s close to perfect (unless those equals are on an appointments committee for a job you want).

By: jazzbumpa

jazzbumpa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:45:13 +0000

I get yhour pint. That’s why I don’t play guitarrh.

By: Michael Turner

Michael Turner — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:18:30 +0000

Did I say thumbfingered, too? I never make mitakes like that,

By: jazzbumpa

jazzbumpa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:30:37 +0000

Ooops. That’s Tom Hull.

By: jazzbumpa

jazzbumpa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:29:40 +0000

I cleverly tried Michael’s search criteria. The 4th link “Ton Hull” brings it all together, more or less.

His November 18th entry “Jazz Prospecting” includes a review of “The James Moody and Hank Jones Quartet: Our Delight (2006 [2008], IPO).” Quote: “I’m not very familiar with Moody, but he sounds suave and polished.”

Then, the November 18th entry “End of an Epoch, Birth of Another” discusses Michael Lind’s Salon article “Obama and the Dawn of the Fourth Republic.” This includes a 72 year cyclic accordion view of American history, with the prediction we are now entering a federal government expansionist phase.

Lind’s 72 (+/-) year cycles divide roughly into half govt expansion, half small govt/libertarian contraction. He attributes the expansions to stages of technological and economic development.

Could just as easily be astrology, Elliott waves, or the gyrations of some other cosmic pendulum. But, hey I’m just a trombone player.

By: cathy

cathy — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:43:07 +0000

Prof. Rauchway is cute – can I have his phone number?

By: jazzbumpa

jazzbumpa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:42:21 +0000

Michael -
Foolish, ignorant, wrong-headed, pedestrian, shallow — sure!

But, “not very clever?!?”

Please!

By: jim

jim — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:29:20 +0000

During the whole intern business, I used to get calls from journalists looking for Linda Tripp’s lawyer, working their way methodically through the phone book until they found him.

Never underestimate the power of dumb plodding if carried on for long enough.

By: Robert Waldmann

Robert Waldmann — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:21:24 +0000

magnifico. straordinario. In particular, because google.com redirects me to google.it so the script sneared at me in Italian. Now how do I get to the real google (google.it doesn’t have google scolare for example) ? That’s not so obvious.