Althouse: "The Most Emailed 'New York Times' Article Ever."

January 21, 2011

"The Most Emailed 'New York Times' Article Ever."

I noticed this the other day, but Instapundit beating me over the head with it got me to read it. Hilariously apt.

46 comments:

Joan said...: OK, I got to the quote from Dr. Brown, laughed, and bailed. A much more rewarding link than yesterday's list. (If anyone reads the whole thing and finds it worth it, let me know & I'll revisit.); 1/21/11, 7:11 PM
Ann Althouse said...: It's most funny if you actually read the NYT. Actually, it's a lot like Stuff White People Like.; 1/21/11, 7:18 PM
Penny said...: I hesitate to be the first commenter, given how screwed up my Althouse links have been recently.

Normally I would Google to find if my link was the same as the link to this NYT's piece, but hey!

It's the weekend. We go with the flow. ;)

Right?; 1/21/11, 7:20 PM
rcocean said...: "We've always let Anna pursue her dreams, but we like to be able to visit wherever they may take her," counters Anna's mother, who has accompanied her daughter on long trips to Uganda, Bangladesh and the Mississippi Delta.

Ha. Yep, very New York Timesy.; 1/21/11, 7:20 PM
Penny said...: Ohhh...Gosh I'm slow. Not the first commenter!

Good news is that I didn't comment on the Althouse link I got. Already I know it's the wrong link. :(

So...um...I'll just be *over there* again until I can figure out what you're talking about.; 1/21/11, 7:25 PM
rcocean said...: Too often I can't tell whether I'm reading the "New York Times" or the "Onion".; 1/21/11, 7:29 PM
coketown said...: Most amusing about the article was that it was a "most e-mailed" article, which skewers the New York Times readership far more than the newspaper itself. I can see why the New York Times' circulation is deteriorating faster than Robert Byrd: they assume the types of people who use the "e-mail to a friend" feature proportionally represent their entire readership. That's why more and more articles are trending precipitously to the esoteric, which in turn only appeal to those individuals who fancy themselves open-minded and eternally curious about ALL aspects of the world--which is to say, Salon readers.; 1/21/11, 7:34 PM
DaLawGiver said...: Ibex is good eats. Here in Texas because feral ibex cause so much damage to agriculture interests they are considered pests and we hunt them year round. Usually we hunt them from helicopters with AK-47s but I have trained my dogs to tree them so I can shoot them with my Barrett 50 cal.; 1/21/11, 7:38 PM
Penny said...: OK, back. At least I know I am getting the same link from both Althouse and Instapunk, well...because they take me to the same story.

Still haven't determined if it is REALLY the wrong link, because Instapunk says it's "parody".

Althouse says it's a lot like "Stuff White People Like". That's a website. I know that much!

Not gonna Google here...it's the weekend...but does anyone else know if the website "Stuff White People Like" is a parody?; 1/21/11, 7:38 PM
rhhardin said...: The NYT would not get the plural of ibex wrong.; 1/21/11, 7:41 PM
Penny said...: "Too often I can't tell whether I'm reading the "New York Times" or the "Onion"."

I read the NYT's once in a while, but never the Onion.

It's the weekend, so not Googling, rcocean, but I am left to understand that the Onion is like the NYT's, just not read as much?; 1/21/11, 7:45 PM
mariner said...: rhhardin,

Why not? They get everything else wrong.; 1/21/11, 7:48 PM
Penny said...: Going to let mariner and rhhardin fight this one out.

Lawgiver made me hungry. :P; 1/21/11, 7:52 PM
Fred4Pres said...: It must be a parody.; 1/21/11, 8:13 PM
Ann Althouse said...: It's a parody!

If you just glance at it, you'll be confused. If you read it, it's fine parody of the NYT.; 1/21/11, 8:23 PM
Chase said...: Anyone else hear that Keith Olbermann is fired and did his last Countdown tonight?

THAT will be the most emailed story tomorow . . .; 1/21/11, 8:24 PM
JAL said...: So did she start to study Mandarin when she was 6 months old? (Or is it a dialect they speak?)

I sped read it and probably missed that part.(Loved the "drawing water from the well" in the Catskills part.); 1/21/11, 8:24 PM
traditionalguy said...: At long last. A normal child with a normal family. Let's hope Palin doesn't get her shot by a gun nut too. Really, she sounds like a Saint in a Midieval story. I can't wait to read the next installment...like the Hardy Boys series running in the NYT.; 1/21/11, 8:30 PM
David said...: My personal favorite among a blizzard of great one liners:

In Biblical times, men and women regularly lived for hundreds of years,” says Levin. “If we ate as our ancestors did, there’s no reason why modern man cannot do the same.; 1/21/11, 8:42 PM
Fred4Pres said...: David, that article was full of so much funny stuff, I am not even sure where to begin.; 1/21/11, 8:46 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: It reads like a NYT article..

I liked this bit..
..the Center for Canine Cognition..

There are so many articles and movies about teaching monkeys how to talk, read and write..

Its funny.; 1/21/11, 8:51 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Hey

This is funny too.; 1/21/11, 8:54 PM
Unknown said...: You'd think, since the Gray Lady's online stash goes back before the Civil War, it would be something marginally important.

Chase said...

Anyone else hear that Keith Olbermann is fired and did his last Countdown tonight?

Looks like Immelt's moving to a government post is having some beneficial effects.; 1/21/11, 9:01 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: BTW it looks like Althouse was ahead of the pack, ahead of the curb, on the cutting edge, before her time, we will sell no whine.. not one hair out of place ;); 1/21/11, 9:02 PM
KCFleming said...: The only clue to being a parody was the lack of condemnation of Bush or the GOP for killing ibices.; 1/21/11, 9:06 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Obama treats his gray like he does partisanship..

Just for Obama.; 1/21/11, 9:07 PM
somefeller said...: Great piece. And I suspect the people who will enjoy it the most will be the sort of dreaded liberal elitists who read (or write for) the NY Times and the Awl. Sense of humor and all that.; 1/21/11, 9:09 PM
Penny said...: ""Ann Althouse said...

"It's a parody!""

It might just be!

And it just might not be!

Thing is, when you see a double parenthesis, as above for example, you might also come to the same conclusion that I have come to...

"Parentheses", are like "internet links".

Undependable!

Double parentheses? That's like friggin' internet gossip.

Trust internet links to the NYT's or elsewhere?

You must be kidding? Right?

If I can't trust Althouse's links, then PLEASE tell me who to trust?; 1/21/11, 9:14 PM
Penny said...: *sitting RIGHT here*

Looking for answers.; 1/21/11, 9:21 PM
virgil xenophon said...: This ought to be a big boost for Isle Vagabonde on E. 62nd St.--long the only restaurant in NYC with an indoor Bocce-ball court. And great food & atmosphere in the low-ceiling basement "neighborhood Italian restaurant.; 1/21/11, 9:27 PM
Michael K said...: I read the whole thing and wasn't sure it was a parody. Finally, I decided it had to be but it was a close call. My favorite riff on the teenager getting into Princeton is the movie "Risky Business," the only good Tom Cruise movie.; 1/21/11, 9:29 PM
Penny said...: Apologies to those who don't stop Googling for answers "just because it's the weekend."

Way to go!

I am extremely appreciative of your efforts on my behalf, and so many others, over the next three days.

Any assistance you can give me, and those like me, while resolving what might become "trust issues" with Althouse's links, would be greatly appreciated.; 1/21/11, 9:38 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Its a parody Penny..

Go to the Times and I bet you wont find it.. you wont find it because it's made up.. it's made up to look real = parody..

Help me out here Penny..; 1/21/11, 9:38 PM
lucid said...: It is so close to what the New York Times publishes everyday that when I first read it I thought it was for real--disgusting, but for real.

It is sort of perfect. You can imagine the people in the article as versions of the the actors in the NYTimes tv ad that they have been running unchanged for about 4 years (no budget for a new one, I guess).; 1/21/11, 9:50 PM
Penny said...: "Help me out here Penny.."

Would love to, Lem. You are one of my favorite Althouse commenters.

Tell me how I can help you best?; 1/21/11, 9:53 PM
Penny said...: In the meantime, I am alerting our most gracious hostess, that ...

"Something" isn't right?; 1/21/11, 10:03 PM
rcocean said...: So many funny lines. This got me:

For the last two weeks, Anna has been spending more time than usual with José de Sousa Saramago, the Portuguese water dog she named after her favorite writer. (If José Saramago bears an uncanny resemblance to Bo Obama, the First Pet, it’s no coincidence: the two dogs are brothers. Anna’s father was an early fundraiser for Barack Obama; José Saramago was a gift from the President.); 1/21/11, 10:08 PM
Amexpat said...: Good satire, it had me going. Had me thinking that it was cool that dogs could be trained to use an ipad and why would a vegan work on a farm to produce ibex meat.; 1/22/11, 3:46 AM
MDIJim said...: It is good. There's one thing you midwestern flat landers missed - EZ Pass. Anyone who travels on the NY Thruway that much wouldn't see a toll-taker. They'd have a sensor on the windshield that dings their credit card every time they go through a toll booth. Of course maybe the family is so liberal that they keep the common touch by waiting in the cash lane, sucking in great draughts of exhaust fumes, and throwing a $100 bill at the toll-taker while yelling "Keep the change and buy yourself an ibex burger for lunch."; 1/22/11, 4:17 AM
MarkW said...: There's one thing you midwestern flat landers missed - EZ Pass.

In the midwestern flatlands around Chicago, "EZ Pass" is called "I-Pass".; 1/22/11, 5:52 AM
Toad Trend said...: Parody, maybe - the point is all good comedy contains truth.

That any of the pappy piece is believable indicates the derangement of hardcore elitists.

"(Williams, Anna's last name, is a portmanteau of her parents' surnames.)"

"At Yael Farms, Anna gets plenty of exercise. She spends the day herding ibex, drawing water from a well, and moving heavy stones."

Classic liberal.; 1/22/11, 7:47 AM
michaele said...: I loved it and would have fallen for it totally without the Instapundit heads up it was parody. Even with the warning, I got sucked in feeling inferior for a moment about the dog being taught to use the Ipad. "Oh, no...mine only sits on command to get a treat.I must set the bar higher". Shades of the Chinese mother thing which was NOT parody.; 1/22/11, 8:07 AM
lemondog said...: It is interesting as it drifts more and more into the esoteric.

His memo to Obama on polling is pretty funny: Political Memo: How to Defeat the Tea Party; 1/22/11, 8:50 AM
Triangle Man said...: Five Internet points to anyone who can explain what Penny is going on about. This offer is also available to Penny.; 1/22/11, 12:15 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: If you just glance at it, you'll be confused. If you read it, it's fine parody of the NYT.

Parody, my ass - it's spot-on truth. Compare it to a very-real article in The San Francisco Weekly of Trader Joe's shoppers, and - based on it's descriptions of New York Times readers - you tell me where the parody begins:

Every Trader Joe's parking lot everywhere is an effed-up jungle from hell. If you don't know how to properly wield your Subaru into a space the size of a kiddy pool, just walk. And once you're done shopping, throw your groceries in the car and drive. Don't sit there and phone your psychic or listen to the end of Fresh Air. It's rude.

I don't know how you can post this - and shop at Whole Foods - and not think the "parody" isn't laughing at you as well. Major disconnect there.; 1/22/11, 2:14 PM
Anonymous said...: No quote from Greg Packer? I call bullshit.; 1/22/11, 6:16 PM