Althouse: Here are 9 TikToks, carefully curated for you. Some people love them.

September 25, 2022

Here are 9 TikToks, carefully curated for you. Some people love them.

1. Réttir — sorting out the sheep in Iceland.

2. The woonerf — a type of street.

3. The Finnish way to live through winter — on Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

4. If Arabic were English.

5. Choosing the boring life.

6. Overnight evolution.

7. White friend training.

8. Talking to the salad.

9. Hello, darkness, my old friend....

27 comments:

wildswan said...: These were all great - stories about how others live - even if they aren't other.; 9/25/22, 7:58 PM
Mary Beth said...: #9 is the stuff of nightmares.; 9/25/22, 8:04 PM
gilbar said...: it's Important, to realize.. That to Black folk, whites are LESS THAN HUMAN.. They are like cats; 9/25/22, 8:08 PM
Marcus Bressler said...: I must say that I appreciate these postings. I RARELY saw a TikTok before you started it -- except for the cringy nurses dancing at the beginning of Covid. Some have been entertaining and I can see how someone could go down the rabbit hole for a long, long time viewing these.
As to today: the street one was interesting but when downtown Memphis tried it back in the mid to late 80s with a pedestrian mall, the businesses dried up and failed and it became another inner city blight. The narrator seems to hate cars and their drivers which is not surprising. These streets may work if people walk on them, gather and spend money. They certainly won't work if you are driving and want to go from here to there. I would think here in America, lawsuits would arise as soon as a pedestrian was hit as the right of way does not seem defined.
The boring chick -- I might follow her if she flashed her boobies now and then.
The racist spray bottle? Really? Too stupid to be cute. YMMV. Do straight men touch another man's hair to see how it feels?

Marcus THEOLDMAN
Grateful that the storm is destined for the other coast here in Florida. Walked 4 miles on the beach here in pleasant, clear weather today. Lived through too many hurricanes to want to ever do that again.; 9/25/22, 8:17 PM
Will Cate said...: #5 was my favorite, but #7 made me laugh.; 9/25/22, 8:47 PM
madAsHell said...: "Hello Darkness, my old friend".

It's always been a creepy phrase, and now I know why!!!; 9/25/22, 8:59 PM
Unknown said...: Holy smokes! I needed a trigger warning on those damn dolls…; 9/25/22, 9:48 PM
Yancey Ward said...: On #3, I understand the concept fully, it is how I get through the clownshow that President Shit For His Brains Biden is conducting.; 9/25/22, 11:01 PM
William said...: A sense of drama surrounds a pretty woman. It's tough for them to be really boring at least for the time of a tik tok. Given world enough and time and a slate gray February sky, however, I bet listening to a pretty girl prattle on about how much her Finnish soul likes winter would be more boring than watching a rerun of The View....I'm tempted to make an obscene joke about how much Icelanders like having their sheep back home, especially during those long winter nights when it gets so boring. There's something a little suspect about people who can pick out their very own precious sheep among the flock without having to consult the name tag.; 9/26/22, 2:23 AM
GrapeApe said...: Only one intersting for me was the sheep. I like sheep. The rest? Nope.; 9/26/22, 3:08 AM
Andrew said...: "I RARELY saw a TikTok before you started it -- except for the cringy nurses dancing at the beginning of Covid."

Exhibit A in how and when the medical establishment lost its credibility. Some of those videos were almost sinister.

Exhibit B being the proclamation that protests are safe from the virus.; 9/26/22, 5:50 AM
Andrew said...: Regarding the "woonerf," it's a nice idea, but I don't think it would work in an American city. And all you need is one pedestrian death before people avoid walking on it.; 9/26/22, 5:56 AM
Andrew said...: Iceland sheep - where's the pig?; 9/26/22, 5:56 AM
Heartless Aztec said...: Somewhere in the 500 Songs of Rock n Roll podcast there's some dialogue about how the line "Hello darkness my old friend" became a line of derision in Greenwich Village and it would be uttered on stage to laughter from the audience.; 9/26/22, 6:05 AM
tim maguire said...: When I saw the rettir, I was looking forward to an aerial, sped up view of the actual sorting and was disappointed that we didn't get to see the sorting at all, we just saw some sheep while someone talked about why they sort them.

Similar with "If Arab were English"--I really liked the opening, the formalized greeting that started the conversation, but after that, it was mostly just word order. That's much less interesting--most (all?) languages have a different word order than English.

I did like training the white guy--it shows how much fun blatant racism can be and how much we've lost by only allowing blatant racism against white people.; 9/26/22, 6:45 AM
Jefferson's Revenge said...: 1 and 3. Everyone seemed happy. Look at the last part in 1, when they are walking down the road with the sheep. There is a woman walking with a joy like saunter. That is a picture of mental and physical health.; 9/26/22, 7:01 AM
tim maguire said...: Andrew said...Regarding the "woonerf," it's a nice idea, but I don't think it would work in an American city. And all you need is one pedestrian death before people avoid walking on it.

Good point. Pedestrian malls are better--leave cars on regular streets. Cars would have to drive so slowly here that they'd just get in everyone's way. What's the point of that?; 9/26/22, 7:20 AM
Ann Althouse said...: " but after that, it was mostly just word order. "

There was a lot of extra expression of love and respect; 9/26/22, 7:24 AM
Saint Croix said...: Racism is not funny, and non-racism is not funny. But borderline racism can be funny. I'm not sure why that is.; 9/26/22, 7:38 AM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: 1. Private property enhanced by communalism.
2. Massachusetts has a fair number of shared streets.
6. Funny.
7. Funnier.
9. Funniest.; 9/26/22, 7:45 AM
Bob Boyd said...: While you sort your haunted dolls the Finnish way, talk to them like an Arab about choosing the boring life and hope they don't evolve overnight.; 9/26/22, 7:49 AM
Bob Boyd said...: There was a lot of extra expression of love and respect

Talking on eggshells?; 9/26/22, 7:51 AM
Saint Croix said...: Dolls are freaky awesome.

They open The Graduate with that song. Perfect use of music and movie.; 9/26/22, 8:05 AM
JZ said...: I wish the boring girl didn’t have a ring in her nose and talk so fast. The racist training spray bottle makes me laugh. And wow! Those dolls are perfect for that song!; 9/26/22, 8:25 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I wish the boring girl didn’t have a ring in her nose...."

When will rings in noses go away?; 9/26/22, 12:09 PM
Saint Croix said...: "I wish the boring girl didn’t have a ring in her nose...."

When will rings in noses go away?

The problem with the ring-in-the-nose

is that it makes me think

booger, booger, booger and booger

which is not very sexy

I could possibly train my brain to not think about boogers

but that's where the boogers are; 12/1/22, 10:28 PM
Saint Croix said...: I have never had this problem with ear wax

Always liked a lady's ear

But I never play around with noses

Maybe I ought to play around with noses?

If you're in a nose-rubbing culture (like the Eskimos, maybe?) nose rings would be a hit!

That is not our culture

Maybe one day, nose fans; 12/1/22, 10:29 PM