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Eric: Does the G rated version have oreos and melba toast?
(From Suburban Jungle and the good folks at Keenspot.)
I'd say "submitted without comment" and do the whole parenthetical thing on this, but honestly, how can I? It's not an in-strip reference. And it's representative, oddly enough, of an appropriate use of Websnark.
Not that there's really an inappropriate use of Websnark, barring quoting out of context. If someone wants to print it off and line birdcages with it, that's really up to them, isn't it? Though it might be a waste of printer ink. But I digress.
I'm impressed, first off, at the Cheese Nips Robey found. That's one Hell of a biscuit tin. I'll bet they're tasty, too. And shortbread is always a good thing.
More than that, though, I'm struck by the implications. When Penny and Aggie invoked Websnark in their Previews solicitation, it stunned me. Having gone through that, I take Keenspot Newsbox references a little more in stride than I might have three months ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm psyched. I have an ego like anyone else (well, save mine is hopped up on steroids and gin), and having a kind of validation related to what we do around here makes a guy pretty happy.
The thing that strikes me the most, however, is that there's no explanation. "Recipient of tasty, tasty biscuits." "Nominated for tasty, tasty shortbread." It doesn't say "Websnark's our bitch! YEEE-HAH!" It assumes the reader already knows that.
I don't know if it's a correct assumption or not, but it struck me. John Robey, at the least, feels the biscuit thing's well known enough that they didn't need to explain it. Whoever edits these things did too. That's a pretty solid compliment to be paid, and I appreciate it greatly.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at May 6, 2005 10:35 AM
Comments
Comment from: arscott posted at May 6, 2005 11:27 AM
This is perhaps a bit nitpickety, but I'd always imagined the biscuts to be the sweet cookie kind, rather than the cheese-cracker ones.
Comment from: trpeal posted at May 6, 2005 11:33 AM
I laughed out loud when I saw this newsbox today. Great work!
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at May 6, 2005 11:36 AM
Sweet or savory biscuits are both appropriate and available. I leave the choice of biscuit selection up to the recipient.
(As a result, most of the American recipients choose 'buttermilk.' Same as it ever was...)
Comment from: arscott posted at May 6, 2005 12:17 PM
Wow. I'm American, and that had barely occured to me. Of course, I started reading this right around the time of the shortbread awards, so thre was the whole shortbread = cookie = biscut. Of course the other likely culprit is my love of Pratchett, Adams, and Gaiman combined with my rather large sweet tooth.
Comment from: FlyingFish posted at May 6, 2005 1:26 PM
The more important question is: if you gave that newsbox a tasty, tasy biscuit, would the resulting paradox destroy the universe? Inquiring minds want to know!
Comment from: FlyingFish posted at May 6, 2005 1:27 PM
The more important question is: if you gave that newsbox a tasty, tasy biscuit, would the resulting paradox destroy the universe? Inquiring minds want to know!
Comment from: Merus posted at May 6, 2005 1:29 PM
The thing that struck me was the mention to shortbread. 'Has that actually been decided? I can't remember!'
Not ragging on you or anything, Eric, as I haven't donated diddly-squat and thus have no right to expect anything, but on the other hand I vaguely recall something about it being nice to update in a timely fashion as a courtesy to your readers, and will thus use a half-remembered line that probably doesn't exist to justify the following paragraph:
I was kinda looking forward to the other half of the 2004 Shortbread awards, the ones for story. It's cool if you decide that it's not entirely necessary, and being the first ever Shortbread awards it's fair enough to start small, but it's kinda May, and suspense can only last so long, know what I'm sayin'? Not nag, just... I mean, I kinda want to know if I should keep waiting on the Story Shortbread.
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at May 6, 2005 1:54 PM
Suburban Jungle was nominated for Bringing the Character Driven Funny and Bringing the Relationship Driven Funny.
As for the Story Shortbreads... yes, there is a plan.
Comment from: siwangmu posted at May 6, 2005 2:59 PM
Story shortbreads! Glee!
(For the record, for lack of updated trawls, I used the humor shortbreads as a raw list of comics to check out. It was the best and most detailed way I have ever seen to find comics I would like. Also, purely on your recommendation (because I couldn't get into it from the previews, mostly because I didn't notice that dates were separate so it didn't make much sense why things were having "2nd Annual" occurrences and so on, but then I'm an idiot) I just went ahead and bought Modern Tales to read Narbonic and went through the entire archive in... two days? Something like that. That's how effective your descriptions were, and that's how much of an impression it makes when you like something that much. So, remember, you're so cool I donated money to somebody else! Not much money, granted, but considering I never subscribe to anything online, it was a big deal to me. Now, back to not-me-talking-about-myself!)
Comment from: quiller posted at May 6, 2005 3:45 PM
And you are right in there with an "Eye of the Tiger" reference (which is pretty appropriate for Tiffany).
Comment from: miyaa posted at May 6, 2005 4:43 PM
Eric,
Have you ever considered trademarking the "tasty, tasty biscuit" and "shortbread" phrases?
Comment from: MrPerson posted at May 6, 2005 6:08 PM
Perhaps! Just to be a naysayer, though, I'm going to say that even to those who have no idea what Websnark is, the whole concept of being awarded biscuits and nominated for shortbread is amusing, in a Monty Pythonish manner.
In fact, it'd actually be more amusing in a Monty Pythonish manner if one didn't know about Websnark :)
Comment from: Merus posted at May 6, 2005 8:38 PM
"I may not have an ounce of legitimacy, but I was awarded biscuits!"
"Really? Well, that's quite different! Come in!"
"I was also nominated for shortbread too, you know."
Comment from: toddandpenguin posted at May 6, 2005 9:33 PM
oh, man!! Last night, I was told I can have my FIRST newsbox on KeenSpot. Seems they forgot me last month, and all day at work I was thinking up what it would be. I was having a lot of trouble, until I thought about the worst reviews I got, and then the recent good ones, and I was GOING TO make mention of MY Websnark shortbread. Nothing as clever as showing pictures of shortbread, but still!
dammit. Now I have to think of a new newsbox.
Comment from: toddandpenguin posted at May 7, 2005 12:55 AM
It's ok, yours was better than mine woulda' been.
Comment from: Robotech_Master posted at May 9, 2005 11:03 PM
In similar vein, here's another Keenspot advert that mentions a particular site...
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