Just So You Know About Things You’ll Never Know
Posted on March 14, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 30 Comments
Every once in a while I’ll write an entry, look at it, go, hmmm, on second thought, maybe I won’t post that after all, and delete it.
Like I did about a minute and a half ago.
Just so you know.
And yet in a parallel timeline, you did.
We just have to find the right portal. Or whatever it is.
(I’m still new to this science fiction thing.)
Thanks! Now I’ll be wondering what you didn’t post all day.
Were you perhaps writing a review of all the wonderful bacon products listed here?
http://www.healthbolt.net/2007/08/01/baconation/
Bacon Beer, really?
That is totally not fair!
Shall we play the guessing game?
I think you were going to..going to..hmm..something to do with the economy?
Curse you, Scalzi, for the way you toy with us poor Whateverites.
(Mind you, I probably should have taken a similar route with this comment.)
That’s nasty :-)
You, sir, make pretty girls cry.
If you thought about posting it once, you’ll think about posting it again. I can wait.
Speaking of Taunting the Tauntable… but I can relate. A times I’ve find myself crafting long emails/posts to explain my position, only to discover my position is pretty much unsupportable. On those occasions I like to take the time to fully backspace out the entire text. Provides a tad more negative reinforcement. Sometimes it’s better NOT said.
Probably at least 20% of what I think about writing or start writing or sometimes actually write with the intent of public dissemination gets deleted beforehand. (I rarely write about my bosses at work, since I usually don’t have anything nice to say.)(Have I mentioned I’m retiring? Yes, I’m retiring. I”m retiring! I’M RETIRING!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! [Snoopy dance])
But the best thing I never said was back in my Army basic training. After stepping into a hole during a night march, I had a knee swollen to the size of a cantaloupe, so I reported to the company HQ for Sick Call. Our Senior Drill Sergeant looked us over and said, “YOU BUNCH OF [long stream of invective, “candy-assed” being the most printable], I WAKE UP SICK EVERY MORNING AND I NEVER GO TO SICK CALL!”
The words that began to form in my mouth were:
“Gosh, Senior Drill Sergeant, if you didn’t drink a six-pack of beer and a pint of whiskey every night before bed, you might not wake up sick in the morning.”
The fact that I am alive today is proof that wisdom prevailed at the last second.
Tease
ooooooo, that’s just plain mean! almost as bad as when the boss says “i’ll be down to talk to you later” and you spend the whole day wondering what you got caught doing…er…i mean, wondering what he wants.
I do that all the time with comments I make to blogs.
(Except for, well, this one…)
That’s OK. I type in a lot of comments that I decide not to post.
Wasn’t there a Twilight Zone episode once about this? lol
“John Scalzi, writer and web personality extraordinaire, thought he hit the delete key one day but then he discovered he took a backspace into the Twilight Zone”
[cue theme music]
Let me get my super cellphone and call the Tardis for a ride.
The Executive Committee of The Official Ghlaghghee Fan Club is always entertained (and amazed) at the poor powers of reasoning, speculation and imagination demonstrated by the Whatever readership.
It is beyond obvious that the posting Scalzi deleted was an attempt at a tribute to Her Shimmering Radiance. After a careful review, he realized it was utter tripe and not worthy of Her Least Attention. Not wanting to be embarrassed, or bring down the wrath of The Official Ghlaghghee Fan Club, or even – at the extreme – the Wrath Of Magnificent She Herself, he wisely restrained himself.
Good move, Scalzi.
The Executive Committee expects a correctly executed tribute to Her Glory will be very shortly forthcoming.
The Official Ghlaghghee Fan Club
A wise choice. Never admit to a 5-thousand dollar dalliance until you absolutley have to.
Yes, I almost admit I am Client-17, but deleted the post… d’oh!
Did you know that if you create and then delete an entry – it is still published to your RSS feed when it is created, and those of us who read you via RSS get the post anyway?
I don’t want to make you paranoid about pushing publish – and you may know the RSS thing anyway – but thought it was appropriate to mention. :)
Well, I never published it in this case, so it wasn’t an issue. But, yes, I did know that.
I do that all the time–usually when I’m getting set to post something really goddamn whiny. Then sometimes I post the whiny thing, realize it was whiny, and replace it with a cat macro. Everyone likes a cat macro.
And just for the record, I don’t want to know what you didn’t post. Because if you didn’t post it, it’s probably because it either (a) wasn’t worth posting or (b) wasn’t any of my business. If the former, thank you for contributing to my Whatever experience by ensuring the highest possible content value per post. If the latter, well, I dig the blog and dig your books, but I fully support the notion that having a public life doesn’t necessarily mean your life is public.
I am fairly certain I know what John was going to say, but my lips are sealed :-)
Well, since Charlie’s mentioned something, I’ll come out and say it. He and I are — Freemasons.
Really? Well, in that case I suppose I should point out that I’m a lizard man from Mars. Oh, and a part of the vast International Jewish Conspiracy. And a man in black.
While we’re unloading, anyway.
It’s good we feel we can all share!
Verily!
I actually DON’T do that when commenting, which is why so many people think I suck.
You know, the same thing happened to an e-mail you sent – I deleted it without reading it. Just so you know.
Lord Scalzi was trying to post the scent of bacon.