“Besmirched”

/110 Comments/in /by

So, some commenter that has five comments here since late October of last year, “aduckisaduck”, stated:

“So, to any who have felt that this thread has besmirched EW’s usual level of commentary, I’d just say that reading and remembering have been a lot of fun.”

That is maybe a fair comment, or not, but without context and support, hard to evaluate, and not worth much.

Are there allegations that anybody but Marcy posting here is “besmirschment”?

I’ve had it with this garbage. Everybody at our blog really care and have been here forever. Two of us from the start, the rest very close behind. We all knew each other before the formal start of the Emptywheel blog.

“Besmirched”?

Seriously?

This blog has always talked about sports. Marcy was the first person I recall suggesting it as to Trash Talk. Yeah, I talk about F1 sometimes. Have a lifetime lending to that. Music? Sure, we have from the start also done that.

So I want to know who thinks anybody but Marcy is “besmirching” this blog? Is it just me? Is it Rayne? Is it Ed? Is it Peter? Was it Jim White? What is your agenda and why?

Can you explain the “besmirching”? I’ll be waiting. I know “aduckisaduck” has very few, and limited in time, comments. But what should people who have been contributing here for over a decade and a half do? Just bow down to randos wandering in? Should we have no moderation no matter what garbage is attempted to be posted as “commentary”?

This is a position by me and me only. But a lot of current crap, including “besmirching”, insults everybody here, and who have ever been here. That is not supporting Marcy, nor Emptywheel, as a collective effort. It is insulting and petty garbage.

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110 replies
  1. higgs boson says:

    I run into commenters like that at other sites as well.

    Over on Ars Technica there was someone complaining about articles and titles that had the word “poop” in them. Seriously! And on a regular basis, someone will comment on TechDirt that a given article has nothing to do with Tech.

    (Good lord. Hardly any articles have anything to do with Dirt either — Is that a problem for you too?)

    The only polite answer is, “No one is making you read these things, why not just skip them?” I actually prefer, “Don’t let the screen door hit you in the ass on your way out.”

    And that’s the thing about these people — It’s not just that they don’t want to read this or that, it’s that they don’t think ANYBODY should read (or write) them. They want to control the conversations.

    Yeah. They can all fuck off. And you all can keep doing exactly what you’re doing.

  2. Dirt Lane says:

    I’ve been lurking, learning, and appreciating Empty Wheel for years, commented once. Moderation is not besmirchment. Perhaps ‘aduckisaduck’ defensively referred to their own commentary in a thread, as they departed a conversation or the site. In my worldview, it’s good to be a lurker at the edges of elevated content on Empty Wheel. Happy New Year!

    • bmaz says:

      Naw, come on in and comment regularly, the water is fine. In fact, we like the interaction more than you might imagine.

      • GWPDA says:

        You let me cite Law&Order without so much as blinking. And I am very, very, very old in internet years!

      • Steve_R_ says:

        Perhaps OT, but if you’re paraphrasing Sheldon Leonard, you get my most obscure party clap.

        [Thanks for updating your username to meet the 8 letter minimum. /~Rayne]

  3. rosalind says:

    i read this comment as a reply to the “Stacy (Male!)” comment [1/5/23 1:33pm] that began “What prompted this outburst of boring and irrelevant gibberish about audio gear?”.

    • elcajon64 says:

      Same. I added some “souped-up hot rod” talk just to tweak them.

      Part of my interest in this group is the fact that the contributors and many of the commenters are actually interesting people.

  4. Bruce Fuentes says:

    I assumed just another dumbass troll. They need to be ignored, unless they continue. Then shaming is in order.

  5. earthworm says:

    “besmirched:” great word, a vocabulary expander.
    looking around at current times we live in, i can see how it applies to a lot; however, not much here at emptywheel — except maybe the odd random comment.

  6. P J Evans says:

    Went back and re-read that comment and they’re okay – they were responding to someone else who was complaining, and not complaining about the post at all.

  7. FLwolverine says:

    You’re right that without context it’s hard to know how to take this comment. To me, it looks like he’s saying “I enjoyed this [presumably frivolous and OT] thread, altho it isn’t as serious and substantive as other discussions on this blog”.

    Was the last half of that comment necessary? No. Was it witty? No. Should aduckisaduck be rendered into confit because of it? I don’t think so – probably enough to tell him “you apparently don’t understand this website. Best keep silent until you do”, and then move on.

    In the meantime, I agree with Higgs Boson: you all just keep doing what you’re doing. There are lots of us who appreciate and thank you for it.

    • bmaz says:

      “..altho it isn’t as serious and substantive as other discussions on this blog”.

      Yes that is the way I took it. Insultingly so. And, yes, we will keep doing what we do.

      And, good god, I hope we do not “besmirch” anything.

  8. Rayne says:

    It’s the first damned week of the year. We’ve had little breathing room even after the mid-term elections, unlike past years where thing slowed a bit between mid-December and the end of the year. We were overdue to downshift.

    The community needs open threads periodically to act as a pressure valve; Trash Talk about sports has been a fairly consistent pressure relief system here over the last decade-plus.

    This week we didn’t have Trash Talk but instead had an open thread about audio equipment for audiophiles. We probably won’t have another for some time but it clearly provided both a needed change of pace and an opportunity for lurkers in the community to comment.

    Folks who don’t understand or appreciate the need for open threads can simply wait for a post on a topic they’d prefer, or find something else to do. This site can’t be the end-all-be-all in social media for everyone, after all. Thanks to the community members who grasp this.

  9. Badger Robert says:

    A little occasional “besmirching” is good therapy. And most of us have seen what becomes of a blog without a bmaz equivalent.

  10. marc sobel says:

    I don’t mind seeing a blog post that doesn’t interest me. It’s not about the writer, it’s about me. I could make a Rumsfeld list of the known topics that interest me, the known topics that don’t interest me, and the topics I don’t even know about. But why bother? And hey, maybe someday I’ll care are some sport.

    You just keep on posting what interests you. You’re the blogger.

  11. John Paul Jones says:

    I always look forward to seeing what Trash Talk will be about. (I almost jumped in on the speaker thread a few days back – because I too, once upon a long time ago, had a mighty Thorens turntable; it’s gone; long story.) But for goshes sakes, THAT’S WHY THE LABEL SAYS TRASH TALK: to flag it as a let-off-of-steam venue, not apart from the main blog so much as travelling comfortably alongside. And yes, sometimes, in the midst of a more serious thread, there will be TT interludes, so to speak. So what? No one forces anyone to be here. My own personal rule for commenting is, if I think I can contribute, even a widow’s mite, I give it a try; and I remind myself not to chime in if all I gots is something that only reflects my own interests. One of my pet peeves actually is reviewers who don’t review what they saw or what they read, but a fantasy book or movie which they thought they ought to have been shown.

    I am really grateful for the moderation on this site, which makes it to a very large extent what it is: intelligent, engaged, welcoming, educational. I have learned more about legal and court process by hanging out here for a couple of years than I probably would have in first year law school.

    • darms says:

      Having been a lurker/rare commenter back to the Firedoglake days i’ll keep my 5 characters (unless bmazzed) i have to agree, read it if you want to, read something else if you don’t, be grateful these kind people share themselves with you. Personally i find “trash talk” posts tend to be about sports and not my cuppa but there’s plenty of other content here esp when Marcy really gets into the weeds. The comment threads here can be quite entertaining and often educational as i frequently follow suggested links or topics in order to supplant my hoard of useless knowledge.
      Dunno about the ‘besmirschment’ comment except to say maybe Mr. five comments had a thesaurus at hand when he wrote that bit…

      [Consider yourself warned that you will eventually be forced to use an 8-letter name. No ifs, no buts. You’d be forced to now if you didn’t already have some history and more than 100 comments here. /~Rayne]

  12. Peterr says:

    Many a time I feel bedraggled and beleaguered by some of the unsavory activities (especially activities undertaken by those in elected office) that Marcy and the other posters here dig into, myself included. (This has been a week for bemoaning and berating the blindingly self-serving and stupid actions of many on the GOP side of the House of Representatives.)

    I have often been bemused and bewildered as I read what appears here, and am more than occasionally bedazzled, bedeviled, and bewitched by the banter, both serious and silly, so long as it fits the tone of the post.

    When people declare that they have been befriended here, I am delighted, and I am similarly grieved when we learn of the passing of one of our beloved.

    But besmirched? Besmirched? Nope. Not me.

  13. StillHopeful says:

    Besmirch: 2nd def: “to detract from the honor or luster of”

    I read “aduckisaduck”’s comment (in the BMAZ posting on Speakers) as a closing paragraph response to another commenter’s negative statement. aduckisaduck commented favorably that the post was fun and brought back a lot of memories.

    I don’t recall any previous comments from aduckisaduck, but this comment doesn’t look trollish or negative.

  14. kmlisle__1 says:

    I assume that the Speaker post here gave birth to the Speaker memes so popular on the Intertubes as the election brawl dragged on in the House. You probably saw the collection of photos entitled “Choose the Speaker” with Kevin’s face never checked and many types of audio speakers chosen instead.

    I thought of the clever aside on what became pretty unbearable after a day or two as a much-needed way to blow off steam.

    And the post was not alone. Social media was liberally decorated with joke memes which several other serious commentators republished when the first but undoubtedly not the last circus of this congressional session ended. My favorite is Katie Porter reading “How to Not Give Fuck” on the floor of the house juxtaposed with the barely averted midnight fistfight between R contenders.
    Unfortunately, I fear we will need more such posts. I almost always prefer to laugh rather than cry.

  15. kmlisle__1 says:

    thanks for the much-needed edit and the link that I was just going to post. It’s a great Meme!

      • LeeNLP941 says:

        Why not? The chicken could bring ingredients when you ask and help stir. All you would then need is a duck. And other stuff.

        Or if the duck is sick, you could make some chicken soup *for* the duck.

        Ah, the power of prepositions. “I buttered the bread with (my friend, my left hand, a fork, margarine, enthusiasm…)”

        • LeeNLP941 says:

          Goodness. I meant to write “you could make duck soup for the chicken”. It’s sad when one needs to correct a throwaway comment like that.

    • Savage Librarian says:

      There have been some times, especially early on, when I thought the best approach might be to duck and cover.

  17. ollie says:

    I appreciate the moderation here.

    I only use Twitter and tht shit site along w/local and national news offer nothing so I get anxious. Really anxious over the state of affairs. I understood little but since coming here? I’m learning. I often have to look up words to know what you’re speaking of. Sometimes I have to read and reread each story just to fully understand what’s being reported on. I think Marcy’s work is trustworthy and that’s everything to me. The comments are also valuable to the understanding I long for. It really helps me breath easier.

    thank you.

    • Faith_dc says:

      My sentiments exactly. I don’t comment much because I don’t feel up to the level of commentary, but I come here for top-notch commentary and in-depth knowledge, for which I am extremely grateful.

  19. earlofhuntingdon says:

    I wrote in response to that comment that the post on speakers was not an add-on or filler, but part of what this blog is about. The commentator was obviously a newbie, and hadn’t been through their first Trash Talk. Their framing was off the mark.

    As I see it, this blog is a collective effort. Marcy, as did Izzy Stone, does considerable heavy lifting and original research. She sets the tone and agenda, the major rules, and so on. But this blog has a rhythm. Original research and the networking needed to give it added value are very time consuming. That can leave gaps between posts.

    Sometimes the load is taken up by Rayne or bmaz. Peterr has been busy of late, as has Ed. But their work does much more than fill gaps. It allows for breathing space and for sounding off on a range of comments not specifically covered in a dedicated post. Those posts add legal, social and political context and humor. Long-time commentators frequently add a piquant sauce of information and opinion that makes the total effect memorable and one of the most interesting places on the Internet. And that doesn’t touch the technical skills that make this blog run or the moderating that make this blog’s comments section one of the best on the Internet. All those things together make this blog a community, and more memorable than some of Izzy Stones’s best work.

  20. dpa3.14159 says:

    Not sure on the context of besmirchment but it’s a great word. Long time lurker and very occasional commenter. But years ago when I saw bmaz talk about music and audio equipment and Frank Zappa I knew I’d hit the right spot. Zappa fan since I first heard “Freak Out” in high school in the ’60. Also have a good friend from college, Arthur Barrow, who played bass with Frank in his later years (Joe’s Garage et al), and invited us back stage one time to meet him. It’s part of why I’ve valued this site for so many years. So please, continue to besmirch away. Sometimes, when the news is so tough, it’s exactly what’s needed.

    onward!
    dpa

    • bmaz says:

      Lol, and thank you. I saw Frank when in high school. And got my first Mothers album from winning some stupid contest back then. One of the most underrated guitarists of all time.

      • GAP1456 says:

        Saw Frank on the Apostrophe tour. Right before walking up the aisle at my wedding, my best man said, “A good song would be Gumbo Variations.”

      • Myteri0s0 says:

        Yes Zappa was so underated on guitar. I saw him a few times most notably at Newport on a bill with Miles and the blues breakers ( mayall.) Transcendent!!! Thanks for this blog. A question: who has the power to invoke the 14th amendment?
        Now that Jordan and Perry can investigate their investigators it needs be done.

        • bmaz says:

          Mayall and the Blues Breakers were the Petri dish for so much of music.

          As to the 14th, it is kind of nebulous. A lot of people, if news and social media are representative (they may not be) are to be believed, it is self executing. I do not buy that. To my eye, there must be an actual criminal conviction, completed impeachment conviction (though cf Alcee Hastings), or a formal resolution by Congress. The chatter about 14th banning is way overblown as to reality.

  21. Doctor My Eyes says:

    It seems clear that the commenter was addressing their comment to others who, unlike themselves, may have felt that “this thread has besmirched EW’s usual level of commentary.” I take the use of “besmirched” to be dry, somewhat for comical effect, and an intentional portrayal of such critics in a somewhat ridiculous light. Why this is an issue for the stellar guardians of EW is a mystery to me. Y’all seem to be well and productively in charge and most commenters here like things just fine that way.

    Of more interest to me is my regret not to have had time to participate in the speaker discussion. For several years I had the great good fortune to posses a pair of speakers most of us mortals can only dream about. They had been dropped and repaired, so I got them at half price, still an obscene purchase given the troubles of the world. These were Kharma Grand Ceramiques. My friend called them bison. An audio engineer was once in my dedicated listening room and could name the precise microphone used for a certain recording i played for him, so accurate were these beasts.

    I include the above speaker commentary to underline the point that discussions about certain things are interesting to those who are interested in them, and I am interested in discussions about speakers. Those who aren’t interested are welcome to move on. I haven’t wasted one iota of psychic energy wishing that no one on EW found cars interesting. I find discussions about what is a permissible topic for discussion to be one of the least interesting topics, but THAT’S JUST ME.

  22. Skillethead says:

    Huh? You’ve got an original post that generated over a hundred positive comments, reflections, and a techy tsunami, and one person says, in essence, “Geez, this has been fun; I hope no one is offended by the thread being a bit different from usual,” and that is what upsets you?

    aduckisaduck was paying a compliment. If you weren’t perpetually safety-wired in the pissed-off position, you’d have recognized that. So sit back and think about all the good that the Jan6 committee has done.

    • David F. Snyder says:

      To be sure, you expressed the sentiment with greater clarity than aduckisaduck. In my workplace, this lead-in referring to an up-to-this-point-unmentioned besmirchment would likely be a casting of shade; just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. 😃

  23. Eschscholzia says:

    The leaders, regulars, and even lurkers might pause for a moment to recognize not only the high quality of the content and discourse in this community, but even more so how rare it is to have anything close to this community persist so long. I’ve had various roles in a number of communities of practice of sharp, knowledgeable people. The first burst of energy dissipates within the first few months, it requires substantial effort to keep such communities going, and none lasted more than 2 years without morphing into something very different than “community”. As an outsider who sees topical communities of smart people form and dissolve, this community is exceptional.

    I’m willing to posit that the mix of legal textural analyses & dot connection posts and discussion, Ed Walker’s infrequent posts on theories of power, and the trash talk & music & stereo hardware posts, may reinforce the community culture and prevent the burnout that could come from all posts with similar focus. At the very least, it is part of the community structure that has persisted, even if it hasn’t directly contributed to that persistence. As many here note: one can always just skip a post that isn’t of personal interest. My tube amplifier as an undergraduate was because it was free Navy surplus and came with a box of spare tubes, and I still don’t have disposable income sufficient for the hardware being discussed, so I barely skimmed the stereo discussion.

    I’m another long time (multi-year gap) reader & occasional supporter triggered to make a first post in this discussion. I read emptywheel to learn from smart knowledgeable people who are thoughtful / intentional about the subject. I don’t know the law, so I learn a lot. But I also learn from _how_ the leads and commentors approach and analyze issues, which is useful to me in my career as a scientist. I have recurring wishes that there were a Marcy or BMAZ to tear apart my logic and writing! I haven’t posted because the topics weren’t in my expertise so I had nothing useful to contribute, but if statistics of rare events or desert ecology ever come up, I’ll chime in. [BMAZ may be a Saguaro, and who am I to tell him that he isn’t, but he often functions like Ocotillo: equally majestic and prickly, but also a useful living fence moderating discussions and calling out wayward comments.]

    So in summary: thanks, all, be proud of what you’ve developed and maintained for years!

    [I’m assuming this name is unique; I may have used something like tp2 back in fdl.]

  25. Kalkaino says:

    Speaking of the Duck Test, although it appears to traffic in syllogism (‘If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.’) it leads to a crucially slippery conclusion, for a drake also walks like a duck et cetera. One may say this is a niggling semantical distinction, but it is quite meaningful for our fine feathered friends, and the folks who breed them.

    • bmaz says:

      What??

      Please do not focus on “the Duck”. aduckisaduck is not the issue but memorialized something that has been around for a long time. Frankly, think aduckisaduck did so in good faith. There are a LOT of varied interests here, and that is a good thing.

    • Ravenclaw says:

      Technically, as syllogisms go, this one is invalid – a case of predicate logic or Von Domarus reasoning. “Ducks walk. Ducks quack. You walk and quack. Therefore, you are a duck.” (Now I’ll duck, because that wasn’t responsive to the main theme of the day, namely the non-besmirching of Emptywheel by sports and music.)

      • LeeNLP941 says:

        A cat, looking at himself proudly in the mirror, voiced the syllogism, “Some cats have long hair. I have long hair. Therefore I am Some Cat.”

  26. JVO says:

    besmirched

    Aaron Rodgers besmirched his legacy with his horrible play while losing to the Detroit Lions.

    No playoffs for KAaron!

    Too soon?!
    ;-)

  27. Bay State Librul says:

    I thought it was pretty clever of BMAZ to post about speakers. It served two purposes – it was a wonderful play on words and provided an outlet to our anxieties as to where our Government is headed.
    Since I like sports, I would have preferred a point, counter point arguments on the merits of fan Joey from Houston, hurling a White Claw can, at the obnoxious Ted Cruz (as the parade marched on).
    On besmirchment – I like the ten-letter word “give-a-blackeye-to”

  29. PieIsDamnGood says:

    Congratulations on all the success!

    Feels like you guys have preserved an earlier era of internet culture which is much appreciated. I would like the ability to bump my dumb comments so everyone has to look at them

  30. harpie says:

    The people, alarmed, closely searched
    For signs that this blog was besmirched.
    But finding no inkling
    That standards were sinkling,
    Relievedly returned to their perch.

  31. Allagashed says:

    I just found you guys, like, a year ago. So now I lurk daily; great fun. I don’t comment because the content is way above my pay grade, I just know I feel smarter for having read it, so thank you. As for the whole ‘besmirched’ thing; I write stuff for a living and I have never, and will never, use the word besmirched. It has a whiff of old testament about it; stuff it back in the closet along with words like smite, smited, and smote. Anyway. Thanks for being here.

  32. HanTran says:

    He/She said that the “thread” was besmirched. I would have assumed that referred to comments (which I think are a thread) and not to a post (which I think is not a thread). Meaning, to me, that any of the things you and other folks who are “staff” (for lack of a better word) write are making posts and then when you reply to comments you are participating in a thread that also has many “non-staff” participating in it. So I can’t tell who He/She is referring to, perhaps to some of the people that you have chastised for their comments and not to you or other “staff”. At any rate Happy Belated New Year and thanks to all of you!

      • punaise says:

        Ah, come on, man – was that really necessary? It was earnest terminology.
        I see you’re keeping up your Wry January.

      • HanTran says:

        re: staff for lack of a better word
        I understand that staff if not a great descriptor; I don’t think poster or writer or contributer is exactly correct either, wondering what you would suggest. I re-coned a nice pair of Snells that I bought long long ago, they were lovely but needed a sub.
        First ribbon speakers I ever heard were in an apartment I was cleaning (worked as a maid for Broom Hilda in Chicago 45 or so years ago) Aja had just come out…blew me away.

  33. OuthouseCounsel says:

    On the question of whether there should be no moderation – heavens no. The moderation here provides a trophic cascade like the grey wolves of Yellowstone. You may hate, fear, or love the wolves, but you can’t deny the positive effect they have. EW is exceptionally rare and precious in both content and commentary in part because of the apex predators in the ecosystem. https://www.missionwolf.org/trophic-cascade

  34. aduckisaduck says:

    I have hesitated to comment because I’m late to the party and other commenters seem to me to have covered the topic. But, in case there is still any doubt, yes, I was responding to a previous criticism of the post being an “outburst of boring and irrelevant gibberish”. And at the risk of rousing sleeping dogs, I stand by “besmirched” in that context. I have only recently found out about this site and I remain mostly an eager reader because I learn a lot from people who know way more than I do about topics that interest me. But when there was a recess from serious subjects to converse about audio-lust, I was all in.

    • bmaz says:

      As I said earlier, you are more than fine. I maybe did not phrase it as well as I should have, but it was not really about you. And welcome here, please do participate more often!

  35. ernesto1581 says:

    I think Besmirched was the perennially absent, ever-more disreputable brother of the three bats resident in Walt Kelly’s Okefenokee, Bewitched, Bothered and Bemildred.
    Which tattered outfit, by the way, in a daily strip of 2/18/63, presciently covered last week’s bum,thug and tramp show in DC, tittle & jot (Tittle & Jot, also by the way, might well have shown up in the swamp as an itinerant team of dancing ambulance chasers.)

    **I wish I could embed a link, an image not a sausage, of 2/18/63 but have still no idea how to do so. and every time I read the instructions my head hurts. oh well.

  36. boatgeek says:

    As a long-time lurker, I confess that I’m sort of confused by the whole concept of a blog besmirching itself. The blog belongs to the principal(s), and they can post whatever the heck they like. I suppose that if bmaz started supporting the J6 insurrectionists*, you could say that the blog had besmirched itself. But that would really be more of bmaz besmirching themself.

    It’s an enormous amount of work to keep enough content on a blog or newsletter to make it worth checking out even once a day. If the principal(s) of Emptywheel want to have more people to share that load, then more power to them. And heck, off-the-usual-topics can be fun!

    * A completely and obviously absurd suggestion!

    • bmaz says:

      Oh, no, I would never support them. But for enough money, I would represent one of them. Only one, because I understand conflict positions. And it would not even be the worst defendant I ever represented.

  37. Lit_eray says:

    OT on the topic of besmirchment:
    BMAZ,
    Thanks for the recommendation for the Barrio Cafe! We went Dec 23 and all 6 of us each had a great meal. The flavors were unique and wonderful. Clearly from a Mexican regional cuisine unfamiliar to me. I had pork roast with a fruit dominated sauce that was amazing. The black mole was beyond superb. The service was as good as the food. My daughter already brought a group of her friends last week for a birthday celebration with the same wonderful experiences. The birthday girl was even gifted with a candle adorned flan.

    Did not make it to the Helton Brewery. They were closed when we could visit. Did make it to Wren House Brewery not very far from Barrio. When I go to a new brewery I usually get a tasting flight to get an idea of their strengths. We only had time for one. This visit I got a very nice Kellerbier. It was not very true to style in that it was a very clear medium bodied lager, more like a Hellas than the cloudy, yeasty, and fuller bodied maltiness of a true Kellerbier. Definitely enjoyed the place and beer, and will go back.

    And, thanks to all the Emptywheel crew and astute commentators for making such a trustworthy place in the electron abattoir.

    • bmaz says:

      The Barrio is just ridiculously great, as are the dishes you describe. Did you get the guacamole made for you on the cart by your table? Because that is stupid good as well.

      • Lit_eray says:

        We got a shared guacamole. I may have been distracted, but do not remember it being made at the table. It had pomegranate fruit sprinkler over the top which made for an exotic touch. Instead of the usual salsa on the table there was little bowls of nuts and pickled stuff that was especially good – I really liked the pickled and smoked garlic. One of our party commented that everything tasted like it was just made from very fresh ingredients. Again thanks.

  38. John Gurley says:

    The archaic meaning of “besmirch” is to splatter someone with shit or mud.

    [FYI – your username has been edited to match that of your previous 26 comments, from JOHN A GURLEY to John Gurley. Please use the same format each time. Thanks. /~Rayne]

    • Rayne says:

      Etymonline entry leans more toward the edaphological not the scatological:

      besmirch (v.)
      “to soil with soot or mud, to sully,” now usually figurative, 1590s, from be- + smirch.

           Our Gayness and our Gilt are all besmyrcht. [“Henry V,” IV.iii.110]

  39. Riktol says:

    The quote from aduckisaduck is not expressing the opinion that your thread “Besmirched”, but is referring to others who have that opinion, and goes on to express positive feelings about that thread. If there’s other context that changes the meaning I don’t have the energy to go chasing it down.

    Anyway, glad to see your reading comprehension skills doing so well and, seeing as you asked, I do prefer Marcy’s posts to yours.

    • bmaz says:

      Which I admitted several times, including directly to aduckisaduck. You can “chase down” whatever you want, knock yourself out. My reading comprehension is just fine, thanks. I do not give a tinker’s damn what posts you like better or not. Your comment is just a gratuitous swipe at me personally, and you can fuck right off.

      PS: I did not ask that particular question as to me and Marcy. But, hey, maybe your “reading comprehension” is off.

  40. Kick the Darkness says:

    If gear heading on speakers and audio get us to besmirching we should go full monty and do home espresso next. Maybe we could get to nattering.

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