This publicity process is going to be very hard for me. We had media training and they told us that we can't respond to every attack that people will make against us. You know how hard I find that to be. I love a good blog war. I take no prisoners. But I can't indulge myself because it could hurt the show and the product we are promoting.
For example there is site called Refinery 29 which did a post about the store. It was very positive and some of the comments were too. But there were a few that were not and I gave a few gentle love taps. Then this guy posted this comment:
stopkidding 2 comments

Obviously a liberal dipshit under the influence of Michelle O, but I don't see any need to reply.
ReplyDeleteHe self-identifies as an asshole.
We'll call you sub rosa.
ReplyDeleteDon't use a sockpuppet, Troop. If you get traced back, it could be embarrassing to the show.
ReplyDeleteLet spinelli handle it.
I don't know Chip. I am pretty good at being a sockpuppet.
ReplyDeleteNobody really knows that I am Allie.
I posted something on there.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to end it with tits but I thought it might get deleted.
I hate that tits could cause a deletion.
Do you all know which posting was mine?
tits.
Trooper York said...
ReplyDeleteI don't know Chip. I am pretty good at being a sockpuppet.
Nobody really knows that I am Allie.
You had me going with the Carol Herman schtick.
No, Titus, but I'm impressed that you commented there over 4 days ago.
ReplyDeleteTitus--Cambridge 69? Really?
ReplyDeleteI thought you didn't eat hog.
I am Trooper's feminine side. I like to wear pointy bras and garder belts. I run my hands over my freshly shaven legs sheathed in silk stockings.....
ReplyDeleteI think Allie works one of those 900 numbers, talking dirty to lonely men.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, as ChipS says, I'll handle an assignment for you. Gratis.
I have several aliases w/ good cover.
ReplyDeleteI'd have a hard time biting my tongue, too.
ReplyDeleteNobody really knows that I am Allie.
ReplyDeleteWow, and here I thought you were Audie Murphy's Mom. That would be some masterful sock puppetry if you really were Allie!
Chip is right. Don't jeopardize your show and get your wife terminally pissed at you.
Perhaps I should break out my Geetz Romo identity. I need to learn to chatter more hep patter.
He is me , I am him, we are the Walrus, coo coo cachoo.
ReplyDeleteThe dresses I've seen on your site aren't "daring" - in the sense of plunging necklines or short skirts or even sleeveless - so I don't know what this guy's complaining about. I mean there may be some revealing stuff but for the most part your stock is quite tame...but not too tame...whew, it's like walking a tightrope to say just. the right. thing. I was a paisley tie guy once so I do like your paisley print dresses.
ReplyDeletecambridge69 was me.
ReplyDeletetits.
I think your wife is fucking hot and I can tell she is really fun. She has good karma.
tits.
I was tempted to leave a comment. Seriously, what's the connection between wearing clothes that make you feel good and health issues?
ReplyDeleteI guess everyone who doesn't look like Brad Pitt or Megan Fox should just stay home or wear a potato sack.
The pair of "shoulds" early in the paragraph flash like beacons warning of control issues, along with the parent voice. At least no one has yet managed to sneak in a dig about how ashamed they felt with their plus sized mother.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the value of using sock puppets to respond. At best they stir up energy and drama. Unfortunately, assholes and abusers tend to use what comes back at them to shape shift into more of the same.
The commenters I most appreciate are the ones who reveal a spark of humor and trustworthy consistency. The answers posted by Lee Lee's Husband sound clear, neutral and sincere.
One of the few worthwhile things I learned in college came from, of all people, a Socioligy professor, one night when I was tending bar and she was getting hammered.
ReplyDeleteWe were talking (actually, she was talking and I was listening to her talk in hopes of earing a bigger tip) about life and work. She said "I'll tell you all you need to know about sociology and life in general."
Shoot, I was nineteen, drunk twenty-four year olds seemed smart, so I said "What's that?"
"When you scrape away all the bs, there are basically only two groups of people in the world: the people you love and assholes. Take care of one group, ignore the other and you'll be happy."
"Heavy, man", I said, staring into her (parts of body that weren't her eyes) "thanks!"
Turned out that the brief lesson endured to this day.
Igonore the idiots who post shit about the store. They aren't your customers, and never will be. They're simply jealous. And assholes.
MamaM, my comment about a child being momentarily ashamed of her overweight mother was not a dig. That was pretty low of you, I'm not surprised though.
ReplyDeleteI was expressing, moreso, the shame felt by the child of herself. But either you are insufficiently sensitive, or you chose to ignore my sentiment for other purposes, that one could only fathom if they knew who you really were underneath your MamaM persona.
Michael, excellent point.
MamaM, my comment about a child being momentarily ashamed of her overweight mother was not a dig.
ReplyDeleteTo my ears, it sounded odd. Shame is a learned response. Young children, in my experience, are rarely ashamed of their parents. They will notice oddities and differences in others as a matter of observation, curiosity and interest, but do not move to shame unless they have previously been shamed themselves by someone with power over them. Children tend to protect, defend and stand by those who love and care for them, because they have no other way to survive. Teens are another matter, as they are in a process of separation.
MamaM, expert in all matters, now child psychology.
ReplyDeleteWhen I spoke a while back about my love and respect for my husband, you made some snarky comment about my "saintly husband".
I think perhaps some people are NEVER ashamed of themselves. What does that say about their psyche?
Children tend to protect, defend and stand by those who love and care for them...
ReplyDeleteMamaM, you've jogged my memory of the time I started brawling with my best friend at age 8 when he made fun of my grandma's weight. Literally a street fight.
Then we shrugged it off and were best buds again. But he never said shit about her ever again.
MamaM, expert in all matters, now child psychology.
ReplyDeleteWhen I spoke a while back about my love and respect for my husband, you made some snarky comment about my "saintly husband".
I think perhaps some people are NEVER ashamed of themselves. What does that say about their psyche?
May 15, 2012 12:06 PM
If you want to shame me AllieOop, then getting the quote right would be a good start. I believe I said we could "talk about sainted husbands" after I took the Midol you recommended as an expert nurse who knew what I needed.
Oh, for heaven's sakes. And Allie: Ignore. It loves the game.
ReplyDeleteDarcy, yep.
ReplyDeleteOK, OK, ladies. I'm requesting that you settle this gypsy style. And video it.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of From Russia With Love, I'm gonna go back to the thread about postwar Russian transportation. That was fun--and educational, too!
...and there's even some evil mothers
ReplyDeleteWell they're gonna tell you that everything is just dirt
you know that women never really faint
and that villians always blink their eyes
that children are the only ones who blush
and that life is just to die
But anyone who ever had a heart
they wouldn't turn around and break it
and anyone who ever played a part
They wouldn't turn around and hate it
Sweet Jane, Sweet Sweet Jane
I think Lou Reed was full of shit.
LOL, Chip. But ladies only.
ReplyDeleteHey Troop, have you seen this?
ReplyDeleteYour show is going to be sooo much better than what has become before.
Steppenwolf For Ladies Only
ReplyDelete(watch through at least the first minute and half)
Cool, Bruce. I think Steppenwolf was one of the coolest band names ever.
ReplyDeleteAn older guy down the street got us into Steppenwolf. Must have been late 60's early 70's. He was in high school and drove a sooped-up something or other and blared Steppenwolf on his 8 track.
ReplyDeleteSteppenwolf was made for 8 tracks and muscle cars (and, motorcycles of course. But I couldn't see Easy Rider then and had to just read the parody in Mad Magazine.
ReplyDelete@Chickie
ReplyDeleteI think Lou Reed was full of shit.
In those days everyone was full of shit. Although Joplin was giving head on an unmade bed, so there was that. ;^)
A man like that's like an unmade bed
ReplyDeleteStained eyes searching for another way out...
Suckered by his fatal charm, oh girl
It's time we get away
We thought they were posers and wanna-bes, called them "Steppenshit". For Christ's sake, they were Canadian!
ReplyDeleteBorn to Be Wild is a nice song. My personal theme song is Born to Be Mild.
John Kay may be Canadian but he was originally Prussian. His father was killed by Russians and he fled with his mother to Western Germany before the Iron Curtain closed off the east.
ReplyDeleteKay is still alive and still leads the band. I found a very recent interview with him here
Chickie, a lot of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe emigrated to Canada. I've got many relatives almost all from my mother's side, went to Canada. They live in Ontario. I used to spend a month every summer with the Canadian relatives.
ReplyDeleteOnly two aunts, uncles and their children emigrated to Germany. Some went to Australia and even one to South America. The two relatives that remained in Croatia didn't survive, we suspect they died in work camp.
We were lucky to have had an uncle of my fathers, that emigrated to America before WW2. He sponsered my family, without his help my family would've been stuck in Austria even longer. My parents fled Croatia in 1944, October with he retreating German Army.
All the farms and houses were lost to the communists who gave them to the locals.
Photos of Camp Haid, in Ansfelden Austria, where my family lived for several years
ReplyDeleteMy apologies to those that may find this boring.
ReplyDeleteAll the farms and houses were lost to the communists who gave them to the locals.
ReplyDeleteAnd still you're a commie! :)
My wife's family came from Holland via Canada where she was born (Ontario). It was easier for Europeans to come to Canada first, especially after 1965, when Congress started to tweak the ethnicity of immigration.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWisconsin will do communism correctly, not like every other example of communism, ever...
ReplyDeleteHaha.
ReplyDeleteHell, Milwaukee did Socialism right, right Allie?
ReplyDeleteMayor Ziegler? I think that was his name, befor my time, but I think he was quite popular.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the unemployment rate's under 10.5%.
ReplyDeleteMayor Zeidler, a socialist.
ReplyDeleteThe early socialists are always popular; they're the ones carving the goose.
ReplyDeleteThe poor saps who come later are the ones who run out of golden eggs.
Sewer Socialism
ReplyDeleteMilwaukee and Madison have been feuding over Socialism vs. Progressivism for quite a while: link
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe first Milwaukee Mayor I remember was Mayor Meier, he was the singing Mayor. He lived next door to my aunt and uncle, who lived only a few jblocks away. When I went to visit my cousin, we on occasion would be invited in the Mayor's house for cookies and milk, by his wife.
ReplyDeleteAch du Lieber!
ReplyDeleteHenry Maier.
ReplyDeleteI remember him. He started Summerfest didn't he?
ReplyDeleteI remember him. He started Summerfest didn't he?
ReplyDeleteduplicity
ReplyDeleteI was gonna say that Trooper, you're the worst sock-puppeteer ever, but one never knows. I know you put up a really obvious sock puppet (named after a John Wayne character no less) a few years ago at Althouse and were instantly recognizable--
ReplyDelete--but that presumes that you haven't snuck a bunch of others past me, which one can't do.
In fact, a master sock puppeteer might make a bad puppet to throw peo--oh, no, I've gone crosseyed.
Srsly, though: Don't.
ReplyDeleteYou can be traced. I've traced people *kaff*at Althouse, and Blogger has poor tools. On my own websites, I could nail people within seconds.
If you need a cow to go running through a China shop...I think I know one who is available.
ReplyDeleteI am available as a proxy.
ReplyDelete