Friday, September 15, 2006

SWNID Doeppelgaenger Gets Taranto Hat Tip

Gentle readers are doubtless aware of our fealty to James Taranto, author and editor of the OpinionJournal daily feature "Best of the Web Today." We consider Taranto the model blogger, though what he produces is not, strictly speaking, a blog.

So we were pleased yesterday that our doeppelgaenger, a fellow with whom we share the same first name, was given a coveted Taranto hat tip (follow the title link and search carefully the "thanks to" list at the bottom). Specifically, he supplied to Taranto a link to a story with a humorously ambiguous title: "Rare White Buffalo Born To Wis. Farm For 3rd Time." Taranto supplied the clever (and biblical!) heading, "Try Explaining This to Nicodemus."

With this achievement, our doeppelgaenger says that he can now live with a contented sense of achievement.

Yesterday's "Best of the Web" is worth reading on its own for the clever list of views of God compiled by Taranto's devoted readers. E.g.:


  • Common-law God. Since the beginning of time has assumed sole responsibility for Godlike acts, but has not legally been established as "God."
  • Customer service God. "Press 1 for the Father, 2 for the Son, 3 for the Holy Spirit."
    Unitarian God. Nice enough guy, but doesn't really seem to believe in himself.
  • Progressive God. Has outgrown the simplistic belief in his own literal existence, considers himself spiritual but not religious.
  • Liberal God. Commands man to "be fruitless and divide"; is completely self-absorbed yet doesn't believe in himself; wants you to stop sinning but doesn't have an alternative; can't stop yelling, "Satan lied, people died!"
  • Peace activist God. He's sending you to hell, but he supports the sinners!
  • Cindy Sheehan God. Wants George W. Bush to tell him what "noble cause" his Son died for.
  • Chairman God. Sets the agenda, but doesn't get involved in day-to-day operations.
  • Micromanager God. Not a sparrow falls but he needs a report on why, with guidance on what to do about it.

Our doeppelgaenger can claim no credit for contributing any of these. He wishes he had.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's give hat tips to whom hat tips are due. And let's give "thanks to" to whom thanks to are due.

Hat tips are given to those who provide content worthy of paragraph commentary by Taranto (and not always, but only when he is particularly impacted).

I tip my hat to you, but my hat tip isn't worth Taranto's "thanks to."

"Thanks to" is given to a long list of people who provide URLs and funny headlines.

Anonymous said...

If I'm wrong, so be it. If I've missed some obvious pun or play on words, then please inform me, but I'm pretty sure it is spelled Doppelganger.

Anonymous said...

To Mr. Butts: I believe SWNID was using "hat tip" generically. You are right, of course, that in Taranto's usage, "hat tip" is more exalted than "thanks to." We also tip our own hat to you for your clever moniker.

To Christian: I believe that SWNID, a stickler for authenticity, was following the convention of representing a German vowel with the umlaut (the two little dots above the vowel) with that vowel followed by an e. Blogger doesn't make it easy to an umlaut, so the added e is the only recourse for someone who wants to spell German things Germanly.

Unknown said...

So how long must we wait for SWNID's analysis of the current Popapalooza?