Comments on: Miller Time At The Pojang Macha

By: railwaycharm

railwaycharm — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:54:49 +0000

hardandtiny, the taxes are going up to fuel the pinko machine we affectingly call the ROK government. The only way for the ROK government to survive its current behaviors is to bilk more funds from the public. Just imagine if the ROK had a modern accounting method to catch the tax cheaters, the salary man could get a bit of a break.

By: hardyandtiny

hardyandtiny — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:22:07 +0000

So, why are the taxes going up?

By: Andy (The Yangban)

Andy (The Yangban) — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 02:36:29 +0000

OK, just to be clear on this, I assume that my using a headline such as “Hey Roh, where’s the beef?” would be right out.

How about “Yo Chung Dong-young, What’s Upppppp!!!” or “Kim Jong-il, I love you man.”?

As for a division of labor, I wasn’t made aware of one when I signed up as a guest blogger but there is a kind of ‘organic’ division based on our different interests and world views. From what I have read, I gather that Shelton is a center-left kind of guy. If any of you have read my blog, you would know that I am basically a red meat conservative. That puts the Marmot comfortably in the middle as the hard-boiled realist of the bunch.

Other than that, the only thing I do is make sure that Shelton or the Marmot haven’t already covered a subject before I post on it.

By: foreigner

foreigner — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:11:31 +0000

Fer Christ’s sake man, chill out…your headings usually have an oblique reference to your posts, and some readers (OK, me) find it annoying–not to pull rank on you, because I’ve been a published writer for more than 20 years, including about five as a journalist. Aside from that, your writing is fine. And I was thinking, as Andy pointed out, that the connotations of a really old American commercial jingle would be lost on the many non-Americans who read this blog. Know your audience. It might be “anal,” but it might also get a few people who see your byline and automatically skip over it to stop and read.

By: foreigner

foreigner — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 07:37:18 +0000

Actually, I have no qualms about Mr. Bumgarner contributing–it’s the Marmot’s call, it’s his blog and a certain division of labor is at play, I guess. All I meant was he seems to think “Miller Time” signifies “funny allusion,” whereas to me it means outdated, misleading reference. Since I have to edit Korean Babelfish-esque attempts at English all day, my fuse for language abuse is getting shorter all the time, but maybe in this instance I was a little harsh.

By: Brendon Carr

Brendon Carr — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 07:00:47 +0000

…it might also get a few people who see your byline and automatically skip over it to stop and read.

Ouch! Direct hit. And this guy asked “what more [he] can do”. Hey Shelton — have you thought about polluting just your own, untrafficked blogs?

By: Andy (The Yangban)

Andy (The Yangban) — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 06:52:44 +0000

Geez, some of y’all are tight with the rules. I guess I’ll have to be careful with the guest posts I do if I want to avoid censure.

The only problem I can see with the headline is that only Americans would understand the joke.

(For non-Americans out there the expression “It’s Miller time” came from beer commercials a few years or decades ago. It has become a common expression in American English.)

By: Shelton Bumgarner

Shelton Bumgarner — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 06:06:11 +0000

I disagree.

1. As you mentioned, The Marmot’s Hole is not a newspaper. And it’s definitely not some sort of J-School hazing exercise where the guy from The Paper Chase makes me feel like playing in traffic because I forgot to staple my term paper with two staples not one.[I am aware that The Paper Chase is about law school, not J-School, but that would be...what...a joke! Was it thought out enough? I don't know. You tell me.]

1.a I am aware that newspaper copy editors are anal.

2. I feel Marmot’s Hole readers are smart enough and clued-in enough that they could make the light-hearted - if somewhat tenuous - connection between the increased tax and the fact that a soju drunk might head for a bar instead because beer and soju will be the same price. And I am aware that at most soju tents (in my experience) sell only soju , but as I mentioned, that’s…uh…a joke.

The post was supposed to produce a chuckle — “Ha, ha, the soju drunks are going to drink beer now instead of soju!”

Therefore, it goes beyond the pale to say that I am doing a horrible disservice to readers by being a bit humorous by not being absolutely 100 percent literal in what I wrote. The point of the post is I thought it was funny and I was making a joke. I greatly respect The Marmot’s writing, but I feel what you’re noticing is simply a difference in our sense of humor.

Given what you’ve said, however, I will make every effort to drain any and every humorous element from my posts so if you get upset it will be because of a factual inaccuracy, not that you didn’t get a joke that I made.

I honestly don’t know what more I can do.

By: foreigner

foreigner — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 05:39:46 +0000

You have no idea how close that remark hit to home…. It’s Journalism 101 that a headline and lede should have some logical connection to the rest of the article. Granted Marmot’s is not a newspaper, but when you make readers reach for a connection (which IMHO you failed to establish, even “lightheartedly”) you’re doing them a disservice. Look at the title of the post below–Marmot’s deadpan humor shines through, and his lede (the opening paragraph) coalesces nicely with it. It did give me a chuckle, though–”anal-retentive newspaper copy editor,” that’s an oxymoron.
http://www.testycopyeditors.org/phpBB2/

By: Shelton Bumgarner

Shelton Bumgarner — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 05:11:16 +0000

I added the link that I forgot.

As for the Miller time bit — it wasn’t meant to be taken absolutely literally. I felt from the light hearted way it was written that that was pretty obvious.

Only a extremely anal-retentive newspaper copy editor wouldn’t let such a comment slide. Grin.