AW insider jokes

But is far more fun discovering that by yourself

Welcome to the Water Cooler!

To help our lovely newbies, we've set aside a forum to answer the oddest questions. Have fun!

Google works for Orlando Bloom, at least the orignal pre-AW-inside-joke Orlando Bloom. Not sure about Eggplant, but both of these are "required entries" in any poll, for reasons that started up before I got here.

Dunno anything about Gophers, and I've been here a while. Have a thread in mind that maybe I'm missing?

"Dawno has big sparkly ears" because she once had an avatar with that very feature...

Duh, there's probably lots of stuff in "AW culture" - there's an AW History forum around here somewhere that might have some of this stuff in it. Oh yeah, that's another thing, sometimes some people's avatars somehow magically change...


Oh and there's Phentermine.... well, sometimes spammers register just to post some ads and junk - the mods usually just delete those, but sometimes people respond before the mods get to the posts, and, well, this happened (you don't have to read the whole thread!):

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97002

And mention of Phentermine quickly spilled over into other threads, and now it's part of AW lore. That's kind of how things happen around here.

Not Phentermine, Ben. PHENTERMINE! You needs to shout it, man!

Nope - dunno why it's all gotta be caps - unless that's how the spam came in. I arrived at about the same time...

Beach Bunny said:

Having browsed around for a few days, I've noticed that there are several inside site jokes. Being new, I don't know what they are all about. And I have this thing about not wanting to blunder around and say something stupid. So, would anyone be willing to enlighten me about:
Orlando Bloom
Eggplants
Gophers
Anything else that I haven't come across yet.

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None of that is relevant, Bunny. The important thing is respect for Chihuahuas. I think everyone can agree on that one.

Beach Bunny said:

So, would anyone be willing to enlighten me about:
Orlando Bloom

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It was a LoTR thing. Everyone was enamored, so every *#@# time someone would post a poll, Orlando Bloom would be one of the answers. It's tradition now to include it as an option in every poll. Quite often it'll be added by a moderator if the original poster forgets.

Eggplants

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One of the Mods hated eggplants with a passion, and for April Fools one year, we forcibly changed his/her avatar to a sparkling eggplant. Drove him/her NUTS! but I can't remember for the life of me who it was. It's become another tradition. You'll find we're sort of weird that way.

Gophers

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Ahh...there's a classic! The owner of this site is MacAllister Stone. If you look at her avatar, and have any interest in history, you'll realize it's a spoof of a very nice petroglyph. Speculation ran wild for some time as to WHAT it was. The two favorite options were Wile E. Coyote after a bad Acme day (which is now what it looks like) and a squashed gopher. Hence, gopher jokes.

Anything else that I haven't come across yet.

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Feel free to ask. If we decide you're worthy, we'll bless you with the answers...

And I give out the popcorn.

How do you like yours?

Another is that I'm the one to come to if you need a lighter for setting your hair on fire (though this occurs mostly in the PublishAmerica threads )

Beach Bunny said:

Lots of butter, none of that air-popped stuff. Do they even make air poppers anymore?

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We were JUST talking about the "old-fashioned" popcorn yesterday... They do still make Jiffy-Pop (at least, they do here )

<Sigh> You can't ask me. I'm late to everything here. Sometimes I respond to a post that's a year old and is considered dead and buried.

But I stay calm.

Anyway, the people here are nice. And they pass out popcorn!

LOLcats. We have a thing for LOLcats here.

MeowGirl said:

LOLcats. We have a thing for LOLcats here.

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A very important point, MG.

Also, don't mention sausage to me. Evah. *shudders*

**sneaks up on the Cheese**

**taps shoulder**

SAUSAGE!!!


**runs away giggling like a loon...

Two important things: read dates on posts, and Respect Chihuahuas.

Gophers are often served squashed. They are more tender that way. Further, if you incite the wrath of a mod, your avatar may be turned into an aberration of Hello Kitty *shudders at the memory*.

Beach Bunny said:

Having browsed around for a few days, I've noticed that there are several inside site jokes. Being new, I don't know what they are all about. And I have this thing about not wanting to blunder around and say something stupid. So, would anyone be willing to enlighten me about:
Orlando Bloom
Eggplants
Gophers
Anything else that I haven't come across yet.

Click to expand...

Welcome!

Honey, i have 4000 posts and have been here since 2005 (actually 2004, but we moved from another board in Feb 2005) and I don't get the Orlando Bloom or Eggplant thing. I asked once and was told, "YOu had to be there." The gopher thing, Jenna Glatzer founded AW and when she decided she needed to move on she passed the torch to Macallister Stone. She had a coyote for an avatar but someone thought it was a gopher (?!?!) and a bunch of people joined the gopher fan club to celebrate her. I am sure I am missing a few details but I think that is the gist of it.

DOn't worry about it. No one will think you are stupid. Just jump in. We won't bite!! (mostly.)

Good Times! Good Times!

ah... Orlando!

It was a LoTR thing. Everyone was enamored, so every *#@# time someone would post a poll, Orlando Bloom would be one of the answers. It's tradition now to include it as an option in every poll. Quite often it'll be added by a moderator if the original poster forgets.

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Don't forget Pirates! All three of them! (I always preferred Johnny - but that's another thread - with pix!)

C.bronco said:

Gophers are often served squashed. They are more tender that way. Further, if you incite the wrath of a mod, your avatar may be turned into an aberration of Hello Kitty *shudders at the memory*.

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>''< Yes! But the same people who bring you LOLcat love never saw 'Hello, Kitty!' as a threat. Bwahahahaha....!

Don't forget secret messages! There are two kinds. One kind is in rep points - although that wasn't its original intent.
And these kind: the ones that you want people to see but don't.

Haskins started that, IIRC, and some of us thought it was cool and glommed onto it.

Oh, yeah, that reminds me. Mr. Haskins could have his own entry but you kind of have to figure him out (or not) on your own. There really isn't a description; he just IS.

Cathy C said:

It was a LoTR thing. Everyone was enamored, so every *#@# time someone would post a poll, Orlando Bloom would be one of the answers. It's tradition now to include it as an option in every poll. Quite often it'll be added by a moderator if the original poster forgets.

Click to expand...

There is also the raging debate about whether Mr. Bloom is smoking hot or just looks like a girl. It's usually quite entertaining.

One of the Mods hated eggplants with a passion, and for April Fools one year, we forcibly changed his/her avatar to a sparkling eggplant. Drove him/her NUTS! but I can't remember for the life of me who it was. It's become another tradition. You'll find we're sort of weird that way.

Click to expand...

That would be Dawno. So we get to blame her. Blaming Dawno would also be another forum tradition.

Ahh...there's a classic! The owner of this site is MacAllister Stone. If you look at her avatar, and have any interest in history, you'll realize it's a spoof of a very nice petroglyph. Speculation ran wild for some time as to WHAT it was. The two favorite options were Wile E. Coyote after a bad Acme day (which is now what it looks like) and a squashed gopher. Hence, gopher jokes.



Feel free to ask. If we decide you're worthy, we'll bless you with the answers...

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Ah, yes, the squashed gopher cult. Mac brainwashes followers regularly.

Jersey Chick said:

Not Phentermine, Ben. PHENTERMINE! You needs to shout it, man!

Nope - dunno why it's all gotta be caps - unless that's how the spam came in. I arrived at about the same time...

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::OFG throws a suspicious glance JC's way...:: Hmmm. Yeah. You did; didn't you?

Cranky said:

A very important point, MG.

Also, don't mention sausage to me. Evah. *shudders*

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Awwww... but he was so sexay!

Just go to the AW history forum to find out more.
There's a whole thread on gophers.



(in fact, I might just have this thread moved to that forum. There are tons of inside jokes around here. this would be a good way to get them all in one place for the archive.)

It's all Dawno's fault. ALL of it. Really.