Cartalk Aliases - Now it Can be Told...

[Long Run]

Thanks for the Throwback Thursday, Joe, et al. I was like Guin and just used the one handle; I don't think I'd be deft enough to go with more than one.

[Lord Jim]

I have to wonder, LJ, what brought you to the Cartalk website? Did you come to share your automotive mechanical skills?

Uh, not so much...

I had been listening to their radio show, (yes, some conservatives do actually listen occasionally to NPR) and that's what got me to check out their website...

I still remember my first post; it was a rant about the "spokeheads" who were snarling downtown traffic in San Fran with their monthly Friday afternoon terrorist runs...

I also remember that I got called both a communist and a nazi within two days of when I started posting...

When I started posting there, there was only one other conservative on the board, (Birdman, a very nice guy who I met at the Sacramento FtF)

After about a year, almost a third of the regular posters were conservatives, and I recall catching some hell for that...(along the lines of "Well, you're okay, but you're attracting riff raff... )

One conservative (arch-conservative) who joined the crew who definitely wasn't "riff raff" was Handyone...

Very funny, bright, articulate guy, but about as right-wing as they come...I recall him posting once about having dinner with some members of The John Birch Society and saying that he felt he was "in the presence of a group of well meaning liberals"...(Now that's hardcore... )

Or was it to brag about installing a paper towel holder?

You say that mockingly...

That remains to this day my finest handy man achievement...(that and successfully replacing the rubber upper- downer-bobbing-thingy in the back of one of our toilets) I'm quite proud of that

[Guinevere]

You've got me geezering now...

Great Ftf's...

DC, ( a great FtF, Guin was there, as I recall we had nearly 20 Cafe Darties at that one...I did my incredible rendition of Secret Agent Man... ) LA, (where I went boogie boarding with Buzz Light Year and also met up with Doc Brown and Nette) Vegas, Sacramento, several in 'Frisco...

Dorothy and I used to have a running competition to see who could meet the most other "Darties"...

(And Ray...Do you remember the "RayTom Project?" )

Back in the days when I was responsible for no one but myself, and if I felt like jumping on a plane to meet up with some folks, I could just do it any time I felt like it...sigh...

There are times I miss those days, but I wouldn't trade them for what I have now...

Guin wasn't just there, I organized that party! We were at Union Station in DC. Let' see if I can remember who was present (and my apologies if I leave out anyone): me, LJ, Thibber, Darren (who looked like he was Thibber's twin), Mrs AOD, Dorothy, Lee (CatLady), Nova Girl, Library Guy, Snailgate (or did he just send something in), Juno & Bonkers (they are sisters), Dennis d'Menniz (who mostly drove around DC and couldn't find us), and Josquin. Was Appie in China there? Girl from B'more? Slanter? Wrangler? Datsunaholic?

Other CD'ers I've met and have become close friends with include AndyH, YYYnheimer, and bluefrog. I'm also still in touch with Smitty (MTS), Sparrowgrass, Tyee (he also posted under several different handles, including Olequa and something else), Rbarr, Stump, 'Thuse, Bones and Ms. Lois. I also knew Gardening Fool, who originally posted as Michael, and who suddenly passed away 5-10 years ago. Tom Swift also died within that same time frame. I was in touch with Coopmeister and English Teacher for a while after I moved to Boston. They were on kid #2 last time we talked, and getting ready to move back to Oregon.

So many names, so much fun. Those were good times!

[Lord Jim]

Guin wasn't just there, I organized that party! We were at Union Station in DC. Let' see if I can remember who was present (and my apologies if I leave out anyone): me, LJ, Thibber, Darren (who looked like he was Thibber's twin), Mrs AOD, Dorothy, Lee (CatLady), Nova Girl, Library Guy, Snailgate (or did he just send something in), Juno & Bonkers (they are sisters), Dennis d'Menniz (who mostly drove around DC and couldn't find us), and Josquin.

You forgot The Hip Bob Rodgers...

[Guinevere]

That's Thibber (THBR = the Hip Bob Rodgers).

[MajGenl.Meade]

OK so when was all that - the Café was a hangout from when to when? Please and thank you

[Guinevere]

I started posting there in 1996 or 1997. I think the diaspora to the CSB - when the Car Talk management cracked down on posters, started deleting posts, and then totally changed the character and nature of the boards, happened some time after the millennium. 2001 perhaps? LJ, what do you recall about the timing?

[Big RR]

My recollection is similar to yours Guin; I started around 1997 at car talk and went to CSB around 2001-2002.

[Gob]

Where does the Darwin awards contingent fit into all this?

That was my first board.

[Joe Guy]

Same as above.

When it started changing for the worse I remember (pretending to be) trying to organize a group to go to the Cartalk headquarters in person to take over the website. I think I came up with that as a response to Darren, who was one of the biggest complainers about the place. Like Handyone, Skyhook and some others, he didn't like me much because I kept calling him and others Paranoid Gun-Toting CONservatives.

I also remember Omar and I thought he used to work with Bosco (Dales) but don't know if he really did. There was a Bridget there also who I think it was that loved Eric Clapton.

Way back in the old days...

[kristina]

Lovely little stroll down memory lane...

I've been packing and unpacking for the last month, and came across a dead tree copy of the Chicken Thread. It was a great excuse to sit down and relaxitate for ten minutes.

[Joe Guy]

Where does the Darwin awards contingent fit into all this?

That was my first board.

I'm surprised you survived it....

[Gob]

Got a wife out of it, so not complaining.

[Crackpot]

It's called a ballcock Jim.

[Lord Jim]

2001 perhaps? LJ, what do you recall about the timing?

Well, no one probably wants to admit this, but it was editec who originally turned us on to the CSB...

After John (a very thoughtful intelligent techy guy, who I had occasion to speak with on the phone several times) stopped running the Cafe Darte, the management of The Cafe Darte was taken over by a couple of college interns who thought it was funny to delete paragraphs of thoughtful content, but allow stuff like "kitty, kitty made you look" be repeated over and over again...clever stuff that...

My basic response to that was, "fuck this"...I'll either go elsewhere or stop posting on line...

I can understand why Click and Clack did not care to have their "car" intended website turned into a forum for general internet conversation...(or a kind of "cyber commune" for people who enjoyed each others company)

But they allowed it to go on, because we're talking about the mid-late 90s, when the internet was young, and "any traffic was good traffic"...

(So be that as it may Strop, if you want to blame anyone for the Cafe Darties showing up at the CSB, you can blame editec... )

[MajGenl.Meade]

And there was Whad'ya Know until that got clogged up. On one or more of these sites I was LtCol.Flashman for a time so I could be rude. But since no one could tell the difference and nor could I, it went back to being simple old Meade.

[BoSoxGal]

You all have editec to blame for me showing up at CSB in 2005-2006.




No good bastard!



eta: But it's Gob's fault I was invited here!

[oldr_n_wsr]

I started at the DAF around 2000, 2001.

[Big RR]

Jim--I'll admit that it was editec who first introduced me to the CSB after the café was falling apart. As for the "hosts" of CD, I don't ever recall either posting on it (although they could easily have done so with a name not related to them; I originally came there with a car question (after they talked about it on the show) and stayed for the fun until I had a couple of posts deleted for no apparent reason; I just figured it wasn't worth the time.

[Guinevere]

Editec got a lot of things right.