For an extravert, I’m actually quite shy. So when I see the cool kids egging each other on to spread their various memes across the internets, I tend to sit wallflower-like and wait for them to come to me. I don’t jump up and down saying “pick me! pick me!”. Not without a certain amount of pain, I admit. Then, when I finally do get tagged, what happens? I remain unaware for almost a month. Having finally been made aware of The Viscount”s generosity (or pity) during an infrequent ego-sweep, I resolved not to make too much of an effort in the direction of humour, irony or post-modernism. Instead, let’s treat this as seriously as a first date deserves.
There now, all done. And the reason I hadn’t done it till now, mon cher Viscomte, was not the result of an excess of cool. It was an excess of dorkiness. Just for fun (dorky, I told you) I followed the chain back aways. (I’m aware I’ve ignored certain forks in the trail; someone else can take care of them.)
The Viscount got it from Bobby, who set the bar really high, and took a day and a half to deliver. Bobby got it from Brother Ned, and needed just six hours. Neddie was infected by Blue Wren, whose daughter Dragon Laugh (obviously a made-up name), says that “a co-worker ... made this one up.” I guess we have to take her word for it. Half a day from daughter to mother, another half a day from the bird to the jingster. and then I come along and hold things up for the best part of a month.1
I’m sorry.
But back on a serious note, does anyone actually study the spread of these things for real? It could be informative. It could also be colossally boring, but not in the right hands.
Anyway, I’m going to tag The Communicatrix, because I like just about everything she writes and because, like a modern infected traveller, it will get this pathogenic time-thief out into a fresh population of hosts. If she’s susceptible ...
2022-07-23: All, amazingly, still available although not all still active. Old Skool rules. ↩
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