March 4, 2024: That's an outrage!

The old household desktop, which lives in the kitchen, is where Rick watches a lot of hobby videos, sans headphones. They are mostly about woodworking, hunting, fishing and the like. Most of the narrators are male, and I assume most of the audience is too.

I generally tune them out, but some get interrupted by VERY LOUD ads, such that the other day I heard an angry male voice in the kitchen shouting, “WHY does everybody wear ponchos, when THEY DON’T DO ANYTHING???!?!?!?”

I jumped, and then thought, Geez, we yell about the oddest stuff now.

Also, I am one of everybody, and I do not own – or wear - a poncho.

I wanted to nominate the poncho phrase for inclusion in The Living Dictionary under “begging the question,” because I know that “begging the question” is not the same as “raising the question.”

But then I did a little Googling. The false premise - the “Why does everybody (do something everybody doesn’t do)” part of the poncho comment – apparently does not qualify as begging the question. B'inq the Q is about circular reasoning, putting the conclusion in the premise. The examples online stink, for instance:  You have to go to bed now, because it’s your bedtime.

That's not incredibly interesting. So I’m going to avoid using “begging the question” at all for a while, just as I avoid using “ironic” and pronouncing "forte." Life's too short. Though I could just forge ahead and let my friends straighten me out.

In continuing Tales of Being Wrong (it’s Lent, what can I say), I’d believed that shouting-men ads were associated with mostly-male hobbies. But I was watching some videos about art techniques, when one was suddenly interrupted by a guy shouting, “DON’T paint horizontal CLOUDS!” 

He began drawing thick black lines on a sheet of paper, all the while roaring, “HORIZONTAL LINES  move AWAY from you! REMEMBER! (Glare.) VERTICAL LINES move TOWARD you!” (The sheet of paper was deeply cross-hatched now. He had clearly TOLD US this BEFORE!) “Paint your clouds on the DIAGONAL!”

The rational bit of my brain thought, “Hmmm, handy tip, thanks!” while the emotional part was thinking, “He can’t actually reach me through the screen, so I’m safe.”

I tried to post one of my paintings to an artsy Facebook group I follow. I got a notice that the moderator had to review my post before it could appear. Okay.

Five minutes later, a fracas broke out. Someone with a name like Catarina had posted a snow scene (there have been many snow scenes this season), with a little sky, a  ribbon of landcape - you know, a rustic shack, barn, and some trees - and then a foreground of a huge expanse of snow.  Most of the snow was in shadow, which Catarina had rendered in blue, a common choice.

It was not a great painting, but follower Papillon from Pensacola* just went off. “Are you KIDDING me?!? What even is that big blue thing in front? A cloud? Below the trees? Why is this painting even here? It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Do you even know what Impressionism IS?!?!”

To their credit, the more-combative followers struck back.  “It’s SNOW, you moron. Do you EVEN KNOW what snow is, in Pensacola?” “Hey, Papillon, I don’t recall seeing any of YOUR paintings on this page…! Too afraid to let us see them???” 

The less-combative followers wrote variations on, “I think it’s pretty,” and “Keep up the good work.”

Me, I wrote, “YIKES. I just turned something in and I’m waiting for the moderator, but honestly, I’m afraid of what will happen if it gets posted!”

Catarina wrote back to me saying, “I’m afraid too!”

But I had nothing to worry about. The moderator didn’t allow it through. 

* I feel that Papillon in Pensacola's chosen moniker raises - but does not beg - the question: Who needs a pseudonym to follow an art group? People like P in P, clearly.