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September 28th: Nerdfighting!!!

2007-09-28 · letter vlog · John · 3:15 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal update · tags: community lore, on location

John reports meeting Nerdfighters in Richmond, Virginia, who staged a finger-puppet version of his car-key confession, jokes about his flying superstitions, and finds Daniel Biss on the Wall Street Journal's front page, crediting Brotherhood 2.0's fundraising help as proof that nerdfighting is working.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeted by Nerdfighters in Richmond, Virginia; naming Nerdfighterstan/Nerdfighterland/Nerdfighteria; Walt Whitman talk; finger-puppet rendition of the car-key conversation with the Yeti

  • ★★★ John was greeted by Nerdfighters in Richmond, Virginia, the night before (27 September 2007), and had a great time there. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria

  • ★★★ John jokingly calls Richmond the world capital of Nerdfighterstan, Nerdfighterland or Nerdfighteria, and leaves the name for the Nerdfighters to decide. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria

    “Nerdfighterstan. Nerdfighterland? Nerdfighteria?”

  • ★★ In Richmond John talked a lot about Walt Whitman and met Nerdfighters doing cool, clever nerdfighting. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria

  • ★★ In Richmond John saw a finger-puppet theatre rendition of his telling the Yeti about the Boston car key fiasco; he says the real talk happened at 5:15 a.m. (playful) — 00:00:41 · Sarah Urist Green

00:01:10 — John's airplane superstitions (Lord's Prayer, touching the plane, buying true-crime reading); Sarah's childhood book 'Thornton's Unscheduled Landing'

  • ★★ John describes his flying superstitions: saying the Lord's Prayer at takeoff and landing, touching the plane while boarding, and buying crime reading at the airport; none of about 500 flights has crashed. (playful) — 00:01:10
  • ★ John says he knew he wanted to marry Sarah when she told him about a plane-crash book she wrote as a child, 'Thornton's Unscheduled Landing'. (playful) — 00:01:40 · Sarah Urist Green

00:02:08 — Buying the Wall Street Journal despite Rupert Murdoch; Daniel Biss on the front page crediting Brotherhood 2.0; nerdfighting is just getting started; sign-off

  • ★★ John says he usually avoids the Wall Street Journal because Rupert Murdoch is buying it, mocks Murdoch's empire-building, yet concedes the Journal is a good newspaper. (playful) — 00:02:08
  • ★★★ Scanning the Wall Street Journal at the Richmond airport, John finds Daniel Biss on it talking about money he raised online, with Brotherhood 2.0 mentioned for helping. — 00:02:38 · Daniel Biss, Brotherhood 2.0
  • ★★★ John says Brotherhood 2.0 thus helped a progressive candidate reach the front page of a paper not noted for liberal bias: Nerdfighter evangelism is working. (playful) — 00:02:38 · Brotherhood 2.0, Daniel Biss, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says Brotherhood 2.0 may be three quarters done, but nerdfighting is just getting started. — 00:02:38 · Brotherhood 2.0

Humor (significant)

  • Listing how the puppet show differed from his real car-key confession, John notes he is not a green lion and the talk was at 5:15 a.m. — 00:01:10

    “5.15 in the morning is not the ideal time to give a Yeti bad news.”

  • John defends his superstitions (Lord's Prayer, touching the plane, crime reading) by their track record. — 00:01:40

    “I've been on like 500 flights since I started all of these superstitions, and not one of them has landed prematurely.”

  • John knew he'd marry Sarah when she told him the title of the plane-crash book she wrote as a kid. — 00:01:40

    “Thornton's Unscheduled Landing.”

  • Explaining why he avoids the Journal now that Rupert Murdoch is buying it, John slips into Murdoch's voice mid-sentence. — 00:02:08

    “I maintain my youthful countenance by drinking the blood of Nerdfighters”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Brotherhood 2.0 · Daniel Biss · Richmond, Virginia · The Wall Street Journal

Also: Boston · Confederate States of America · Lord's Prayer · Rupert Murdoch · Sarah Urist Green · the Puff · Thornton's Unscheduled Landing · Walt Whitman

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