How to ride an elephant into the future.

6) Shrieking posts at the end of an article about, say, poetry, asking,  "[D]on't you care that this election is being stolen?"

7) Posts predicting the end of the world. May produce a nice polite reply: "Then you and your friends can enjoy the Rapture that much sooner."

8) Paranoid posts from those importantly believing that the FBI cares about their political views. Again, a helpful reply can be counted on from fellow posters:

"And now [that you've posted in the Fray], They have your IP address. You'll probably just have time to get your affairs in order before the helicopters arrive."  "I can hear the rotors spinning now!"

There was one curious absence: In 2000, every day there would be posts saying some version of: "Slate! Ha! Why don't you change your name to Slant!" Nobody says this any more. We quite miss it. They still say "your an idiot" and "do you get paid by the word?" and "why are you allowed to publish this?" though, so all is not lost.

We should also give a shoutout to all the great posts, intelligent arguments, and engaged writers who come to the Fray. We find what we said back in July: "These are Slate readers: Whatever their politics, 95 percent of them know that they are against racism, stereotypes, and dirty tricks." If you wanted a quick history of the election, you could do worse than look through past Fraywatches for their contributions. For great quotes, we stand by our SuperTuesday Quiz, then go for a quick turn through Hillary's "womanish leisure suits," Michelle Obama's thesis, those fluctuating primaries, and that fist jab. Sorry it's over? Tell us what you'll miss …—MR … 1:30 p.m. GMT

Friday, Oct. 24,  2008

Slate's customer base: "gangstas that want to pimp their lives"? Yes, we, too, were surprised by JonIscream's description, it conjured up such an … unlikely view of you all. The topic was etiquette one way or another: This post referred to the review of a new biography of Emily Post, but etiquette was also at the heart of John Swansburg's piece on other people's birthdays. That article touched a nerve with you gangstas, and it is time to trundle out the Fray Multiple Post summarizer. Birthday reactions divide (with a bit of unmannerly pushing and shoving) into the following categories:

1. The person with the birthday should be paying for everyone, not being treated. There was strong support for this view, though "Grown-ups pay for themselves" was a puzzle. KateNonymous  means by this that one grown-up pays for everyone else—who knew?
2. No, says another strong faction. If I invite you to the cinema, or a sports game, or a vacation, you don't expect me to pay for you, do you? By far the most imaginative variation on this was from kari9704: "Would you be hosting if you said to your friends, 'I'm going to the zoo; want to come along?' Would you be responsible for buying their elephant key chains and cotton candy during the outing?" Kari, a friend who would invite you to the zoo is a friend worth paying for.
3. We don't have this problem, say some readers. It doesn't arise in other parts of the country, they say, perhaps because New Yorkers notoriously have less room at home for the suggested alternatives: a cheap party ("potluck … karaoke. Best Birthday Ever") or barbecue at home. Even then there can be difficulties—Anse told us about a recent event (a wedding, but still): "It was set up for a classic Czech-Catholic affair, except for one glaring problem: instead of barbecue brisket, sausage, and potato salad, they served prime rib and grilled chicken. There were complaints." This nuance falls into the category of inexplicable but compelling for some of us.
4. "Your significant other should be the one to take you to the steakhouse for your birthday," sayshstein—oh bad luck if you don't have one then.
5. Mystifying posts. Several people mentioned the Puerto Rican option (as opposed to the Jefferson Davis solution suggested in the original article)—so what was this? "Full internal autonomy within the sovereign territory of the United States"? No apparently, it's something to do with drinking rather than eating. And those of us of a timid disposition are also mystified by this description of a bachelor party.
6. Posts that tell their story in the title: Server POV; Been there! Started a price cap! Now write an article about weddings.

As it happens, your Fray editor has special authority to speak on etiquette matters and knows that, in fact, everyone believes his or her rules to be best and hates to be challenged and is outraged by everyone else's (totally wrong) rules. "I was always brought up to ..." are words you can hear too many times. So it was a pleasure to read an unusually kind, charming post on etiquette from bigmac, who was talking aboutEmily Yoffe's article  on taking offense.

Most people walk around with sharp nails and thin skin—they offend others sometimes even unawares, and then take offense to the slightest askew look. Rather than concentrate on their behavior, we need to look inward at ours. For example, when reading this article, it is easy for me to see how this subject applies to so many people. ... But I can't change them. I can only change myself (with God's help and grace) and so I should read this and examine my own head and heart. A rhino hide and velvet gloves—that's what I need to go for.

Defiinitely someone you should invite to your birthday party.—MR… 2:30 p.m. GMT

Wednesday, Oct. 15,  2008