Eight Yrs. Ago-ish Today (On The iNternet)

The Daily Dish has been scraped clean, washed, dried & put in the cupboard; we expect saps who paid money for a subscription to get off their high horses & come to Web of Evil for their daily dose of bullshit any day now.

[checks watch again, continues drumming fingers]

Hey, it's free too, neither ads nor subscription fees (Were Sully & flunkies aware that every word they typed & every picture & video they embedded was available for not a damn thing through Feedly.com?) & worth every non-penny!

Any day now.

End of an era we s'pose & so effing what (true & absolute non-concern about any- & everything only strengthens w/ agewisdom & maturity) but loath as we are to admit it, the first notice we rec'd. on the iNternet was from mocking Mr. Sullivan. (Eight yrs. & a day ago too. Huh. Took that long to drive him out of the business?) Also loath to admit it was the PuffHo where we were noticed. (Different times.)

Here at ETP, we love user-generated content just as much as anyone else, so today we're posting some. Earlier this week new ETP contributor Glynnis MacNicol posted her early Valentine's Day thoughts on Andrew Sullivan, and we posted back-to-back versions of the old and new illustrations from his peripatetic "Daily Dish" blog, one from former hostTime and the other from new home the Atlantic. While most of the commenters were more concerned with going apoplectic over how much they hate Andrew Sullivan, one eagle-eyed reader, "MBouffant," was looking at the differences between old drawing and new, and wondering, exactly, what they meant:

Noticed the drawing was mighty similar at Time & The Atlantic, hope Terry Colon didn't get full price for the new one, but let's examine the two carefully: 1) White tee-shirt not part of dress code at The Atlantic; 2) Books not used at Atlantic, but you do get a 'phone; 3) Time: wooden desk, Atlantic; steel desk; 4) Atlantic provides googly eyed staffer/intern (to replace no longer googly eyed dog at Time?); 5) Dog at Atlantic needs second I. D. tag (and both dogs' noses grew larger);6) No drinking at your desk at The Atlantic, and no personal pictures on your wall; 7) Atlantic office closer to Capitol Building, and window is bigger, so the desk lamp is no longer needed; 8) Carpets look very similar, but the Atlantic's may have fleas, as Rover on the left is scratching, and Fido on the right is sleeping with one eye open.

Now I've no idea what (if anything) any of this means, but it may provide some food for thought (besides the obvious one that I have a bit too much time on my hands, and perhaps not enough anything on my mind).
By: MBouffant on February 08, 2007 at 08:14pm

Not much gets by you, does it, MBouffant? You forgot to mention, though, that Sullivan got a computer update, and that evidently the Atlantic is a bit stuffier than Time because Sullivan's sleeves aren't rolled up (or maybe he's just not working as hard). Really, at the Atlantic he just doesn't look as busy; no books, no clutter, no notes on his bulletin board (could those papers scream "fire safety evacuation rules and random memo" any more). But, his arms are working harder; his chair has no armrests. Did we miss anything else? And, more to the point, what does it all mean? If you care, or even if you don't, let us know. Mysteries are fun!

Update: Awesome observation by commenter chrisb at Gawker: "Surprised no one has mentioned the most obvious difference: he's facing left in one pic and facing right in the other. Sully loves a good flip-flop."

I sent the link to everyone I knew, one of whom replied, "you'll start a web log now," & it only took a few mos. to get right on it. And now you know to whom blame should be assigned.