Dangling Conversations

Colour commentary on the world we live in

Origin?

Posted 05 Apr, 2005 at 22:31 by matt in /Words | Permanent link

I would be most grateful to anyone who could tell me where the phrase All die. O, the embarrassment! first appeared.

(A representative sample usage, stolen from someone's .sig file: I die! I attempt a speeling flame, but my flamer explodes and covers me with burning oil. The fire spreads to the walls and nearby houses. The smoke from the flames blots out the sun. Crop failures abound and civilization collapses. The last humans huddle around their pathetic campfires as a new ice age ensues and the glaciers approach. The light of the fire attracts many wolves. All die! O, the embarrassment!)

Comments (4 comments so far)
Google is your friend. Apparently that phrase is from Joe Haldeman's story A !Tangled Web. A reasonable writeup can be found in the middle section of this page: http://www.visi.com/~kaustin/demicon/demicon003_pb_p17.html
Posted 2005/4/6 07:41:11 by RobRoy
Heh. Wonderful. Thanks muchly. The earliest I'd managed to trace it was to a document called "Seven Deadly Sins of Perl".
Posted 2005/4/6 08:53:23 by Matt
Page 160 • Story Title - A !Tangled Web • Author - Joe W. Haldeman • Magazine - Analog Sep 14 '81 • Book - Analog's Lighter Side (Anthology #4), ed. Stanley Schmidt, Davis, 1982
Posted 2005/4/6 13:50:12 by blue
I die! I attempt to consume vile noxious medication, but my bowels explode and fill the room with billowing burning methane. The fire spreads to the walls and nearby houses. The smoke from the flames blots out the sun. Crop failures abound and civilization collapses. The last humans huddle around their pathetic campfires as a new ice age ensues and the glaciers approach. The light of the fire attracts many wolves. All die! O, the embarrassment!
Posted 2006/2/10 22:09:11 by Kael
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Blue has been known to toss a disc around a field from time to time, and thinks that you should as well. He lives either on the Internet or in Toronto, depending on your perspective. Ask him no questions and there's a good chance he'll tell you no lies. [Site]

Brent hosts the box from which we dangle our conversations, for which we are all eternally grateful. Gratitude is most easily expressed in small bills. Formerly a pawn of the Evil Empire (or maybe a Knight), he has gone over the wall and now toils at a small computer game company in Alberta that no one except for ten million gamers has ever heard of. [Site]

Kael occasionally gets called "Mike"; mostly by people who don't know him. He cooks, he cleans, he maintains Unix servers... what else could you ask for? Currently a slave to the Man, by which we mean retail sales. He has secret plans, but we can't tell you about them. In fact, we've already said too much. [Site]

Lisa is a recreational therapist without a cause. She entertains dreams of ruling over an empire of scrapbooking. Has a well-deserved reputation for enthusiasm, common sense, and tiredness. Ask her about her teapots, but don't touch them.

Matt is just this guy, you know? A mathematician by training and a layabout by inclination; he currently has an Urban Commuter Campus in the American Midwest convinced that they should pay him for plying these trades. The designer and administrator of this site, which means in a sense this is all his fault. [Site | E-mail]

Sky is a salesman during the day. At night he doesn't bother: his words are like unto those of a god, and you can agree or you can be wrong. Lives in the World of Warcraft, with a sattelite office in Toronto. Known to play games on occasion.

Wendy has never run away to join the circus, but pursuing graduate work in medical imaging is perhaps just as good. She didn't choose her current abode on the basis of proximity to a Toronto Public Library branch, but we wouldn't put it past her. Married to one of the other authors here, but you'll have to read the archives to find out which one. [Site]

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