At 01:18 PM 2/13/2011, rantingrick wrote:
If any tutorial owners refuse to cooperate we need to remove their
tutorials (and/or links to their tutorials) from the official Python
website forever.
How many tutorials have you written?
In a city I used to live in, a long while ago, ...
You would stop at a red light at a downtown corner and some unkempt
fellow would lurch out of nowhere, stagger onto your hood, smear his
dirty rag over a part of your windshield once or twice, rock back on
his heels unsteadily, and thrust out his hand towards the car window.
You could react in different ways.
If you disdained to acknowledge his specific service to your general
good he would start yelling at the top of his lungs at what an
ingrate you were, that you should *appreciate* that he had /cleaned/
your windshield (though more smeared now than before), that you were
too stupid to know you were now in a better situation than before he
had arrived, and beckoning to his fellow corner bums (who quite
ignored the blowhard's umpteenth snit that day) and any passersby
(who scurried away fast as they could) that all should upbraid you
for the lackwit that you were. At length, for as long as there was
an audience.
Others would point to the smeared windshield and start screaming he'd
dirtied their windshield, made it worse than before, he was a bum, he
needed to get a job, etc. etc. To which he would respond, well, just
as above, except adding that they were obviously blind or unbalanced.
Others would pantomime not having any money to give him for his
service, so sorry. To which he would respond, well, as above, except
adding that they were liars and cheats, and at least he was an honest bum.
Some would drive off chancing against knocking the fellow down,
worried he would then scream for the police to arrest them for hit
and run. Others would freeze, until a half-dozen car horns on a
green light would release them from their quandary.
And of course some would give him money, or throw it at him, and thus
rewarding his dirty deeds. And his fellow bums shuffled off to some
other street corner with a stop light and tried the same scam themselves.
This went on for over a year. You see, there were the people who
said that the bums were really trying to help people, improve the
general good. And who would say that the bums didn't have the
resources to keep their rags clean, so the dirtied windshields
couldn't be helped. And what's wrong with trying to do good things?
But with more traffic stoppages at more and more downtown corners,
this bit of tramp theatre became less droll by the day. And then the
business people noticed customers were avoiding the downtown. And
then the ragged crew spread out from downtown. And then a couple of
high society pooh-poohing do-gooders had the exact same joyful
encounter, and poo-pooed badly.
I'd like to say the solution was simple, and that the city passed
some regulations, and the police were given a directive to stop
overlooking all this, and the practice stopped. Well, it was, and
did, and were, and it did.
But then the desperate, in the afternoon or evening when the lack of
recent drink was most pressing, would lurch out from a corner and
throw themselves on a slowed and turning car, bounce (less than
balletically) off, wailing and moaning at how'd they'd been most
severely injured by the driver's gross and unconscionable negligence
and blindness, their licenses should be taken away, jailed, call an
ambulance, etc.
Not so strangely, this worked a treat, especially if the driver
hadn't seen it coming. (Though sometimes the accident took a lot of
work on the bum's end - I saw one get "run over" by a car, half a
block from where the bum ran out onto the street, on the other side
of the street, with the car now reversing - it didn't help if you
could see it coming) And better, you didn't even have to have a rag.
You only had two options, pay up or call his bluff and call the
police. People paid, and found themselves having 'hit' perhaps the
very same bum a couple weeks later. Call the police and the bum
would be gone before they got there, having screamed and muttered
imaginative 'compliments' in your direction all the while shambling off.
I think the city ended up having to strengthen the regulations, and
simply started locking up all the bums. I don't really remember
though, because I stopped going downtown and eventually left the city entirely.
Rick, you're using the same rag now for weeks. It's dirty. Quit
being the rag man. It won't get you the drink you want. It will
only make you "rag man rick".
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