Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Some days I consider how much I inhabit an imaginary…
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Some days I consider how much I inhabit an imaginary universe that happily coincides with other people's imaginary universes. Reality is intersubjective, Mr. Hatch once told us. And so I actually know gobs about the Star Trek and West Wing fictions, and I vote, and I share rather complicated slang and in-jokes with friends.
To get down to business: as far as I know, this out-of-context bit gives you the only glimpse of Leonard's (and friends') Senator Radclyffe joke.
Senator or Congressman Radclyffe has somehow acquired the ultimate in gerrymandering: he is his own district. So it makes complete sense for the Senator to act selfishly; he's only serving his constituency.
Examples:
- The way to show that you are acting as Senator Radclyffe (I-North Virginia) is to softly and rhythmically thunk the back of one hand into the palm of the other while saying, in a fake-formal voice, "Me, me, me."
- "Senator, this bill is nothing but pork for your district!"
"Yes it is, Bill. One barrel of tasty, tasty pork. Mmm-mmm, how my constituency loves that grade-A hog!" - "Before I begin my press conference, a few words about the bias of the not-me media..."
- "Senator, Christ said, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It says so in the Bible!"
"Maybe in your Bible..."
A more generally applicable joke: "Will the Senator please yield? I mean, come on, there's a sign there. I'm just trying to get on the freeway."
Leonard, what else we got?
