Story Time!
Once upon a time there was mrshortpants. Approximately threes minutes after his ignoble birth in a back alley of the Internet, mrshortpants stumbled upon Wikipedia's list of Fearsome Critters, one of which was the "cactcus cat." Like a cactus, mrshortpants supposed, but different. Eschewing research, he composed an article about the creature, citing a book that he made up on the spot.
But lo! A mere minute after introducing the world to the marvels of the cactcus cat, mrshortpants found his integrity questionedby a Celine Dion fan, no less. The scholarly friends of mrshortpants arrived to defend his honor, but the tide of battle turned abruptly when a new challenger appeared to redirect and rewrite the article to describe the "cactus cat," a cousin of the cactcus cat that bore remarkable similarities to mrshortpants's creature. (As mrshortpants conducted no research whatsoever prior to penning his masterpiece, we must assume that he was a natural-born bullshitter.) To the delight of mrshortpants, his "bobcat" detail was kept, despite its absence in the new writer's cited source. And to his unfettered glee, his imaginary book remained as a reference.
Unlike most things birthed in the dark corners of the ether at well-past-bedtime, mrshortpants has found a calling: to compose articles about real phenomena in such a way as to make them appear to be frothing nonsense, but with just enough Essence of Truthiness mixed in that someone else will follow after and attempt to legitimize them. For every fabricated detail or citation that survives the process, mrshortpants gets a point. And I get a cookie.
But lo! A mere minute after introducing the world to the marvels of the cactcus cat, mrshortpants found his integrity questionedby a Celine Dion fan, no less. The scholarly friends of mrshortpants arrived to defend his honor, but the tide of battle turned abruptly when a new challenger appeared to redirect and rewrite the article to describe the "cactus cat," a cousin of the cactcus cat that bore remarkable similarities to mrshortpants's creature. (As mrshortpants conducted no research whatsoever prior to penning his masterpiece, we must assume that he was a natural-born bullshitter.) To the delight of mrshortpants, his "bobcat" detail was kept, despite its absence in the new writer's cited source. And to his unfettered glee, his imaginary book remained as a reference.
Unlike most things birthed in the dark corners of the ether at well-past-bedtime, mrshortpants has found a calling: to compose articles about real phenomena in such a way as to make them appear to be frothing nonsense, but with just enough Essence of Truthiness mixed in that someone else will follow after and attempt to legitimize them. For every fabricated detail or citation that survives the process, mrshortpants gets a point. And I get a cookie.