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What's in a Screenname: Why I chose 'Silly' as my handle [blatant late-night (but sober) vanity]
November 12, 2006 | Silly

Posted on 11/12/2006 12:15:30 AM PST by Silly

Everybody asks me about my handle, "Silly."

Okay, no one asks me, but since I'm posting again on FR after about being absent since 2002, I thought I'd formally say hello to everyone again, and this was the best way I could think to do so.

Years and years ago, when I first began posting on the Internet, including FR, CNN, and other boards, I was a bit, well, let's say, unaware of the effect my strange sense of humor had on others. Of course I knew it was over the top and harmless, but I just couldn't understand why other people didn't have that figured out! I like non-sequiturs, absurdism, and Pythonesque humor, and, frankly, when I want to play rough, I can do that, too. It drove people crazy!

So let's just say that for the first few years I had to re-register on several sites and come up with different handles. (Mostly, I used my real name.)

One of my favorite pasttimes was posting anagrams. You know, like, "Senator Hillary = Another sly liar." Except I wouldn't bother telling people they were anagrams, or posting the first half. So the anagrams, like much of my humor, were mistaken as trolling, because they looked like non-sequiturs and really annoyed people! (My very first anagram won a prize at David Letterman's Website. It was, "Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky = A C.I.A. mink and wild, sloppy intern." I got a Late Night sponge for that effort.)

My on-line social life completely changed when I stumbled on the handle Silly. It was the perfect name for me. Now, everyone seemed to know where I was coming from, and knew to think twice before taking my comments seriously (though most of them were). Suddenly I could do no wrong!

I immediately began making dozens of friends. Suddenly, FR became a place primarily of friendship, then politics. As you know, you can argue more easily with people who trust and like you than those who don't understand you.

I was, however, eventually banned from FR again, if I remember correctly, due to my comments to a conspiracy nut who I loved to harass and ridicule. It may have been another reason -- I forget, and can't seem to reconstruct it from old freepmails.

THEN CAME THE "FREE SILLY" CAMPAIGN, which I will never forget. Everyone at the WFTD thread started lobbying to get me unbanned. Photoshop images with the words, "Free Silly!" started showing up everywhere on FR, to the confusion of most FReepers. I think my favorite one was a picture of Jim Rob in a blue T-shirt with the words FREE SILLY, which really got a lot of mileage in the laugh department. Everyone, everywhere on FR was asking, "Who's Silly?"

Someone even registered a new account with the screenname, "Free Silly, You Bastards!" which I think is still around, and makes me laugh out loud whenever I think of it. In those days, we were all laughing so hard milk was coming out of our noses while we ate breakfast and posted on the WFTD thread first thing each morning. (Remember pictures of summer camp?)

Well, last summer, I wrote to John Rob, and politely asked if I could have my old handle back. I was so amazed when he unbanned me! It was like I was alive again, and all the old memories came flooding back.

Except for a few posts last summer, I didn't get really involved again on FR until recently. Now I've been having a lot of fun. I've changed a lot since 2002, for the better, and ironically my behavior is not as silly as it once was. But I sure am glad I found that handle!

Anyway, I just wanted to formally say hi again to everyone. I love you all, wish you all God's richest blessings, and look forward to some in-person activities and lively posting here at FR.

Still being,

Silly


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: fr; handle; justbeing; silly; soberupsilly; vanity; whyrulookinghere
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To: Silly
Years and years ago, when I first began posting on the Internet, including FR, CNN, and other boards, I was a bit, well, let's say, unaware of the effect my strange sense of humor had on others. Of course I knew it was over the top and harmless, but I just couldn't understand why other people didn't have that figured out! I like non-sequiturs, absurdism, and Pythonesque humor, and, frankly, when I want to play rough, I can do that, too. It drove people crazy!

Me too.

Except for the part about the multiple felony convictions.

We differ there.

61 posted on 04/25/2007 11:35:38 AM PDT by Lazamataz (JOIN THE NRA: https://membership.nrahq.org/forms/signup.asp)
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To: monkapotamus

It’s not so late, and I’m not so sober. (But I’m not drunk, either.)

I’m sitting at 53 Ann, a bar on Ann Street in lower Manhattan.

We’re doing karaoke, and havin’ a blast!

Anyone out there wanna suggest a song for me to sing?

Silly


62 posted on 05/16/2007 5:35:23 PM PDT by Silly (http://www.sarcasmoff.com)
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To: monkapotamus

It’s not so late, and I’m not so sober. (But I’m not drunk, either.)

I’m sitting at 53 Ann, a bar on Ann Street in lower Manhattan.

We’re doing karaoke, and havin’ a blast!

Anyone out there wanna suggest a song for me to sing?

Silly


63 posted on 05/16/2007 5:35:25 PM PDT by Silly (http://www.sarcasmoff.com)
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To: monkapotamus

It’s not so late, and I’m not so sober. (But I’m not drunk, either.)

I’m sitting at 53 Ann, a bar on Ann Street in lower Manhattan.

We’re doing karaoke, and havin’ a blast!

Anyone out there wanna suggest a song for me to sing?

Silly


64 posted on 05/16/2007 5:35:25 PM PDT by Silly (http://www.sarcasmoff.com)
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To: Silly
'Big bottom' by Spinal Tap.

The only song I will karaoke.

65 posted on 05/16/2007 5:40:22 PM PDT by Dinsdale
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To: Dinsdale

Oh my gosh, let me check to see if it’s on the list! That would be hilarious! BRB


66 posted on 05/16/2007 5:41:29 PM PDT by Silly (http://www.sarcasmoff.com)
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To: Dinsdale

Not in the book. Aw, what a gyp!


67 posted on 05/16/2007 5:43:24 PM PDT by Silly (http://www.sarcasmoff.com)
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To: Silly
Someone even registered a new account with the screenname, "Free Silly, You Bastards!" which I think is still around, and makes me laugh out loud whenever I think of it.

That is funny as hell! I am cracking up.
68 posted on 05/16/2007 5:47:53 PM PDT by Xenalyte (You have to defile a mummy completely, or they come back to life. You know that.)
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To: Silly

I went on one karaoke date, right before I met my husband. It’s a long story that involves a guy who I used to babysit singing to me “Unbreak My Heart,” “Hotel California,” and (for a change of pace) “In the Ghetto.”

I have never been so horrified in my life.

So the moral of the story is, don’t sing any of those, or your date will dump you next week and marry the guy she meets over the weekend.


69 posted on 05/16/2007 5:50:26 PM PDT by Xenalyte (You have to defile a mummy completely, or they come back to life. You know that.)
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To: Silly
Well, you are Silly.

Welcome back.

And my screen name has absolutely nothing to do with Rush.

70 posted on 05/16/2007 5:52:36 PM PDT by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Now free A+Bert

I miss that cantankerous old fart. Every neighborhood needs one.

71 posted on 05/16/2007 5:55:00 PM PDT by Ditto (Global Warming: The 21st Century's Snake Oil)
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To: Silly

Free Silly !!

buuuuuuuummmmmp !!

:)


72 posted on 06/12/2008 11:05:36 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP (McRINO needs reach across the aisle to Conservatives for a CHANGE! Dang him!!!)
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To: MeekOneGOP

buuuuuuuuump!!

:-)


73 posted on 10/22/2009 2:52:31 AM PDT by Silly ("Okay, I'm getting just a little sick of this bereaved chicken-widow crap!")
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To: xsmommy

Oh, yes they were! Gotta find some archived screen shots of those... and the Free Silly campaign memes.

Can you believe it, after all these years, it wasn’t until right this moment that I made the connection between Free Silly and Free Willy! Funny!


74 posted on 03/27/2021 4:39:30 AM PDT by Silly (He’s Silly here, he’s Silly there, it seems he’s Silly Everywhere!)
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