'That one actually happened to a friend of mine.'
June 9, 2016 3:27 PM Subscribe
"How 'Silicon Valley' Nails Silicon Valley" [SLYNY, Andrew Marantz]
"Real startups go through all the shit you see on the show, as well as even crazier shit," Roger McNamee, a venerable venture capitalist and a consultant to the show, told me. "If anything, the writers might have to leave out true things in order to seem more realistic." Both Judge and Berg have an eye for authenticity. In Judge’s movie "Office Space," from 1999, he enlivened his subject—white-collar drudgery—with details he had experienced or observed: a boss’s onerous attention to the formatting of T.P.S. reports, a chain restaurant that forces its servers to wear at least fifteen pieces of "flair." Similarly, many of the shows that Berg has written for, notably "Seinfeld," harvested story lines from real life. "On 'Seinfeld,' the same thing happened again and again," Berg told me. "Someone would pitch ten ideas. The first nine would be wacky, silly things, and the tenth would be genuinely funny and interesting. You’d go, 'That tenth thing—where'd that one come from?’ and the person would say, 'That one actually happened to a friend of mine.'"Previously, "At this point, I started banging my head against my desk..." and relatedly, I would say more, but I signed an NDA.
yeah, basically they have a bunch of insiders who also find it hilarious to mock "the Valley". And it's comedy gold.
posted by GuyZero at 4:09 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by GuyZero at 4:09 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I guess its because I haven't worked at a startup in 13 years, but I lived in SV for over a decade and still work for an SV company and don't find the show very relatable. Watched the first season due to recommendations but I didn't think it was very good? But I know other people here who love it, so I must just be the wrong SV subdemographic.
posted by thefoxgod at 4:30 PM on June 9, 2016
posted by thefoxgod at 4:30 PM on June 9, 2016
This article made me laugh out loud a few times. This was pretty funny:
Hooli, a multibillion-dollar company on “Silicon Valley,” bears a singular resemblance to Google. (The Google founder Larry Page, in Fortune: “We’d like to have a bigger impact on the world by doing more things.” Hooli’s C.E.O., in season two: “I don’t want to live in a world where someone makes the world a better place better than we do.”) The previous season, Hooli had launched HooliXYZ, its own “moonshot factory,” whose experiments were slapstick absurdities: monkeys who use bionic arms to masturbate; powerful cannons for launching potatoes across a room. “He claimed he hadn’t seen the show, and then he referred many times to specific things that had happened on the show,” Kemper said. “His message was, ‘We don’t do stupid things here. We do things that actually are going to change the world, whether you choose to make fun of that or not.’ ” (Teller could not be reached for comment.)
Teller ended the meeting by standing up in a huff, but his attempt at a dramatic exit was marred by the fact that he was wearing Rollerblades. He wobbled to the door in silence. “Then there was this awkward moment of him fumbling with his I.D. badge, trying to get the door to open,” Kemper said. “It felt like it lasted an hour. We were all trying not to laugh. Even while it was happening, I knew we were all thinking the same thing: Can we use this?” In the end, the joke was deemed “too hacky to use on the show.”
posted by My Dad at 4:30 PM on June 9, 2016 [26 favorites]
Hooli, a multibillion-dollar company on “Silicon Valley,” bears a singular resemblance to Google. (The Google founder Larry Page, in Fortune: “We’d like to have a bigger impact on the world by doing more things.” Hooli’s C.E.O., in season two: “I don’t want to live in a world where someone makes the world a better place better than we do.”) The previous season, Hooli had launched HooliXYZ, its own “moonshot factory,” whose experiments were slapstick absurdities: monkeys who use bionic arms to masturbate; powerful cannons for launching potatoes across a room. “He claimed he hadn’t seen the show, and then he referred many times to specific things that had happened on the show,” Kemper said. “His message was, ‘We don’t do stupid things here. We do things that actually are going to change the world, whether you choose to make fun of that or not.’ ” (Teller could not be reached for comment.)
Teller ended the meeting by standing up in a huff, but his attempt at a dramatic exit was marred by the fact that he was wearing Rollerblades. He wobbled to the door in silence. “Then there was this awkward moment of him fumbling with his I.D. badge, trying to get the door to open,” Kemper said. “It felt like it lasted an hour. We were all trying not to laugh. Even while it was happening, I knew we were all thinking the same thing: Can we use this?” In the end, the joke was deemed “too hacky to use on the show.”
posted by My Dad at 4:30 PM on June 9, 2016 [26 favorites]
"This scene was set at TechCrunch Disrupt, a real event where founders take turns pitching their ideas, “American Idol”-style, to an auditorium full of investors. ... After the scene aired, viewers complained about the lack of diversity in the audience. Berg recalled, “A friend of mine who works in tech called me and said, ‘Why aren’t there any women? That’s bullshit!’ I said to her, ‘It is bullshit! Unfortunately, we shot that audience footage at the actual TechCrunch Disrupt.’”
Oof.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:32 PM on June 9, 2016 [91 favorites]
Oof.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:32 PM on June 9, 2016 [91 favorites]
This was awesome, too:
“Some Valley big shots have no idea how to react to the show,” Miller told me. “They can’t decide whether to be offended or flattered. And they’re mystified by the fact that actors have a kind of celebrity that they will never have—there’s no rhyme or reason to it, but that’s the way it is, and it kills them.” Miller met Musk at the after-party in Redwood City. “I think he was thrown by the fact that I wasn’t being sycophantic—which I couldn’t be, because I didn’t realize who he was at the time. He said, ‘I have some advice for your show,’ and I went, ‘No thanks, we don’t need any advice,’ which threw him even more. And then, while we’re talking, some woman comes up and says ‘Can I have a picture?’ and he starts to pose—it was kinda sad, honestly—and instead she hands the camera to him and starts to pose with me. It was, like, Sorry, dude, I know you’re a big deal—and, in his case, he actually is a big deal—but I’m the guy from ‘Yogi Bear 3-D,’ and apparently that’s who she wants a picture with.”
posted by My Dad at 4:36 PM on June 9, 2016 [59 favorites]
“Some Valley big shots have no idea how to react to the show,” Miller told me. “They can’t decide whether to be offended or flattered. And they’re mystified by the fact that actors have a kind of celebrity that they will never have—there’s no rhyme or reason to it, but that’s the way it is, and it kills them.” Miller met Musk at the after-party in Redwood City. “I think he was thrown by the fact that I wasn’t being sycophantic—which I couldn’t be, because I didn’t realize who he was at the time. He said, ‘I have some advice for your show,’ and I went, ‘No thanks, we don’t need any advice,’ which threw him even more. And then, while we’re talking, some woman comes up and says ‘Can I have a picture?’ and he starts to pose—it was kinda sad, honestly—and instead she hands the camera to him and starts to pose with me. It was, like, Sorry, dude, I know you’re a big deal—and, in his case, he actually is a big deal—but I’m the guy from ‘Yogi Bear 3-D,’ and apparently that’s who she wants a picture with.”
posted by My Dad at 4:36 PM on June 9, 2016 [59 favorites]
I suspect I will forever be a fan of TJ Miller if only for his ability to brag about being the guy from Yogi Bear 3D pretty much every time I catch him being interviewed. Not just Yogi Bear. Yogi Bear 3D.
posted by philip-random at 4:51 PM on June 9, 2016 [21 favorites]
posted by philip-random at 4:51 PM on June 9, 2016 [21 favorites]
What I most enjoy about this show is watching my husband realize what a DevOps stereotype he is every time Guilfoyle opens his mouth.
posted by hopeless romantique at 4:57 PM on June 9, 2016 [18 favorites]
posted by hopeless romantique at 4:57 PM on June 9, 2016 [18 favorites]
I suspect half the reason Steve Jobs started his turtleneck and jeans uniform was so that he'd be more recognizable at parties. Maybe if Elon Musk started wearing a cape everywhere people would go "Hey, that guy in a cape must be Elon Musk" rather than "I wonder if that guy will mind if I ask him to take a picture of me with a marginally famous actor?"
posted by ckape at 5:02 PM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by ckape at 5:02 PM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Maybe if Elon Musk started wearing a cape everywhere
Seems he already has a better idea.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:08 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Seems he already has a better idea.
posted by thefoxgod at 5:08 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Wow, wait. Who doesn't recognize Elon Musk at this point?
He landed a rocket on a boat!!
posted by pan at 5:09 PM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
He landed a rocket on a boat!!
posted by pan at 5:09 PM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Wow, wait. Who doesn't recognize Elon Musk at this point?
He landed a rocket on a boat!!
I assume this is what his drunken and embittered loser half-brother would say
posted by clockzero at 5:13 PM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
He landed a rocket on a boat!!
I assume this is what his drunken and embittered loser half-brother would say
posted by clockzero at 5:13 PM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
Silicon Valley was featured today on Fresh Air.
posted by njohnson23 at 5:14 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by njohnson23 at 5:14 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well yeah, I'd recognize the rocket.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:16 PM on June 9, 2016 [21 favorites]
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:16 PM on June 9, 2016 [21 favorites]
I assume this is what his drunken and embittered loser half-brother would say
posted by pan at 5:17 PM on June 9, 2016
... Man won't even return my calls. Stupid island. Stupid hyperloop.Honestly though, I'd figured Elon Musk had reached a sort of science fame threshold, even if he doesn't have a TV show.
posted by pan at 5:17 PM on June 9, 2016
A noteworthy strand from the story:
When I was on the Sony lot where the current season of “Silicon Valley” was being filmed, several people encouraged me to talk to Jonathan Dotan, an entrepreneur who is now the show’s lead technical consultant. “He’s the one who looks like a con man in Havana in 1947,” Dan O’Keefe, a writer and producer, told me. This turned out to mean that, in contradistinction to the writers, crew members, and actors, who tend to wear jeans and sneakers both on and off camera, Dotan favors tailored blazers, pocket squares, and colorful dress socks.
...
Dotan worked part-time for a few weeks, but then came on full-time. At first, he oversaw a staff of four: an expert in file compression; a user-interface engineer, to help write the code on the characters’ screens; a C-level tech executive; and a Silicon Valley lawyer, to draft realistic contracts. By the end of the first season, Dotan’s staff had grown to twelve...He is now one of the show’s producers, weighing in on the plot and tone as well as on abstruse technical matters.
...
Dotan now oversees more than two hundred consultants. Some work on set with him; a majority are available on an ad-hoc basis. Most are unpaid and uncredited. They include academics, investors, entrepreneurs, and employees at Google, Amazon, Netflix, and several other tech firms. “I might ask a quick, specific question, or we might just riff for a few hours,” Dotan said. Many of the show’s best jokes, if not most, emerge from this ongoing collaborative process. “I send links, tip them off to things I’ve heard, list the mockable buzzwords of the month,” Aileen Lee, a venture capitalist in Palo Alto, told me. “And I’m hardly the only one. For all I know, they have eyes and ears all over the Valley.”
And there's quite a bit that I left out. Strange, and fascinating. This New Yorker story may not be as funny as the show, but the story behind the show is actually far more interesting.
posted by clockzero at 5:23 PM on June 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
When I was on the Sony lot where the current season of “Silicon Valley” was being filmed, several people encouraged me to talk to Jonathan Dotan, an entrepreneur who is now the show’s lead technical consultant. “He’s the one who looks like a con man in Havana in 1947,” Dan O’Keefe, a writer and producer, told me. This turned out to mean that, in contradistinction to the writers, crew members, and actors, who tend to wear jeans and sneakers both on and off camera, Dotan favors tailored blazers, pocket squares, and colorful dress socks.
...
Dotan worked part-time for a few weeks, but then came on full-time. At first, he oversaw a staff of four: an expert in file compression; a user-interface engineer, to help write the code on the characters’ screens; a C-level tech executive; and a Silicon Valley lawyer, to draft realistic contracts. By the end of the first season, Dotan’s staff had grown to twelve...He is now one of the show’s producers, weighing in on the plot and tone as well as on abstruse technical matters.
...
Dotan now oversees more than two hundred consultants. Some work on set with him; a majority are available on an ad-hoc basis. Most are unpaid and uncredited. They include academics, investors, entrepreneurs, and employees at Google, Amazon, Netflix, and several other tech firms. “I might ask a quick, specific question, or we might just riff for a few hours,” Dotan said. Many of the show’s best jokes, if not most, emerge from this ongoing collaborative process. “I send links, tip them off to things I’ve heard, list the mockable buzzwords of the month,” Aileen Lee, a venture capitalist in Palo Alto, told me. “And I’m hardly the only one. For all I know, they have eyes and ears all over the Valley.”
And there's quite a bit that I left out. Strange, and fascinating. This New Yorker story may not be as funny as the show, but the story behind the show is actually far more interesting.
posted by clockzero at 5:23 PM on June 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
I assume this is the way New Jersey mobsters felt when the Sopranos aired.
posted by humanfont at 5:29 PM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by humanfont at 5:29 PM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
I have not seen the series, but I went to a small tech event once, and Larry and Sergey showed up on rollerblades.
Another time there was an O'Reilly campout conference (foo camp) and Larry arrived in his helicopter.
What I'm saying is these are just two of my stories, and I'm available to consult to this show.
posted by zippy at 6:03 PM on June 9, 2016 [13 favorites]
Another time there was an O'Reilly campout conference (foo camp) and Larry arrived in his helicopter.
What I'm saying is these are just two of my stories, and I'm available to consult to this show.
posted by zippy at 6:03 PM on June 9, 2016 [13 favorites]
Yeah, the Dotan thing stood out to me, too. Reminded me a lot of the way I imagine a spymaster would work.
posted by clorox at 6:04 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by clorox at 6:04 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
“Some of us actually, as naïve as it sounds, came here to make the world a better place. And we did not succeed. We made some things better, we made some things worse, and in the meantime the libertarians took over, and they do not give a damn about right or wrong. They are here to make money.”
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:20 PM on June 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:20 PM on June 9, 2016 [6 favorites]
Just imagine how much more awful the tech oligarchs would be if there was no Burning Man / ecstasy.
posted by My Dad at 6:36 PM on June 9, 2016
posted by My Dad at 6:36 PM on June 9, 2016
Eh, the libertarians have hardly "taken over". They're there, but they are still a minority. But most people aren't "hippies" either. Just people (usually generally liberal-ish).
Also the quote right before that is weird: "the hippie value system of the Steve Jobs generation" makes no sense. Should be "the hippie value system of the Steve Wozniak generation", maybe. Jobs was no hippie, he was ruthless and an asshole (also very effective, to be sure, and some people enjoyed working in the culture he created at Apple --- but it was almost the opposite of a "hippie" culture).
posted by thefoxgod at 6:43 PM on June 9, 2016 [12 favorites]
Also the quote right before that is weird: "the hippie value system of the Steve Jobs generation" makes no sense. Should be "the hippie value system of the Steve Wozniak generation", maybe. Jobs was no hippie, he was ruthless and an asshole (also very effective, to be sure, and some people enjoyed working in the culture he created at Apple --- but it was almost the opposite of a "hippie" culture).
posted by thefoxgod at 6:43 PM on June 9, 2016 [12 favorites]
Maybe if Elon Musk started wearing a cape everywhere
Then people would just confuse him for Cory Doctorow.
posted by fings at 6:53 PM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
Then people would just confuse him for Cory Doctorow.
posted by fings at 6:53 PM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]
It's not as if SV techno-libertarianism has nothing to do with the hippie legacy anyway - it's not as if it's all exactly the same thing either but "hippie" encompassed a lot of different tendencies, plenty of which were highly individualistic and/or compatible with capitalism.
posted by atoxyl at 6:59 PM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by atoxyl at 6:59 PM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Then people would just confuse him for Cory Doctorow.
Well as long as Elon Musk doesn't start also wearing goggles it should be fine.
posted by ckape at 7:23 PM on June 9, 2016
Well as long as Elon Musk doesn't start also wearing goggles it should be fine.
posted by ckape at 7:23 PM on June 9, 2016
The hippie/libertarian comment reminds me of some of the comments in the recent mixed-feelings thread about early Wired.
posted by clawsoon at 8:27 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by clawsoon at 8:27 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Jobs was no hippie
Not after April 1, 1976, no.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 8:33 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Not after April 1, 1976, no.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 8:33 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Uncanny Silicon Valley - "The absolutely definitive, supremely authoritative, person-to-person mapping of “Silicon Valley” characters to real tech world personalities."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:51 PM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:51 PM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]
That was a great read, and I will always love this show for mentioning my childhood Arby's.
posted by queensissy at 9:08 PM on June 9, 2016
posted by queensissy at 9:08 PM on June 9, 2016
Just imagine how much more awful the tech oligarchs would be if there was no Burning Man / ecstasy.
I have been praying for the episode where Gilfoyle and Dinesh go to Burning Man. Oh please, oh please, oh please...
I fucking love this show. I grew up in Silicon Valley but took a different career path than my high school class mates who were similar overly privileged intelligent misfit potheads that became extremely wealthy somewhat idealistic overly privileged intelligent misfit potheads and there is so much that rings true while being totally fictional and unrealistic. It reminds me very much of the show Scrubs which was very much not like my internship, but some of the satire details were so spot on and hilarious that it was clear the writers were doing their homework. I don't expect or want my entertainment to be perfectly faithful to most people's real world experience, but if you are going to use the show's setting to comedic effect, you've got to get the details right and really nail the absurdity of the characters finding themselves in a particular situation and both Scrubs and Silicon Valley succeed wildly at lowbrow humor for a highbrow audience.
And seriously, all respect to Mike Judge who has never missed.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:06 PM on June 9, 2016 [9 favorites]
I have been praying for the episode where Gilfoyle and Dinesh go to Burning Man. Oh please, oh please, oh please...
I fucking love this show. I grew up in Silicon Valley but took a different career path than my high school class mates who were similar overly privileged intelligent misfit potheads that became extremely wealthy somewhat idealistic overly privileged intelligent misfit potheads and there is so much that rings true while being totally fictional and unrealistic. It reminds me very much of the show Scrubs which was very much not like my internship, but some of the satire details were so spot on and hilarious that it was clear the writers were doing their homework. I don't expect or want my entertainment to be perfectly faithful to most people's real world experience, but if you are going to use the show's setting to comedic effect, you've got to get the details right and really nail the absurdity of the characters finding themselves in a particular situation and both Scrubs and Silicon Valley succeed wildly at lowbrow humor for a highbrow audience.
And seriously, all respect to Mike Judge who has never missed.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:06 PM on June 9, 2016 [9 favorites]
So many great tidbits in that article, and I'm still only two thirds through. I live and work in Silicon Valley and find this show delightful. At first it was uncomfortably close to home, but as I continued I saw all the little details--the MacLaren obsession, the Google bikes in the background, the fridges stocked with gratuitously fancy beverages (coconut water!), the restaurants and street shots that I recognize. This show is so real it's uncanny, and my boyfriend's manager even has the conjoined triangles of success on his wall in a great life-imitating-art reversal (luckily the real-life manager is nothing like the character who created them). I had so fully accepted that Hooli was Google that it was jarring when Google got a separate in-universe mention in season 3. Especially true to me were Jared's bumbling microagressions against the one female employee at Pied Piper. Their network of consultants and the writers are very good.
posted by j.r at 10:08 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by j.r at 10:08 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
The hippie/libertarian comment reminds me of some of the comments in the recent mixed-feelings thread about early Wired.
Remember when XML-based electronic forms promised to change the world?
posted by My Dad at 11:00 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Remember when XML-based electronic forms promised to change the world?
posted by My Dad at 11:00 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
And seriously, all respect to Mike Judge who has never missed.
Someone hasn't seen The Goode Family or Extract.
I will defend (briefly) Extract, but yeah, The Goode Family was like an SNL skit about a Fox News For Kids parody.
posted by Etrigan at 5:37 AM on June 10, 2016
Someone hasn't seen The Goode Family or Extract.
I will defend (briefly) Extract, but yeah, The Goode Family was like an SNL skit about a Fox News For Kids parody.
posted by Etrigan at 5:37 AM on June 10, 2016
I and my wife keep trying to watch this show, but it triggers our PTSD.
I hear the same thing happened when Steven Tyler and Joe Perry tried to watch "This is Spinal Tap."
posted by panglos at 6:53 AM on June 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
I hear the same thing happened when Steven Tyler and Joe Perry tried to watch "This is Spinal Tap."
posted by panglos at 6:53 AM on June 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
I love this show, and I really want to know the origin of one specific anecdote: Jared is the only other person, fictional or real, I've ever heard of having to jump into a dumpster to retrieve a lost retainer.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:12 AM on June 10, 2016
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:12 AM on June 10, 2016
So many times, you’ll see a dick joke on TV, and you’ll think, “That’s a good joke, but I don’t buy the math..."
posted by dersins at 7:47 AM on June 10, 2016
posted by dersins at 7:47 AM on June 10, 2016
Jared is the only other person, fictional or real, I've ever heard of having to jump into a dumpster to retrieve a lost retainer.
Those things were virtually invisible on a cafeteria tray. I'll bet some kids were digging through the trash for their retainers on a weekly basis.
posted by Drab_Parts at 7:54 AM on June 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
Those things were virtually invisible on a cafeteria tray. I'll bet some kids were digging through the trash for their retainers on a weekly basis.
posted by Drab_Parts at 7:54 AM on June 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
Jared is the only other person, fictional or real, I've ever heard of having to jump into a dumpster to retrieve a lost retainer.
I didn't have to literally dumpster dive, but as a kid, I was at a big wedding with really proactive waitstaff who accidentally took my retainer when clearing the table (it was wrapped in a cloth since I forgot my case.) They pulled about a dozen bags back out of the dumpster to find it and sanitized it in the kitchen for me.
Later, I was smashing plates (Greek wedding) and cut my hand, and they were remarkably patient about the blood I spilled pretty much everywhere between the dance floor and the bathroom.
posted by michaelh at 8:49 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
I didn't have to literally dumpster dive, but as a kid, I was at a big wedding with really proactive waitstaff who accidentally took my retainer when clearing the table (it was wrapped in a cloth since I forgot my case.) They pulled about a dozen bags back out of the dumpster to find it and sanitized it in the kitchen for me.
Later, I was smashing plates (Greek wedding) and cut my hand, and they were remarkably patient about the blood I spilled pretty much everywhere between the dance floor and the bathroom.
posted by michaelh at 8:49 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have dived into three separate dumpsters on at least half a dozen occasions to retrieve retainers.
posted by Etrigan at 9:34 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Etrigan at 9:34 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Not only have I climbed into a dumpster to search for my own retainer, like 40 years ago...
Two years ago I took one of my 7-year-old students to the school dumpster and dug through bags of rotten milk cartons and fruit while she cried and tried to help... TWO DAYS IN A ROW. Found it both days, then we set up a routine where she had a place to put it in the classroom before lunch, never happened again.
I hate how you can smell rotten milk for like a week after even being near it...
posted by Huck500 at 9:41 AM on June 10, 2016 [8 favorites]
Two years ago I took one of my 7-year-old students to the school dumpster and dug through bags of rotten milk cartons and fruit while she cried and tried to help... TWO DAYS IN A ROW. Found it both days, then we set up a routine where she had a place to put it in the classroom before lunch, never happened again.
I hate how you can smell rotten milk for like a week after even being near it...
posted by Huck500 at 9:41 AM on June 10, 2016 [8 favorites]
I have dived into three separate dumpsters / I climbed into a dumpster
Heh. Mefites truly are my people.
My mom forced me to jump into the school dumpster and rip open bag after bag to search for the retainer, which was never found. Not that I would have put it back in my mouth anyway. That rotten milk smell, you aren't kidding. Oof.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:45 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Heh. Mefites truly are my people.
My mom forced me to jump into the school dumpster and rip open bag after bag to search for the retainer, which was never found. Not that I would have put it back in my mouth anyway. That rotten milk smell, you aren't kidding. Oof.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:45 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
Related to the retainer story: I lost my expensive reading glasses somewhere between work and home. I went all over the place - car, house, etc. for at least 30 minutes. I did the "retrace my steps" thing to no avail. Then hours later I remembered that my wife had asked me to get an aluminum can out from behind the cabinet-mounted rolling kitchen trash/recycle bin pair (trash in front, recycling in back). On a whim I went out to the garage with the now-full-and-disgusting front trash can and dug down to the very bottom, where ... I found them!!! In leaning over to get the can I had leaned over just far enough that my glasses slid out of my shirt pocket and silently to the bottom of the then-empty garbage.
Oh and I love Silicon Valley. "This is your momma! You're not my baby!"
posted by freecellwizard at 10:58 AM on June 10, 2016
Oh and I love Silicon Valley. "This is your momma! You're not my baby!"
posted by freecellwizard at 10:58 AM on June 10, 2016
What I most enjoy about this show is watching my husband realize what a DevOps stereotype he is every time Guilfoyle opens his mouth.
This realization happened to me when they showed his multi-monitor workstation with free-floating windows straddling two screens and my thought process was something like "No way that is realistic, Guilfoyle would totally be the type to use a tiling WM."
posted by [expletive deleted] at 11:29 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
This realization happened to me when they showed his multi-monitor workstation with free-floating windows straddling two screens and my thought process was something like "No way that is realistic, Guilfoyle would totally be the type to use a tiling WM."
posted by [expletive deleted] at 11:29 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
I assume this is the way New Jersey mobsters felt when the Sopranos aired.
Ashamed?
posted by Automocar at 11:33 AM on June 10, 2016
Ashamed?
posted by Automocar at 11:33 AM on June 10, 2016
Although I love almost everything Mike Judge has done, and this certainly sounds like it's right up my alley, I have yet to watch this show...I think my resistance to it, is because they just called it "Silicon Valley"...couldn't they come up with a better title than that?
Something that shows some imagination, and indicates that it might actually be good, you know?
I mean, I live and work here...I don't need to watch a show, about it.
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 3:27 PM on June 10, 2016
Something that shows some imagination, and indicates that it might actually be good, you know?
I mean, I live and work here...I don't need to watch a show, about it.
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 3:27 PM on June 10, 2016
This show is the best part of my Sunday, and that's including the fact that it's the one day a week I don't go into work.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:30 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:30 PM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
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Naming, detailing and then griping about institutional and cultural pathologies has been probably my number two hobby for my entire adult life, so I have to say that this basically describes my dream gig.
posted by invitapriore at 3:46 PM on June 9, 2016 [8 favorites]