Things are not what they appear; not always, anyway.  This would appear to many, for example,  to be a dreary-dull time in the sports calendar, a time during which PTI leads with stories on the Buick Open, on Floyd Landis, and on NFL preseason.  But we A's fans know it as the best time of the year:  Fire season, if you will, when our green-and-gold enigmas (they're great; no wait, they suck, time to lower expectations) ignite their secret win-win-win machines.  

Just as things are not as they seem in the sports world, so it is on AN.   On first glance, nothing remarkable about August 7 on AN.  But upon further review--helluva day, folks.  

And to try the analogy one more time:  Surface appearance would tell you that the diary Wow. by AsFoLife would have little in common with the diary A Defense of Reason and Sanity by oaktoon.   And this time on closer examination, there are plenty more differences.  But there is also one profound similarity:  unintentional comedy.

The Wow. diary is actually in response to the Defense diary, and of course it should have just been a comment.  Lots of diaries are posted like this every day, 0-5 comments are posted, and then they are universally forgotten.  Unless the thread gets hijacked, as this one did.  With a twist.  The highjacking started with WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! which led routinely to the posting of a link by bbg:  www.deathclock.com.  Pretty cool link.  But then came this retort, by eshock:  "WTF is wrong with you people  TASTELESS COMMENTS.  I'm disgusted.  Mocking a 10 year old's horrible painful death."  

I think I'm going to make that comment, or part of it, my sig.  

Anyway, that deathclock alone made the Wow. diary worth visiting.  I found out that I'm going to die on 2/17/29, at the relatively young age of 51.  If that's true, I suppose I should get my priorities straight and try to enjoy every minute, yada yada yada.  But I couldn't stop myself from going ahead and reading through oaktoon's diary and the comments below--even though the diary title itself was more-than-humorous enough.  

I must confess, I enjoyed the thread as well.  I'm pretty conflict-avoidant myself (I'm kind of a wuss), but I really enjoy watching other people argue.  It's like, during those times when they're fighting, people are laid bare.  Fighting cuts through the bullshit; it charges the air with electricity.  

Of course, I'm not the only one.  The diary attracted a crowd, didn't it?  Anyway, from the crowd, and in the ring, many comments were made.  I thought I'd pick out a few winners and ask you the username to vote on which you liked best ... A Comment of the Day award for this special, special day.

I'd like to include as one of the choices a rather long-ass comment by Tony which I will merely refer to in the poll as "Tony's 'shit.' comment.  Happily, included in this link is the discussion it provoked, which of course concerns in large part the movie "Red Dawn."  Dawn, which is about 45 minutes away.  G'night!