At an otherwise A-1 party this weekend Theresa and I were completely skeeved out by this smirking guy who first played on us this dopey "cardless card trick" he claimed to have learned at an accounting seminar in Atlantic City. He then showed us his credentials as a hypnotherapist, which seemed like a fine joke at first until we realized he took himself and his credentials quite seriously. Then it just got, well, skeevy. He also told us that he had been trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, which I have since found out translates into English as "trying to make people believe stuff."
Then, familiar skeevy sensations returned tonight when we channel-surfed over to A&E and found "Skeevage", and what skeeved us to the max was the interview with the hypnotherapist who offers breast enlargement. They showed her "working with a client" -- from a camera angle that certainly foregrounded the relevant issues.
Final skeeverino: When I went to the site run by the American Hypnotherapy Board which supposedly "licensed and registered" our creepish new pal, in order to link to it, it immediately downloaded some furshlugginer Shockwave player and in so doing wiped out my Movable Type window and my post-in-progress, which I've now finally finished redoing. Consider me skeeved beyond the point of no return.
Posted by BT at December 11, 2002 12:24 AMI can't decide whether the tastier joke would be based around "mise en skeeve" or "skeeve en scene."
"Deskeevement?" No.
I shared a room at a conference with a guy into NLP. It never really made a lick of sense to me, but yeah, I guess that is when my chest started getting bigger. Anyhow, when he got on his NLP roll, he'd spew a lot of stupid crap that people would listen to because his British accent made it sound cool and sophisticated. Fortunately his primary interest was alcohol, so we managed to have a grand time together, drinking very cheap beer in the lobby bar of the Hotel Bratislava.
Posted by: Scott on December 11, 2002 09:40 AMFrom the NLP page:
"THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE OUT THERE WITH AN 'NLP' SHINGLE WHO ARE LOUSY AT NLP. In fact, nine out of ten of them aren't even in the top ten percent, in terms of skill level."
But how about in terms of, say, height?
As "Bob" said, "You know how dumb the average person is? Well, by definition, half the people are even dumber than that!"
Posted by: Jonathan on December 12, 2002 12:30 AMCard tricks? Accountants? Hypnosis? Atlantic City?
Just who are you partying with, the Benevolent Order Of Water Buffalo? Become a lodge brother behind our back, BT?
Actually, with the whole 40s/50s retro thing--dancing, golf, martinis, swing music--I'm amazind that fraternal orders haven't come back ina big way. Let's pick an animal and form one. It'll give us an excuse to drink beer, play poker, and watch stag movies.
Plus we'll get fezzes and miniature motorcycles. It's a winner.
How's the Lemur Lodge grab ya?