Re: Origins of the Gay Bearded Left-Handed Lithuanian Conlanger

Just reinforcing Ray with some evidence... (though I don't think the
meme goes back farther than '96, but I can't prove that).

Checking some of my older archives (that I mean to put on the nest
someday...), if looks like Sally Caves joined in '98.

My files start in '93 (but there are gaps because it was still at BU
at that time, and I know that I missed some of the Diku.dk period).
The left-handed, goateed meme is mentioned (but already perhaps not
for the first time) by Jack Durst in mid '97. Jack did a lot of
surveys (by private email, I think) -- and the idea came from the
notion of a "statistically average" conlanger.

Jack's post follows:

Date:         Mon, 9 Jun 1997 20:35:11 -0700
Reply-To:     Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
Sender:       Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
From:         Jack Durst <spynx@...>
Subject:      Re: Poetry in conlangs
In-Reply-To:  <Pine.A32.3.96.970609153523.4543C-100000@...>

On Mon, 9 Jun 1997, Pat Dunn Jr. wrote:

 > I think poetry can evoke great emotions in conlangs.  I just don't
think
 > many people write very good poetry.  *grins*  If more great poets
(like
 > me, for instance *grins*) were conlangers. . . .
 >
 > heheheh
I would have thought that poets would be a fairly common in the conlang
community.  I know enough gay, left-handed poets with goatees :)
Honestly, poets would seem to vbe the number two people (after
llinguists)
who would want to play with words.

Sincerely,
         Jack Durst
Spynx@sierra.net
[this posting written in Net English]


On Jan 27, 2008, at 9:28 AM, R A Brown wrote:

> Arthaey Angosii wrote:
>> I decided to search for the earliest reference to gay, bearded,
>> left-handed Lithuanian conlangers:
>>    http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?S2=CONLANG&q=bearded+lithuanian
>> The earliest post that search returns is Christophe's from October
>> 1st, 2002:
>>    http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0210A&L=CONLANG&P=1863
>
> Far too late, at least for part of the description. The Conlang
> 'bearded left-handed gay' archetype dates back at least to 1996
> (possibly even a year or two earlier) - tho in those days the beard
> was strictly a 'goatee'. It emerged IIRC from the periodic surveys/
> questionnaires that are conducted on this list.
>
> Quite when the beard ceased to be a goatee, I don't know. Possibly
> it was simply an imprecise remembrance of the mid 1990s prototype.
>
> The 'Lithuanian' part is more recent. It may be indeed that bnathyuw
> simply added that to the established 'gay left-handed' prototype (he
> forget the [goatee] beard - as Christophe pointed out).
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
> MorphemeAddict@WMCONNECT.COM wrote:
> > In a message dated 1/27/2008 2:53:49 AM Central Standard Time,
> > arthaey@GMAIL.COM writes:
> >
> >
> >> I decided to search for the earliest reference to gay, bearded,
> >> left-handed Lithuanian conlangers:
> >>
> >
> > You mean there's more than one? Or just references to the same one?
>
> No - it is definitely plural in the mail to which Christophe
> replied. But it does, I agree, seem strange. IIRC the original mid
> 1990s prototype was meant to represent the _typical_ conlanger.
> Obviously adding 'Lithuanian' cannot be done for the same reason;
> one thing that's consistent about all the surveys/questionnaires is
> that Conlangers are more likely to be citizens of the USA.
>
> Judging by the tone of bnathyuw's mail he is listing all the extreme
> descriptions of conlanger eccentrics and saying each time that not
> all Conlangers are like that. So the mid 1990s archetype had become
> transformed into one of the 2002 _atypical_ groups like Geeks,
> conculturalists,  adventure gamers, compulsive pedants and, of
> course, "gay left-handed lithuanians". (*NOT* my list - its
> bnathyuw's!)
>
> PS - FWIW I'm neither gay, left-handed, bearded (goatee or
> otherwise), nor Lithuanian       ;)
>
> --
> Ray
> ==================================
> http://www.caroland