3 ms·

So old that it's weird that the author would seemingly self-attribute it.

xmprt 3y ago
I guess it's hard to be a "NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker" when you have to come up with all original ideas.
- gowld 3y ago
  Anyone who publishes a book with a marketing budget is a NYT bestseller. It means nothing.
  - importantbrian 3y ago
    Being able to get your book published and having the publisher spend enough on marketing to get you on the NYT Bestseller list means something.
    - hiatus 3y ago
      What does it mean? Rich parents?
      - aslfjiasf 3y ago
        It means a publisher ranked possibility of a positive return on investment for that book to be higher than the books they decided not to publish.
    - g-b-r 3y ago
      There are plenty of techniques to reach the NYT bestseller list; new internet matketers pay famous internet marketers to tell their followers to quickly buy their new book, hopefully in many copies, often with the cost fully or largely refunded. The book is usually about how to reach the NYT bestseller list.
Terr_ 3y ago
To add supporting evidence, here's something from 41 years ago where the butt of the joke was the leadership of Soviet Russia, and the inheritance was 2 letters: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/01/15/a-tale-of-two-letters/e1f65aa4-66ce-4991-8a1b-840fc6956766/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/01/15/a...
- jfoutz 3y ago
  A couple years ago I went looking for soviet jokes. They're amazing. I imagine google can find you some. A bunch of them were great. One I recall, American: The U.S. is the best! I can stand in front of the Whitehouse and yell, Ronald Regan is the worst president ever! Soviet: Comrade, I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell the same thing! There's a bunch, with varying levels of grim. If you're ever bored, it's a rabbit hole that's worth poking around in.
  - RecycledEle 3y ago
    That was then. In 2023, in the USA, try standing in front of your local police department and explaining the simple, statistically likely, fact that they have at least one sexual predator working there. They will physically abuse you until you leave. If you refuse to leave, they will send you for a mental evaluation. If you still resist, they will kill you.
    - jfoutz 3y ago
      Even more reason to look them up. Soviet standing in red square handing out blank pieces of paper. Police come, and tell him to stop distributing protest flyers. Protestors: Protest? they're blank paper! Police: Comrade, everyone knows what's wrong. I might have messed it up a little, but, you get the gist.
      - aslfjiasf 3y ago
        Humor imitates life: Russia arrested anti-war protesters holding blank signs: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-invasion-protests-police-arrest-activists-holding-blank-signs-paper-1687603 https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-invasion-protest... But apparently this a thing in many countries, and there's even a Wikipedia article about this form of protest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_piece_of_paper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_piece_of_paper Ah, to be in America: >In 1970, Anna Halprin organised a "Blank Placard Dance" by members of her San Francisco Dancers' Workshop. They paraded, dressed in white, while holding blank placards. She explained, "...there were so many protests going on and this way each person watching us could just imagine whatever protest slogan they wanted on the placards." It's nice to be able to protest with blank signs because you want to make a joke, and not because of fear of arrest.

I guess it's hard to be a "NY Times bestselling author and keynote speaker" when you have to come up with all original ideas.

gowld 3y ago
Anyone who publishes a book with a marketing budget is a NYT bestseller. It means nothing.
- importantbrian 3y ago
  Being able to get your book published and having the publisher spend enough on marketing to get you on the NYT Bestseller list means something.
  - hiatus 3y ago
    What does it mean? Rich parents?
    - aslfjiasf 3y ago
      It means a publisher ranked possibility of a positive return on investment for that book to be higher than the books they decided not to publish.
  - g-b-r 3y ago
    There are plenty of techniques to reach the NYT bestseller list; new internet matketers pay famous internet marketers to tell their followers to quickly buy their new book, hopefully in many copies, often with the cost fully or largely refunded. The book is usually about how to reach the NYT bestseller list.

Terr_ 3y ago

To add supporting evidence, here's something from 41 years ago where the butt of the joke was the leadership of Soviet Russia, and the inheritance was 2 letters: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/01/15/a-tale-of-two-letters/e1f65aa4-66ce-4991-8a1b-840fc6956766/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/01/15/a...

jfoutz 3y ago
A couple years ago I went looking for soviet jokes. They're amazing. I imagine google can find you some. A bunch of them were great. One I recall, American: The U.S. is the best! I can stand in front of the Whitehouse and yell, Ronald Regan is the worst president ever! Soviet: Comrade, I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell the same thing! There's a bunch, with varying levels of grim. If you're ever bored, it's a rabbit hole that's worth poking around in.
- RecycledEle 3y ago
  That was then. In 2023, in the USA, try standing in front of your local police department and explaining the simple, statistically likely, fact that they have at least one sexual predator working there. They will physically abuse you until you leave. If you refuse to leave, they will send you for a mental evaluation. If you still resist, they will kill you.
  - jfoutz 3y ago
    Even more reason to look them up. Soviet standing in red square handing out blank pieces of paper. Police come, and tell him to stop distributing protest flyers. Protestors: Protest? they're blank paper! Police: Comrade, everyone knows what's wrong. I might have messed it up a little, but, you get the gist.
    - aslfjiasf 3y ago
      Humor imitates life: Russia arrested anti-war protesters holding blank signs: https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-invasion-protests-police-arrest-activists-holding-blank-signs-paper-1687603 https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-invasion-protest... But apparently this a thing in many countries, and there's even a Wikipedia article about this form of protest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_piece_of_paper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_piece_of_paper Ah, to be in America: >In 1970, Anna Halprin organised a "Blank Placard Dance" by members of her San Francisco Dancers' Workshop. They paraded, dressed in white, while holding blank placards. She explained, "...there were so many protests going on and this way each person watching us could just imagine whatever protest slogan they wanted on the placards." It's nice to be able to protest with blank signs because you want to make a joke, and not because of fear of arrest.