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How To Make a Funny Talk Title Without Using The Word 'Weasel'
AI Notes
Written in the afterglow of the keynote it describes, and by Steve's own admission without his muse: he announces in the opening lines that he's winging it, and the winging-it is the whole show. Along the way the essay finds room for a mortified party apology to Larry Wall (for sins "you Perl folks will likely understand without explanation"), an economist who, as Steve half-hears it, warms up three thousand programmers by insulting them, and a running bit where Steve casts himself as the crap garage band that barely made the Bumbershoot cut. The title also lies. The word "weasel" does sneak into the essay, smuggled inside some fake AV-technician jargon.
The middle sags a little; a detour through the OSI's trademark grievances and a parable about mountain-bike seats runs longer than the joke needs. The ending earns it back. Steve cuts away at the worst possible moment, asks what you would have done, and points at a video instead of writing the scene — then signs off promising a conclusion "next week" that the blog never ran. The keynote recording linked from this page, presumed lost for years after blip.tv folded, is the only resolution the story ever got.
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