A tribute to Skinner

[AmyStrange]

Last edited Sat Aug 15, 2020, 02:35 PM - Edit history (2)

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(While going through my old DU Glossary, I ran across this Journal on DU, written by Skinner. It's about the first seven days of DU)

Seven Days Underground

(LINK LOCATED at the BOTTOM of this OP)

DAY 1 (SAT) - A GIFT FROM MSNBC
On Friday night, we were up until about 3:00am getting ready for the website's big Inaugural Day Launch. We were hoping to be in bed by midnight, but our intern — a young radical from one of the local community colleges — spilled paint all over our banner at around 11:30, and we had to start from scratch. EarlG thought the intern was trying to sniff the stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were true (he kept mumbling something about how "acrylic lasts longer than this latex crap", but we weren't clear on the context). The rest of us are too old for that sort of thing, but we'll keep him around because he is the only one here that knows anything about programming perl. (Fortunately, he got the "Nuclear Button" script working by 10:00pm, before the can of paint arrived.)

On Saturday, we met at our makeshift "office" in Northwest DC sometime around 11:00am. We were supposed to meet at 9:30, but the intern overslept. He showed up with his own homemade "George W. Ass" sign, but we wouldn't let him bring it to the protests — Newshound thought it was "off message."

We got down to Pennsylvania avenue around noon, and were fortunate to claim a prime location right in front of the press bleachers. Protesters were confined to a few "designated protest areas," and it seemed strange to me that one of those spots would be right in front of the media. I guess the communications geniuses in the Bush camp didn't think of everything. The other protesters seemed to be a mishmash of left-wing types: Some dancing polar bears to protest oil drilling in ANWR; Some free-Mumia folks; Anti-death penalty activists; A pretty large contingent of Seattle-style anti-globalization college kids; and even a guy on stilts to protest, well, I don't know what he was protesting. Like us, lots of folks were protesting how Bush stole the election, but there were far fewer of us than I expected. A sizable chunk of the protesters I spoke with voted for Nader. I thought, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be out here freezing my ass off in the rain. But I digress.

While ostensibly there to protest, our real motivation for attending the event was to get our banner on television. (We have no money, and this was the cheapest national advertising campaign we could come up with.) The banner was eight feet long by 3 feet tall, white canvas, with the words "DemocraticUnderground.com" painted in big, black letters. With luck, some Good Democrats would see it on TV and stop by our website, which at this point was sitting unused on a server somewhere in Atlanta (I think).

[SNIP]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/01/010127_7days.html


We already miss you buddy!

The DU (Unofficial) Glossary:
http://DUG.amystrange.org/
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[SaveOurDemocracy]

1. Very cool and entertaining read. 😃 Wonder what happened to that intern?

[AmyStrange]

7. He now works for Amazon...

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Just kiddin'

I have no idea what happened to him, but thank you for the interesting question, and your kind comments also.
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[irisblue]

2. Kick

[AmyStrange]

8. Woohoo, and...

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thank you!
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[Rhiannon12866]

3. I was on DU.1 but this was very early - thanks so much for sharing, fascinating look back!

[AmyStrange]

6. You're welcome, and...

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thank YOU also.
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[CottonBear]

4. Here's a direct DU1 link to Seven Days Underground!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/01/010127_7days.html

I was about to post this when I found your OP!

I’ve kept this bookmark for years! Seven Days Underground used to be linked on the DU1 main page. Skinner is a such great writer. In a recent thread, he mentioned wanting to write and illustrate a book. I can’t wait to see what he creates!

Perhaps, EarlG will add a link to this DU origin story, when he and Elad refresh DU!
It is an absolute gem and I never get tired of re-reading it!

I found DU pre-9-11, but didn’t join until October 2004. DU has been an absolute lifeline for me through the years!

[AmyStrange]

5. Thanks for the link, and...

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it's also at the end of my OP, but maybe I should also put it at the beginning?

Anyway, thank you.
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[CottonBear]

9. You're welcome!

[AmyStrange]

10. Kick

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because Skinner was (and still is) my hero.
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