To Meme Or Not To Meme?

When I first starting running across the "tag, you're it" memes, I felt those were a little beneath my dignity. What I really thought is that no one would ever bother to tag me, so I could feel smuggly disdainful of the whole phenomena. This is a defense mechanism finely honed by years of being picked last in gym class after the fat girl with her hand in a cast.

Then of course, I got "tagged" and had to reasess my smugness. A loyal reader, mercuryfern tagged me with this meme:

Rules:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five some other people to do the same.

This particular meme was more intriguing than the typical "truth or dare" tell-me-someting-about-yourself meme because it forces you to look back at what you have written in the past. So in a way, it is a self-referential meta-meme. And here at Foma Central we are all about meta.

So I played along and found my 23rd post, and the fifth sentence was:

We haven't had any new roll-outs of Cafe Press items in a while which has to mean there can't be that much cash in them.

which is pretty meaningless out of context. But, like mercury fan, I decided to cheat because the sixth sentence

The difference between a job and a hobby is that a job is what people pay you to do and a hobby is what you pay to get to do.

is so profound that it can't be possibly be original to me. But since I can't remember where I stole it from, you have to take my word on this.

I guess the second part of "tag" memes that I have trouble with is forcing people to do things that they may not have wanted to do. In which case, I offer that memes have the moral authority of a chain letter. You have no obligation to play along unless you find it interesting enough to follow through.

I hereby in a non-binding, no-recriminations-if-you-don't way, "tag" trusty getto, mean girl, wickwire, geekwif, and any volunteers that care to play. Don't wait to be tagged if you want to go ahead and join our reindeer games. Leave a comment saying, "OOOOH! OOOOOH! Mr. Kotter! Tag me too!" and I will add you to the tagees in the main post. Thanks for playing along and not picking me last.

Update: Keb had the best Ron Palillo impression and gets added to the tagged list. I'm glad everybody had fun.

Technorati tag:hummingbird rump, meme, meta