What is Comstock?

Anthony Comstock

comstockery

PRONUNCIATION:
(KOM-stok-uh-ree, KUM-)

MEANING:
noun: Overzealous censorship of material considered obscene.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Anthony Comstock (1844-1915), founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. He crusaded against anything he considered immoral. Nothing escaped his wrath — even anatomy textbooks for medical students and the draping of mannequins in public view in shop windows were obscene to him. He lobbied for laws against mailing any material that could be perceived as promoting immorality.

He was appointed postal inspector and he seized books, postcards, and other materials by the boatload. He boasted that he had arrested more than 3,000 people and driven more than 15 to suicide. George Bernard Shaw coined the word comstockery after him when he attacked the American production of Shaw’s play “Mrs. Warren’s Profession”.

USAGE:
“The language and thought police are hardly some Orwellian invention; America has been unusually susceptible to plagues of Comstockery and self-righteous tomfoolery.”
Jon Newlin; Well, Shut My Mouth; Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana); Oct 13, 1996.

I just learned about The Comstock Laws, which ironically enough were a set of laws to prevent vice. Quite the opposite of our incarnation of Comstock, where many forms of vice were engaged upon, and we all feel we grew as people as a result of :)

We lived at Comstock 1992-1994. Two years at a nexus of weirdity.

Please see the Official Disclaimer if you have questions about the purpose or nature of this blog.

Where is Comstock?

A Brief History of Time
Disclaimer: Not all writers on this blog participated in the same schools, grad years, etc. However the main time periods are set by the core residents of Comstock and should be used for reference only.

General Timeline
1986-1990 : High School
1990-1991 : Freshman Year
1991-1992 : Goodyear
1992-1994 : Comstock
1994-1996 : Princeton
1997-2000 : Air Force (Wolf)

Chronology of Posts

This is an approximate timeline for the events recounted. There were a large number of posts which I could not get within one calendar year, which are not listed below. Anyone wishing to date their stories should add them to the list.

Pre-1990

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

  • Origins of the Madisons
  • The First Annual Felix Awards
  • Summer 1996 – Factory School

1997-2000

2001-2008

  • March 31, 2001 – The Sixth Annual Madison/Felix Awards
  • 2002 – The Seventh Annual Madison/Felix Awards
  • Summer 2002 – Larry, Me, and a Bee
  • 2003 – Guess Who’s Coming to the Madisons?
  • 2003 – The Night of Revelations
  • 2003 – Trivial Pursuit Championship
  • March 29, 2003 – The Eighth Annual Madison/Felix Awards
  • 2004 – The Ninth Annual Madison/Felix Awards
  • March 26, 2005 – The Tenth Annual Madison/Felix Awards
  • 2008 – From the Offices of Matt, Matt, and Matt
  • 2008 – Wolf and Anna Ramble On
  • 2008 - Reader Submission

Undated Items

  • A Close Call
  • A Complete Relationship
  • All About Larry
  • Diet Fads
  • If She Had Only Tried Harder
  • Mini Marathon
  • Other Oddballs II: Jeff Death
  • Other Oddballs 2.5: Jeff Death
  • Special Delivery
  • The 12 Anguished Hours (Or, The Sound of Dan)
  • Theory of Fools

4 Responses

  1. The Mighty Wolf, on May 13th, 2008 at 11:49 am Said:

    I can probably shed some light into the chronology of events. So far this is a great approximation and at the very least, fairly accurate. I’m in the middle of a huge project right now at work and will attempt to add some accuracy shortly. I also started another post which will probably be posted late this week or early next.

    I grew used to the great swell in readership and have been crushed lately seeing just a few stragglers who drunkenly stumbled in looking for a pocket pussy or multicolored sneakers; two surprisingly common search terms.

    Also, what happened to Anna and Knaus? I was hoping both would become part of the editorial staff and post stories.

    Reply
  2. bluerazor, on May 14th, 2008 at 5:07 am Said:

    Aha, you found it. I am slowly going through and linking all of the stories, but it is a long boring process which is getting done piecemeal. If you see things out of order or wrongly dated just reorder them or change/add the date. For now I am in the middle of vacation, in between getting ground into hamburger by the usual daily grind.

    Reply
  3. bluerazor, on November 10th, 2008 at 4:54 am Said:

    You guys have done a poor job listing and dating the posts in my semi-absence. Especially you Wolf with your barrage of AF stories. Also, Dan should be able to place the Tried Harder story within a calendar year, I would think.

    Reply
  4. The Mighty Wolf, on April 28th, 2009 at 1:04 pm Said:

    Has anyone noticed that the subject of peeing in a radiator seems to be of enormous interest to people doing research on Google? Could these all be poor idiots stranded by the side of the road with overheated engines and full bladders frantically Googling creative solutions with their iPhones? Perhaps it is merely the curious? We shall never know.

    Reply

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