There are minions... and then there are minions!

An alleged insult that has been leveled at treppenwitz on more than one occasion is the presence here of a large number of 'adoring fans'.  Each time this accusation has been tossed at me I scratch my head and wonder exactly how this is supposed to qualify as an insult.

Apparently the people who throw out such an 'accusation' feel that the amiableness and general bonhomie that holds sway here on treppenwitz's comment board demonstrate a general lack of both critical thinking and diversity of opinion.

One pundit even went so far as to call the loose confederation of treppenwitz commenters my 'minions'!   Yes, you read that correctly.  No, not 'minyans'... that's a quorum of Jews required for communal prayer. 

They really called you people my 'minions'!

The Oxford English Dictionary (second edition) has pages of definitions for the noun 'minion', but I think that:

"...a person who is dependent on a patron's favour... a hanger-on... a follower or underling, esp. one who is servile or unimportant... a henchman...' 

... pretty much sums up the sense my accusers likely had in mind.

Just curious... is that the role in which you all view yourselves? 

I mean, granted, how cool would it be to actually have henchmen to blindly do one's bidding?  But in reality I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a group of people with a wider range of backgrounds and opinions than the readers of this journal. 

Now if you want to see a web site with real live minions at work... go check out one of my new favorite reads; Book of Joe, the home of the "World's most popular blogging anesthesiologist".  It is a blog that is chock full of the most interesting and useful information, Products and well, neat stuff you could ever ask for... and it's updated more frequently than Jack's Shack!

But what about the 'minions' you ask?

The neat thing about Book of Joe is that if you are interested in a topic... any topic... and Joe hasn't touched on it (yet), you can submit a comment asking for help with your quest and within minutes his minions will hit the ground running. 

OK, Joe doesn't actually use the term minions anywhere on his site... preferring the phrase 'crack research team', but who are we kidding?  These henchmen (and henchwomen) are his minions, and they're there to do Joe's (and your) bidding!

I first discovered Book of Joe via one of my minions, er commenters named Elizabeth a couple of weeks ago while I was asking my readers for help with the whole shabbat/coffee dilemma.  Elizabeth left me a thoughtful comment suggesting I submit my question to Joe's 'crack research team'... so I did.

In less than an hour I got an email from a woman named Shawn (with a picture, even!), who politely identified herself as "the bookofjoe staff member who has been assigned to your coffee question". 

She then went on to clearly state the criteria she had used to research my question (to make sure we were both on the same page), and then laid out a veritable treasure trove of links to thermal solutions that would meet my needs.

Apparently Joe's minions compete for his favor (or some other kind of reward) because at the end of her helpful message she closed with:

"If you feel this e-mail has helped you in some small way, please help me win the coveted bookofjoe Crackpot Researcher of the Month title. Just forward this e-mail to Joe at [email protected] with "I Vote for Shawn" as the title."

I'm not trying to put anyone down here... but someone would have to be crazy to call treppenwitz readers 'my minions'.  I mean holy crow... If you want to see 'minions' at work, just go check out Joe's crack research team.  Now, those are 'minions'.

You guys are just a bunch of poseurs!  :-)