runner marathon

May 17, 2007 5:09 AM

Silly thing: I remember reading a thread on MeFi a while ago where people repeatedly used an insulting word for people who just join in marathons without officially entering. But what was the word?
posted by reklaw to MetaFilter-Related at 5:09 AM (34 comments total)

was it this thread and the word "bandit"?
posted by Lucinda at 5:15 AM on May 17, 2007

Yep, thanks. Surprisingly hard to search for, that.
posted by reklaw at 5:17 AM on May 17, 2007

(Insulting?)
posted by inigo2 at 5:41 AM on May 17, 2007

Surely it's a little insulting to call someone a "bandit", no?
posted by reklaw at 8:22 AM on May 17, 2007

Man, people are hell of serious about running.
posted by boo_radley at 8:40 AM on May 17, 2007

Surely it's a little insulting to call someone a "bandit", no?

Not if you drive an awesome thunderbird and have a cool mustache. Then you wear the name as a badge of honor.
posted by drezdn at 9:03 AM on May 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

I have heard the term "poaching" used as well.
posted by Mister_A at 9:30 AM on May 17, 2007

Some people like bandits.
posted by ND¢ at 9:33 AM on May 17, 2007

Man, people are hell of serious about running.

Marathons are neither cheap nor easy to get into.
posted by smackfu at 9:34 AM on May 17, 2007

70Not if you drive an awesome thunderbird and have a cool mustache.

Firebird Trans Am... Not a T-bird
Thunderbirds weren't very cool in the 70s or 80s.
posted by bidrattler at 9:42 AM on May 17, 2007

Not if you drive an awesome thunderbird and have a cool mustache.

Firebird Trans Am... Not a T-bird
Thunderbirds weren't very cool in the 70s or 80s.
posted by bidrattler at 9:44 AM on May 17, 2007

I think drezdn may be confusing a derogatory term for the Trans Am (thunderchicken, for the giant screaming fowl on the hood) with the Thunderbird.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:06 AM on May 17, 2007

As a bandit, I like to poach firebirds.
posted by quin at 11:14 AM on May 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've always heard "firechicken" used, m_c_d.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:35 AM on May 17, 2007

Don't T-birds and Trans Ams have their OWN restroom yet?
posted by hermitosis at 11:36 AM on May 17, 2007

Or "screaming chicken". Firebirds are so cool.
posted by Kwantsar at 11:36 AM on May 17, 2007

Sorry for mixing the two cars up.
posted by drezdn at 11:53 AM on May 17, 2007

I was too busy thinking about Burt Reynold's Mustache.
posted by drezdn at 11:53 AM on May 17, 2007

ahem. That's "Burt Reynolds' Moustache."
posted by carsonb at 12:00 PM on May 17, 2007

I just put "Smokey and the Bandit" at the top of my Blockbuster queue. The wife sounded nonplussed.
posted by ND¢ at 12:07 PM on May 17, 2007

That's my second favourite niche insult learned on MetaFilter. (The first is 'plainskins', which tattooed and pierced folk use to denigrate the unmodified.)
posted by jack_mo at 12:30 PM on May 17, 2007

It's actually Burt Reynolds's mustache, because "Burt Reynolds'" is not an accepted liturgical archaism.

Dumbass.
posted by Mister_A at 12:34 PM on May 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

Moustache.

Douchetruck
posted by carsonb at 2:14 PM on May 17, 2007

According to the the OED, both are correct.
posted by drezdn at 2:17 PM on May 17, 2007

I love you people.
posted by yhbc at 2:26 PM on May 17, 2007

Getting back to marathons, why aren't those people called "rosies?"
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:47 PM on May 17, 2007

Trans-Am, not T-Bird: true. But... the TA did have T-Tops. Perhaps that was the source of the confusion.

On a side note... I never did figure out how the T-Bird went from being Ford's answer to the Corvette to being... well, a massive two door-ed, box shaped, pimpmobile.
posted by Clay201 at 3:24 PM on May 17, 2007

Clay, you can blame that on Robert McNamara (yes, that one). From here:

Although considered a valuable image booster for Ford, production of these two-seaters ranged from about 16,000 for '55 to around 21,000 for '57 -- hardly profitable numbers for a high-volume automaker like Ford.

This wasn't lost on Ford's conservative management of the late 1950s, foremost among them Robert McNamara (who a few years later left Ford to join President John F. Kennedy's cabinet). Along with others in the company, McNamara pushed for development of a larger successor to the first Thunderbird design, one which could seat four people in reasonable comfort. It was felt that the extra seating would almost certainly boost the car's appeal considerably, raising sales to the point where it could effectively contribute to the company's bottom line.

posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:46 PM on May 17, 2007

I had no idea of McNamara's involvement. Wow. So he's to blame for fucking up that car.

You know, I always wondered why, if they wanted a bigger car, they didn't just come up with a completely different model name.

I mean it's not like I would have looked at the later gen T-birds and though, "Yeah, that's a sportscar to rival the 'vette."
posted by quin at 4:02 PM on May 17, 2007

ThunderChicken was always a term of endearment for my 81 T-Bird. Ugly heap. but my second car.
posted by bidrattler at 5:23 PM on May 17, 2007

hotmail.
posted by blasdelf at 5:45 PM on May 17, 2007

hay bale
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:34 AM on May 18, 2007

"I never did figure out how the T-Bird went from being Ford's answer to the Corvette to being... well, a massive two door-ed, box shaped, pimpmobile."

The really sad thing is that there were actually four-door Thunderbirds from 1967-71.

Ick.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:57 AM on May 18, 2007

drezdn writes "
"Surely it's a little insulting to call someone a 'bandit', no?

"Not if you drive an awesome thunderbird and have a cool mustache. Then you wear the name as a badge of honor."

But if you drink thunderbird and have a shitty mustache, not so much.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 6:58 AM on May 18, 2007