Is Clifford on the Road some kind of inside joke?

Or do people really think it's brilliant? It really makes me wonder how, that,

can be so highly praised and rated.

It's a little bit of both, really.

A piece of photo.neticana

If you have to ask about Clifford, then you'll never GET Clifford. It's sort of like Russian literature, golf, domestic cats, and marriage.

I'm thinking something along the lines of the photographer being extremely pretentious, "My work is amazing, you don't get it.", and COTR being praised with sarcasm? Maybe?

Maybe? Well, no. It's now a historical curiosity, but I really wouldn't read too much into it. At the risk of offering too much information, many of the posters on that photo were also at various points very active in the photo-of-the-week discussions, and that photograph received a healthy does of parody of those discussions. And pretty darn funny-ly, too.

Spencer: It's sublime satire. Enjoy it!

I sometimes think I should be writing a permanent article that explains the whole clifford thing.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

I had not previously discovered this highly ranked photo, nor the incredibly insightful critiques of it. Not to mention the homages!

 

I was blue, now I am well red (like Clifford).

Josh: I think the fun of Clifford is that you have to discover him, like a hidden treasure.

It was the "Clifford Moment" in time. Those were the days.

It's a bit of whimsy. Thats all. Everything in photography doesn't have to be serious or even

good. If people like it, and I certainly smiled when I saw it, that's cool

Even a red, stuffed toy dog on a dashboard is entitled to its 15 minutes (well, OK, seconds) of fame. For the rest of us, back to the 3/3s.......

It might be fun to create a timeline illustrating photo.neticana, highs, lows, classic catfights and, in my case, Clifford-wannabe moments.

That timeline would be kind of densely written I think, Lex, since it would need to highlight all 17,902 posts you've made to the system over the years, counting the one above. It would be interesting to chart those, chronographically, and see if they interact with phases of the moon or perhaps might be the cause of cyclical economic recessions.

My posting history tends to coincide with:

 

a. How bored Lex is.

 

b. Lex's annoying tendency to refer to Lex in the third person.

 

c. Family health concerns (I've had long periods of inactivity when family members were ailing).

 

d. DSL access.

 

e. Overall photo.net speed.

 

f. How clever Lex is feeling. (Damn, there he goes again.)

 

Personally, I consider myself small potatoes in the vast and fertile photo.net field. I would find a prominent place on the timeline for the mate-ratings wars of a few years ago. Ah, the blood ran freely in those happy times. To paraphrase the dancing/singing terpsichore of that era: "Wowie! Wow! Wow!"

"Wowie! Wow! Wow!"

 

Now, that sounds like something Clifford might say.......