Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
You know what’s weird? (no, not that…that’s simply strange), it’s that I find myself being drawn to trying to learn to write. By that, I suppose I mean I am increasingly dissatisfied with my skills and at the same time find myself wanting to do it more. (Yes, paradigmatic of the adolescent male outlook). This is, no doubt, a direct result of my association with writing-people over at the BBG* and (new Friends of the Doctrine).
Nevertheless, I find myself creating challenges (for myself) with each effort to write Wakefield Doctrine Posts that are not only informative and interesting, but entertaining. I suppose, given my seemingly relentless drive to make the Wakefield Doctrine a damn household name, this is not the worst thing that can happen.
And so, today’s Post Title.
I’ve mentioned in previous Posts and/or Comments that there are times when the Post you read in the Doctrine blog comes about simply because I hear a song fragment or get stuck with a single thought and I just try to ‘write my way out of it’. Today’s Post is one of those Posts.
…first, a little backstory.*** the Diogenes in our Title is Melanie’s fault! I was rummaging around ‘the Facebook’ and came across a Comment she made to the effect that she was having trouble with her internet connection and had to go find a more reliable source… now I know we all made the jump to that old… ‘in search of an honest man’ thing we all read about in grade school. So I wrote that as a comment. Naturally the next thing I thought was the old joke setup up, “….were sitting at a bar” (or alternately, “…walk into a bar”**).
(The work began.) I knew there should be three people in the set up, and since I was suspecting that Diogenes was a clark, I had to find a scott and a roger. I got lucky with C.W., in that the phrase, ‘best to you each morning‘ somehow got into my head and then the words, ‘Post Toasties’ and then on to our C.W. Post, who from my brief reading of his life struck me as a roger. 2/3s done!
Now all I needed was a scott! Now most of us are thinking, “oh! how easy! a scott, flamboyant and aggressive and funny and predatory. The line forms here…’
No! unfortunately for me this morning, it is all too obvious that history favors those with a talent for self-promotion over those who are simply out to have a: good/ravenous/seduce-’em-all/conquer the country, time.
But I came across our Jean Lafitte and the following line quoted in the Wikipedia**** :
Many Americans believed that Lord Byron‘s poem “The Corsair” was based on the life of Lafitte; the work sold over 10,000 copies on its first day of publication.[96] By 1840, Lafitte was widely known “as a fatal Lothario with women, and a cold-blooded murderer of men who yet observed some forms of honor”
So we had our scott!
So they are standing at the bar and Diogenes says to C.W. “what’s with the glass of milk?” and Jean interrupts and says, “”mais d’abord! roo roo un peu”
I have to close now. I have a day job that I so cannot afford to give up!
*Cyndi and Janine and Rich and Michelle and Emily and Amy and them
** here’s one that I found on a site (http://www.schiesshouse.com/) probably public domain, but it can’t hurt to cite the source,
“A guy walks into a bar…. ok, he did not walk in, he was already there. One guy says, “I slept with my wife before we were married, did you?” The other guy says, “I don’t know; what was her maiden name?”
*** another excellent joke!! This is a reference to the joke about ‘roo roo’ which is noteworthy because it is a gender-tropic joke! Yes, I’m making that word up, but it’s true! Of the Readers reading this, I am willing to bet a Wakefield Doctrine DocTee that every guy will immediately recognize (and know and find hilarious, the joke that I am referring to)…the womenly Readers? sorry. it’s to your credit and a sign of a higher state of evolution that you guys do not get the reference.
**** Wikipedia motto: ‘that’s right! like Cliff Notes, but with pictures and easy access to footnotes to make it look like you did the research‘
About clarkscottroger
I went to CW Post for my master degree and got stuck on that one, lol!! Great post and keep them coming!! :)
Well, I, for one, am addicted to the Doctrine. I go around analyzing everyone I know, now. And I’ve told my whole family just who they are on Doctrine terms. They all blink their eyes at me, but I just keep right on explaining. And your writing? I love your writing style. It’s unique and if it gets better then this, I mean to tell you, you’ll be on fire! ;)
@Cyndi
…yeah this thing sure is fun, and there is so much more that is possible.
Those BBG folks sure push you to be your writing best, don’t they?!
So, was it nice to get there and find a place to pin?! LOL I stayed up late JUST to make a post for you. And I threw in some nuts as a special treat. ;)
@Terry
no! serially! I find that by getting to associate with people what write way better than I do, I get some part of me that will no one more re-write before hitting publish.
Looks like ain’t no one be claiming the DocTee this time!
LOL! I’m glad my lack of Internet yesterday came into a bit of use here at least, hehe. Thankfully it’s back again! It amazes me how you’re able to pull out an entire blog post from the smallest of things on a whim. And they’re all so different, yet you bring in the 3 personalities in each one. One of the reasons why I enjoy reading your blog!
@Melanie
“It amazes me how you’re able to pull out an entire blog post from the smallest of things on a whim. And they’re all so different, yet you bring in the 3 personalities in each one” in a weird way that’s the easy part. We have this saying about how ‘everyone does everything at one time or another’ and that refers to the idea that all three types experience a slightly but significantly different (personal) reality. So learning to see the world as a scott and a roger (besides as a clark) is part of the benefit. And the more we understand of the three worldviews, the more potential use this ‘viewpoint’ offers. or something like that!
“He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere!” — Ray Stevens
The doctrine is everywhere! You can’t escape it! I just saw a quote….
“Somewhere out there is a tree, tirelessly producing oxygen so you can breath. I think you owe it an apology.” — House
What a scott!
@Molly
lol I am thinking that I need to (re)emphasize the warning: Learning to identify clarks, scotts and roger incurs the very real risk that you will not be able to not see them anymore.
I think your writing style is great…you have a definitive “voice” which so many of us are still searching for. And your jokes, well, maybe it’s just me, but they make me laugh…I also like the new “look” of your site — looks like you tweaked it a bit? (I’ve been away and not online as much, so maybe this is an “old” change or maybe I’m imagining it.)
@Emily
thank you Emily… I try to remember to take chances, to not get comfortable to throw things up in the air at times. (It is surpirsingly difficult to do…amazing how ‘protective’ we get about our blogs.) The ‘voice’ is an interesting concept, especially to a clark… we (generally) abhor our recorded voice…but place huge value on having a voice. For clarks it has been said, ‘we don’t particularly want to be the center of attention, we will not tolerate being ignored’ lol