The Salt Lake Tribune

Kirby: A website for fellow weirdos

By Robert Kirby
Tribune Columnist
May 15, 2005

As a kid, I had a real interest in building cannons. Howitzers, mortars, didn't matter. The important thing was the bigger, the better. Really loud was good, too.
I built my guns out of pipe, copper tubing, cold-rolled steel, even an empty Pringles can. Once, I fashioned a siege mortar out of an old toilet.
This wasn't just vandalism. OK, some of it was, but there was a lot of real science, too. Not many people know it's possible to get a half-inch socket filled with electrical solder moving so fast it will blast clear through a Ford.
Sadly, amateur gunnery was a lonely interest. Almost no one shared the pride I felt at shooting a D cell battery three-quarters of a mile.
There was, however, a group willing to offer input. After I blew a hole through the cinder block wall in the back yard, the cops came and took everything away.
You probably have really strange interests yourself. Maybe you have the same sort of trouble I once had finding people with whom you can share it.
You don't have to be lonely with your weirdness anymore. There's a Web site chock-full of like-minded loons, goobers, newts and zoomers. Just about any hobby, fixation or addiction you can imagine has a support group. The address is http://www.meetup.com. Check it out - not only for support, but also for self-defense purposes. There are some really "interesting" folks out there.
There are the usual fan sites. Just in the Salt Lake area, I found celebrity worship groups for Josh Groban, Elvis, Tori Amos and Orlando Bloom.
Politics? There are Michael Moore, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, John Kerry and Ralph Nader meet-up groups based, I bet, on former fight club rules.
For that spiritual boost or goose, try meet-up groups featuring Ken Wilber, John "I Already Knew That" Edwards, ex-Mormons, ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, Universists, Atheists of Zion and Pagans.
The site is mostly clean. The closest thing I saw to sex was a lactation group. The Salt Lake City Mommy Milk Meetup Group has 27 members and a rating of 0 percent.
If you're a Gothic vegetarian, beagle-owning, Web-logging, French-speaking, young Democrat with fibromyalgia who loves Harry Potter and knitting, there's a meet-up group for you. Actually, there are a bunch of groups for you. And if you don't find one that suits your needs, you can start your own.
Lots of languages are represented, including Spanish, Greek, American Sign Language, Japanese and something called Elvish, which I imagine will come in handy if you ever run into another elf.
Don't laugh. Ever feel like dressing up in a fuzzy animal suit and whizzing on the neighbor's lawn? Well, somebody does. Here's the Salt Lake City Furries Meetup pitch, just in case you think I'm lying:
"Meet other furries in your hometown; whether anthropomorphic animal enthusiasts, fur suiters, furry artists, furry conventionists, furry role-players, this is your chance to discuss ideas and beliefs." (41 members, 72 percent positive.)
I didn't see a meet-up group supporting the private ownership and use of large homemade cannons. But what I did see strongly suggested the need for one.

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