Re: letter to Tim

Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Fri, 06 Aug 1999 23:28:10 -0400

On Fri, Aug 06, 1999 at 04:27:32PM -0400, AntiUtopia@aol.com wrote:

> I understand where you're coming from, and I've had my share of run ins with 
> Scottie, but trust me, he's a true gentleman.  His "sneering tone" is 
> usually, so far as I can tell, directed toward ideas and not people.  

Yes, I feel compelled to clarify -- in about ten different ways -- a few
things here.  I have always urged (as in other online groups) that
people who want to go on the attack go after the idea, not the person.  

I too have had disagreements with Mr. Bowman -- but at the same time I
recall specifically asking him, virtually pleading, that he not leave
us.  Because we don't need a New-Age-y place where people do nothing but
make each other feel good.

My only concern was -- and is -- that people not suffer personal
attacks, and that we avoid nastiness for its own sake.  There are always
razor-sharp bits of wittiness, which I enjoy for their creativity, but I
have always tried to steer people away from name-calling.

And of course Scottie provokes people more than most subscribers.  Which
is a trait I admire and have no wish to stifle.  Just not at the level
of a bully (which he rarely does).

This is a very bizarre turn in the conversation, but the point is: play
nice, please.  Continue to call things as you see them, but please -- go
for the idea as your target, not the person who expressed the idea.
 
That really was the gist of all that.  End of mandatory schoolmarmish
speech.

--tim

And just to be on some topic: here is an obligatory set of Salinger
geographical references I've recently found after having moved. 

My neighbor is named Franny.  My bus stops at a Jerome St.  Also at a 
Wellesley Rd.  And it stops near Windsor Pl.

I have not yet found Seymour, Buddy, or Zooey streets, but it's not from
lack of trying.

Maybe the point is that not everything is Serious....