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....