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Date:         Mon, 5 Jan 2004 12:11:02 -0500
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Chill baby -- Is That by Garnet Mimms & the Enchanters?
Comments: To: George Goff <THX0001@AOL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <dc.aebcca.2d2a5898@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 01:05 AM 1/5/2004, George Goff wrote: >"Go off"? God >forbid if I were ever to really "go off", you will be running around like some >modern day Henny-pennies proclaiming via the internet that Armageddon is >surely >upon us.

And we would be missing the pleasure of your company...

> For your own good, go to a corner tavern in the gnarly part of town, >suck down some booze and discuss the state of the world with some guys who >have dirt under their fingernails. If nothing else, you will come away >with an >appreciation for the subtle gradients of passion.

Heavens, yes. You're just grumbling like the teakettle, no harm in it. However:

Primus -- you're not sucking down booze with the lads at the Bottle Scar, you're talking to a thousand people you mostly don't know under the aegis of both a general internet etiquette and a particular list culture that explicitly expects polite discourse and general helpfulness. In that context you are often quite remarkably rude and noticeably unhelpful, and I think it often interferes with your message and obscures the difference between the times when you're humorously rude, dismissively rude and right, and occasionally dismissively rude and flat wrong. Also it suggests in my eyes a sort of generalized contempt for fallen man (i.e. the bulk of us who don't live up to the standards you set) which is not particularly endearing whether true or not.

Secundus -- I invite you to come to, say, Portland ME waterfront and discuss the state of the world at the local. I think you know quite well that your finely tuned sense of the nuances of passion would lead you to modify your tone. If you didn't you'd quite soon be hearing "Now you look here, Mister Man!" and since you're not a local there you might not understand that "Mister Man" and "chummie" are rather special words in the State of Maine. You might fail to take the warning and get a surprise.

Tertius -- Particularly given that you just called David Marshall on his numbers, and in a remarkably unhelpful way -- when you get fairly gently called on your own numbers I'd expect you to show you can take it as dispassionately as you dish it out. Yes, I know that David really misunderstood whereas you were probably just talking wide -- that doesn't make it better. A candid "oops, ya got me" would sweeten the mixture considerably.

Finally, but most important -- I think you owe Bruce a serious and public apology no matter what you know of his inclinations, which I suspect is nothing, and no matter what if any your personal regrets are. In the culture you're claiming as your own that was a seriously offensive statement under the circumstances -- do you disagree?

I apologize for any offense you may feel from these remarks -- I assure you none is intended. Rather I do you the compliment of speaking plainly, as I think you yourself would.

regds, david, like everyone here a sinner

-- David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/ '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage" '85 GL "Poor Relation"


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