<Anyway, was his previous book by any chance about singing hymns near Los Angeles?>

And our old chum, Anableps?

<Water drips wet on my hair
Rainy night cat to my dogs
Cover heads, but by no hood

Other times, dry in my lair
Fires going out as no logs
You've never had it so good.>

work a bit on it and it becomes

You did this solely to remind your "friend" of a sore spot that you know has to rankle. You did this solely for a selfish motive, in no way meant to "help" your new friend.

Protip: that's not what friends do.

<dom> why are you mentioning that topic in public again? Nothing is happening, why not let well enough alone?

I had logged on here to make precisely that point: viz, we were getting on fine talking about rhyme schemes and bishop endings, and not mentioning the war. AJ's question was also a bit redundant, as I tried to suggest in my response, but it still leads me to write about 'thermonuclear heck'. I worked this out in my head while offline.

So far, so good. But why do you then need to take it further? To intervene? I believe you said, earlier, that your advice would be your first and only comment on the matter. *You*, repeating yourself? What *is* it with this topic?

Anyhoo, my post was not 'completely' unnecessary. It was a response to a query. About a hundred years ago you observed that I had a habit of doing this.

My courtesies may not be everyone's courtesies, but they're mine.

Interlude. I have sometimes been accused, by more aggressive-minded persons in RL, of letting others 'walk all over me'. This is usually because I prefer a quiet life to a routine of macho face-saving and stakes-raising. A small corollary is that there are occasional zones in which I am insanely stubborn, and resist all efforts to change my mind. I don't let them happen very often.

He-who-cannot-be-named began this by waltzing in here and insulting you.

Both he and AJ, in their vastly different ways, are easier to understand than you are. That's one of the things I like.

At this stage, I'm not sure I ever want to hear the word 'friend' again. Most internet-related trouble, including stuff that spills over into RL, is derived from different definitions of friendship. Different expectations.

I have 'friends' who would break many serious laws to help me if I was in trouble, and vice versa; but none of us considers regular phatic communications a part of friendship. Just an example, yer maj.

I think your 2nd paragraph - "you did this solely for a selfish motive" - is a complete misreading. The question was an *innocent* one, asked by somebody who is not observant in the way that you and I (and a couple of our mutual friends) are observant.

In any case, if the Lemming *ever* gets back in - though Daniel F assures that me that serious measures are in place to prevent this - he's going to attack me anyway. That's what I meant by 'thermonuclear', more than any projected reaction of mine.

A few posts here don't make a difference - especially since you just added another. Don't tell me you're trying to give AJ a course in netiquette? I have no idea, btw, why you switched from defending him to ... this somewhat different mode. It seems extreme. Isn't there a middle ground?

I was thinking of old Triceratops earlier. He was right in one thing. Many problems would be solved if Americans played their own version of chess, like they do with football and stickball. A version where you can bring on many substitutes - specialist King-kickers - might be culturally appropriate.

Every time somebody creates 50 sockpuppets, CG notches up an increase in membership, and a potential enhanced revenue stream.

I'm not saying they're cynical, because they aren't. And the person-hours required to deal with a *real* lunatic vastly outweigh potential profit.

Regards the one/s who not be mentioned, if they are contained from chat on this site, invite the benefit of not continuing to talk about him or her, only prolongs their past influence on you, to the detriment of any who was involved and has to continue to read of~

I have never heard more sad words on the internet as today, and yet after reflection and reading and rereading, I think I understand

Not that I wish to know after thinking about it, yet it has an appeal, of some values that I don't think I are able to understand fully in my limited form of English, and I hope you can find a point in life where you would not fear the word "friend"