Except for the people pitting the pitter. And me pitting the people pitting the pitter.
Naturally I’m sorry to hear anyone has a serious disease.
However most of this Pitting does not make sense.
This statement is silly on several levels:
- the ‘Rules of The Matriarchy®’ don’t apply here
- why can’t a Patriarch be offended by an insult to his family?
Obviously not. Why do I, for example, need an apology?
Are you serious?
How will a transgressor be ‘dealt with’?
Why make silly jokes (about Opal and rule 2) if you are genuinely upset?
Does rule 1 mean your family can’t have a sexual relationship with anyone?
I’m afraid i can’t see what’s so offensive about Absolute’s post. Hell, even the person who brought up these “invisible diseases,” kaiwik, didn’t take offence. The fact that the diease has a funny name does not make the disease funny, nor does it mean that those suffering from the disease don’t deserve our sympathy.
He made no additional comments, period, as that was his sole post to the thread - for all you know, he hasn’t even been back to the thread and doesn’t know about this tempest in a teapot that he inadvertently stirred up.
As for his original post, my interpretation as well was that it had a “funny-sounding” name and thus must come off sounding weird to some people.
Cheese and rice people. Ease up on her a bit. She has every right to take offense at this. It’s not like she posted some massive and visceral pit thread about Absolute. All she wants is an apology. That’s a good deal more reasonable than most active members on this board would have been in similar circumstances.
Absolute may not have meant to be offensive, but Cheez has done a good job of explaining why she took offense. Back this pile up off and let her get it.
So I guess no one here is waiting to hear about how ankylosing spondilitis is associated with a mutation in the HLA B27 gene, which in turn codes for a protein that’s part of the major histocompatability complex and is thus involved in immune reactions?
No?
Fine.
I never get to talk about work here.
Please don’t speak for me, even if it is with the best of intentions. The fact of the matter is that yes, I do take offense. The tone of the OP is, IMHO, rude, and Absolut’s snort, if meant to convey humor, comes off, to me, as smartass, as does the rest of his hit and run post. Being new to the SDMB I decided that it would be best if I quit posting to that thread, as I share Cheez_Whia’s anger at what appears to be a slam against a seriously debilitating disease.
AHN-kee-loh-sing spawhn-de-LITE-us
I no longer care much what causes it. I can no longer stand straight. I can no longer stand long enough to take a shower. I get around my home and garden with the use of a walker, anywhere else I go, it’s in a wheelchair. Only eight years ago all I had was a pain in my lumbar spine and hips. (and I am only 45) That is what you can see, there are all sorts of other ways this disease is destroying my body.
It’s really not a laughing matter. I would like to think that if my husband or children came across a response regarding this disease, which affects their lives as well as mine, that came off as callous and rude, they would leap to my defense.
Cheez_Whia, it’s not worth the battle. I am sorry your husband has ankylosing spondylitis, please feel free to email me if you ever want to talk.
I didn’t speak for you. I simply noted that you took no offence. Obviously, i was talking about your written response, not about some thoughts which you may or may not have had, and to which i was not privy. If you respond to someone’s post without displaying any sense of offence, then it’s reasonable for me to conclude that you take no offence.
If you expect me to read your mind in future, might i suggest that you provide some sort of guide so that i will recognize that when you make a polite response to a comment, this indicates that you are, indeed, offended.
I’m still not defending Absolute, but I think you have a good point, PA. Understanding a disease or condition doesn’t require medical definitions and fluent pronounciation. (Sorry, Smeghead!) It just requires explanations, in layman’s terms, of how to accomodate the person who has it.
As the mother of the girl I used to babysit, who was having a sleepover, which included a girl from her class with some kind of diet-dependent condition that wasn’t diabetes, said on the phone to the other girl’s mom (could that be any more garbled?), “You don’t have to spell it; just tell me what she can and can’t eat!”
I retract my claws and beg pardon. I am attempting to not make waves, but there are times when I hit submit prematurely.
I tend to be garroulous in response when in good humor, the opposite when irritated. Absolut’s joke = my sarcasm, they whooshed everybody.
Well, I thought it was a type of dinasaur. It has a k in it and that makes it automatically funny to some. It also sounds a bit like some of those long names in Monty Python’s venerial disease song.
A disease having an unfortunate or amusing name can make having it just a bit worse.
Hey Smeghead! In the bright light of morning I re-read your comment, and actually, if you would explain the genetic predisposition for ankylosing spondylitis, I would indeed be interested.
Thank you for offering. 
So, I’m sitting here in the last physics lecture of the semester, rather bored, and I decide to check the SDMB. Imagine my surprise when I see my name listed in the BBQ Pit, for the first time (I think) in the five years I’ve been here.
I don’t check the SDMB that often, and until seeing this thread I didn’t even notice the complaint(s) posted in the original thread, so I’m sorry for taking so long to respond.
My post in the original thread was stupid, crudely worded, and contentless, of the type that I try to avoid making, but what I can say - it was 4:00 AM, and I was in the process of going to bed, not waking up. Normally, I keep my inane thoughts to myself, but for whatever reason I decided to share that one.
I didn’t (and still don’t) think it was offensive, but I accept that some people might. My apologies to anyone I offended. I didn’t intend to make light of anyone’s suffering. I didn’t know what AS was or what the symptoms were, I just thought the name sounded ridiculous. That’s the only point I wanted to make.
Not even close.
Back on topic, well kinda: there’s an actual disease called ankylosing spondylitis? And it’s, like, real?
Man. That sounds like it really sucks.
I’d have to disagree with you there, Harborwolf. I still don’t get what was remotely offensive about his post. But good on him for apologizing, anyway.
Now if it were called Spankylosing Pongylitis it would be even funnier named. And the name being funny is what Absolute pointed out, not the disease being funny.
Personally I find the fact that dyslexia is hard to spell funny, and the fact that major depressive disorder sounds such a downer funny.
There is, and it is.
Absolute, very gracious apology, and thanks.
I would say to the OP; I very much doubt he was aware that one of your family members suffers from this debilitating disease, nor does his post in that thread read as a direct dig at any person who does. Perhaps you’re a bit oversensitive in this particular case?
Since we’ve started hugging and making out and stuff, how about some education? What is ankylosing spondylitis? Is it genetic? What causes it? My sympathies for those Dopers who are affected by it, since we have at least two in this thread.