A Pagan For Poly. Love that dude. Hope he doesn’t mind 
I’ve been blessed to have been in Poly’s home.
It’s a place where people are welcomed, where they are not judged, where they feel like they belong because Poly and SkullDigger make them feel that way.
If you smoke, it’s okay. If you curse, it’s okay. If you’re a libertarian, that’s fine. A liberal? A conservative? An atheist? You’re among friends at his house.
There is no pretense there. It’s a humble place with humble people living in it. It’s a place of refuge from the burden of judgment.
Poly, I hope we get to see another 7,000. God go with you and with your wonderful wife. Always.
Cite?
Come on, Poly. If anyone does, you do.
Congrats, **Polycarp. **
One of my goals in life is to someday meet you, and tell you to your face how much I admire and respect you. One of my other goals is to someday be as knowledgeable as you are, about something. I’m not sure what yet, but I know you have to work very, very hard to gain such knowledge, and I’m trying.
Thank you for your example, Poly. And thank you for simply being.
Much love,
Cristi
Here’s to Polycarp. Long may he post.
I love you, my friend.
Congratulations on 7000 insightful, thoughtful posts!
My Love,
Cheri
If this canonization thing doesn’t work, maybe I can swing him an honorary degree from my college up here (hey, Perry Como got one a few years back :p)
Congrats, Polycarp. May you post, not seven thousand, but seven times seven thousand times.
Well, that’s the second thing you’ve ever said on this board that wasn’t true, and the first was about Jewish people and cheeseburgers:)
You have shown love in its purest form to many more on this MB than have shown up here, or showed up at RT’s thread a month ago or so. You have been kind to those who needed it, been as physical a presence as possible via keyboard for those who needed someone to sit with them and hold them (or, sometimes, strangle them;)). I remember once in a pit thread someone started about the latest GD troll, you said something to the effect of “I treat everyone, unless I have good reason to believe otherwise, as though they are being earnest in what they state. If they post something, I ask questions not to bait but to educate myself.” This was in response to someone many of us believed to be trolling. But in that case, as in countless others, you rose above the common response and treated that person with a lot more dignity than most of us would have afforded the same person. In short, you have been the understanding father, capable educator, loving friend, occasional kick in the ass and at all times (at least, those I can remember) facilitating … spirit.
Generally, unless it’s by someone I care enough about to read for a half-hour without knowing what the person is trying to say, I skip over long-ish (think: almost the entire allowable amount per post) posts. And sometimes even if I know exactly what the person is going to say, I skip over it. I’ve probably lost some deeper meaning along the way, but … the human brain is immensely distractable.
But I have not ever, or I do not remember ever, skipping over anything you have ever posted since I’ve been here. You could probably write about how the temperature of spit in wichita affects the russian caviar market and I’d read it because I know there is something about your posts that cannot be said, in my humble opinion, for more than a dozen or so people here:
They are always worth reading. And there are precious few scenarios in which there is something more worthwhile to do than read one of your posts (“house on fire” and “baby on the way” are two that immediately spring to mind).
The help you got from all of us in part because of RT’s thread was a very small repayment for anything you have been to any of us. Financially quantifying one’s worth to this place is a difficult thing to do, but I am speaking from as financial a standpoint I can when I say that this place has saved me thousands in medical bills (my depression, which has mostly been environmentally-driven, can be rather expensive to treat) I know I (or my parents) would have spent if not for, among other people, you.
I used to, when I was a very small child, believe that all people were basically good. Then I got a little bit older and met some people the truth of that tautology I doubt sometimes. And then I got older still and holding onto that belief was like keeping a candle lit in a monsoon. And I was further drawn to the idea that while many people might intrinsically be good, many of them derived far more joy from causing the pain of others (my pain, for one). It was around the time I started feeling as hopeless for myself and those around me that two things happened. Completely unrelated, but one of them helped in a very morbid way I don’t think I can explain and another helped in a way that is, as you’ll see, rather obvious today.
The first was two high school students, not unlike myself, going to their former school and quantifying the pain they have been given by so many of the students there. I do not know if there is a number to meaningfully describe the amount of attention I got from that, both from people who were pissing their pants waiting for me to break out an assault rifle and mow people down, or who were waiting for some explosive to go off on-campus, or waiting for some similar outburst from me. And that (the two students and the reaction at my school) told me that change was—had to be—on the way.
The other was finding this board online. At first it was only the columns, but eventually the message board became navigable.
And it was my haven. www.straightdope.com was like few places on the internet (then and now): the people were nice, witty, intelligent, not above a flame or two, but they welcomed people (so long as said people played nice in their home). I didn’t actually register for the message board (which is another fate-filled story in itself) until after I got into college, but every day I read anything I’d missed on that site, or I re-read something. It was the beginning of the transition from “many people may intrinsically be good, but causing pain is just too much fun for them to resist” to “People are intrinsically good. Some of them just don’t know it yet. So let’s show them.”
I cannot think of anything witty with which to end this post (which is approaching the length at which I myself wouldn’t read it if I didn’t have to so I could catch all those damned errors I know I’ve made;)), so let me close with something I say to fizzy on occasion when the English language fails me for the umpteenth time:
Thank you for being you.
Polycarp is indeed a wonderful poster; he’s always around to give people support if they need it. You’ve changed people’s lives just by being there for them when they need it. May God richly bless you and yours. 
F_X
I must shamefacedly admit that I don’t recognize many posters, as my reading style is a headlong rush through threads without the leftward glance that would identify the author of current post.
That said, Polycarp’s name has broken through the veil enough times that these days, if I’m reading a thread and see his name, my metaphorical ears perk up and I start paying attention.
Congratulations, Polycarp, and here’s to another 7,000 equally worthwhile posts.
- Jackelope, who has so far posted over 1,000 bits of utterly forgettable gibberish