The Anti-Pit

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

There are those around the board who see the sort of mutual support that goes on in MPSIMS as improper for a board with the intellectual orientation of disseminating the Truth (the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth).

I disagree. We all have down times. And a message board leaves us all subject to misinterpretation, sometimes badly.

Two people I think the world of have gotten hit bad over the past week, and I want to start a thread to let them know how much I appreciate them.

Gaudere has a normally sunny disposition, a thirst for the truth, and a brook-no-nonsense attitude towards unsupported assertions in GD. Whatever she has to say is, with vanishingly small exceptions, worth reading, spirit-lifting, and thought-provoking. I meant everything I said in my mock-flame in the Pit (except of course that her attitude P*$$es me off). As most of the board knows, she was accused by another poster of trolling under two other assumed personalities (who have been members nearly as long as she, and much longer than the accuser). All I have to say is, if this is the case, we should locate the Internet equivalent of the Academy Awards, because she would be a runaway for best actress… she would have sustained two compelling and vastly different personas and a third who doesn’t post as much but appears to differ substantially from the other two.

Then Melin attempted to explore the legal implications of a controversial case on which a thread had been started in GD, and as a result got falsely accused of homophobia in two long posts. They were sufficiently harsh to have, I believe, really hurt her.

These two women are true ladies with incisive minds, warm and enjoyable spirits, and a lot more decency than at least one of their accusers. (The other one is a nice guy who simply misinterpreted some posts.) And all I have to say in this is, I like them both a lot, and I’m truly sorry they were hurt.

2

“Hi andros, it’s Coldfire here. Man, you’re not gonna BELIEVE what’s going on in MPSIMS !”

:wink: , of course.

Coldfire

“You know how complex women are”

  • Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
3

I would add my unqualified support for both of these fine posters. I have never failed to be entertained and informed by Gaudere’s fine work, and she has the most calm and sunny disposition - at least, on the boards; for all I know she’s a raving lunatic IRL. But somehow I doubt that - she is, I am sure, what she appears to be.

Melin… ah, Melin. She’s the top. She’s a boon. She’s the dam at Boulder. She’s the moon, over Mae West’s shoulder. I’m a nominee of the GOP, I’m… wait, sorry. Got a little carried away on Cole Porter. In any event, I think Melin has a gift for clarity, compassion and wit, and is 50% responsible for my starting to post in MPSIMS… I had checked out this forum earlier and thought it wasn’t my style… then in the pace of two days, Shayna told me she’d given me a plug and Melin told me she used to moderate here… so I had to give it a closer look… and here I am!

So… huzzahs for both these fine ladies. Drinks all around, on me.

  • Rick
4

I concur, Poly. I was aware of Phaedrus’ attack on Gaudere, of course, and am relieved to see that (apparently) our admins have taken some action.

Whatever happened with Melin, I missed it, but I’ve always found her to be reasonable and clear, even when I didn’t see things the way she did. Anyone who thinks she’s homophobic had to have grossly misinterpreted her.

And finally, we need a MPSIMS thread. Because we’re human, and our thoughts aren’t always about GD topics, or about Cecil’s columns. We can chatter about whatever here, without cluttering up the other boards. If us DCers want to ramble on about the snow we’re getting today, we can do it. If we want to discuss house rules for playing ‘spades,’ we can do that. This forum is a necessary and sensible part of the board.

5

Drinks all around on you, Rick? I was already looking forward to meeting you on 2/5, but now, you’re a prince among men. And we’re meeting at the C.C. Brewing Co., too… :slight_smile:

6

Right arm, Rufus and Rick… For the first time in my life, I am prepared to support a Bricker Amendment! :wink:

7

Well, as long as we’re saying nice things about people…::deep breath::

Thank you, Adam, RTFirefly, ChrisCTP, David B, ubermensch, David, God of Frogs, Yue Han, Phil, Mannhattan, WallyM7, Mullinator, Minxsmom, Unclebeer, pariah, aenea, Elmer J Fudd, Sake Samurai, John Corrado, DrF, Falcon, Lauralee, Polycarp, Lib, Mojo, Tomndebb, Jab1, Drain Bead, Diane, Kaylasdad99, and Doobieous for loyally leaping to my defense, or at the very least implying that the accusations levered against me were ridiculous. I have been greatly heartened by the support I have gotten from all you guys (and if I’ve missed anyone, I humbly apologize). I had no idea I was so well respected or liked; I promise I shall try not to let it go to my head. :slight_smile:

And a special thank you to Polycarp, who is always doing nice things like this. :slight_smile: Although… “Whatever she has to say is, with vanishingly small exceptions, worth reading…” Exceptions? Harrumph. You’re just peeved about my witnessing for the IPU (peace be unto her).

8

…and there’s a wild, untamed 19-year old in her soul (trust me on this, she’s outta control!).

Melin rocks.

StoryTyler
“Not everybody does it, but everybody should.”
I Spy Ty.

9

Gaudere said:

Well, you know how we feel about witnessing in Great Debates! :wink:

10

Bricker -

Oh yeah, she’s a wild one all right. After all she’s a self-described Guiness-swilling elf. And then there’s that fantastic artwork.

Gaudere, I too have great respect for you and your well reasoned informative posts. And to tell you the truth, I’m in awe of your breadth of knowledge. I don’t post much in GD; I blame that on you, and David B of course; I must admit I’m a bit intimidated. I do, however, read quite a bit of it.There are also others who impress me, such as Polycarp and Glitch, so I’ll spread the blame around a bit. There are many others, but that’s enough to list now; we wouldn’t want to start another evil popularity thread

By the way, I’m looking forward to seeing you again in Springfield; Chicago was great.

So, someone want to tell me who this ‘Phaedrus’ character is?

“That it is unwise to be heedless ourselves while we are giving advice to others, I will show in a few lines.” - Phaedrus, translator of Aesop’s Fables

11

Predictably, Gaudere “forgot” to thank her alter-egos, andros and Clark K.

Hey! Who threw that? Stop! Stop it!

Livin’ on Tums, vitamin E and Rogaine

12

Funny you should mention that, Manny. May I direct everyone’s attention to http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000521-5.html ?

13

Unc, these days, the better question is who isn’t he?

“Buffalo Bills? Oh, yeah. The guys that always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” --WallyM7

14

I used to think I was a pretty smart guy. Then I joined this board. The stuff that I’ve learned here could fill several tomes. Especially from the posters named in this thread.

I’m content to hang around the periphery in GD, with an occassional hit and run post here and there.

On my desk I now have the following: The Bible, Asimov’s History of Physics, Durant’s Story of Philosophy, Martin’s Criminal Code, Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Longman’s Chronicle of the 20th Century, Asimov’s History of the World and Roget’s Thesaurus. It used to be a newspaper and a Home Hardware Catalogue.

These books contain facts. For wisdom, I come here and I want to thank you guys for that.

And that’s enough of this touchy-feely stuff. I’m going to the Pit to see if I can kick somebody’s ass.

Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue.

15

Well, I may be new here, but it was pretty obvious to me that this guy was a rat to start with. I didn’t need to know much about Gaudere or andros (and I know nothing about Clark K) to know that they weren’t the same person.

16

I’m even newer than Lauralee but even I felt like I was walking into the middle of therapy session with someone seriously unbalanced. People here are intelligent and articulate and way over my head but I enjoy reading through the debates. This guy needs some real help.

17

My opinion: Ken (Phaedrus) was an interesting person with some major emotional problems resulting from bad things happening in his life. (I’m not going to paint the picture; he’s posted here and there about the events of his life.)

To avoid getting emotionally involved, he created the “Phaedrus persona” – the old opinionated guy, egotistical, with a chip on his shoulder – and found himself getting to like people here anyway. However, the Phaedrus persona got in the way of our seeing Ken. And in the usual give-and-take of a message board, some feelings got hurt. This exacerbated the situation, and, IMHO, he didn’t handle it well. This led people to see him as a troll and react negatively. This led him to say and do some outrageously cruel things to others, which led to the results you can see. I’m reasonably sure that the traumatic events in his life that he’s mentioned had a lot to do with the latter.

I think I could have liked the real Ken, if he could have stuck around and lived down the Phaedrus persona and taken the jibes that people gave him (since he retained the same screen name). I’ll probably never know now.

18

Ty! You weren’t supposed to tell! :eek:

Hey – Poly and all – thanks for your kind words. Those attacks really did hurt me, and those who know me know better. (My husband laughed when I first told him that I was accused of anti-gay, and when I sent the link via IM to the guy I mentioned in that thread in GD and told him that I was accused of trying to keep my children free from the “gay scourge” commented mildly that I didn’t seem to be doing a very good job of it.)

This is a very special group we’ve got here, and I thank you all for making me a part of it.

-Melin

19

that should read “he commented mildly” etc.

20

Personally, I’ve avoided any threads that have anything to do with Phaedrus. The whole drama is too long and confusing. I’m waiting for the Readers’ Digest Condensed Version.

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

The Kat House
Join the FSH Muscular Dystrophy Webring