Klarinet Archive - Posting 000300.txt from 2003/07

From: Kenneth Wolman <kenneth.wolman@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Polite Reminders
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 16:03:51 -0400

At 09:24 AM 7/9/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>Amen. Through long experience, I have found that it is the rare contributor
>than can actually convey humor in written e-mail. Very difficult!
>
>Jim
>
> > 4. Assume the worst when writing a message. Read every message you write
> > BEFORE you send it as if it had been written by your worst enemy, and
> see how
> > many things can be misconstrued. Corollary: almost everything can (and
> will)
> > be misconstrued, usually in the most unflattering way possible.

Words to live by.

I have been on lists since 1989 when they were still
BITNET.something. Rules of all thumbs:

1. Because no effective tonality is possible on a list, humor usually is
wasted. Prigs (I spelled that right) will take offense and will be the
first to parade their humorlessness and priggishness by specific and public
chastisement of the presume malefactor, miscreant, or e-criminal. The fact
they have no sense of humor is taken as a virtue, not as a character defect.

2. Anyone can be whomever he or she wishes on a
list. There. Are. No. Rules. Did I say that slowly enough? Anyone can
assume any persona he or she wishes, even to gender-bending. A 39-year-old
man can pass himself off as a 19-year-old girl. A 19-year-old girl can
pass herself off as a 50-year-old man. The dangers in such charades and
worse by now should be obvious. I believe it was the late Elizabeth
Hardwick who wrote a book called "Seduction and Betrayal." Do you need me
to write that out in single-word sentences too? This is the
Internet. Read the papers. It's at best a sewer: because when it's at
it's best it flushes away what might otherwise raise a rather unwholesome
stench.

3. Everything WILL be misconstrued, yes. Or, in the words of Norm Crosby,
"misconscrewed." So you have a choice to make: either you care or you
don't whether people get upset with your postings. If you do, get off the
lists. If you don't, if you realize that nobody on a list matters in your
life unless you wish him or her to do so, or unless you want to borrow
money from him, then post away. Few people are as important as they would
like to think they are.

Including me, thank God.

Ken

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