Hey there Mousie!

> [edited quote] Which lacks more propriety: stating one's dissatisfaction with a situation and chiding those who it is perceived both contributed to the situation as it stands, or out and out accusing someone who does so of lacking common decency?

Well, "decency" isn't something you either have or lack so much as a standard that you can either meet or come short of. Naturally I don't think of B-G (my friend) as inherently indecent. I think what she *wrote* was discourteous in the extreme, and that was mostly what I wanted to point out. Some occasions call for us to abandon courtesy and say it like it is ...I leave the question of whether or not this is one of those occasions as an exercise to the reader.

> Does the encasing of the ideas inside charm and wit make them any less or more socially appropriate? Probably more. But doesn't not doing so make them more honorable for their sheer honesty? A valid argument could be made.

Yep, there are fine degrees of propriety, and a barb wrapped in wit is more appropriate than a shouted epithet. The unfortunate thing is, spinning an insult cleverly and admirably helps us forget that in the middle of it all is a statement designed to hurt. If that matters to me, then I should be careful how glib I get.

> Frankly, I was shocked at the remark, Iss, especially so, considering it came from you. But it certainly enforces your point in an almost ingenious manner.

My only *intended* points were: 1) Do you realize what you expressed; 2) Did you really mean it that way?; and 3) If not, what clouded your judgement?

Maybe the answers are "yes", "yes" and "nothing"; in any case B-G is a person I trust to usually do the right thing. Someone not incapable of a mistake, but foundationally mature and trustworthy. So I don't mean to cast any aspersions on her character.

> However. I found more egregious your later comment that you "only read about 20% of the posts these days anyway," (paraphrasing) which to me underscores Brunnen_G's point at least as strongly, if not moreso.

Yep, I reflected on that as I posted it. For my part, the main reason I'm less involved than I've been in the past is that *I* have less to say that interests me, not that other people have less. That's not the whole story, of course, but it's basically true.

> Can you explain?
>
> Love,
> Mousie

Always happy to oblige my diminuitive murine pal! :-)

Iss "forum decorum" achar