Hey Norm, ============== "I did apologise to Gary for doing this." ============== You don't need to apologise to me for anything. I think that most of the readers have been more than happy with your subject matter and humor. In any case, this is not MY forum. It's Linda Caroll's. I'm just promulgating this thread. I could open my own forum if I wanted to but there are some good heads here and I see no need to be a forum owner. So long as I am posting worthwhile comments I am happy. And I'm more than happy to attract thinkers like the ones who come here. I only get crabby when the "drive by shooters" (LC's terminology) and dive bombers come in to unleash their spam bombs on our heads. By the way, thanks Cheri for that link to Art Webster's commentary - there's some excellent thoughts there. Gary

Hi Norm; ========== I took a look at the new forum - and obviously saw that I am a GUILTY party when it comes to going off-subject (as I have shown here). What I did learn was that from most people this is NOT appreciated... 2) Wouldn't conversation be incredibly boring if it didn't flow from one thing to another? I can't imagine a dinner party being very succesful if it just stayed on one subject. ========== First thing to know is that the stay on one topic *rule* doesn't apply in my forum. lol Yes, conversation WOULD be horribly boring if we had to stick to one topic. That's just not how people talk among friends. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a thread in my forums that didn't stray into left field, back home, and out in the field again. And it's fun that way. The only "rules" I have in my forum are; 1) No name calling. ie; We can say "Bill, I don't agree with you and here's why..." We shouldn't say "Bill, you're a stupid jerk*ff. lol 2) No drive by ads. Beyond those - I kind of like the pong that happens when people don't have to conform. : ) Linda P.S. In that other thread, I think Art's big beef was that people only reply to the original poster and don't converse among themselves. we don't have that problem in this forum... lol

Hi, Norm Isn't this interesting? I didn't get at all that people don't appreciate the give and take of thoughtful and intelligent conversation. In fact, I think that's what Art is referring to when he talks about only replying to the original poster and not to the entire thread. I'm pretty sure that the people posting in that forum, for the most part would agree with what Linda started the Go Figure thread about. Only when a post has no connection to or value for the conversation at hand, and in particular is an ad, do people become irritated when a thread takes a left turn. A possible exception is when the forum owner is clearly attempting to keep an organized theme running through all his threads. I detected a bit of irritation in Georgios' reply today to someone who introduced an off-topic name in a thread of his name origins forum. If I want one of my threads to remain very close to the original post, I respond to a person taking it off course by reiterating the point I was making originally. But it usually isn't necessary. If the person has posted something totally irrelevant, the other participants tend to ignore it. At other times and in places where it seems appropriate, I join others in going wildly, joyfully and sometimes goofily off-topic. You ought to see the silliness that goes on in Larry Anderson's Weird Facts forum. We go out of our way to take the facts in whatever twisted way we can to make an attempt at a funny post, make sly digs at the other players and in general just have a bit of silly fun. It all depends on the forum. It's sort of like entering a roomful of people at a social occasion. I always observe for a while before I offer anything, just to see how the culture of the gathering is developing. Then I either join in in the same spirit if I can, or I leave. To extend the analogy, what I understood Art to be complaining about would be like entering the room, walking up to the host and addressing him while completely ignoring the rest of the guests, then leaving without waiting for a reply from the host. Cheri

Ooops - sorry Linda - I should have been apologising to you - maybe? Anyway, if any is needed then please accept mine. Can I ask one thing as we are all talking from different parts of the world - Gary in Australia, Linda and Cheri in the USA, and me here in France - who puts the time on the posts? I am invariably tucked up in my little cot by 11.15pm as indicated on one of my posts. Just to let you know the time here is now 11.43am on Tuesday 30th May. However it seems that all you guys are writing at around 01.15am - can't be right surely? Not important - just another little intrigue in my brain. My cat Scruff has just disgusted the Boss by doing his job of catching and eating a mouse. I must admit is is not a pretty sight. But this IS a farmhouse (but not a farm) - so he is earning his keep. I just try to rescue the voles, dormice, moles (although I don't know why with the little b-----s chewing up the garden), and of course the gekkos. Dam' nearly a full time job! Why am I telling you this? Heaven alone knows - definitely losing the old marbles. Bye for now!

Hi Norm, Linda is actually in Canada. I was alerted to your comment by an email which popped in while I was doing some work at my computer. This is what it said: At 5/30/2006 4:55:00 AM a message was posted to a thread you were tracking. The time that it arrived here was around 6.00pm on Tuesday 30 May 2006. I've stopped taking notice of the times. I actually read some replies half an hour before the notice even reaches my email box. I posted quite a few comments today as I have spent much of the day at the computer doing my monthly accounts. So, I was using the email alerts as a break from some really BORING but necessary activities. Le Scruff sounds like a vicious little fellow. I have a "bird-dog" (a King Charles Cavalier Shitzu cross) - little Miss EllieBelles - she stalks and catches doves. Her score so far is 5 (out of 100's that she's tried to catch). She even jumped in the air once and pulled one down. She is so happy with herself when she catches them and it's very funny watching her stalk them - the minute positioning of her legs, a twitch here, a twitch there and then the mad dash at them. I won't post anything late at night or early morning - I'm too busy reading books. Gary