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And Thanks For All The Fish

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Tom Holt

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Jul 9, 2001, 5:30:16 AM7/9/01
to
When David Potter died, I said a few incoherent things about him, his
qualities as a man and a friend. Before I leave this group, I'd just
like to say a few equally incoherent things about Gharlane of Eddore.
There's a difference, of course; and it's a crucial one.

Once upon a time, so the synthetic legend runs, there lived in
California a mysterious masked man who fought for truth and liberty.
Although his enemies did everything they could to discover his true
identity, somehow he always managed to evade them, and the only clue
he ever left behind, scratched on their foreheads with the point of
his deadly rapier, was the letter G...

Gharlane wrote *fast*; whatever else he may have been, he was an
amazing typist, faster than most trained stenographers, but so
accurate that he made a point of apologizing to the world on the rare
occasions he perpetrated a typo. When you read his posts - so
polished, so crisp and witty, characterised by exactly the right word
in precisely the right place - think of that. No agonising over
synonyms or poring through a thesaurus; straight from brain to
screen, perfectly formed.

That interface is what the Usenet mind-meld is all about - my mind to
your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts, expressed in simple,
unadorned text, uncluttered by such distracting and trivial
irrelevancies as appearance, status or identity. On Usenet, you're
only as good as what you write; a person exists only in words, it's a
realm inhabited by life-forms of pure text.

Gharlane was a disembodied brain in a glass jar (which is a
roundabout way of describing the screen of your monitor) and Usenet
was his natural habitat, the place where he could be what he really
was. He had always been here; and as one of the First Ones he tried
to guide and educate the younger races - sometimes roughly, smacking
them down into alt.dev.null until they learned to read before they
posted; sometimes anoyingly (ObSpelling; annoyingly); sometimes
didactically, at inordinate (or majestic) length; always with humor
and patience.

In his apparently inexhaustible database he had a vast archive of
information about SF in all its forms, and a great deal else. A
request for information usually produced an immediate and definitive
answer. As for his opinions, he fired them like cannon-shells; they
were incendiary, capable of piercing the toughest armor, and they
scattered their shrapnel right across the group, often starting
flames that would flicker on for weeks after the original salvo. A
point-blank broadside from the Eddorian was devastating. Return fire
seemed to glance harmlessly off him, or else it overshot the mark and
sailed harmlessly into the distance. He was a Usenet ironclad, the
Monitor of rastv, the man in the iron mask.

"His foe was folly," as Anthony Hope said of W S Gilbert, "and his
weapon wit". He loved a good fencing match with a worthwhile
opponent, and no matter whether they agreed with his quarrel or his
cause, his skill and grace with the foil won the admiration of the
audience. Above all, by putting on a good show and being such a fine
entertainer, he made people think about issues on which they'd
hitherto closed their minds, his rapier finding chinks in the plate
armor of narrow-minded prejudice that the broadsword of heavy-handed
abuse could never prise open.

To claim that Gharlane is dead is to misunderstand him completely;
because he lives on in the minds he opened, the people who came to
fight and stayed to debate, listen and learn. Correspondences that
started with anger and outrage from some victim of Eddorian grapeshot
mellowed into long, fruitful correspondence. Hundreds of people
swapped mails with him, part of a network of friendship that reached
right across the world. The centre of that network is silent now, we
can no longer draw from it the information, wisdom and joy we've
become accustomed to. But Gharlane survives in each member of that
network as a perspective, a way of seeing things, an ability to
notice things of value that previously were overlooked or not
recognised for what they are. We are no longer one, but at least we're many.

Gharlane was always a legend, as artificial as the Internet itself, a
man-made construct. He was always nothing but bits of information
stored in memory; and therefore, nothing has really changed. It now
falls to those of us who knew him to take the myth to the next level.
Accordingly; Gharlane didn't die in the end-of-season cliffhanger.
Somehow he escaped and downloaded himself into the very core of
Google, a tiny fragment of himself encoded into each archived post.
When the time comes, when the trolls threaten to overwhelm rastv and
Rabkin and Goldberg get a contract to televise "Stranger In A Strange
Land" as a cop show starring Barbra Streisand, Gharlane will rise
from his archive to rescue us, communicating his message of hope via
acronyms cunningly inserted down the left-hand margins of the posts
of the enemy. Or something like that.

It's ridiculous to claim that Gharlane died at Z'Ha'Dum. We are all Gharlane.


Franklin Hummel

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Jul 9, 2001, 7:32:53 PM7/9/01
to

"Tom Holt" <lemmi...@zetnet.co.uk> wrote:
> When David Potter died, I said a few incoherent things about him,
his
> qualities as a man and a friend. Before I leave this group, I'd just
> like to say a few equally incoherent things about Gharlane of
Eddore.
> There's a difference, of course; and it's a crucial one.


I am a bit disappointed by some of the folks who are leaving r.a.s.t
since Gharlane died. I know his posts added a unique character to the
group and also were extremely informative.

I was away when both Cronan and Gharlane died and I can do nothing
about that. But, on my part, I feel the thing to do is not to leave
(or
in my case, stay away) from r.a.s.t, but to stay here and keep the
discussion as at high a level of quality as I can. I'll never be up
to
Cronan's quality of writing nor will I ever have the knowledge that
Gharlane had.

But, damn it, I don't want to see this group throw to the wolves that
still
haunt this place because they aren't around to post anymore. So, I
will
do what I can to make the best contribution I can.

-- Franklin Hummel, Boston, Massachusetts

Geoduck

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Jul 9, 2001, 9:23:07 PM7/9/01
to
On Mon, 9 Jul 2001 23:32:53 GMT, "Franklin Hummel"
<hum...@world.std.com> wrote:


(snip)


>But, damn it, I don't want to see this group throw to the wolves that
>still haunt this place because they aren't around to post anymore. So, I
>will do what I can to make the best contribution I can.

<AOL>Me, Too.</AOL>

I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Holt plans to leave. Gharlane would have
been the *last* person to say that you should abandon a group simply
because he's no longer here.

Cronan... well, Cronan might have *said* it. Dunno if he would have
meant it or not.
--
Geoduck (formerly of usa.net)
http://www.olywa.net/cook

Jaime M De Castellvi

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Jul 9, 2001, 9:29:30 PM7/9/01
to
Franklin Hummel <hum...@world.std.com> wrote:


Own up to it, Franklin... You were Dan Tropea all along, weren't you?


Cheers,

Jaime

Klyfix

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Jul 10, 2001, 12:25:56 AM7/10/01
to
In article <GG8C1...@world.std.com>, "Franklin Hummel" <hum...@world.std.com>
writes:

>
>But, damn it, I don't want to see this group throw to the wolves that
>still
>haunt this place because they aren't around to post anymore. So, I
>will
>do what I can to make the best contribution I can.
>

That's something that concerns me a bit also. Are the only folk posting
here by Fall gonna be me and the Shunned Ones and some Newbies?

V. S. Greene : kly...@aol.com : Boston, near Arkham...
Eckzylon: http://m1.aol.com/klyfix/eckzylon.html
RPG and SF, predictions, philosophy, and other things.
"It's not like Sioux Falls"-A guy on the Boston subway.

Franklin Hummel

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Jul 10, 2001, 2:14:01 PM7/10/01
to

"Jaime M De Castellvi" <3c...@qlink.queensu.ca> wrote

>
> Own up to it, Franklin... You were Dan Tropea all along, weren't
you?

I had noticed an absence of his name on posts in the group. I
didn't mentioned D*n Tr*p**
for fear of summoning him.

-- Franklin Hummel, Boston, MA


Henry Rieke

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Jul 10, 2001, 3:05:11 PM7/10/01
to
Read you around Tom.
BTW, I'm thinking of naming my boat GoE. Since he was always envious of
my travels and what not.

Tom Holt wrote:
>
> When David Potter died, I said a few incoherent things about him, his
> qualities as a man and a friend. Before I leave this group, I'd just
> like to say a few equally incoherent things about Gharlane of Eddore.

...

thew...@unagi.cybernothing.org

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Jul 10, 2001, 4:48:12 PM7/10/01
to
Klyfix <kly...@aol.comedy> wrote:
> In article <GG8C1...@world.std.com>, "Franklin Hummel" <hum...@world.std.com>
> writes:

>>
>>But, damn it, I don't want to see this group throw to the wolves that
>>still
>>haunt this place because they aren't around to post anymore. So, I
>>will
>>do what I can to make the best contribution I can.
>>

> That's something that concerns me a bit also. Are the only folk posting
> here by Fall gonna be me and the Shunned Ones and some Newbies?

Nah, my post about unsubbing was pretty much meant to be temporary.
<grin> I simply forgot to say so.

I'm sorry Mr. Holt is planning to leave but it's his prerogative. I
suspect that many of the more interesting posters were here because of
Gharlane and I won't begrudge them their choice of leaving. Gharlane is a
hard act to follow and I think it'll be a while before this group
recovers.

--
TheWitch

"These experiences have confirmed that ours is a strong and vibrant
newsgroup, full of people whose mouths are bigger than even our most
bountiful harvest."

- Blackhawk, President Erect of alt.fan.tom-servo

Franklin Harris

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Jul 10, 2001, 8:10:44 PM7/10/01
to

"Franklin Hummel" <hum...@world.std.com> wrote in message
news:GG9ry...@world.std.com...

>
> "Jaime M De Castellvi" <3c...@qlink.queensu.ca> wrote
> >
> > Own up to it, Franklin... You were Dan Tropea all along, weren't
> you?
>
> I had noticed an absence of his name on posts in the group. I
> didn't mentioned D*n Tr*p**
> for fear of summoning him.

Like the Candyman?

Oh, damn.


--
Franklin Harris
Pulp Culture Online, www.pulpculture.net
"You know, Daddy, a living legend and an out of work bum sure look a lot
alike." -- Little Enos Burdett (Paul Williams), SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT


Robert Holland

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Jul 10, 2001, 8:22:12 PM7/10/01
to
Tom Holt <lemmi...@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message news:<200107091...@zetnet.co.uk>...

> When David Potter died, I said a few incoherent things about him, his
> qualities as a man and a friend. Before I leave this group, I'd just
> like to say a few equally incoherent things about Gharlane of Eddore.
> There's a difference, of course; and it's a crucial one.

Equally incoherent ramblings that are by definition different? Are you
a writer, Tom? A *careful* writer? Apparently not--let's see how you
mangle the memory of the ol' dill...



> Once upon a time, so the synthetic legend runs, there lived in
> California a mysterious masked man who fought for truth and liberty.

[translated] Potter was a Libertarian who practiced his skill in
smacking down newbies and poor spellers, and actively tried to deny a
Usenet voice to Theron and Ford. As for truth, well, that's a rather
odd thing to expect from a fiction.



> Although his enemies did everything they could to discover his true
> identity, somehow he always managed to evade them, and the only clue
> he ever left behind, scratched on their foreheads with the point of
> his deadly rapier, was the letter G...

Har! See? Truth is subjective. Potter was exposed by a Hugo nomination
after which he took an active role in trying to get Ford and Theron
kicked off the net. The irony? It was his own friends who exposed him,
not Ford or Theron.

> Gharlane wrote *fast*; whatever else he may have been, he was an
> amazing typist, faster than most trained stenographers, but so
> accurate that he made a point of apologizing to the world on the rare
> occasions he perpetrated a typo. When you read his posts - so
> polished, so crisp and witty, characterised by exactly the right word
> in precisely the right place - think of that. No agonising over
> synonyms or poring through a thesaurus; straight from brain to
> screen, perfectly formed.

Since writing for Usenet is a batched process, typing speed matters
not one iota. Nothing exists until you hit the Send key. And Gherkin
didn't type a single character, for he did not exist until Potter
clicked on Send.



> That interface is what the Usenet mind-meld is all about - my mind to
> your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts, expressed in simple,
> unadorned text, uncluttered by such distracting and trivial
> irrelevancies as appearance, status or identity. On Usenet, you're
> only as good as what you write; a person exists only in words, it's a
> realm inhabited by life-forms of pure text.

That's a stretch, but let's run with it...

> Gharlane was a disembodied brain in a glass jar (which is a
> roundabout way of describing the screen of your monitor) and Usenet
> was his natural habitat, the place where he could be what he really
> was. He had always been here; and as one of the First Ones he tried
> to guide and educate the younger races - sometimes roughly, smacking
> them down into alt.dev.null until they learned to read before they
> posted; sometimes anoyingly (ObSpelling; annoyingly); sometimes
> didactically, at inordinate (or majestic) length; always with humor
> and patience.

Gherkin was a pickle in a jar, all right. Just how smacking down
others in Usenet is a fight for liberty remains for you to explain.
Potter did that a lot--for sport.

> In his apparently inexhaustible database he had a vast archive of
> information about SF in all its forms, and a great deal else. A
> request for information usually produced an immediate and definitive
> answer. As for his opinions, he fired them like cannon-shells; they
> were incendiary, capable of piercing the toughest armor, and they
> scattered their shrapnel right across the group, often starting
> flames that would flicker on for weeks after the original salvo. A
> point-blank broadside from the Eddorian was devastating. Return fire
> seemed to glance harmlessly off him, or else it overshot the mark and
> sailed harmlessly into the distance. He was a Usenet ironclad, the
> Monitor of rastv, the man in the iron mask.

He was a leaky ill-conceived Civil War submarine? He was imprisoned by
his brother? Cannonballs bounced off his face? Your metaphor is ...
unfortunate.



> "His foe was folly," as Anthony Hope said of W S Gilbert, "and his
> weapon wit". He loved a good fencing match with a worthwhile
> opponent, and no matter whether they agreed with his quarrel or his
> cause, his skill and grace with the foil won the admiration of the
> audience. Above all, by putting on a good show and being such a fine
> entertainer, he made people think about issues on which they'd
> hitherto closed their minds, his rapier finding chinks in the plate
> armor of narrow-minded prejudice that the broadsword of heavy-handed
> abuse could never prise open.

I agree with you that Potter defined his Gherkin persona in terms of
verbal conflict. He fought with persons up and down the hierarchies.
Potter collected an audience of yokels who enjoyed his put-downs and
rallied to his efforts to silence his targets. He recruited them to
his purpose of obfuscating his identity and they participated
willingly.

True, he was a storehouse (or kept one) of obscure sci-fi information,
and it was often easier to ask him for a factoid than to look it up.

> To claim that Gharlane is dead is to misunderstand him completely;
> because he lives on in the minds he opened, the people who came to
> fight and stayed to debate, listen and learn. Correspondences that
> started with anger and outrage from some victim of Eddorian grapeshot
> mellowed into long, fruitful correspondence. Hundreds of people
> swapped mails with him, part of a network of friendship that reached
> right across the world. The centre of that network is silent now, we
> can no longer draw from it the information, wisdom and joy we've
> become accustomed to. But Gharlane survives in each member of that
> network as a perspective, a way of seeing things, an ability to
> notice things of value that previously were overlooked or not
> recognised for what they are. We are no longer one, but at least we're many.

Potter ran the operation. Gherkin existed only in the words Potter
created. How many Potterheads are there? Hundreds? Seems you ought to
be able to leave something more lasting than a few incoherent
ramblings. How about a scholarship at CSUS for a student of science
and writing? Hundreds of you ought to be able to fund it easily.

> Gharlane was always a legend, as artificial as the Internet itself, a
> man-made construct.

Gherkin was Potter's Bunbury. Potter spent perhaps more time in the
country Bunburying than in being Earnest, and I guess that's not
important now.

> He was always nothing but bits of information
> stored in memory; and therefore, nothing has really changed. It now
> falls to those of us who knew him to take the myth to the next level.

Say what? Are you going Bunburying up in rec.arts.sf?

> Accordingly; Gharlane didn't die in the end-of-season cliffhanger.
> Somehow he escaped and downloaded himself into the very core of
> Google, a tiny fragment of himself encoded into each archived post.

Google is a fragile and tangible thing--a startup in the web space.
This archive is just one business decision away from the trash heap of
history. Enjoy it while you can. (Say, you *are* putting together the
collected Usenet works of Dave Potter for CD distribution aren't you?)



> When the time comes, when the trolls threaten to overwhelm rastv and
> Rabkin and Goldberg get a contract to televise "Stranger In A Strange
> Land" as a cop show starring Barbra Streisand, Gharlane will rise
> from his archive to rescue us, communicating his message of hope via
> acronyms cunningly inserted down the left-hand margins of the posts
> of the enemy. Or something like that.
>
> It's ridiculous to claim that Gharlane died at Z'Ha'Dum. We are all Gharlane.

"You are all Bunburys on this bus" --EK Grant

RH

James D Thompson

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Jul 10, 2001, 10:10:50 PM7/10/01
to
Tom Holt wrote:
>
> When David Potter died, I said a few incoherent things about him, his
> qualities as a man and a friend. Before I leave this group, I'd just
> like to say a few equally incoherent things about Gharlane of Eddore.
> There's a difference, of course; and it's a crucial one.

[big long snip]

Well, when I die, I sincerely hope that no one thinks to write this
sort of overblown, hyperbolic guff[1] about me. Yeesh.

David Thompson

[1] That's the *mildest* characterization I can apply; done solely in
consideration of the bereaved.
--
"But I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing and I hope
we shall not have, these hundred years, for learning has brought
disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has
divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us
from both."
- Sir William Berkeley, 1671

Dammit

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Jul 11, 2001, 12:01:45 AM7/11/01
to
"Franklin Harris" <fran...@pulpculture.net> wrote:

>
>"Franklin Hummel" <hum...@world.std.com> wrote in message
>news:GG9ry...@world.std.com...

Um. Could you two get different first names? I keep mixing you up.

LisaB
It could be a post-partum thing.

Jeffrey Gustafson

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Jul 11, 2001, 12:45:48 AM7/11/01
to

>>Own up to it, Franklin... You were Dan >>Tropea
>>all along, weren't
>>you?
>        I had noticed an absence of his name on
>posts in the group. I didn't mentioned D*n
>Tr*p**
>for fear of summoning him.

Actually, Dan Tropea is back and he's even posted a couple of messages
here on rast. (He isn't using his name, though, and his email addy
might be different). But he's here.


-The Jeff

Sheridan:"So how did you find out all of this?"
Bester:"I'm a telepath. Work it out." <*>

Gary J. Weiner

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Jul 11, 2001, 12:43:32 AM7/11/01
to
I probably shouldn't, but what the hell...

Tom Holt wrote:

> In his apparently inexhaustible database he had a vast archive of
> information about SF in all its forms, and a great deal else. A
> request for information usually produced an immediate and definitive
> answer. As for his opinions, he fired them like cannon-shells; they
> were incendiary, capable of piercing the toughest armor, and they
> scattered their shrapnel right across the group, often starting
> flames that would flicker on for weeks after the original salvo. A
> point-blank broadside from the Eddorian was devastating. Return fire
> seemed to glance harmlessly off him, or else it overshot the mark and
> sailed harmlessly into the distance. He was a Usenet ironclad, the
> Monitor of rastv, the man in the iron mask.

Bah!

Ol' Mr. G. loved to toss bombs into the newsgroup and then giggle as
people ran around like chickens with their heads cut off while he hid
safe under a rock until the smoke had cleared. He loved to post his
mindless "EVUL KLINTOON DEATH SQUAD" or Confederacy aplogia or other
libertoonian nonsense so he could get people going, but he rarely stuck
around to duke it out. Then when the flames died down, he'd start all
over again.

His other favorite sport was picking on tyros who liked shows he
personally found bletcherous. He loved to use the full force of his
talent and wit to smoke the newbies as netizens cheered him on and cried
for blood.

> It's ridiculous to claim that Gharlane died at Z'Ha'Dum. We are all Gharlane.

"You are all individuals"

"Yes, Yes, We are all individuals"

"I'm not!"

P.S.

As I've said before, even though I disagreed with a lot of things
Gharlane did as a newsgroup poster, I'm sad he's gone and I will miss
him. Even though some of his posts made me angry, some of them were
truly inspired and made me laugh in spite of myself. Sometimes the
former and the latter were the same.

But as for you Mr. Holt, I won't miss you one bit.

--
Gary J. Weiner - webm...@hatrack.net
http://www.hatrack.net
HatRack Web Design & Hosting - Hang your web with us
-----
"I, personally, was out of town that Easter. I have no
blood on my hands. The same is true of some other Jews
living in the Greater New York area. In fact, most of
us have an alibi." - Zev Chafets responding to Charlie
Ward's assertion that the Jews killed Jesus.

Heck

unread,
Jul 11, 2001, 4:48:01 AM7/11/01
to
Dammit <lisa...@home.com> has been practicing human consciousness and is
noticeably improved.
(Wed, 11 Jul 2001 04:01:45 GMT)

So that post post-partum, you can go back to being unified.

Lisa, you will never again be intimate with your daughter in that same way,
but, you know that's OK.

Mortis

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Jul 11, 2001, 7:44:37 AM7/11/01
to
I used my telepathic powers to read
<1i4okt8c6p8q9sbpe...@4ax.com>, wherein Heck

<heck@acm_junkfoil.org> wrote:
>Dammit <lisa...@home.com> has been practicing human consciousness and is
>noticeably improved.
>>It could be a post-partum thing.
>
>So that post post-partum, you can go back to being unified.
>
>Lisa, you will never again be intimate with your daughter in that same way,
>but, you know that's OK.

Just don't try that stupid "rebirthing" crap. That stuff kills.

Mortis
Master of the Unknown, KPS
Nebulosis Defunctus

"This sentence is false."
-Evil Spock

Vinay Pandey

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Jul 11, 2001, 10:42:57 PM7/11/01
to
Klyfix <kly...@aol.comedy> wrote:

> That's something that concerns me a bit also. Are the only folk posting
> here by Fall gonna be me and the Shunned Ones and some Newbies?

nope....
--
Fix mail address: reverse my name, reverse the host

trike

unread,
Jul 12, 2001, 6:18:59 PM7/12/01
to

Dammit <lisa...@home.com> wrote in message
news:6ojnktsjts92bspin...@4ax.com...

You type real swell for an infant.

--
Doug
--
Moviedogs v3.0: your favorite dogs in your favorite films:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1910

Spike, Tiggy & Panda's Pug-A-Rama:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1910

trike

unread,
Jul 12, 2001, 6:21:12 PM7/12/01
to

Mortis <ri...@mindspring.com> wrote

>
> Just don't try that stupid "rebirthing" crap. That stuff kills.

On a trawler eight days out of Honduras I was once reberthed. It was a nice
change.

trike

unread,
Jul 12, 2001, 6:24:10 PM7/12/01
to

Klyfix <kly...@aol.comedy> wrote in message
news:20010710002556...@nso-cf.aol.com...

> In article <GG8C1...@world.std.com>, "Franklin Hummel"
<hum...@world.std.com>
> writes:
>
> >
> >But, damn it, I don't want to see this group throw to the wolves that
> >still
> >haunt this place because they aren't around to post anymore. So, I
> >will
> >do what I can to make the best contribution I can.
> >
>
> That's something that concerns me a bit also. Are the only folk posting
> here by Fall gonna be me and the Shunned Ones and some Newbies?

You think you're going to be around in the fall? Okay, who didn't give
Klyfix the New Fall Schedule?

Klyfix

unread,
Jul 13, 2001, 12:07:50 AM7/13/01
to
In article <esp37.16259$dd1.4...@typhoon.neo.rr.com>, "trike"
<tr...@cinci.rr.com> writes:

>
>Klyfix <kly...@aol.comedy> wrote in message
>news:20010710002556...@nso-cf.aol.com...
>> In article <GG8C1...@world.std.com>, "Franklin Hummel"
><hum...@world.std.com>
>> writes:
>>
>> >
>> >But, damn it, I don't want to see this group throw to the wolves that
>> >still
>> >haunt this place because they aren't around to post anymore. So, I
>> >will
>> >do what I can to make the best contribution I can.
>> >
>>
>> That's something that concerns me a bit also. Are the only folk posting
>> here by Fall gonna be me and the Shunned Ones and some Newbies?
>
>You think you're going to be around in the fall? Okay, who didn't give
>Klyfix the New Fall Schedule?
>

Well, I mean if that whole Beautiful Alien Princess flying me off to
her homeworld 174 light years away doesn't work out I gotta do
_something_.

trike

unread,
Jul 13, 2001, 4:58:48 AM7/13/01
to

Klyfix <kly...@aol.comedy> wrote

> >> >
> >>
> >> That's something that concerns me a bit also. Are the only folk posting
> >> here by Fall gonna be me and the Shunned Ones and some Newbies?
> >
> >You think you're going to be around in the fall? Okay, who didn't give
> >Klyfix the New Fall Schedule?
> >
>
> Well, I mean if that whole Beautiful Alien Princess flying me off to
> her homeworld 174 light years away doesn't work out I gotta do
> _something_.

Maybe we'll get to revisit the storyline in 15 or 20 years with a whole new
crew, but according to the press reports you were cancelled. I hear your
past adventures will be shown alongside Walker: Texas Ranger on USA, though,
so it's not all bad.

Dirk A. Loedding

unread,
Jul 13, 2001, 1:47:22 PM7/13/01
to
In article <20010710002556...@nso-cf.aol.com>,
kly...@aol.comedy (Klyfix) wrote:

>That's something that concerns me a bit also. Are the only folk posting
>here by Fall gonna be me and the Shunned Ones and some Newbies?

I don't plan on going anywhere. I don't always have time to post
much, though.

--
Thought for the day:

Wench: what you use to turn the head of a dolt.

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dirk A. Loedding <*> ju...@america.net |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Jake

unread,
Jul 15, 2001, 11:34:03 AM7/15/01
to

Tom Holt wrote:

> When David Potter died, I said a few incoherent things about him, his
> qualities as a man and a friend.

Nothing extraordinary. You say incoherent things regularly.

> Before I leave this group, [snip blather]

Good riddance.

> It's ridiculous to claim that Gharlane died at Z'Ha'Dum. We are all Gharlane.

I hear there's a cure for that particular type of psychosis. Have a banana.


Pål Are Nordal

unread,
Jul 16, 2001, 4:23:02 PM7/16/01
to
"Gary J. Weiner" wrote:
>
> Ol' Mr. G. loved to toss bombs into the newsgroup and then giggle as
> people ran around like chickens with their heads cut off while he hid
> safe under a rock until the smoke had cleared. He loved to post his
> mindless "EVUL KLINTOON DEATH SQUAD" or Confederacy aplogia or other
> libertoonian nonsense so he could get people going, but he rarely stuck
> around to duke it out.

Not my experience. I jumped into many of rastb5mod's frequent political
threads where he was ranting as you described, and once actually ended
up getting him to concede that evil socialist policies actually had been
implemented somewhere with something approaching half-decent results.

I suspect I gained a lot more satisfaction from that than I would have
gotten from deciding he was completely unreasonable and simply spouting
"libertoonian nonsense".

--
Run a screensaver that helps cancer research: http://www.ud.com/
(and join the "Excalibur" team)

Pål Are Nordal
a_b...@bigfoot.com

William December Starr

unread,
Jul 17, 2001, 5:22:38 AM7/17/01
to
In article <3B51B7EA...@ever.com>,
Jake <w...@ever.com> said:

>> When David Potter died, I said a few incoherent things about him,

>> his qualities as a man and a friend. [Tom Holt]


>
> Nothing extraordinary. You say incoherent things regularly.
>
>> Before I leave this group, [snip blather]
>
> Good riddance.

You really are a worthless piece of crap, aren't you?

<shun>

-- William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>

Jake

unread,
Jul 17, 2001, 12:12:53 PM7/17/01
to

William December Starr wrote:

Me? You're the chickenshit running in and out of Shun Mode to take
pothots.

You're pretty clever for an invertebrate. I didn't know jellyfish could
get web access.

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