Good God, GfS! You just insist on digging yourself in deeper!!!

In the meantime—you've made some allegations about me above, so to set the record straight:

Again, GfS, you descend to personal attacks while knowing nothing about the person you are attacking. What little you do know, you twist into the worst possible interpretation, then vomit it out as an attack.

As to my lack of accomplishments, I'd say I haven't done too badly. As a singer, from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, I made a fairly good living singing folk songs and ballads, and worked steadily as a singer in clubs (not folk clubs, night clubs) and coffeehouses (for regular pay, not for tips), doing concerts, mostly at colleges and universities, all up and down the Pacific Coast, across to eastern Canada, in Michigan, Montana, Colorado. Not just house concerts (many of those), but concerts in theaters and concert halls. This, along with a fair amount of television, including an educational television series on Seattle's local PBS affiliate. I'm still singing, but not quite as actively as I used to—by choice. If I want to do more concerts, all I need do is make a couple of telephone calls. That's not bragging. That's a fact!

I'm currently writing a great deal and putting together programs for a series CDs.

In addition, I have taught both classical guitar and folk techniques to many hundreds of people in both private lessons and classes. Several of my former students went on to have successful careers in music.

I was never a hippy. I do not smoke dope and I have never taken drugs.

To attempt to fill in some of the deficiencies in your education, GfS, there is more to being an on-the-air announcer at a classical music radio station than merely sitting there playing records as one might do at home. Stations don't pay AFTRA wages for their announcers to just sit there and do nothing while a recording of a symphony or an opera is playing. While keeping an ear on the in-studio monitor, the announcer uses that time to do such things as prepare for the next newscast and line up the next group of commercial and public service announcements, along with maintaining both the program and transmitter logs. This, in addition to taping new commercials and PSAs.

And unlike quite a number of other people, broadcasting was not a major ambition of mine, although I have the voice and I was good at it. From the late 1960s into the late 1970s, it was my "day job."

I did not "abandon" my wife and son to pursue a career in radio, as you're trying to claim I did. The mother of my son and I were not married. [Have a ball with that, GfS!! You will undoubtedly put the sleaziest possible spin on that because you, yourself, are a sleazy person.] She was unhappily married to a man who was much older than she was, and they had not been married for more than a few months when she decided that she'd made a grave mistake.

GfS, you have no understanding of the depth of emotions such as love. To you, that sort of thing is limited to the area of the crotch. You have displayed that you have no concept of such things. You would make the story of Romeo and Juliet something petty and tawdy. In the case of my emotional relationship with my son's mother, think "Tristan and Isolde," but with the presumption that Isolde and King Mark were already married.

I'm talking WAY over your head, aren't I!

But that was pretty much the situation. You, however, would turn that into something mean and sleazy, because that's the kind of person you are.

"I just read that your most recent struggled accomplishment was getting your Medi-caid/Welfare package in the mail!!... Hats off, and congratulations on you latest achievement!"

No "struggle" on my part, GfS. And it wasn't Medicaid, it was a Medicare package that I received in the mail. As did every other person in Washington State—or the country, as far as I know. It was an announcement—a mass mailing—to all potential Medicare recipients about the new benefits that had been added to the Medicare program. I posted that in rebuttal to someone's remark that Obama had "killed" Medicare. Obviously, as that timely mailing showed, untrue.

And as to a "Welfare package," I am not on welfare, as you, in your cheesy way, are trying to imply. Both my wife and I are now retired. We are not wealthy, but we are reasonably well off and self-sufficient. We both receive Social Security benefits, as does everyone over retirement age—and for which Barbara and I have paid all our working lives. But we have also made some reasonably good investments, following the excellent suggestions of our financial advisor, and we receive some income from that.

Unlike the vast majority of Americans, apparently, Barbara and I own our own home, free and clear. No mortage. And we are completely debt free. We do use a credit card for convenience' sake, but we pay off the entire amount every month.

Can you say that, GfS?

And as to Medicare, although both Barbara and I qualify for it, we rarely use it, because we have quite good private health insurance.

As to my son, we are the best of friends and have been for years. No anger. No resentment. Never did have any. He totally understands the situation his mother and I were in and agrees that we did what was necessary for the benefit of all concerned.

He and I share a lot of interests. He graduated from college in Canada with a degree in Philosophy. He was worked in movies, on the film crew (key grip), and has written a couple of screen plays and is waiting for a good opportunity to market them. In the meantime, he works as a writer with a consulting firm, often under contract to the Canadian government, on environmental issues. He and his partner (a lovely young woman) come out to Seattle a couple times a year and stay with Barbara and me, generally for a couple of weeks. They're looking forward to moving out here permanently.

But you, GfS, just don't understand things like that, do you?

Don't bother to try to answer this. Since you are an established liar and slanderer, you have nothing to say that I care about.

Now—back to our regular broadcast.

Don Firth