"It has taken me several years
and lots of hard feelings on the part of
those Mudcat members who took offense at my posts."

With all respect, honestly. Who are these guys who "take offence"? I haven't detected any but maybe I'm not sensitive enough and I haven't a clue as to what vicious people say to you in PMs (don't allow that to happen is my advice: you really don't have to, and it definitely is never me). I don't read approximately 98% of your posts, but don't take offence at that: I don't read 99.569% of the posts here anyway. I imagine that 99.052% of people see a post from me and quickly move on without reading it. Grand. If for one second I thought I was inside some kind of a "Mudcat circle" I'd be out of here like a shot. I am outside the tent pissing in. Mudcat is two dimensions in a world of three. Keep your feet rooted in the real world and believe, as I do, that Mudcat is a wonderful place but not the whole place.