I don't think anyone should feel ashamed for being worried or about having their best instincts manipulated. Just because you keep a community (And this is a community) going doesn't mean you don't have responsibilities to it, in fact you have more. I think the joke was despicable. Using yourself as a victim -- including your daughter -- is not at all funny. It was both in poor taste and a betrayal of the people who come to this site. I think Max (of whom I have great respect for all the work he has done, and of whom I have written a poem or two in my time) owes people more of an apology than the one he gave. I don't say it was unforgiveable, but it is unforgiven by at least this participant. It is beneath contempt.

Yours, Peter T.