thanks susan & mudlark - i guess what i was trying to say was obvious - different people like different things and receive info differently. this has inspired me to think about the cat and blither on about how i respond to it. depending on how burnt out or not i feel, sometimes i love reading the political posts, and get right into them. then i'll go for a while avoiding them, because i just don't want to think about it.

like you there are some catters whose comments i will always read (and yes, you guys, jennyo, ebbie, dianavan, sandra, jacqui and carolc fall there, and i guess some of those blokes..) and some whose comments i skip over. and i know there are some catters who will always be annoyed by my comments, its the law of nature. apart from the obvious - do i like that person and how do they think, a lot of it has got to do with sense of humour, how do you feel at the end of the day and what you can cope with taking in at the time.

akenaton i agree that sometimes people can be a pain, in that they think argue in a differnt way and for me sometimes it can be intolerable, depending on whether i'm having a bad hair day or not. so yes, i tend to skip over those people once identified. I have also turned around on a couple of people - once for someone whose posts upset me hugely, but then after a while i started to see the humour in them and now sort of like him, despite myself. then the other way for someone else whose posts i enjoyed a lot, until i saw him getting stuck into someone else whose posts i admire & enjoy, over a period of time, it sort of killed it for me and i no longer enjoy his stuff.

well, why rant on about this?

as the man said, because I could! and that's the joy of mudcat!

best wishes

freda