It's an interesting thing you mention, Nerd. One could find my house, and my name is blandly just my name. But even Vladimir Nabokov who required all interview questions submitted in writing, and proofed the galleys of his replies, and always spoke of his persona an invention and an illusion, and was utterly aloof from public opinion in virtually all matters--even he hoped he achieved some sort of agreeable effect.

   I don't object to insult and vulgarity, per se, it's just not as reliably funny as it was when I was say, nine. And it does derail some fun threads, and maybe kills one every now and then. I don't quite blame MG. His posts would be much more fun if followed by different sorts of replies, or sometimes none at all, by less consternated curliques and repeats, all turning out the same. at least to my taste.

It's true I did once have a thread about my kids' band that Martin started noodling with, throwing in blowjob jokes and whatnot. But the thing that bothered me is I had read the same joke in other posts of his twice before, that week. If you want to play around, well, what? Are your writers on strike? Do you know so few jokes that a thread about 8 yr olds seems right for the bj one-liner? Whether Martin cares or not, he's usually a lame-ass wit, and I'm as entitled to say so as he is to be one. I didn't mind it much, and it was all right, but I guess some people might. Still, the coolness of this open forum is priceless--let offended people go to guitarnotes or somewhere with it's churchy moderated forums, sit in their seats, face straight ahead.

   Anyway, it's the interactions that often make a thread a fun and interesting event, not any one voice, or we could all just blog our own individual threads and follow our favorites.