Okay, folks, let's put an end once and for all to this perpetual speculating about Mudcat downtime. Here's the plain and simple, factual truth of the matter:

Max is a very smart and caring fellow. He realizes that if the Mudcat were up all the time, many of us would stay on it 16 hours a day except for occasional bathroom, food and sex breaks. In his wisdom, Max has planned these outages so as to give us a little time to practice our instruments, learn new material and write songs. The fact that the outages seem to be totally at random is yet another testimony to Max's wisdom. Since Mudcat membership stretches around the globe through all time zones, the seemingly random nature of the outages merely serves to give all members equal amounts of practice time.

Those are the facts. And, if they aren't, at least they're a pretty good lie.