The old Mudcat time warp - here I am feeling I've been here for yonks, and Shula comes back after staying away since June 1999, and I hadn't checked in till after then. Out in the 3D world 1999 may be yesterday, but in here it's centuries.

But it's great to see a post like this instead of a farewell-cruel-Mudcat-world from somebody departing in a spat. So welcome home Shula.

As for the ill-judged jokes, either they are well meant but thoughtless, and it's worth reminding us all to think before we post - or they are lobbed in like stink bombs by people trying to break up the party, and the only thing to do is keep on partying. It's a big world, there have to be some nasty people around, but I think they're the exceptions on the Mudcat.

I think it's a good general principle that, if anything can be interpreted as hostile or affable, you should choose the affable interpretation, and assume that anything really offensive is meant as irony, meaning the opposite of what it seems to mean. If you're wrong, what have you lost? Whereas, if you're wrong the other way, there's a lot to be lost.