The Mudcat is Closing its Doors

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: skarpi
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 07:39 PM

Max, I told you that I would forgive, and I am. In Iceland,

Todays news was that Keiko was gone from his home in VestmannIsland, and peoble went down to the dock to check that out , I saw it on the teliv. And Monika Lewinski was in Iceland today, hm is that realy the truth !. Well have nice time in florida, you may send to Iceland some warm winds so we can get the springtime some sooner .

bless skarpi Iceland.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 08:08 PM

Well my logical side said the only warning we would really get would be a notice that the site was no longer in service. My emotional side said, "Well, it could be." I am glad to know it was a joke, albeit somewhat ill considered. This is the first time I've had any negative feelings towards Max.

I never fail to wonder at the amount of time Max and his comrades at Onstage and Dick and Susan must put in to make all of this happen. I did send gratitude this month or last in the form of a check. I suspect no one is getting rich out there, but $20 or $50 American dollars (or the equivalent) on an annual basis is probably possible. A few less sets of strings, two less CD's, one or two less songbooks, whatever. If you want to donate, just click on the Support the Mudcat logo and scroll down. All the information is there.

I will sleep easier tonight knowing that the Mudcat is a safe a little while longer.

I believe we can hold two opposite feelings in our hearts for at least a little bit of time and thats how I am about Max. I love him and I am grateful and in awe for all that he has done and I hate his guts for this dirty little joke. I will forgive in time, I know, its my nature.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 08:17 PM

Oh yeah, Max, you can't hideout in Florida forever. I'm a former member of the Otto Rank Society (headquartered in Doylestown, PA) so I know where Doylestown is.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 08:31 PM

G'day,
Well, now that I'm recovering I can say I fell for this too. Of course it's nearly lunchtime on the 2nd April here so how could it be an April fool joke? Felt really bad for a while.

Cheers,
Alan (breathing great sighs of relief).

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Susan A-R
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 09:02 PM

I have just returned from eleven hours of cooking and serving (Dim Sum Sampler, mmmm mmmm, and you should have seen the faces when we told 'em that it was the Scottish sampler, Haggis, mealy puddings, etc.) I was just foggy enough to believe this. WOW am I glad that it's not true. What would I do without all of this vital discussion about tiples, condoms, Bodhrons (I NEVER Know how to spell that) union organizing and SONGS!!

Susan

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: BK
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 09:29 PM

Vive La Mudcat!!! will send some money after tax time... Very Funny.. sort of.... The thought police aren't that close, I think.. & the folk police never could make it.. I think.. Ah, we'll just smack 'em with a tipple if they hassle us.. Anybody know where the last remaining tipples not in Alpha Centauri are hiding??

Gotta go to a jam..

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Big Mick
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 09:48 PM

Max,I hope you are satisfied!!!!!! I read the thread and headed for Mexico again to see if I could drink the rest of the tequila that I missed the last time something affected me this way. You little @$#%^**^%><$#@!!!!, if you ever do that again, I will turn into a drug crazed vet and hunt you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And would some of you wire me some gas money in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico so I can get back home!!!!!!! I smashed all my musical instruments, inhaled 27 fecking pints of Guinness, put on a balaclava, set out to storm the BMI HQ and headed south.

Seriously, I figured it for an April Fools joke, but the longer it went on the more I became concerned, and I began to ponder life without our 'Cat. And you know what,..........I didn't like it. It reinforced what we have all come to know. Our lives have been changed by this community, by the friends that we have made, and in my case I can say quite honestly the people that I have come to love even though I have never shaken your hands or met you face to face. We have come to know one another in a very personal way, unfettered by visual images or the constraints of economic circumstance. We have become a family of sorts, with a beautiful patchwork of personalities, talents, and sensitivities. And all united by our love of music, and the events,joys,sorrows and circumstances that spawn it. If, or when this place ceases to exist, it will leave me diminished, yet better for having known it.

We, for the most part seem committed to doing something with the book, but it seems to me that we need to have that same king of committment to supporting our beloved Mudcat. We need to put these bright minds to work and find a way to support this place.

So Max, you @@$%#^^&***%^$@#@, I must thank you for making me ponder life without this marvelous creation of yours. I want you to know that I sincerely am greatful to you, Dick and Susan. I hope you never doubt that there is a large Irish American musician/labor organizer in Michigan who appreciates your efforts and would walk through fire for you.

Big Mick Lane

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: steve in ottawa
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 10:20 PM

A ***huge*** sigh of relief, but still concerned for the future.

Time. US$20,000+ per annum for equipment and bandwidth. Risking punitive legal sanctions from a society that denies the value of any service that does not increase GNP.

Thank-you, Max.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Mikal
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 10:22 PM

Okay, we just now getting to the Woody G. We have exhausted our memories of Scots and Irish songs of protest, so the Americans will have to do for now. The neighbors knocked twice, gave up and joined in! My wife has decided to play fiddle this one last time! My drum hand is sore, so I used the excuse of all good drummers, (The Head Is Drying Out....I have an artificial on this drum!) to take a break and check in.

Oh, and we located a really big van...So where is Max' house, and how fragile are the flowers out front? (Snicker)

All I have to do is keep from yelling "Road trip" and I won't wake up in mexico!

Well, if nothing else, this has proven to be a great excuse for a sing along at Mikal's place!

Mikal

P.S. The Led Zepplin drum riffs can really damage the place, by the way. Try playing "Four Sticks" at full volume. You can hear the trees die! Then again, they don't look too well outside right now...

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Barry Finn
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 11:13 PM

Big Mick save your breath. I've already booked a flight to Fla. For myself & 10 of deadlest, nightcrawling, swampsucking, razorslicing, good-for-nutting, low-down, death defying field mice to sniff out Max, I've got them trained to shit on his shoes. I can't go yet though, I'm recovering from recent heart failure due to falling as the biggest April Fool. I can't believe I sent in my address. Hope your having a good chuckle Max, my children are mourning my stay in the the intensive unit & promise me that when they're of age they'll hunt you down tie & gag you & force upon you music of the Back Street Boys & the Spice Girls. Barry

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Frank in the Swamps.
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 11:15 PM

Yup, the "governer" upstairs told me this was a joke, but the rest of me wasn't buying it, so......

Max, now I know you have a sense of humour, I trust you'll get a little chuckle out the package I'm sending you, after all, the least you can do after a joke like that is launder my trousers!

Frank i.t.s.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Art Thieme
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 11:22 PM

Is there life after Mudcat?? Sure there is!!

Where? See below!

http://elvispelvis.com/fullerup.htm

...when we have shuffled off this mortal coil...

Art

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From:
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 11:23 PM

i personally think it was hilarious...arresting for a folk song site?? No way...:o)

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: SailormomRita (inactive)
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 11:49 PM

Well this is all very interesting. As a recently joined member I am amused to say the least and as I check the forum everyday I felt a little thump as I read that it was closing. A site I have frequented due to my interest in Yip Harburg's work has actually been closed down due to confiscation of files by police! So I was primed to believe. I checked in with my e-mail address and discovered a new list site thanks to Alice...so it's not without merit to have been fooled. I do look forward to hearing you jokers banter and so I will join in with a hearty thanksgiving that it is just an April Fool's bit. Cheers Rita

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Dani
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 11:54 PM

No... nobody I know's ever been arrested for singing folk music ;)

Good grief, Max~!

Here I was thinking that I'd gone the day without being fooled! It's 11:46. You got me.

I hope you sleep well.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Barbara
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 12:19 AM

Boy am I glad I was out of town until just now, and the only April Fool joke I've had to deal with (so far) involved double sided tape and the toilet seat...
Blessings,
Barbara (who is loading up her squirt gun to go kid hunting)

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 12:50 AM

I'm ashamed to admit that I was worried at first--I didn't stop to consider that that's not the way it would happen: copyright violation is a civil not criminal violation, so a process server would have delivered to Max and Dick and Susan subpoenas, perhaps accompanied by an injunction ordering they shut down the DB immediately under threat of contempt of court. They'd be ordered to keep it closed until it was purged of all except music for which they could establish a prima facie case that it was unchallenged public domain. The forum would also have to be expunged of anything which may have any, however doubtful, claim of authorship by any publisher or performer. Then, holders of copyrights of anything that has been transmitted to or from the Mudcat would start filing claims against Max, Dick, Susan, and all of us who have submitted such material, asking for real and punitive damages...the plaintiffs, having vastly greater resources than all of us put together would win any trial and the appeals courts would uphold the verdicts and Max, Dick, Susan, and John and Jane Does numbers one through five thousand would find our paychecks garnisheed and our instruments taken for public auction, our homes alread mortgaged to the hilt to pay our lawyers through the first stages of the proceeding (the funds would have run out long before the trial began). The ACLU would be unable to take up the Mudcat's cause, already being involved in the case on behalf of some songwriters too poor to have their property rights protected by the big firms... --seed

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: alison
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 12:52 AM

Hi,

Well I admit I thought it was a hoax.. looking at the date...... but then you started all that about being handcuffed in front of you kid............. and I started to worry.....

I was just about to phone alan and see how we could get you smuggled into Oz....... looks like I don't have to now..

not the funniest April fools joke I've ever seen.... but it sure worked well.....

Slainte

alison

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Night Owl
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 01:36 AM

I am SOOOOOOOO glad that I worked all day today, and didn't see any of this until I got home tonight....(after the CONFESSION)! BSeed--is "hot lead enemas" considered an act of violence??????? Even if we sing while we administer it???????

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Craig
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 01:49 AM

Hey! I just ordered a T-shirt. I don't want it showing up with a great big slash across it within a circle and the words NO MUDCAT in red blazened on top of it. I'll pay my dues, I promise. It's in the mail. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: McMusic
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 02:23 AM

You had me sweating, Max! I was about to propose to all 'Catters that we rebel against the music establishment altogether--ASCAP< BMI, and the record companies. Say, I wonder how they'd handle it if any and all performers and/or singer songwriters decided to act as though the BIG FOLK didn't even exist! Ya know what I mean? Just say screw 'em, and do whatever you do as a complete independent. I wonder if between us and the Gen Xers(not really fond of that tag; it's kind of unfair to them), who are buying less and less now, we couldn't have them all crapping on their balance sheets!

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 02:27 AM

It's still April Fool's Day here in Hawaii, and this was certainly the most effective joke I've seen since Harper's Magazine in 1970 wrote about a bill in Congress to turn all golf courses into public parks (sponsored by Congressman A. F. Day, of course). You should have seen the letters that one generated! Thank you, Max, for helping an old Philly boy now in the middle of the Pacific keep in touch with the music I love, and hats off for a leg well pulled. I'm sending a donation with my next click. And the FBI is welcome to any of my songs.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Ted from Australia
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 02:33 AM

Just logged on, Max you BASTARD you bloody near killed me, It is 2 April here 5.30 pmso the April fool idea did not click for quite a few heartsopping moments.

Good one tho, best since the "Great digital clockface exchange programme"

(Changing to digital tine 10 hour days 100 min hours 100 second minuits , Write down the make model and serial number of your clocks and your local Post Office will issue a replacement clockface.
The rush on the POs had to be seen to be believed)

Regards and forgiveness, Ted

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 03:45 AM

Dear Max,

Well it's now a little after three here in the eastern time zone where we both reside and you are vacationing. This is post 74 or so to this thread and many of them have been AFTER you "owned up" to the joke. Many are having a good laugh and are out after your buns!!! Personally your buns only interest me as a repository for the "Hot Lead Enema," a line I shamelessly stole from the great 20th century philosopher, Lenny Bruce. I'm sure some of them have something similar in mind...BUT FOR DIFFERENT REASONS!!!!

Max my boy, we need to talk about using the old "stones" to prolong a joke...Granted, it's a fine line, but if you could have held on a few or five or six more hours...Max, you could have had a hundred posts and probably some cash in hand. You had some nice touches, just a little refinement with a few more, perhaps culminating in a half hour shut down...wow, first place would be yours. Granted my dear friend katlaughing would have been catatonic, so to speak, but I think I could have helped her through it, along with Leej and Mick and others.

Now look here...The next time you want to pull one off, call me because you were within a gnat's ass of brilliance. But we know you're a nice guy...and you are...and all of us deeply appreciate your efforts. Ah hell, how can I be mad at you? The nasty, dirty, cruel jokes are only in the province of mangy old Toms like myself.

Enjoy J'ville and the music...You did a fine job...and maintained your good guy stature.

catspaw

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Banjer
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 05:37 AM

I agree with what Catspaw said, I also greatly appreciate the devotion, time, and efforts on our behalf in keeping this wonderful site up and running. The hours of pleasure and enjoyment and education that have been derived from here unmeasureable.

HOWEVER!! I did spend the better part of yesterday evening at our local malls, rounding up and recruiting as many Paw and Cletus look alikes as could be found. Reg, Reg, and Reg look alikes were also sought and many found. I also found several folks wearing black suits and a small gold button on the lapel carrying what appeared to be tiple cases. I have comprised a small army leaving here today bound for Jacksonville. They are armed with a picture of MAX and have instructions to take no prisoners, but to take MAX alive at any cost.

Provided this meandering gaggle of half-wits can keep heading north, by north east for the six hour trip to J'ville we should have MAX in custody by Saturday AM at the latest. Then OUR fun will begin!! There have been many suggestions, all of them good ones, ranging from something as mild as HOT LEAD ENEMAS to really painful and sadistic ones such as being hogtied and forced to listen to Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls, (I think if such misfortune was to befall me I would prefer the hot lead).

Sorry Max, that we have to resort to such measures, but it is VERY well deserved.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Ferrara
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 06:02 AM

Hmm... Max, when you get to the Getaway, there's going to be angry yellowjackets in your sleeping bag and wet salamanders in your shoes ... not to mention the little surprises the kitchen staff are going to slip into your food! -- But keep up the good work, we may relent and let you have more than one meal a day.

I was lucky to get into this mess when there were already at least 30 posts. I read the first four, then decided it was stupid to have a heart attack about something that had about a 1% probability of being true. So I went to visit my 84-year-old aunt (really!) and never did read most of the really scary stuff, and still it was so scary all my muscles tightened up.

Skarpi, I liked your post the best: "If this is a joke I forgive you completely." You must be a very nice person. None of the rest of us are going to forgive him until hell freezes over.

Love, Rita F

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 06:48 AM

Ferrara, thank you for drawing attention to skarpi's kindhearted response to such a cruel joke.

Skarpi, thank you for leading by example.

Max, thank skarpi.

Frank in the bloody, bloody swamps.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Rex Rideout
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 12:27 PM

I read this a day late and my blood ran cold. I was suckered in from stem to stern.I'm sure releaved to hear that the handcuffing bit was all made up too. No one especially Max should go through something like that. I'm cooled down now after reading the other posts. Still, I have an old tiple hanging on the wall downstairs. I might just slap some strings on it and tune it up. Rex

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Max
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 12:48 PM

Catspaw, funny, I had all those things planned. Pantleg (one of my Onstage guys) was going to funny up some photos of me getting arrested and perhaps some audio of a scuffle, Mike (another one of the Onstage Boys) was going to take the site down for an hour or so, replaced by an official looking FBI warning page announcing the active search for specific mudcat posters. I had much more planned, but thank my mother for thinking this was cruel. She probably would have let me go until I started thinking this a perfect fundraiser. She questioned the ethics while I pondered our debt. Anyhow all, I am very sorry for the scare. Some of you are genuinely angry at me and that bothers me. I will get to the Getaway this year and you will all have a chance to get me back there. And if anyone can make it to the Springing the Blues Festival in Jacksonville tomorrow, surprise me with your best. I can take a joke.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 01:10 PM

I want to congratulate you on your scheming and planning, although as I think about it, I AM saddened that someone of your years would join us mangy old Toms. But...WELCOME!!! We get together each night about 1:30AM to scratch,lick,and howl. See you there.

catspaw

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 02:07 PM

Max,

It's not that we can't take a joke, it's that some of us are people of action and as such, took action, to the point of getting our Congresspersons' phone numbers and readying our pens for vitriolic rhetoric about the loss of something which means so much in our lives.

I do look before I leap, but if it is someone I trust, I guess I get caught leaping ill-advisedly, sometimes. I am glad your mother didn't let you do the other stuff, for my congresspersons, conservative and stupid as they are, would DEFINITELY have heard from me. And, my finger was ..this close to dailing ASCAP, as my brother is a member and I would have given them hell. Now I am glad I didn't call them, as it may have set off some alarm bells!

I used to laugh about people who spent so much time chatting on the Internet; I thought they were pathetic and needed to get a life. Well, the shoe is on the other foot and I do not feel pathetic and I have a life, but the Mudcat is a big part of it, now, and I don't like the idea of being without it and the wonderful friends I've made here.

I do appreciate the long hours, money, etc. that you all put in. I tell everyone I know about it. I am excited about the new things you are doing.

I asked once before if you ever thought about setting up a direct doantion thing, where people could have a certain amount automatically deducted from their checking account every month to help support the 'Cat. It does NOT have to non-profit. This is how I pay my car insurance and IPS. I wold be happy to do this every month for the cat, like I used to do for NPR before they went mainstream, top 40 trash. So, how 'bout it Max?

call me a spoil sport if you want, but a good share of my time is spent as an advocate and PR person for underdog causes, so...yesterday I was ready and willing to put all of that experience to the forefront to help out.

Next April 1st, as some others have suggested, I'll abstain for a day.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 02:18 PM

Damn, but I do love you kat....PASSION!

catspaw

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 02:47 PM

As Lonesome E.J.'s wife I must add my five cents worth to the Max's Mayhem. Max, how could you? You certainly got all the attention you could possibly want. Now you know how much we'all love ya'll. But, enough already on the closing situation. What about this blues thing in Florida? I have been in love with the blues since I was 17, a long, long time!! Real blues, that is. Charley Patton, Memphis Minnie, Butterbeans and Susie and many more. I am a mere interloper in 'cat world but would love to start a blues thread.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 03:03 PM

Catspaw: thank you....you know the feeling is mutual!

kat

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Peter T.
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 12:30 PM

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.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: dwditty
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 12:43 PM

For my part, I bit and bit hard (started the Emergency email thread). While the thought of losing the Cat was very distutbing, it made for a thrilling several hours - watching and waiting to see the outcome. I do not begrudge you, Max. For my part, it was a wake up call to let me know how important the Cat has become to me. In fact, thanks for the sharp blow to my cheek. I needed that.
DW

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Banjer
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 02:05 PM

Thanks again from me also MAX, this almost rivals Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast....I, as Catspaw said also, am impressed with such an endeavor. Being cynical by nature, in the back of my mind I kept waiting for the APRIL FOOL to hit. Had this been for real it would certainly have taken a lot out of my daily routine. Thanks again for a wonderful board and a job well done for the 1st day of April.

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 02:12 PM

Peter T.: well-said and thank you for your posting. I AM grateful it was just a joke and I don't feel ashamed at all. And, still really glad his mom stopped the rest of it. I wonder at what might have happened if he'd posted the fake FBI screen.

katlaughing, who would still like to know about the funding sugegstion......Max?

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Barbara
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 03:25 PM

Now that a few days have passed and my heart rate is stabilized, I just want to say,
Max, you low lying piece of shit, that was a ****ing filthy thing to do, especially since so many of us worry when you fall offline periodically anyway.
I bought it completely.
If you had ponied up the FBI screen, however, it probably would have started to dawn on me I was being had, so maybe the moral (!?) is if you are going to pull of a really rotten practical joke, follow through with it. So.
I love cooking up practical jokes to play on others, I'm not so good at ones played on me since I hate to be tricked. I like to think I'm too clever to get caught.
So, points to your side, and I'll send you some money when I get through being pissed off.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Shula
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 04:35 PM

Max:

I don't know if this will matter much, since you seem to have stirred attention for the need to support The Mudcat, but my wife was pretty ill after she read this thread. She had just recently felt well enough to start posting again, and was so happy to be back at her only cyber-pub. Then comes this prank. First she was severely alarmed by the ruse and then heartsick at the deception. And I mean that last adjective literally. Wasn't there a less traumatic way you could have solicited funds?

Akiba

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: TonyK
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 09:26 PM

I, too, was totally taken in and immediately zipped over to the emergency e-mail site. I thought it strange that only 16 people had visited the site, but I was in emergency mode and missed the clue. I hope I don't have the distinction of being the last one on the e-mail list. It's good to see how close this community is. Often times you don't know who your friends are until the chips are down. For me, the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. TonyK

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 09:50 PM

Well, Max had already posted his sheepish confession by the time I saw this thread. Nonetheless, I was a bit worried until I got to the confession. It did get me thinking about what my life would be like without the 'Cat. It would leave a big hole, I think.
The initial message sounded pretty credible. Then somebody posted a message, wondering if it were an April Fool's joke. Max's second note, denying it was a joke, made the whole thing quite believable. After all, music sites are dropping like flies these days. My other favorite sources of lyrics (other than Cowpie) are all gone - International Lyrics Server, Rabid Squirrel's Jazz Archive, and Musicals.net. I think the alt.music.lyrics newsgroup hasn't been affected yet, so there's still one good source of lyrics for us to refer people to.
Anyhow, Max, consider yourself to be in the doghouse - but we still like you.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Art Thieme
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 10:02 PM

Say folks, I never for an instant thought this was serious. I had come in here on 4/1 looking for just that kind of thing. But Max, I guess it takes a jokester to know one. And God knows I've been taken seriously a hundred times here when I was actually joking. Rarely used to happen on stage. Wonder why? Guess there I couldn't keep a straight face. (I knew a gay guy who couldn't keep that either.)

Art

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 10:17 PM

Well, Art, I think a lot of the nuances of human communication get lost here - that's why it's harder for people to catch onto jokes, or why they tend to take offense at minor things. Many of the aspects of communication are missing here, so people tend to fill in the blanks with their own preconceptions. it could be that our preconceptions tend to be negative, and that may be why people on the Internet seem to take a negative view of things that can be viewed in various ways.
Because of that, we have to bend over backwards to be positive in what we say here. You know, kind of like talking to your kids, or maybe to your ex-wife. Well, maybe not THAT...
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 11:18 PM

I gotta' disagree with you Joe...although you are right about the many facets of communication that are missing. Art is quite correct in saying it takes one to know one. And I believe that certain nuances are transmitted here in cyberspace to the point of knowing at least the general demeanor of a person. I was frankly surprised that the 'Cat was up that day at all. I apologize to all for not showing more sensitivity. I was typing my first post on this thread when Max said it was a joke. So I came back and called him a wimp for not pursuing it further. I love this place as much as most of you and I'd be devastated without it. I had NO IDEA that so many would take this as such a vile thing for Max to do.

AND FOR THAT ... I HUMBLY AND TRULY APOLOGIZE.

I should have been more sensitive when I saw how upset people were, but it's not in my makeup to NOT try to chide them out of a funk first ... Again all of you have my sincerest apology. Art and I and some others look like vultures at the waterhole, but never think we don't care.

Perhaps because I see daily a side of this country that is so appalling and dismal, people who know me only a little believe me to be the genial buffoon. Those who know me well, and they are few, understand that my often bizarre sense of humor, and music, are the ONLY things that smother the anger; and I'm intensely angry all the time.

Sorry Max and sorry to all my fellow catters once again.

catspaw

PS--Before you say it Art, yeah you thought I had a bizarre sense of music!

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 11:38 PM

Catspaw, I don't really think you are the one who needs to be apologising. And, in fact I don't think Max needs to anymore. What I do think he needs to do is let us know, esp. Shula, that he now truly understands how important this community is to so many of us. I could really relate to what Shula's husband posted. I am an empath and take things to heart so easily, so it really was devastating for a few hours to think that we would all be lost to one another.

Joe, I have to disagree, also. In the short time I've been on here, I feel I can "read" the postings of Mudcatters pretty well, and most of the time know whether to take them seriously or not. I guess because Max isn't on here that often and not in the capacity that we all usually are, that some of us we unable to "read" him, but I just don't feel that about the rest of you. I think, in fact, that is what makes this such a fine community.

And, I DID joke about it earlier in this thread, so I know I haven't lost my sense of humour and fun. I took it at face value, was in a state of shock for about an hour and then went into action, as noted earlier, as a consequence I spent over six hours saving files, etc. As I said before, I am glad I did. Have already started editing the music therapy thread, but didn't need the shock of this to motivate me! Isn't "practical joke" an oxymoron?

Again, if Max is really serious about fundraising, I wish he would answer my question about direct payments from our checking/savings accounts.

Agreeing to disagree,

katlaughing

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: bbc
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 11:52 PM

I agree w/ so much of what kat said (must be that 1953 birth year!). Although Max is very involved in Mudcat himself, he evidently didn't realize the depth of the emotional connection many of us feel. Mudcat has become an important part of my daily life & I was devastated at the thought of losing it. I really *do* envy those of you who were at work that day & read about it after the fact. Those of us who lived through that afternoon were not very happy ducks. Even so, I have 2 things to say. First, although I still feel a little shell-shocked & wary & feel the "joke" lasted too long, I forgive you, Max, & will happily continue to support & appreciate your work. Second, I'm proud of the positive spirit of unity shown by the Mudcat folks. It was not a bad thing for us all to realize what we mean to each other. Here's to many more years of fun & information-sharing!

best to all,

bbc

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Shula
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 03:31 AM

Dear Max,

While I'm none the worse for wear, it was, indeed, a trifle inauspicious for awhile. Fortunately for me, (and to hear my fellah talk, for you as well), I didn't see this thread until Saturday night, after the first three days of Passover, and by then the jig was up.

Unfortunately, I had already pitched a capital tizzy by the time I had read far enough to know you were having us on. Where does one put the adrenaline when it isn't wanted after all? I, for one, have had all the excitement I can digest, so please, Max, take pity on those of delicate constitution, and ponder the words of my favourite-sign-of-all-time: "You are responsible for your wake." (That is, if you don't wish to attend mine, any time soon.)

Yours, in times to come, most

Warily,

Shula

P. S. Max, Akiba asks me to tell "thet young fellah up tuh th' Mu-ud-cay-et, he bes' be a'mindiniz mannuz heah-aftuh, an' git a'holt on hissef, 'cuz," it wouldn't be seemly for one "landsman" to have to say of another, "But CH'AWnuh, he jes' a'NEE-EE-DID killin' sump'um AW-ful!!!"

P.P.S. How come, when Akiba reset the cookie to his instead of mine, the message posted under my name?

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: Willie-O
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 10:18 AM

Jeez, I stay away for a week and look at all the fireworks I miss. (Got preoccupied for awhile with maple syrup making (3.5 gallons so far from 60 taps) and started driving cab part-time (see "below minimum wage").

Art Thieme isn't serious all the time? Gosh, I thought he just lives in his own peculiar universe.

Max feel free to ship the Cat up to Canada where our intellectual freedoms are so confused nobody would bother you. Be prepared to be met at the airport by a marching band composed of Ovation tiples and charangos (scratch that armadillo hide and you'll find aircraft plastic), Cthulhu nose flutes and ten-dollar Chinese accordions. You'll spot them by the large amount of empty space surrounding them.

Bill

Subject: RE: The Mudcat is Closing its Doors
From: AlistairUK
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 11:39 AM

OK my two penny'th. I have been away for a few days, and in that time was itching, literally itching to get my hands on a comp to see what was happening ( the place i was staying at doesn't even have running water let alone electricity and ports to plug in a laptop. I didn't realise how much this community meant to me. So when I came on this morning I had a lot of catching up to do. When i saw the title of the thread I was not, and I reapet, not taken in by young master Max's shennanigans. But like most of you that came in after the fact, it done got me to finking a wee bit about the 'Cat and it's inhabitants. I was truly shocked at the thought that Shula may have had a relapse because of the prank, and really think that Max needs a gentle cuff round the ear for that :o), though I'm sure he is going to feel sufficiently contrite and guilt ridden for some time (yeah roast over hot coals yah dingbat :o) ) And I have never even spoken to Shula, never in a thread nor nuffink. So, you is all may bruddahs and sistahs and I wooden't like to lose any of youse finks ever.