BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?

Subject: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 11:53 AM

Over the two or three years I have been (mostly) reading and occasionally posting to Mudcat, I have had some moments of horror, some times of misunderstanding, some self-anger that I've not expressed myself accurately, and a few warm fuzzies too.

I'm not one for contributing greatly to the healing/prayer threads, although my feelings invariably go out to the subject of them. I've even had some significant opinions changed, and feel I've learned a lot from some very wise people.

The people who regularly contribute here (and there are many, and ever may our numbers increase, Yea, like unto the seeds of flax upon the stony sea of Poo-bah) are a fine, tolerant, intelligent community of persons who, when all is said and done, care greatly about the one thing we all have in common: the asparagus music (oops).

Anybody fancy a beer?

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 12:01 PM

I have to agree with you there Dai, Mudcat according to my observations consists of members from many different countries, races/ethnic backgrounds and religous beliefs, and long may it continue to do so, one of the things I like about Mudcat is learning about where other people live, different cultures etc.

Cheers, I'll have a coke (I am driving later!)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 12:05 PM

Pull me a dark one!

I think it's too easy to think of Mudcat as a collective-- as if it can be accurately evaluated as any one paradigm or from any one viewpoint. Why? Because it is first and foremost a site that attracts rigorously-boundaried individualists. Folkies... do not take kindly to being lumped into any sort of bin. *G*

Now looking at it numerically... and as someone with specific beliefs and values myself... I would have to say that the vast and often wordless majority of participants here are tolerant individuals.

I would also have to say though that the few who are not can be extremely pernicious in their effect on everyone else. But even among these, I would say that MOST of these are people with serious misapprehensions about people and life in general, not just my variety. And when relationship has been possible, these misapprehensions often have actuallly been quite vulnerable to truth when it dawns.

Are "we" all pretty set in our views about people? Yeah, I think so, here. Do we carry the same prejudices our society is only too eager to have perpetuated? Yeah, of course we do. And most of us are just living our lives, not looking to turn them upside down to leap into the unfamiliar, expcet of course in new music, instruments, and venues! *G*

But do we strive to do harm to one another based on these mindsets? No. On the contrary. Because of the powerful glue that binds us-- MUSIC-- what I see is a great gaggle of individuals who actually try to make close, loving contact, much of the time, as the unique and still-learning individuals that conststitue the Mudcat Cafe.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: SharonA
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 12:14 PM

Yeah, what you all said!...

...Hey, waitaminnit! I happen to LIKE asparagus!!! (mmm, home-grown, fresh-cut and steamed! Yum!!)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: CarolC
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 12:26 PM

I don't know, Dai, but you stopped posting for a long while shortly after I joined, and now you're posting again. I like it better when you post.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: Kim C
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 12:42 PM

Make that two dark ones.

We tolerate Spaw, don't we? :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: LR Mole
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 01:08 PM

Oh, lump me into that folk bin, mama!
And as Babe Ruth once said to the Queen of England about asparagus:"No, thanks, your majesty, it makes my urine smell." (Never having eaten asparagus OR met the Queen of England, especially on the same day, I'll take the Bambino's word for it.)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: Troll
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 01:18 PM

Every extended family has differences of opinion now and then. Sometimes someone leaves in a huff because they cannot abide what someone else has said but, by and large, the family survives.
Were it not for a generally tolerant attitude on the part of the majority of Mudcatters, the forum would not have survived as long as it has.

troll ***And, yes, asparagus will indeed make your urine smell***Terry Pratchett describes one of his characters (Ghengis Cohen) as smelling like a goat that had been eating curried asparagus***

troll (again)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: SharonA
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 01:25 PM

All right, all RIGHT! I confess; it was ME! I'm SORRY I stank up the Mudcat ladies' room! Sheesh!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: nutty
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 01:27 PM

If folk want to troll, flame , stalk, use foul language etc. that is between them and their conscience. I can ignore them. There are far too many "nice" people around that I want to spend time with.I hope Max and Joe don't get too down hearted - we all know that it's the folk who complain the loudest who help the least.( although Spaw may be the exception)

BTW - I'LL HAVE A HALF OF WHATEVER

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: JedMarum
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 05:29 PM

I think you were right the first time, Dai; asparagus. Great stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: gnu
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 05:42 PM

Apparently, the most tolerant. The rules seem to be that you don't get tossed unless you cross a number of lines. Bravo, Max. Teach tolerance with tolerance.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 06:11 PM

Asparagus??? Asparagus???? Where the hell were you all when we had the "ASSPARAGUS FARM" huh? If you don't recall...............

After running across JAB's post in the "E-BAY vs, Local Music Store" thread and his friend, BumGardner, it came to me in a flash that here was a way that Ol' Spaw could pick up a few extra bucks. If I could find 300 folks to lay on their stomachs for months at a time with asparagus planted between their "cheeks," I could really rake it in, so to speak. Make a few of them Amish and I could advertize "Organically Grown Amish Asparagus." Now I think that this con....er,uh..business.. could be lucrative, but (butt) I fear that I possess no desire to do the weeding and harvesting. Plus, I am a little pressed for time, what with evacuating my bladder, winding my watch, and trying to get the BB's in the eyes of the bear, you can see my schedule is pretty full. What to do? Like a bolt from the blue, it came to me!!!

CLETUS !!!!!!!

Since the Condom Factory closed down, he and Paw and the Reg boys have had nothing to do and have been hanging out here and generally getting into minor skirmishes with the law and all, so I figured that I'd put Cletus in charge of the group and put 'em to work! Paw already volunteered to be the "Lead Grower" and the Reg boys are well suited to disposing of excess fertilizer since they are Canadians (Rick's half-brothers) and are used to taking a lot of shit from Americans.

I have already located some mature and replantable asparagus crowns and the boys will be steali....uh, picking them up tonight from a local gardener. I placed an ad in the Sunday Edition of the "Ahia Possum Picayune" and the calls are already coming in for "asparagus growers." A local bookseller has donated 300 copies of "War and Peace" which should keep them occupied while the asparagus grows and the warehouse at the old condom factory has plenty of floor space. All I need to find now are the air mattresses and things will be underway.

Cletus will be reporting back in here on the progress of the "farm" and if any of you are interested in "Asparagus Futures," please contact my brokerage house of Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe, who will help separate you from your money.........uh, make that, advise you as to your investment and earnings potential......Yeah..that's it.

And a little later, I reported on progress..........

Well things are progressing nicely. We have the warehouse all ready and the volunteers laid out...so to speak. We couldn't let everybody lay around stark nekkid so I was able to get a donation of bib overalls from "Big Cracker Bubba's Bibs" of Albany, Georgia. These are especially well suited to the ass-grown veggie business since they are made especially for the folks in south Georgia and North Florida. You see down there ALL the locals wear them because they have NO SEAT in them and that's the only way they can keep the gnats off their faces.

Cletus sent the Reg boys after Ol' Man Scaffidi's asparagus crowns the other night and they procured over 500 while he was at late mass. In lieu of other financial arrangements, the Reg boys left him a nice brochure about Toronto and one of their half-brother Rick's CD's. I doubt if Scaffidi misses them for awhile as its dandelion season and he's real busy right now, being Italian and all. He has at least 12 acres sown with dandelions now after he spent two months in the hospital a few years back when he was struck down by a Kenworth while picking greens on I-70.

If things are going well, Cletus and the Reg boys should be starting the planting right now. Paw is still wanting the position of "Lead Grower" so I suppose he'll be pretty well "occupied" for awhile, which should also help to keep Cletus out of trouble.

But then we ran into a problem, as Cletus tells in this post to a birthday thread for Kendall..........

Me an Paw an Buford an the Reg boyz all wanted ta wish ya a Happy Birfday there Kendall. Weuns wuz all a hopin ta have summa that assparagus ready ta harvest frum out ta the Ass Growin Farm, but the furzt batch whut we thot mite be reddy wuz ruint when Mrs. Ledford got herself a bad case uv gas an Paw put one uv the Reg boyz, I reckon it wuz Reg, up ta flarin off one uv her poots. Well it wuzza helluva sploshun an the assparagus wuz blown all over ta hell an begone an one uv them spears dang neer took out Reg's eyeball. Well we dun pickt up all the assparagus we cud find an boxed it up ta send it to ya, but Harold, the feller down ta the post office sed we cuddent send ennything what smellt like that so I gess we'll jez say Happy Birfday on thizzeer thred insted.

**********************************************************

So the whole thing bellied up and I was stuck with a big bill for damages. Now if you all had just spoken up THEN........We might have had another go at it and tried shipping another way................Oh well............

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 07:31 PM

I personally think that the Mudcat is much too tolerant. I like it here!
Spaw - if your brokers ever set up business in England I suggest they contact our local boys - Norfolk and Good! I they hit legal problems Sue, Grabbit & Runn (Solicitors) do a good trade about here!
Quack!!!!!
GtD.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: MAV
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 09:55 PM

I like it.

mav out

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: MAV
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 09:56 PM

I like it.

mav out

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: catspaw49
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 10:04 PM

Well Mav, if you like it all that much, I still have a good bit of it out back and I'll see if anybody will ship it to you. Kinda' old and stringy/mushy now and the smell ain't improved, may even have gotten worse, but that's ass-paragus for you............

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: mooman
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 04:06 AM

I do a bit of cartooning for magazines and the farm has conjured up such a wonderful image I might just....

mooman

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: Podger
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 04:17 AM

It only makes your wee-wee smell if you lack the specific gene that creates the enzyme that digests the stuff that smells. Now this enzyme is not to be confused with that other enzyme, the lack of which, causes your wee-wee to be pink after eating beets. The lack of that enzyme (the beet one) is due to a lack of B vitamins. Podger.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 04:33 AM

Maybe we need to consider the flamers and trolls to be the Evil Outside trying to attack that to which they cannot belong. There is always someone who wants to destroy that to which they feel they don't belong. So they do what they can.

When we post outraged responses to their threads they may feel they are attaining their goal but they don't realize that the majority of Mudcatters are ignoring them. How many members do we have now? And how many of us actually post to the flame threads? If we can persuade those who do to quit then we will be part way to solving that problem.

And, Spaw, the problem with your farming effort is that you were mispronouncing the name of the crop. It isn't ASS-paragus. It is ASPER-grass, the green asperin, good for headaches and arthritis pain.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: GeorgeH
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 05:43 AM

Hey, we're an inclusive bunch . . ain't no such thing as outsiders . .

G.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat a tolerant forum?
From: Madhatter
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 06:26 AM

Can't think of much to add, just fancied a drink Pint of "owd screech scrumpy" please, no actually better make that a half. Madhatter