Re: real names

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From: Katharine Thayer (kthayer@pacifier.com)
Date: 06/25/01-03:34:38 AM Z


Gordon J. Holtslander wrote:
>
>
> I'm afraid we will have to judge each posting by its intrinsic value, and
> list participants, not so much by their ID/name, but by the respect they
> have earned through their contributions to the list.
>

This seems like a good segue into something I've wondered several times
whether to say or not, and never have. A friend's credo "never explain,
never apologize" seems like good advice, and it seemed to me that the
best way to deal what couldn't be changed was to leave it in the past
and let my present behavior and demeanor speak for itself. But given the
recent demonstration of the force and eternality with which some here
hold on to old grudges, I think I will explain myself after all.

Whether I've earned the respect of my colleagues through my
contributions to the list is a matter for each to answer for themselves,
and no, I don't need to hear your answers. I've had enough feedback to
know that there are those who find my posts useful, and I have enough
respect for the diversity of opinions here to be comfortable with the
possibility that not everyone does. (If there was ever a fractious group
in this world, it's the community of gum printers!) But there was a
time when I did behave badly and provoke at least one skirmish on the
list, which I have always regretted. At the time, I was being slowly and
inexorably poisoned by carbon monoxide from a defective furnace, and one
of the effects of it, besides not being able to breathe and my heart not
pumping right, was that I was extremely irritable and not in complete
control of my reactions and overreactions to things. It took six months
to find the source of the problem and turn the furnace off, and several
more months for the effects to reverse themselves. I was scheduled to do
a presentation on gum at APIS that summer and had to cancel because my
heartbeat was still so erratic that my doctor didn't think I should risk
the altitude. At any rate, anything I did or said during that period of
time, from fall 1998 through the summer of 1999, should be viewed in
that context. Thank you.
Katharine Thayer


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