l nearly did in the old days just to support the forum (when the forum was in its goldern age and sponsors weren't paying the bills), but all the inane stuff that Andy promoted made it clear that it would have been such a boring read as to act like a sedative.

Everytime the old man promoted it, all l could think was `boring boring boring'.  l wouldn't have been able to read it.

Why even have the encyclopedia except for profit. Isn't the forum a giant wikipedia?

Apparently a decent, good guy. Those that know him, and post here, indicate that that is the case.

Things that I could never figure out:

The ring....

The long term association with Carlo Franco, the Bernie Madoff of the tie business.......

How to take someone seriously, who recommends denim trousers, cut like dress trousers.......

Some of the stuff that is sponsored, such as a tie maker who pushes, pre tied bow ties, with a rubber duck motif......

Whose recommendations seem to be cut and paste from Flusser, Boyer, etc......

How you become an expert in men's clothing by having a part time job in a Ralph Loren retail store.....

How someone like AK gains control over the situation.....

If you have made peace with these, maybe the encyclopedia is a must for your library.

Where 'to start' with Andy is almost as ephemeral as where it will end.
I joined to talk bout and learn more about clothing.

And I saw THE INTERCHANGE with it's talk of cigars and tumblers, easychairs and genteel conversation about world events. My first thought was stay away, moderating another forum myself.
That, and being in and out of the V.A. with an old head trauma wound sometimes made my better posts rather 'stream of consciousness' or at worst bilge water.

And, like a moth to the flame I engaged people in the interchange. Karl89 and I butted monitors. I realised it had gone to far OVER NOTHING, apologised online. We became  best of internet friends.
Meanwhile, Carlo Franco as moderator loved my posts, though he deleted a few and actually pmed me why. He even suggested I move to Texas, buy one of his property subdivisions and sit on the porch at day's end drinking bourbon with him.  My personal take on CF is he watched GIANT and thought it could all happen, not realising how hard it is ( ask David Hober who comes from the business!)

Next kabbatz PMed me praising some of my writing and made some vague overtures about writing ad copy like the J.Peterman catalogs.

And then came Cruiser, Pedantic Turkey. Again, I had a history of making some really poorly thought out posts. Butagain, I publicaly apologised online more than a few times. I received a few replies and PMs however that would have been instant banning by most halfway responsible moderators.I pmed 'Malinda' and got teacher snarling like a half starved prairie wolf from the Dakotas rubing his ass because of worms.  Kabbatz mimicking his beloved wooden headed Sir Topham Hat chimed in like Thomas the train going 'cinders and ashes!'. So, I told him to delete ALL my posts and they could have the forum. I also explained my posts were MY intellectual property and any plagiarism would bring suit.

That brought on the forum copyright notice, which is about as valid as a kabbatz shirt holding piss in a rainstorm. Emails to Andy brought similar Kansas city courtesy.

So I left, partly because I was again in Hospital.
Then the emails came, from unkown email addies that oddly enough shared ISP registries with the malindas. They listed my street addie and promises of retaliation. I simply replied with Andy's street addie and asked if they could catch me before I'GOT' him- one doesn't buy or catch things in Kansas, one 'got's them.

I had a few months of blessed silence. Then Andy emails how much he misses me at the forum. I replied that the interchange was a sewer, he should delete it and get some moderators. His response?
" but I never read the interchange!"

So I went back, partly because Jan had and there are some genuinely nice people posting. And then some troll with all of 15 posts made a crack about Obama that was patently racist. I called him on it and got even nastier PMs using the N word. I didn't even vote for Obama, but hey, I'm an american first.

And Andrew again descended on me like the man behind the curtain he is angry about my "being racist and fighting on HIS forum, and I must be off my meds again." I replied, a measured point by point rebuttal. And after oh, 4 sentences I thought 'what the hell?' and told him this is futile, I had to go take a shit and that was more productive than my association with him.

I expected banning, but so far only silence. I've post a few remarks, but it's like driving past the home of an old girlfriend. You want to stop and knock, but then remember for all the genuine nice girl demeaner, she could be a first rate kansas City whore.You hit the gas and open the window to get fresh air into your brain.

Last edited by Chris Kavanaugh (2009-03-24 11:07:05)

Last edited by formby (2009-03-25 03:33:22)