New River Mike
If you'll look back at Post #6, I warned fortuna he'd started something. I was hopeful it'd blow over, but oh, well.:dunno
I've got a theory on this, although I think it was actually CWUGirl who first noticed it. Credit where credit is due.
I think some of us - me included - get a little cabin-feverish once in a while. We start to suffer from testerone overload, or something like that. Then someone posts something a little provocative, someone else takes it personally, and we're off.
Frankly, I enjoy it - sometimes participating and sometimes just reading. Old Man asked a relevant question - why it is that we'll jump on a perfect stranger over something?. Why is it that we'll cut off someone on the highway and/or flip someone off in traffic?
Because we can. It's safe and easy and maybe helps us burn off a little frustration that otherwise we'd take out on someone we really care about. Which doesn't necessarily make it right. It's just the nature of the human beast sometimes.
Here's a little joke I recall that kind of illustrates the point...
Johny was having some troubles at school. He came down the lane from the school bus one afternoon and on his way to the house, he gave the old milk cow a kick. His mother, who was watching from the kitchen window, stopped him at the door and said, "Young man, I saw that! Just for that, you're not getting any milk for dinner."
"Aw, come on, Mom..."
Sure enough, here comes the dejected little boy home another day, and this times he boots a chicken clear off the porch. "Okay, mister," says his mother, "No eggs with your breakfast tomorrow morning!"
"Aw geez..."
Finally, Johny has a good day at school. He and his mother are watching that afternoon when his father pulls into the yard from work, slams the truck door, stomps up the porch steps, and proceeds to kick the family cat clean into the pasture.
Johny looks solemnly at his dad, then up to his mother. "Momma, are you gonna tell Daddy, or am I?"