things got a bit ugly here in the middle of the night. i deleted the most heated remarks. i suspect some will think i should have deleted fewer of them. others will think i should have deleted more of them.
we work hard here to create and maintain a casual, open, friendly and humorous atmosphere.
still ... since it's all written ... we will occassionally misunderstand each other. despite the best of intentions, feelings are occassionally hurt. threads also often wander off-topic. these situations are best handled with gentle humor and an understanding of fundamental human imperfection. unfortunately, tempers do flare from time to time. it's then left to Admin or to me to determine the best way to bring it to a close so we can all move on.
a few people owe each other apologies. i hope they will be made sincerely, and privately.
standard practice when a snit turns into a catfight is to delete the entire thread. in this case, since so much time and effort has been invested by so many, i picked an arbritrary point at which to delete so things could start again peacefully.
now ... everybody kiss, make up, and move on. Mondays are hard enough to face, thank you very much.