On 22 Mar 2007 19:26:45 -0700, "
wrote:



But traffic to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly is roughly 80% less
than it used to be.

Do we have fewer fly fishermen?
Or are they.....well. What is it?
How what why.

this place originated as a cybersapce bar room, where folks who
were originally attracted by an obvious common sporting interest sat
and relaxed, just bull****ting about fishing and lifeitsownself, at
the end of the fishing day, as friends do after the same activity in
real life.

but we came to know each other too well, and began to care more
about our opinions of life beyond our sport than our place inside that
sport, and we became a perfect example of the axiom that familiarity
breeds contempt. this evil is made so much easier to engage in by the
distance of the medium.

in short, the inability to understand that if we failed to isolate
our differenting political views from our common love of this
marvelous craft, we would be doomed to destructive infighting, has
brought us to our present wholesale calamity.
it truly saddens me when i consider how much pleasure i have
received from my time on the water and in places close thereto with
those of you who have become such bitter enemies in this virtual
pigstye. i would give several shiny nickels to be able to start all
over again, and spend a couple weeks immersed in the vastly different
gifts of personality and sporting talent that all of you bring to the
amazing places where trout live, from montana to maine, and from
wisconsin to the old north state.
truth is, i wouldn't go to another clave on a bet. i deal with
too much combativeness on a day to day basis as it is. anyway, each
of you with whom i have fished have my respect and friendship. i have
always enjoyed my time on the water with you.

Whoa...

I guess I'd have to say I like and respect "you," at least as far as the
online wayno as much as anyone around here, but **** down a stick and
say grace, "bitter enemies?!?!?!" Are ya drinkin' bad whisky, man? What
possible nonsense heresabout could warrant anyone being such on the
basis of the shtick on ROFF? Folks go on and on about all the
contention around here, but geez, why take it seriously, if you feel the
need to read such at all?

ROFF ain't life, and life ain't ROFF. Oh, sure, they might cross paths
and dance a bit on occasion, but anyone who truly confuses the two
really needs to step back and take a breath or two. IMO, ROFF is
something like a fraternity house meets backwater roadhouse - lots of
bull****, lots of fun, but at the end of the day, the majority of the
gracious plenty ration of bull**** is transcended by the underlying
camaraderie of the thing. IOW, it ain't all real...what's real is,
well, what's real...

TC,
R
PS: Mumsy told me a funny...well, truth be told, Mumsy told Settlesworth
and he told me...

Did ya hear the one about the lawyer who found a conscience?

Yeah, no one else did, either...

your friend in the old north state
wayno