Waterboarding in Morristown

Particularly as a municipal election apporaches, I find it mystifying why the Baristas these last few months seem to have to go farther and farther "afield" for items to post.

It can't just be the harsh realities of a slow news day/week/month/quarter, can it? It does seem, however, as if there's a general lack of journalistic enterprise from the Baristas. This coupled with a comparable lack of oomph to so many posts (as even one so astute as walleroo has remarked on here) makes me wonder what's really going on here.

I don't know about advertising revenues, but there certainly were, a year or more ago, far livelier days on Baristanet in terms of both sheer numbers of postings and the impassioned literacy of so many of them. (But then, I even sort of miss lasermikey.)

cathar,
If you think Baristanet is so weak these days, why don't you stop reading it?

29 year old trying to drown his wife! Goes to show if the law didnt get involved with Divorce, there would be easier solutions to get out of an otherwise doomed relationship.

This woman is very lucky. I hope this %&*$# gets the maximum penalty. His family is better off without him.

This one does seem like a bit of a reach.

On a more positive note, Debbie, I'm really enjoying your book! When I read that a bathroom in the northwest corner of one's house can drain away money, I had to suppress an involuntary shudder. That's where our bath is located.

So far, it's been a very entertaining read.

:-)

It is always gratifying to see people respond to criticisms or observations, even when well-crafted and devoid of any insulting language, with witty rejoinders like "why don't you stop reading/buying/listening/watching/ it".
Constructive criticism? Why the f should I listen to that?

Thanks MellonBrush,

Croiagusanam: "constructive criticism" from cathar? Puh-leeeeze. He's a one-man whining machine. And I thought the waterboarding story was interesting. It's not the only thing I could find to run.

I like the fact that the kid was defiant, stood up to her father and told the truth.

Whining is in the "ear" of the beholder, I guess. There are some who would characterize YOUR observations as whining. I'm not one of them, but surely you're smart enough to know that anyone who ventures an opinion or an observation risks that response.
So if you don't agree with a poster's observation as to the suitability of a subject, so be it. A suggestion to the reader that he/she simply go away is better left unsaid -- your initial response sounded to me rather juvenile.
Just one reader's opinion.

Debbie, I have in fact stopped devotedly reading Baristanet, in the main. It is not at all the "must" it used to be. But your, uh, kindly phrased "reply" to my own post is prickly rather than consoling, is certainly not the sort of approach to customer service the coming-to-Clifton Stew Leonard's would countenance. Nor was I "whining." I was, however, making an observation. I doubt very much that I ever whine on this site.

And this from a woman who only some weeks ago was perkily e-mailing me to please buy her book so that it could slither onto the best-seller list.....

And did you buy it, cathar?

Really, cathar. You're like the customer who comes into the restaurant every day, complaining about the food. This isn't about customer service or the inability to take criticism. I knock myself out 7 days a week giving customer service, particularly to people who want and need their events publicized. Even when I was in the hospital last week with an IV in my left arm and an NG tube down my nose, I was checking my iPhone for things people needed from me.

I just wonder why cathar expresses his bitter disappointment on a constant basis and still bothers to show up?

Whee!

For God's sake, who is whining now?
Sorry to hear that you were ill (though the Iphone product placement was a nice touch), but what has that to do with anything? My guess is that the customer who shows up at the restaurant and complains about the food is tolerated by the staff, though they surely savage him when he leaves. Who knows? Maybe they spit in his food as well. But they don't tell him to get lost, do they? If they did, he wouldn't be there every day.
If you want to ban posters because they make remarks you don't like, then do so. It is your site, after all. But if you're not going to do that, how about growing up a little bit with regard to criticisms of your "baby"?

Debbie,

This is a great site and a testament to your creativity and energy.

I look forward to my time in Baristaville. There are so many really interesting personas which visit and post. I marvel at the knowledge and literacy of people like Cro, Cathar, Frankgg, Guido Santa, even Prof blows me away from time to time. MissMartta comes out with some real zingers. Conan is funny as hell and so is Walleroo.

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication!

I hope you're feeling ok after you hospital visit.

Keep on truckin'.

Methinks she's trying to chase cathar away...and just after I've had time to read up on the Middle Ages so I know what "Catharists" really were back then.

Don't go cathar! If you do, that means the Lasered one would be the winner.

On a somewhat related note, I hope your health problems have resolved themselves, Debbie. You and your partners still run an entertaining site.

Actually, Debbie, I only just bought your first novel. It was marked down to $5.95 at a Barnes & Noble. (I did already leaf through an interesting sex scene, now only if every day on Baristanet could be so lubriciously phrased.....) And if your second such effort is ever similarly disounted, I may give that one a try too.

As for your claimed commitment to customer service above, however, I think you were doth protesting too self-servingly much. Definitely with more personal detail than absolutely necessary.

As for my "bitter disappointment," well, no, it's not bitter. I kind of even think it's at least as upbeat as your e-mail asking me to buy your book was. I also look forward to posting even more joyously when John McCain handily defeats whomever the Democratic Presidential nominee turns out to be, since I'm sure that'll cast a genuine pall over Baristaville.

Debbie, I hope you're feeling better as of this writing. and for the record, I enjoy the site. In fact, I wish I didn't enjoy it as much so I could be more productive and someday write a best-seller as you have done. :-)

This is interesting. I actually know people who have stopped coming here for their local information because of the endless complaints. There use to be the ?what?s worse? conversations ? the endless complains of out of towners, or the staunch controls at the watercooler. For a while there was a point of pride - look how badly they want to be one of us. But that grew old and those people stopped reading. They still go to the businesses that advertise here, but that is coincidence.

Former Ridger, I assure you, I'm not a Dualist. (Even if their supposedly lax attitudes about sexual morality sometimes appeal to me.) But I am a cat lover, which goes back to the original twisted meaning of the word "Cathar" (or "Ketzer") in medieval German.

And "he who shall not be named" will never be a 'winner' of any sort here. Elmer Fudd, whom he so resembles, never won a single contest against either Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, did he?

I'm just the opposite, I guess. If I want straight-up information, I check out the Ledger or the Montclair Times. I come here because I like the controversy. It's not boring. Yes, there are some days that are slower than others (just like in the real world) but it's still more entertaining than most of the other sources. Also, it's instant information. I found out about the flower sale at Van Vleck from Baristanet; I might never known about it otherwise. Granted, I wish some of the calendar items were printed with a little more advance notice.

Before I'm consigned to the cornfield, I want to say that I too like the site quite a bit.
But I am a firm believer that those who dish it out have to take it as well.
And as far as being appreciated for one's efforts in one's job, as Don Corleone said in THE GODFATHER, "This is the life we've chosen."

Lucky for Tubby that I'm a cat lover too. He doused our bedroom curtains this morning @ 3:30. My cry of 'Nooooooo!' woke my wife up and we spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up the mess.

Maybe it is time for that shot that's supposed to turn him into a girl....

Is he fixed, MB?

MM,

Oddly enough, yes, by his original owner(s).

He was a stray that we think was 'put out'. We tried to locate an owner(signs, petfinder, calls to vets and shelters) to no avail.

If a male cat is fixed too late and has started to demonstrate 'territoriality', he will, in most cases, continue to scent mark afterwards.

Our theory is that he's a Wedgie(Norwegian Forest Cat) that his original owners had hoped to breed, changing their minds after his dominant traits manifested(getting him fixed) and finally putting him 'out' when his scent marking got to be too much.

He sings the opening stanza to Led Zeppelins "Kasmir" when I put his water out for him, "Ahhhhhhhh Ahhhhhh Ahhhh". Maybe that's why I keep him around..

A shot, MB? Isn't it supposed to be a little snip here and there?

When I want "straight-up information," Miss Martta, I certainly don't turn to the Star-Ledger. (I'd also sell my Advance/Newhouse stock if I had any such thing.) The Montclair Times I really don't know much about, but the Ledger strikes me as nearing its death throes. It still goes through the motions capably if tamely enough, but even the motions are uninspired and always reek of hackwork. When you can predict 6 months in advance even the titles of many stories a newspaper will run, let alone their content, it's time to switch to the Record for at least a year or two.

"Maybe it's time for that shot that supposed to turn him into a girl..."

Mellon, just lock the bastard in a room and make him listen to 8 hours of Bette Midler.
If he's still alive when you let him out... problem solved.

Awww...well, you're a very tolerant and kind owner to put up with that.

Robert 'Tubby' Plant

Ohmigod, he looks like he means business!

And if you have a Norwegian Forest Cat, MellonBrush, I envy you. What a great breed! Our own are all mere domestic shorthairs, and the best they can offer for entertainment is one's fixation with my tape of "Winged Migration," since she'll gladly be transfixed by this look at birds for an hour or more whenever I play it for her.

Cro, LMAO!

Debbie, you seem to be the one on this site who consistently runs headlines and sometimes stories that are irreverent to the point of being in rather poor taste (including this headline, IMHO)... and then you get all huffy when folks post replies that are less than complimentary.

If you choose to use an edgy approach, then you probably need a thicker skin, or at least the discretion not to make yourself look worse by arguing with the inmates here.

I'm sorry you were ill.

wow, finally a thread with retort and backbiting. I don't drop be as often either due to the lack of controversial topics. However, i consider myself one of the conservative members of the community make a point to read the site 3-5 times/day.

Goodbye Hillary.