OT: Wonderfully amusing personal abuse (was Re: Standard header format.)

[Phil Edwards <phil at jaj dot com>]

So, after posting to this thread from two different email addresses[*],
I get the most hilarious tantrum in the mail.  Two copies, one at each
address.  Misspelled, grating, barely legible, grammar appropriate to
a nine-year-old.  Full of swearing instead of anything really inventive
or insulting.  Like David Mamet, but without the creativity.  If it were
on paper it would be written in crayon.  You know the drill.

The best part, and what makes it so funny:  it was sent through an anonymous
remailer!  :-)  Like the sender wasn't obvious, even before the tedious
thread started, even before the Ottawa summit for that matter...

I love getting mail from remailers, honestly, no joke, I really do.
They're guaranteed to raise a chuckle, if for no other reason than the
would-be[@] flamer lacks even the courage and self-respect to stand behind
his/her own opinions.

(Don't interpret this as an attack on remailers, by the way.  There are
many legitimate uses for them, and I encourage you to support them.
Erosion of privacy is a frightening thing.)


Anyhow, I wanted to extend my honest public thanks to whoever tried to
insult/threaten/flame me.  See, my day job's work with the toolchains
happens mostly offline, behind the scenes, with really frustrating bugs.
It's hugely enjoyable and educational, but still teeth-gnashing at times.
(Aiee, the things some users want to do with a poor innocent compiler.)
This week is also final exams week, and they're doing something weird with
graduate accounts at just the wrong time.  Much stress.  Much tension.

Your email, hiding behind a remailer though it was, made me laugh so hard
that coffee literally came out my nose.  That hasn't happened in years.
I needed a good laugh today, and you provided one.  Thank you.  I would buy
you a beverage of your choice, but those don't route through anonymizers.[!]


Also, to everyone else who spends time on #gcc, apparently we're all "useless
stoners".  Just, you know, FYI, if you wondered what that haze was.


[*]  Mutt only sets the From: correctly on occasion.  I'll ask root about it.
[@]  Is it really a flame if nobody's offended?  There were scoring rules in
     alt.flame and alt.religion.kibology years ago, but I've forgotten them.
[!]  Are there escrow services for beer?


Phil
p.s.- took a break from writing this just now to take the mail out, and
      my next-door neighbor asked me why I'm in such a good mood :-)

-- 
Problems are experience waiting to be acquired.