DP
Well, Lucian, Andy, enginerd, et al., let me try to shed some light on this phenomenon.
Humor is a way of diffusing tension, and believe me, we really need something to diffuse the tension right about now, because times are hard and getting harder, and we have some folks with widely differing points of view here — which is a good thing.
But every once in a while, we get so frothing-at-the-mouth mad at each other that if we didn’t have a way to joke it out of our systems, we would probably be rippng each others’ heads off.
Go to any so-called “serious” Blog and you will see how quickly a nice diplomatic parlay can break down into trench warfare, complete with mustard gas. We don’t have that kind of thing here on WS Blog (thanks God!) and it’s precisely because we know better than to take ourselves all that seriously.
Personally, I think we have a pretty good balance of opinions, facts, and just plain nonsense. What irks me is not people who go on and on about bacon, rubber duckies, dog poop, or whatever; I can always ignore them if I want. What irks me are people who drop into the forum once in a blue moon for the sole purpose of announcing that they’ll have nothing to do with us because we’re not “serious” enough for them.
You wanna be taken seriously on this forum?
Earn it!