Kerry Butler's from Bensonhurst?!? — Page 3

Right. And I was responding to Broadwayguy's ass-kissing not to whether or not your post was humorous and the long post you just replied to Bruce was my good faith attempt to address some of the many issues raised by Ron Pulliam, from whom I would love to hear a response since I made the effort when I could have just blown him off.

I'm not sure if it's a technique of your group to come at people from all directions (I respond to somebody here about something they said, Ron comes at me with guns a-blazing asking what my anti-Bruce agenda is and telling tales of phoenixes, I respond to Ron, you come at me...) but if the effort is to keep people off-balance it works. Just don't try to pass it off as the model of civil and balanced behavior and genteel discourse and not cult-like group think with its attack strategy against non-cult members who are perceived to be critcial, whether they actually are being so or not.

Many, many people see the humor in my posts too. Apparently, you and the other people who find you funny and the people who find me funny have very different tastes. Nothing wrong with that, I'm just sorry the former find the latter so damn threatening for some reason.

You once leveled the criticism that a person can't win with somebody like me, Bruce, and that I always have to have the last word. Well, I am not competing, not trying to win, that's all in your head. And, the way you just signed that above post is very telling of a fella who truly has to have the last word. I think you imagine something in me that you don't like about yourself, and who knows, maybe it's there to some degree? But there's more projection coming from your direction than ever happened in Norma Desmond's screening room.

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Updated On: 9/5/03 at 07:43 AM

I do appreciate your taking the time to offer me a thoughtful and point-by-point reply.

And I apologize for not checking back last night after having brazenly challenged you to respond to my queries.

I do post frequently and happily at the HHW website. I do not consider myself an asskisser, an acolyte or anything else other than an independent soul who enjoys the bulk of posters there. Sometimes I dive right in. Other times I say nothing. All topics there don't interest me or amuse me. Are there asskissers there? Sometimes, I think someone "seems" to be sucking up a bit too smarmily. But maybe that person "needs" to do that. I've lived long enough (oy!) to have learned that we all have needs that other folks might not understand.

It IS Bruce's website and he did create it at a trying time in his professional life when it was a means of keeping friends together -- friends he had made over the years, friends he had made through his Sondheim column and friends he had made through his CD-producing endeavors. Comments have been made here -- and I will say that I don't recall offhand who made them -- that indicate someone is familiar with his travails.

You strike me as being a creative mind -- literate, imaginative and not without compassion. You might well have raked me over the coals rather than given me a thoughtful response, and I greatly appreciate that.

Being a frequent HHW poster, I can tell you that we get "nasty interlopers" from time to time who post nasty little nothings, snide little snivels and common uglygrams. Even in live chat, which is open to all who behave themselves, we get the occasional visitor who toys with folks or digs at a topic of conversation.

Someone made a reference to a CD label Bruce was involved with up until a couple of years ago. Actually, he created it, named it and produced product that has continued to be released -- minus his producing credit -- as recently as a few months ago. It's not something I'm well-enough informed about to go into...and it's not my place...but I know enough to understand Bruce has had his share of professional betrayal/disappointment...and still finds brickbats tossed his way by people not involved in any way -- folks who know just enough to have no idea what they're talking about -- but who think it clever and fun to be pissy, bitchy and just plain subhuman at his expense. To my knowledge, none of those people post here.

But...and this is a BUT I hope someone here will understand...those of us who rally 'round Bruce are all a little sensitive to comments about him...especially when they seem to criticize his site or folks associated with him/his site.

I'd ask anyone who is tempted to critize Bruce's friends as asskissers/acolytes to ask himself/herstel what is so special about Bruce that he can command such loyalty.