That is the first line in Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Well, the only person stranger than Whitaker’s blog readers is Whitaker himself. And I depend on the kindness of you folks who are stranger than fiction.

If I write something good, I like you to tell me so. If I write something bad, I need you far, far more to SAY SO. I mean this sincerely: If you don’t call me down, then when I say the same thing out in the cold, cruel world it will cost me, and more importantly, the cause of truth, a great deal.

If a congressman gets caught in a remark that is factually absurd, somebody on his staff is going to pay for it big time. I don’t have any power over you, but I do depend on you in much the same way.

When Ole Bob says he doesn’t mind criticism, he is understating the case by several parasangs. I NEED criticism, and this is the one safe place to get it. If I say something here and you don’t call me down, I can’t fire you, but I sure can be ticked off.

So if you don’t want an old man’s curse to follow you to the grave, weigh in.

Comments on the blog interest me more than what I have to say.

Naturally I hope this is not true for most of my readers, since boring people is a writer’s nightmare. It is my hope that I am just used to what I have been thinking about, so my comments sound to me like more of my same old same old while commenters give a new life to the dialogue.

If I become boring to YOU because my comments start sounding to YOU like more of the same old same old, you owe it to me to tell me so.

There is nothing wrong with the same old same old if it is a consistent point of view applied to interesting new situations. Most of my readers read this stuff to hear Bob’s take on different situations.

But keep me consistent and keep me interesting. There is nothing quite as pathetic as an old guy who keeps saying the same thing over and over and I do NOT want to be that old man.

My blog entry about LOTR being a repeat of the Neibelingenlied led to an interesting little exchange which I quote in full. In this dialogue I answered the first comment, and I will answer H.S. at the bottom.

Here ’tis:

“You might find this interesting: ‘[Wagner’s] overall religious views are somewhat ambiguous, not in nature or of his devotion, but of what he believed. Wagner was an enthusiast for Jesus Christ, but insisted he was of Greek origin and not Jewish. He also insisted the Old Testament of the Bible had nothing to do with the New Testament, and that the God of Israel was not the same God he believed was the father of Jesus. Wagner criticised the Ten Commandants, claiming it lacked the mercy and love of Christian teachings’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner). ”

Comment by Alejandro — 8/15/2005 @ 6:50 pm | Edit This

“Wagner sounds exactly like me.”

“The Old Russian Orthodox Church had exactly the same view of Jesus’ Father versus the Old Testament Jehovah.”

Comment by Bob — 8/15/2005 @ 8:55 pm | Edit This

Bob,

How “old” do you consider to be “old?” When the communists took over? Before that? The original split from the orthodox creedal belief sets?

Comment by H.S. — 8/16/2005 @ 3:30 pm | Edit This

H.S., I ran across this belief of the “old” Orthodox Church in reading biographies of Peter the Great. That was the Orthodox Church creed when Peter the Great came to power. As you know Peter the Great tried to make everything in Russia conform to Western standards. He even tried to make Dutch the national language.

Peter changed the ritual of the Orthodox Church, but I have been unable to find out whether this particular doctrine, that the Old Testament was completely wiped out by the Coming of Christ, was among the changes he made or whether this came later or if it is still an allowable concept within today’s Russian Orthodox Church.

As usual, any information on this would be appreciated.