In the piece “Joe” below, he gave me some hell and I gave him an answer.

One time Joe crawled all over me. He wrote the next day that he was just in a lousy mood that day.

But his remarks, in both cases, were useful.

Joe does not consider himself or me particularly delicate.

Let me reveal unto you another great secret: I do not only want your opinions when you are feeling respectful or in a good mood.

I have elephant skin and I earned every layer of it.

In response to my kidding him as a young ‘un, Derek wrote his usual common-sense reply. He simply said that young people NEED to get a thicker skin in this emasculated age.

Derek, Joe and I seem to be on the same page on a very important point: Bob has a towering ego which makes him not at all delicate.

I don’t mind making mistakes, even stupid ones. I still think my point of view is worth your time.

Mark just joined me and Joe and Derek with a comment on “Joe” below:

“Bob, how you can vent! Sometimes you remind of a woman who shows up at a family get together only to find she’s brought the exact same dish to the table as some otther woman.”

“I believe Bob is venting his ego when he says he is the only one who did this that or the other. But that’s the price you pay when you listen to an intellectual who actually knows a thing or two. You take the good and the bad and sift thru the self emulating ego gratification and end up with the overall idea said intellectual had in mind.”

Dead on target.

The fact is that you don’t GET to Bob’s Blog is you DON’T have a towering ego. We have all been through the best obedience training the world has to offer and we have told all the experts where they can stick it.

That’s why you’re in this seminar. Even those here who have not finished college have already outgrown their college education.

This is probably the only REAL graduate seminar you can attend.

I not only HAVE an ego the size of Mount Everest, I PREACH an ego the size of Mount Everest.

I even jumped on sweet Shari when she hinted that she shouldn’t say something to someone who had been in “big time” politics like me.

That offended me because, unfairly to Shari, it hit me in one of my few remaining sensitive spots.

I HATE bullies. It makes me almost physically ill when I see someone who can dish it out but who can’t TAKE it.

What Shari said sounded like it put me in the category of the average professor who conducts what he calls “seminars” in the average grad school.

He is a bully. He holds the power of grading you over your head and he USES it.

I repeat, this was not fair to Shari and it certainly did not reenforce my brag about having elephant skin.

But Shari forgave me and an important point was made because of what she said.

I wrote a piece below on the fact that I would not accept comments that include personal abuse to other commenters. I added another sentence I would like to repeat:

“Bob is fair game.”

This is exactly the opposite of what passes for a “graduate seminar” in today’s universities. There the professors is judge and jury.

Here I have to defend myself or admit that I have learned something.

And, as Mark said, I VENT here. As I keep pointing out, I vent about a lot of the things YOU would raise hell about if you weren’t in a position where your career was on the line, as it is in what passes for grad seminars.

We NEED opinions from your gut. I put my opinions from my gut out here for a reason: I want to know what I can get away with and which ones are my mood and which ones are legitimate complaints people would not otherwise express.

OK, I’ll end this one before Joe jumps all over me about how long it is.