Just a thought from my perspective: There's nothing wrong with making smarmy comments, but it usually works better on someone else's site if you have some level of relationship with them.

I'm not crazy about all of your stuff, but some of your material is quite good. I'm looking forward to reading more, although you'll probably not see me commenting much on your religion articles. I will say that, while diplomacy is highly overrated it does have its advantages in encouraging people to read your work.

Glad you're settling in here, tuttle. I think you have a lot to offer the community.

that is why i use my real name.

I use my "real" name too, in a sense. Gideon MacLeish is the pen name I have chosen, and pseudonyms are a time honored tradition among writers, even among reporters. And my real name's easy enough to link with my pen name at this point, should anyone choose to work. I DID run for public office, you know.

I can't speak for Tuttle/Johnny Pain, but I will assure you that Gideon MacLeish is just as real as the person behind him.

Informative.

I also thought you were SPM, a former blogger here. My apologies.

I love lot's of books by people who had beliefs I don't respect, or lived horrid, mean little lives... but I prefer books by people who I could respect. Like most. Pynchon went into hiding after college, as everyone knows; JD Salinger lives isolated on a farm writing some long tract that he doesn't let anyone see. Developing his characters. I'm hoping he means he kept working on the Glass Family.

I still use the name Johnny Pain when I go out and read comedy. I got the name from a friend because I am indeed in chronic pain from an old spinal fusion that is falling apart. Get surgeries now and then and have to take almost 20 pills a day. I also thought the name was apropo with the mean kind of character I was developing. People kept confusing me with the character thoug. One girl read my entry I BOUGHT NINETY HAMSTERS, about a guy trying to get a hamster army together; in the story, the hamstersare just normal hamsters and will do nothing for him, so that element was real enough... but this girl thought I was writing for real and wrote my brother saying I had lost my mind. We both got a good joke out of that one.

I use pseudo-names. I use made up names for all my different characters, pretend they write the articles... then I occasionally throw in my real name, but I don't try and make people really believe I am Johnny Pain. When i started this site, for instance, it was obvious from how absurd the Gilford Tuttles were that he was not real. Actually, now that I think about it... when I first started my other site I got a lot of hate mail from christians, massah-jack-off-your-son supporters, and some ex-girlfreind who didn't reveal herself. A lot of them thought that I was indeed johnny pain. But my thing is more just putting up the output of a writer, and I serve it mostly rare-- sometimes too rare.

As far as the jarring in here, and the anti-christian stuff; I love all people, really. I don't judge individuals, but I do think religion is a mental disease. How a christian looks at the moonies, is how I look at a christian. I would never hate someone for having a disease. I know the word disease is a little harsh -- I mean, my dear mother finds great comfort in her god and all that, and I wouldn't try to strip her of it. I would like to see society move beyond the mystical. And to do my part sometimes requires me to be a little gross, just because I am put together that way. As long as I am in the tiny percentile on this issue, then I feel like my powers as a writer are well used in the arguement, which in my mind is tied to the environment, but that is a whole nother issue.

Thank you all again for coming in here and writing. I have learned a lot the last couple days. I am one to mull over what people say and make changes, when I can, and when they honestly do not tread on my integrity and all that -- being a poor boy, that is about all I have... I will from this day forward be more aware of the context that I am inserting my words into, and how they will be interpreted. When trying to be funny hurts someones feelings, it is doing about the exact opposite of my intentions... Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New year to you Mr Tuttle!

Great advice Whip. Hope you take it GT. I think you have a wonderful writing talent and great wit, I laugh out loud when I read most of your stuff. Looking forward to more...even if it is just as GT.

Nice comment. Thank you.