In spite of the fact that Bowser and I have had philosophical differences in the past (and believe me this is a minor one) he has never once been anything less than a complete gentleman towards me. He's never pinned a label on me, never made some veiled reference that my patriotism might be in question, never signified that I didn't research my topic well enough.

I know I can take on a different stance than Bowser and that our conversation will end on a friendly note. To tell you the truth, I had no idea who Marcia was talking about at the beginning of this thread. It was our friend Bows that threw himself into the target. I was just playing along.

Maybe that's the operative word here - playing. I can do that with almost anyone else on here but with Tom, as ER pointed out, there becomes this point where the fun ends and the nastiness begins. Both of us tried to engage him, albeit on opposite sides of the issue, in an open and non-threatening manner and each time were blindsided by some snarky comment impugning either us directly or people we hold in high esteem.

Art