...I received an email response elicited by my blog of March 18 wherein I whined about not being invited to a post-in-house-show "gala" held in the clubhouse ballroom. It is an opportunity for cast members to invite family and friends to snack and chat about the show and the performers at tables that are reserved for them. This has been a tradition dating back almost to the beginning of time at the Huntington Lakes Theatre of the Performing Arts. I had written e-mails to my friends in the show that I meant no offense by what I wrote. I fail to see the reason for the reaction from one performer who apparently was bent out of shape. To whit:
I really don't believe that "no offense was meant"!! SHAME ON YOU!!! My mother taught me, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!!!!!
...Does it not seem strange that this player here immediately violated her own mother's dictum by saying something nasty to me instead of not saying "anything nice" or by not "saying anything at all"? You would think she would realize the irony of it. She obviously couldn't think of anything nice to say. Well, I have no control over what people believe after they read my blog, but as I mentioned to her in my e-mail response, if people extract inferences of phantom wrongs from my blogs, perhaps they ought to have paid greater attention in Reading Comprehension class instead of socializing or reading a comic book under the desk. As Claudius says, "Where the offense is, let the great axe fall."
I also received the following email from Ruth Grimsley from ENGLAND today! Ruth and I have adopted each other as "cousins".
Apparently, she reads my blog way over there:
Hi cousin!
Just been looking at your blog - very interesting, as usual. and with apposite and learned quotations heading the entries up, most impressive.
Very interesting bioggers, and stuff on your dramatic achievements. Don't worry about not getting invited to the party! If you weren't there, then it must have been a crap party. And apart from your many other distinctions, you are Cousin Emeritus and literary correspondent to the Bard of Broomhill.
Just been looking at your blog - very interesting, as usual. and with apposite and learned quotations heading the entries up, most impressive.
Very interesting bioggers, and stuff on your dramatic achievements. Don't worry about not getting invited to the party! If you weren't there, then it must have been a crap party. And apart from your many other distinctions, you are Cousin Emeritus and literary correspondent to the Bard of Broomhill.
Don't you just love it!! (The Baron de Huntington)
Why is it always "my mother taught me..."? Doesn't the father ever teach something worthwhile that is helpful in later life ("always wear clean underwear")? I, for one, find myself often beginning a sentence, "my father taught me...." Actually, one thing my father taught me was that you show more respect to another person by being honest than polite. Being polite has its benefits, but it's highly overrated. Or should I have not just given my opinion, because someone, somewhere, somehow might be offended?
ReplyDelete