I may have lost count, but as near as I can tell there have been 59 posts
on the various versions of this thread so far today, 14 of them from Kent,
12 from David Hess, who may just be Kent's Charlie McCarthy (everyone's a
great ventriloquist on the internet--nobody can see the lips moving), and
10 from Carlo. The remaining 23 were from 10 other posters, mostly
complaining about the thread.
The sheer numbers are not in themselves a problem, but they should be a
warning sign to those sending them that they may be doing something best
done in private. Kent asks why he, David and Carlo shouldn't be indulged in
having a little fun, and I think we all do that from time to time in this
public forum. But the humor of the best of games can wear thin pretty
quickly.
I do understand the fun of improvising together--maybe something good can
come out of it. But why not in private and then present the results as a
single (edited) post? Because part of the pleasure here seems to be a sort
of preening, like very young children showing off for mommy or adolescent
boys showing off for the girls, the more outrageous the behavior the
better, the mommy/girlfriend in this case being presumably the female
intelligence that Kent says defines the list.
Another point: public improvisation on the subject of oneself or one's
selves tends to pall very quickly. Recently on another list a long,
spontaneous improvisatory game erupted in which I think almost all the
members participated. What made it last so long, and with no complaint, is
that the theme of the improvisation was a few lines of poetry that we all
knew. So selves got expressed and displayed but not egos.
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