And PS: Comment about going after gossip monger with an axe: speaking metaphorically, like duh. Since I don’t know who the gossip monger is, what it looks like, or anything else about him/her, I’m hardly likely to be going after anybody. No need to anyway at this point.

The fact that she picked something that sounds like its out of Junior high is just proof of her immaturity.

I hope you’re feeling better and the cold has gone away.

As for gossip, I have Neil to thank for the “squash it like a bug” advice. For years I have put up with some nonsense on the web I didn’t want to draw attention to – or, as is the case now, to drive up their hit counter and give them money for their blogs – but in future I will be more proactive about untrue stories which float about.

Two people can come away from the same conversation with completely different interpretations, and where the perception of money or fame is involved (in particular in fandom where information is currency) things can get ridiculous quickly.

I will never forget the strange woman who swore I dissed her appearance after I told her I had had to go shopping for a new suit, since I had nothing to wear.

For years after, she’s been swearing up and down I was making a dig at her for how she dressed. Actually, I was trying to tell her how I found a great bargain in a consignment shop.

A good trick for me to diss her appearance, since we’d never met. We had only spoken over the phone and in some emails and I had no idea what she looked like.

Haven’t spoken to her since, either. This was about ten years back, I guess.

How someone derives from my comment about my clothes that I was making a comment about her I do not know, but that’s the level of telephone game we’re dealing with here, and I still hear this ridiculous rumor ten years later.

“Colleen dissed my clothes!”

Colleen couldn’t identify you in a lineup.

All I can recommend is do something relaxing that you enjoy or something that helps ground you a little bit.

Be well my friend.