Bobby Sommers. Cub Reporter

I pulled yesterday's Fallbrook Public Utility District rebuttal post. In the middle of the night. It didn't feel right to me. The anonymous emailer raised some good points but they were overridden by his personal jabs and anger. Unfortunately when you engage in ad hominem attacks, even valid points that you make tend to get forgotten. Mr. Hayden wrote a pretty straightforward response which I welcome and I think that he deserved a more courteous answer.

If you would like to read the post, I have it published under the Hayden letter from the other day. I think that I am through with the investigative journalism shtick and am taking off my muckracker cap. Things get too ugly, too fast. The people that ride into town with the white hats on only see black hats and vice versa.

WildBill commented at breakfast that people that comment anonymously on the blast tend to feel like they have a greater freedom to be assholes than people that sign their names to their post and I think I agree. I have considered doing away with anonymous comments but some people have a problem figuring their way through the comment system and commenting anonymously is the easiest way to chime in. But I would appreciate it if you would sign your name anyway.

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According to Blogger, this is my 3225th blog post and I have received somewhere around 5026 comments to date. That is a lot of writing. I can honestly say that while many blogs have serious issues with trolls and nasty people, I can count the truly vile comments on both hands. I think that is pretty cool. I am not counting Kerry in Arizona because I know that he just tries to stir the pot every once in a while. I rarely if ever censor anything on the blast. I got a fairly crappy comment last night and suggested that the reader, who was of course anonymous, find a different place to read.

A lot of people are reading this blog. All over the country, all over the world. Don't ask me why, they can't all be cruising for porn sites. I meet new lurkers every day. A lurker, for those of you who are not familiar with blog parlance, is someone unknown to you who reads but never comments. It is of course very flattering to me that people enjoy my writing and contributions. But the more people that read, in some ways, the harder it is to write, especially when everybody is wired so differently. Loses a bit of intimacy. Some of my associates have expressed genuine surprise that I haven't been stalked by some psycho yet.

I have even given consideration to making the blast an invitation only affair. But if I had adopted that stance some of my greatest readers like Len in New York, Linda in L.A. and Randy in Bristol would never have come on board. So we will keep things as they are for a while.

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Of course I have threatened to stop several times writing several times in the past and we all know how that turned out so I won't even think about playing that card on you again. Would like to write fiction but it takes a clearer mind than I possess at present. Georg Simenon could crank out a novel in seven days, Earle Stanley Gardner could do it in three, takes me ten years. Will keep at it as long as its fun, then it goes poof! and I try something different.