These 'e-friendships' one builds up are really very peculiar. For some considerable time I have read the ravings (well, actually they're not quite that bad but seen from the point of view of an ag-ed, re-actionary Englishman they come close) of a lady who calls herself 'The Happy Feminist'. Alas, she is unaware of the great truth that writing reveals much more about yourself than you might realise and so the patently obvious fact that she is anything but happy is obvious to everyone except her. She is an American lawyer and feminist and thus everything I would normally treat with contempt but the fact is, dammit, I like the woman. Like so many Americans, there is a generosity of spirit about her, a sort of refreshing naivete, that disarms the cynic. Don't misunderstand me, she is not stupid, quite the opposite, she possesses a high intelligence, but it has been channelled into all sorts of goofy directions that can only add to her incipient unhappiness. Hers is the sort of misdirected intellectualism that, in a different context, led the neo-cons into thinking they could teach the Arabs to love democracy!
Anyway, this lady, whose blog is enormously popular suddenly went on the 'missing list' for several months without any explanation. The wailing and gnashing of teeth that followed from some 250 commenters, including me, is the greatest possible compliment she could have received. (It made me wonder how many people would mourn my departure from the world of 'Blogdom'. I suppose 'NIB' would have to go back to doing jigsaw puzzles, 'Banana' would return to his collection of knuckle-dusters and 'Teabag' would mutter, between sums, "Whatever happened to 'wotsisname'?") Happily, last week, the lady returned! It's quite stupid because I do not know her as a person, I don't even know her real name, but somehow, don't ask me how, last week, I felt happier. So that's all right, then!
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