A letter from a friend.

[rubato]

About his brother, a sailing writer who is on his 3rd trip around the world:

"... My favorite recent story is his stop in Sulkin Sudan (check youtube videos) where he went ashore one day and was repeatedly chased by groups of camel mounted young men waving swords over their heads while charging at him. He spent hours hiding in the ruins fearing that his head was going to be chopped off when one of the villagers found him and told him that everybody is looking for him and that they all have magnificent swords to sell. He had forgot he mentioned the week before that he wanted to buy a sword and Sudan is so poor that when the word went out that a rich American yatchee wants to buy a sword they were coming from hundreds of miles through the dessert. They were waving the swords so he would see them and want to buy! The only one better than that is his Borneo story where the village chiefs bring out their shrunken heads to show (after you are a bit drunk and they don't think you are police) and anyone who has a car accident or falls of a ladder is mysteriously found headless. The Coroner always confirms that indeed the head is missing as a result of accident trauma. The local people feel like this is a fair arrangement as after all if this system was not in place they might just whack one of them leaving a bar at night. So somehow it all works even though many of the bodies are buried with ceremonial mask with no head underneath. Unfortunately I don't think these have made it to print yet. ... "

Some people just lead richer and more interesting lives than I do.

His first book is:



A really good read about one of the most unusual upbringings and adult lives I will ever hear of.

"Beware the dream crushers." indeed.


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Neat - I'll look out for it at the library when we get back. Have you sailed with Cap'n Fatty?

I think he may have been imposed upon in Borneo by the tall tales of the head hunter/tourist industry, though. It sounds like an urban legend - headless accident victims and coroners shrugging.

They didn't shrink heads other than in the Americas did they (whoever "they" were). Head hunting was different to shrinking.

[rubato]

These are 'sailing yarns', valued for color and vividness, not parsed too closely for veracity. eh? I think they're true, mostly.

His brother was a friend and colleague.

Read the book.


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

See, now here's the problem I have with this..

In order to believe this story is true, I have to believe rubato actually had a friend...

"I have a problem with that..."

[MajGenl.Meade]

LJ - you know, a joke's a joke but (as my wife says) a joke's funny and that ain't funny.

Whatever your beef with rubato, is it really necessary to follow almost every post he makes with some insulting remark? Isn't there a name for that kind of behaviour?

Just askin' (and knowing I'll probably get an earful back - fire away )

[Lord Jim]

Oh Lord give me strength...

If you're going to feed the biggest prick on this board's delusions about him being a victim, I really don't know where to start...

Why don't you begin by addressing your criticism to the chap who can barely write a single post without it containing an insulting remark?

Your point is not well taken. In fact it's rejected out of hand.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh OK then - rubato please stop writing posts that contain insults. Thank you very much.

Now that's taken care of. . . LJ, I reject your rejection and your attempt at deflection (needs a rap beat).

rubato said nothing insulting in this thread. You did, and predictably so. I offer you no insult - just an accurate observation. I've nothing further to say about it.

[Lord Jim]

rubato said nothing insulting in this thread.

To be quite honest, I interpreted his line, "Read the book." as a smarmy, condescending insult directed at you....(I still do; given the track record, I doubt my interpretation is incorrect.)

That was in fact what inspired my post...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh I didn't - thought it was just amplifying the explanation above it. The book presumably indicates the "sailing yarn" nature of the tales and I will read it should opportunity present, which is not likely here in SA but after May . . .

[rubato]

"mostly unprovoked"

The evidence is not subtle, or difficult to find.

yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Yes but (here at least) you too could drop it and let's talk about sailor's yarns and other wool gathering exercises. How about it?

[Lord Jim]

Gen'l you really missed the boat on this one...(pun intended)

As should be obvious to you by now, rube has no interest in discussing this with you.

That was obvious to me when I saw him dismissively post, "Read the book."...

I have been reading this boor's stuff long enough to realize at once that was just a left handed insult. The missing part of that sentence reads, "I don't have any interest in discussing this with the likes of you; read the book".

If it had been intended to mean anything other than a rude dismissal of discussion, it would have been phrased quite differently, and his post would have included more content of a conversational nature.

I'm very sorry that you didn't pick up on this. Your failure to do so resulted in your writing what is probably the single most un-helpful, un-constructive thing that has been posted here in a very long time.

You have provided cover and validation for the consistently most nasty and insulting poster on this board for his revolting whining about how he is some sort of "victim". (Which he found time to do in several threads this morning, while not finding time to engage you in a substantive discussion...funny that...)

Rubato is a friggin' one man insult factory; he churns them out day in and day out non-stop; some direct, others in a transparent left handed passive/aggressive fashion. He can rarely get through a whole post without tossing in at least one. (Frequently his entire post is intended as an insult to somebody.) He produces snarky unprovoked insults like Carter produces liver pills. (As he did in this thread.)

Perhaps because this behavior of his is so ubiquitous on this board it has become like background noise to you, and you don't even notice it.

On those rare occasions when he does manage to start a thread that seems to be benign in content, (as this one was initially)neither I or as far as I can tell, anyone else gives him his comeuppance until he reverts to form, (again, as he did in this thread.) Had it not been for that bit of arrogant crap, I would not have posted a word in this thread. In the case of most of the threads he starts that are clearly designed to troll me, (and possibly Dave) I usually don't post at all unless someone else says something I want to respond to. (Many of those threads sink to the bottom with no responses from anyone.)

Occasionally in some discussions you may see what might appear to be "unprovoked" shots taken at him, by me or others, but you need to place that in the larger context of his constant, on-going behavior across the entire board. If you do this, on any given day you will see that generally when he receives these jabs, they come after repeated feces tossing from him somewhere in the forum.

I really can't emphasize enough just how unfortunate your post providing validation for this toad's bizarre claim to be some kind of "victim" is. If I posted something that counter-productive, on further reflection, I would delete it.

[Guinevere]

I had the same reaction as MGM, and that doesn't happen very often.

Jim, we can all make decisions for ourselves what is insulting, attacking, or difficult, and we can respond or not, as we please. We really don't need your lens *interpreting* rube's posts. It's rather like the Gwenslator, trying to explain Steve's nonsense (albeit from a reverse direction).

[Lord Jim]

Guin, I'm sorry, but where are you when the insult factory is churning out his insults?

Maybe the problem is that if people were going to criticize rube every time he takes a gratuitous shot they wouldn't have time to post anything else...maybe that's why it's not happening...

[Joe Guy]

The Gwenslator was very accurate and so is Lord Jim when it comes to rubato. rubato takes subtle swipes at LJ quite often and others don't see them.

If Lord Jim weren't here, rubato would not post nearly as often as he does. For proof, go to Le Chat House and notice not only how little he posts there anymore and also how he posts quite differently. He is a completely different character there.

Here's an example of one of his highly emotional posts from over there that you would never see here -

sheesh RAYThOM

Well aren't you a ray of sunshine.

yrs,
rubato

The above doesn't mean that I don't enjoy seeing him post here or want him to go away. I'm only giving him the attention he seems to crave and pointing out what doesn't seem to be obvious to some of us.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I was hoping for some more sailing stories. I liked the one about the swords.

[Sue U]

I was hoping for some more sailing stories. I liked the one about the swords.

Me too.

[rubato]

Yes but (here at least) you too could drop it and let's talk about sailor's yarns and other wool gathering exercises. How about it?

Over and over again I drop it and start this kind of thread only to have it turned to shit.

Just an observation.



yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

I was hoping for some more sailing stories. I liked the one about the swords.

Me too.

I'd buy the book. Available from Powell's or other vendors. (you don't HAVE to shop at Amazon.)

He has a website which is here:

http://fattygoodlander.com/

Nov 22, 2008

I love signing copies of my books. Once I was walking down the street and a guy rushed up to me with a copy of one of my books and said, "Hey, Fatty! ...sign it for me, willya?"

I said, "Sure!" and started to do so.

The guy's wife ran up to him and said, "Harry! Why the hell are you buying a book... you never read a book in your life!"

Harry shot back at her, "...dis ain't a book you read, honey, it's a book you met da author of!"

Some pithy commentary on the Suez canal back under the previous administration. "Baksheesh"!

http://fattygoodlander.com/suez_canal_corruption



I don't know "Fatty" but I used to know his brother pretty well for a while and I gotta tell you they don't live in the same world you do. Yeah, they grew up here in the US of A but that just hides how wildly different their upbringing was.

yrs,
rubato

[Joe Guy]

Over and over again I drop it and start this kind of thread only to have it turned to shit.

It's called Karma.