{"id":41676,"date":"2020-03-14T16:48:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T16:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=41676"},"modified":"2020-03-14T16:48:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T16:48:48","slug":"still-no-on-last-word-duels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=41676","title":{"rendered":"Still ‘no!’ on last-word duels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Four years ago I posted an item that talked briefly about my reluctance to engage readers of this blog or other social media acquaintances in a battle of wits.<\/p>\n

I wrote:\u00a0I’m leaning against a possible Last Word Contest with those along my social media network who suffer from the last-word addiction. My sense is that they have more staying power than I do when they engage others — such as me — in these idea exchanges, which is why they’re addicted … and I’m not.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then again, I could change my mind. I’ll keep y’all posted.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I haven’t changed my mind. My reluctance to engage in such repartee remains as staunch as ever.<\/p>\n

I’ll have to admit to something in that regard: I am not smart enough or witty enough or my mind isn’t as facile as others who can’t get enough of this kind of back\/forth.<\/p>\n

High Plains Blogger allows me to vent. It provides me a forum to express my views on a whole array of issues. It also allows me to talk about matters some might consider trivial; the Puppy Tales series about our beloved pooch Toby, to cite one example. Hey, it’s my blog and I can write whatever I feel like writing. Got it? Good!<\/em><\/p>\n

As for the last-worditis<\/em> that afflicts some folks, I know who they are. They<\/em> know who they are. One of them who sadly recently passed away used to acknowledge my reluctance to engage him in a discussion. I wouldn’t answer his acknowledgement, which I suppose is my way of staying faithful to the personal pledge I made to avoid that kind of (what I consider to be) nonsense.<\/p>\n

Part of my increased reluctance has been the intensely personal nature of the volleys that participants fire at each other. One of the goals I have managed to meet with this blog is that I do not launch ad hominem<\/em> attacks at individuals simply because they disagree with whatever flies off my keyboard and into cyberspace. Consequently, with only very few exceptions, critics of this blog have been relatively high-minded in their responses, although some of their<\/em> critics have accused them of taking cheap shots.<\/p>\n

That’s when it gets nasty. And personal. I watch these rhetorical fire fights from a distance and experience what I only can describe as a sort of out-of-body episode<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But this blog will trudge on. I am proud of it. I enjoy it beyond measure. It gives me relief \u2026 even if some folks want to goad me into a battle of wits.<\/p>\n

Sorry. You’re outta luck.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four years ago I posted an item that talked briefly about my reluctance to engage readers of this blog or other social media acquaintances in a battle of wits. I wrote:\u00a0I’m leaning against a possible Last Word Contest with those along my social media network who suffer from the last-word addiction. My sense is that … Continue reading Still ‘no!’ on last-word duels<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2122,4300,6016],"class_list":["post-41676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","tag-high-plains-blogger","tag-social-media","tag-toby-the-puppy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41677,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41676\/revisions\/41677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}