the truth about jennifer - fireball did it - nklr
Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2001 11:04 am
It is true. Jennifer never existed. I did it.
I apologize for manipulating the list. It was so easy, but not
clever. I feel so stupid.
However, some observations:
Most of you showed total class with Jennifer. Bogdan was really
cool, fer instance. Monahan was cool. Lot's of others were cool.
But...
Nearly a dozen of you offered unsolicited sexual suggestions to
Jennifer offlist during her short, tempestuous life. Lessee...that
would be almost a one percent response rate. Direct mail people
quiver at those numbers. You guys should pat yourselves on the back,
maybe.
When Jennifer challenged the list regarding its sexist treatment of a
fellow rider, she got over 30 apologies. That's a whopping 2.7
percent response rate. She began to feel a great love for the list
at that point.
And as Jennifer's technical intellect began to blossom (after she got
off her meds), and she began to offer playful, yet real answers to
real tech issues, there was always a verifiable cadre of list members
who preferred to make sexual responses, or discount the validity of
the observations simply because they questioned her existence. List
members, in fact, demanded proof of her existence, to an extent well
beyond what would have been granted to a man. I dunno - I've met
less than 50 of you, so how do I know the rest of you really exist?
Finally, this exercise confirmed that a certain group will foster pre-
conceived notions of who could do such a dastardly manipulation.
Gino and Ron were unjustly accused for no other reason that they did
the same thing earlier. Jennifer was shocked to learn that this
prejudice had nothing to do with fact, and that anyone could believe
that Gino and Ron could be so dumb to try it again. Clearly, it
takes a new dumb person to do it again.
Lastly, I wish to formally apologize for dragging Toby and Gino and a
few others into this mess. I derive all my inspiration from these
men, and admit it was not terribly imaginative. I apologize to the
women on this list, one who I convinced to lie on Jennifer's behalf.
You may also be assured that the T-shirt design, financed by me for
no consideration on behalf of the Moab Get-Together is alive and
well. I fully expect a partial boycott of this shirt as a result of
this exercise, and if that works out for some of you, great.
I hope you all can find it in your hearts to forgive my
transgressions. I feel so bad, so soiled. After being one of the
original people on this list, and after being so responsible for so
long, I feel my reputation is, like, totally shot.
Let's go ride.
Best Regards,
Stuart, aka Fireball
Stuart, Florida USA
1998 KLR 650
58,000 miles