Dan - thank you. I understand and appreciate the fact that, from your perspective, this short (and quickly composed) poem was an act of sheer generosity, one that you would not have undertaken save for my having asked for it. (It is, in my un-tutored opinion, quite lovely.) From my perspective, however: while I'd wish to say that the almost pathological distaste you share with Rick for beard-pulling is at the very least misguided, I have to admit that it is probably posters (and beard-pullers) like me who have done much to engender that aversion. Nonetheless, I think that if you would peruse again the other posts on this thread, you will find dozens of heart-felt paeans from the likes of Michael and Sean and Gib etc that are as far from beard-pulling as a slice is from a hook. I could wish that those posts would be your model instead of (and I'm perhaps assuming too much) any of my past posts that managed to pull the beard right off my face (metaphorically speaking, of course -- which reminds me of a thread I'd like to start about what courses Socrates would've wanted to play before taking hemlock, and what 20th century physicists he would've wanted to round out his foursome). Thank you
Peter