In a message dated 4/26/2000 8:23:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< I have to agree w/ Sharpshooter that gossip is less than admirable. Is it
 gossip if someone relates their personal experience, or is it gossip if a
 third person relates someone elses assumed personal experience? For me, the
 gossip on the street was that there was something wrong with the Columbia
 Preservation program but nothing further. >>


][<en and Co:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, gossip can be considered less than admirable under many
circumstances.  On the other hand, we're not exactly a bunch of whores (or,
for that matter, elderly virgins) whispering about Hester Prynne as soon as
her back is turned (my lack of Am Hist/Lit is probably showing; no doubt
there's some reason why the comparison isn't apt).

However, not having kept up with the goings-on at Columbia in the many years
since I left, I found it most interesting to learn that Mr. Urbane turned out
to be exactly the sort of arrogant putz--or maybe even more of one-- that I
expected him to be,  based on having seen his name in magazines, and himself
on TV some years back.

In defense of our esteemed colleagues victimized by the Jury System as
described at various institutions, it seems to me that such after-the-fact
venting (or gossip, if you don't prefer) is a legitimate means of expressing
one's distress and exorcising one's humiliation at the hands (or other
extremities) of a person in a position of considerable power who clearly
abused that power in public, and to whom the abusee was in no position to
protest at the time.  On the other hand, one must commend the truly valiant
verbal resistance of some our penis-free associates, who nevertheless
exhibited large brass balls at times of need.

I say, if they're bad guys, fuck 'em.

Ralph