GRollins

As I was boxing up the HE-3000 to send it out, I took the opportunity to examine the condition of the box relative to the dent in the drum. Nope. No damage to the box in that area. Nothing even close. Further evidence that there's something wrong up the supply chain. I don't have enough clout to get to the bottom of this; to discover whether Meinl is shipping defective product or if Musician's Friend is reboxing returned items. Separately, in the Man, The World's In A Bad Space file, I'll note that I dropped in on Sim's Music today and verified that they carry the brands that I think I'll be wanting to explore, but...jeez, the salesman's attitude wasn't congruent with my past experiences at Sim's. Maybe he was just having a bad day or something. Be that as it may, I'm facing an uphill battle. The area where I live, being so...er...shall we say, deeply suspicious of percussion from other cultures, is not welcoming to people who want to play even "normal" other percussion, like congas. Darbukas? Djembes? Get outta here! Add that to the usual resistance that I face, wanting to do original material, and it's going to be an uphill battle. MF has acknowledged receipt of the HE-3200 that I sent back last week. No word on a replacement yet. No answer to the question I asked, either. Bummer, bummer... Grey

Tom, Jeez, dude...I can't help having this face...it's the one I was born with, ya know? (And I do cut my hair...two or three times a year...or whenever I think about it, whichever comes last. I'm comfortable with longish hair, but apparently others aren't. I don't mind their disapproval, per se, it's the open hostility. The, er, mood, shall we say, has reached a point where people are getting so hostile that I'm starting to think about my personal safety. No, not exaggerating. There's a certain segment of society in this area who are very close to running off the rails.) Re: The HE-3000 I'm in a grumpy mood. I went ahead and initiated a return on the HE-3000. Rebecca responded quickly when I asked to start the process and got right on it. Still no response to my question, but I gather that it may have been forwarded to someone else--I'm okay with that. I don't expect everyone to be an expert in everything. I know nothing about percussion and freely admit it. That's why I ask questions. To learn. That's why I came here--to learn about keys. It worked. So the HE-3000 went out today. In theory, I'll soon be getting a "new" HE-3200 to replace the bunged-up one that I sent back the other day. The way I'm feeling, if the replacement comes in with problems, I'm just going to send it back and cancel the entire order. This is taking too much of my time and energy. There's something rotten in Denmark and I don't have any way to take control of the problem from out here in the hinterlands. Honestly--and this holds regardless of whose fault this is--I'm losing faith in the whole online retail model. I may go to my nearby retailer (Sim's Music...good people...if you're in central SC and need something, go see them. Yes, they have a decent keyboard department.) and have them order things in. At least that way I can see the physical item when I pick it up. Besides, it's no bad thing to support your brick and mortar guys, right? It's just that they don't carry a lot of the things I'm interested in, such as Eurorack modules. But I think they carry Meinl and Latin Percussion (a separate chain of thought, I may delve into that later), so even if they don't have what I want, they can probably get it, at least from those two manufacturers. Grey

1) The Musician's Friend website--and the receipt--specifically say new, plain and simple. 2) Although I've not bought used equipment from Musician's Friend, Sweetwater, Perfect Circuit, et. al., I have bought used off of eBay, Reverb, and Craig's List. Yes, every so often something goes awry (e.g. a clear case of bait and switch on Reverb a year or two ago--I got Reverb involved, they agreed, and things were dealt with). I'm not sure what percentage of deals have turned out badly, but it does happen. I expect a certain number of problems from time to time--in my experience, it's usually because people don't know how to pack things rather than outright fraud. I'm not saying I'm happy about it, but it happens. I'm used to it. BUT AT LEAST IN THOSE CASES I KNOW I'M BUYING USED. 3) The drum came in. I opened the box. Saw that it had problems and got on the phone...elapsed time no more than ten or fifteen minutes, tops...and some of that was wading through their computer-automated front end, trying to get to a human. 4) Jerry answered. He was was useless. He wanted nothing more than to get off the phone. He offered me $25 to keep the drum. A non-starter. I said let's initiate a return. He said he'd call back with "options." I have no earthly idea what he meant by 'options,' but he never called back. The Return Authorization that he initiated was for the wrong item. ***** Okay, to fluff out the picture a little more, I had ordered three drums: Meinl HE-2000, HE-3000, and HE-3200. The HE-3000 was in stock and shipped that day. The other two were back ordered. The one this thread's about is the 3200, which shipped a few days later. Now we'll resume the narrative. ***** So Jerry issued a Return Authorization for the HE-3000, in spite of me repeatedly telling him that it was the 3200, the larger one, the one that had come in just that day. He paid zero attention. 5) After waiting long enough that it was clear that Jerry wasn't going to call back with whatever options there were (he still hasn't called--and won't, I'm sure), I wrote my salesperson, Rebecca. To her credit, she got on the matter, like, almost instantly. Issued a RA for the right drum, straightened out a few other details (that I've left out for clarity's sake), and just generally came through like a champ. 6) So the drum left via UPS and is due back at MF tomorrow, according to UPS tracking. How long will it take to get another drum? No idea. What condition will that drum be in? No idea. 7) We buy things new so as to be able to rest easy, knowing that we're going to get something that's in good condition, right? What happens if that confidence is misplaced? What happens if that trust is abused? What happens if buying new becomes the same sort of crap shoot as buying used? Then what? ***** Okay, let's take the story just a bit further... ***** 8 ) (Dammit, it's taking 8 and a parenthesis as a sun-smiley, so I've added a space. This pisses me off.) So...I wrote Rebecca a note with a purely informational question about the 3000. She's a Gear Advisor or whatever, right? She's my point of contact at MF and if she doesn't know something, presumably she'll forward my question to someone who can answer. I'm okay with that. No one person knows everything. Well...all I've gotten for a response is crickets chirping, at least so far. Now, maybe she went to the beach. Maybe she's got Covid. Maybe...I dunno...maybe there's a good explanation for not getting an answer to what I expected was a simple question. But it's been nearly a week. 9) And finally, for the coup de grace...I was talking to my wife about the 3000 (the initial drum) and messing around with it while I'm talking, only to discover that it, too, has a dent that I had overlooked. It's right under the seam of the vinyl-leather, so it wasn't readily apparent. Really, people? Two dented drums? Maybe Meinl is at fault. Maybe they're turning out defective product. I have no way of knowing who's at fault and I'm sure it would just be a finger pointing festival if I started pressing for answers. What am I going to do about the 3000 and its dent? Oh, crap, I don't know. People, I've got a friggin' house to rebuild and boys to raise and just to complicate matters further, they both go in to have their wisdom teeth out tomorrow morning. I DON'T NEED THIS SHIT! Can a guy not just put in an order for product and get items in good condition without having to fret and worry about things being (possibly) used/returned items passed off as new? Okay, rant over. I need to try to get some rest. Tomorrow's going to be a really long day. Grey

A quick note: Some of you may recall a thread I started a year or two ago wherein I received a "new" unit from Sweetwater that showed clear signs of having been retaped, etc., leading me to question whether the unit in question was, in fact, straight from the factory. Well, it just happened again, this time with a Meinl HE-3200 purchased from Musician's Friend. (Sweetwater carries Meinl, but doesn't carry that particular series and I got a sale price from MF.) To make a long story short, the HE-3200 arrived with a couple of medium-sized dents and cuts in the (faux) leather covering. Easy, peasy, Grey...shipping damage, right? Not so fast, there, pardner...true, there was some damage to the box, but the damage to the box in no way matched the damage to the drum! Also, the box seemed to have been clumsily taped. Yes, maybe it left Meinl that way. Maybe. But that still doesn't explain the discrepancies between the damage to the drum and the damage to the box. For instance, to cut or gouge the leather covering would require a puncture through the cardboard box. There were no punctures, anywhere. You're not going to get a hole in the vinyl 'leather' by rubbing it against smooth cardboard. Oh, and there were no holes in the clear plastic shipping bag covering the unit. It wasn't even abraded. Hmmm... And the dents in the drum were up high, nearly to the top, whereas the damage to the box was towards the bottom, nearly a foot away (no corresponding damage to the drum anywhere nearby). Folks, you know those easy returns that the retailers allow? Ever thought about what happens to the returned units? Ever pondered the math of how many units are returned compared to the paltry number that Sweetwater/Musician's Friend/et. al. sell as demo units? Think about it. No...really...think about it. I may or may not drop back in. This is sort of an addendum to that Sweetwater story. I suspect it happens more often than people wish to believe. The covering on the HE-3200 is black and the dents might pass a quick, careless inspection. The cuts in the vinyl tend to indicate to me that someone, somewhere (Meinl? MF?) just doesn't give a shit; they glanced at the drum and flagged it as ready to go. Grey PS: I finished that confusticated upstairs bathroom, rebuilt a Hafler amplifier, repaired a Hewlett Packard lab power supply, and am starting on the kitchen redo. When I'll get time for music, I do not know. I do know that I still have no patience for people who just want to argue. Screw 'em. PPS: To those who have comparatively long hair--have you noticed an uptick in disparaging remarks related to long hair on guys? I've gotten more comments in the last six months than in the preceding twenty years combined. Certain segments of society are turning ugly.

Based on sixty seconds worth of research, this seems like a good price: $4k for a Moog One 8-voice synth. No, I don't want it (see my "review" from a couple of years back). You guys can have it if the price is, indeed, worthwhile. https://columbia.craigslist.org/msg/d/lexington-moog-one-voice-synthesizer/7754062718.html I'm signing back off now, so don't expect me to check for replies/posts/screeds/whatever. Just thought this might be of interest to someone...it's just not my thing...I'll stick with my Phatty & Voyagers, etc. Grey

Alas, some people seem to have misunderstood what I said. I guess that's par for the course. Say anything on the web and five people will arrive at ten different conclusions in less than thirty seconds. For the record: 1) Yes, I had already decided to depart before starting this thread. Said so, right there in the original post. This thread, and the posts herein, had nothing to do with my decision. That decision stands. 2) No, I'm not saying trolls invaded this thread. (...although I sense a negative trend in some posts that could turn into a problem...) 3) My list of competing responses regarding how often to oil a Hammond was meant in jest...not in anger. Apparently some didn't get that. Jeez, George Carlin and Robin Williams died and the world lost its sense of humor overnight. Now it's all judgemental anger, 24/7. 4) Note that nowhere in the thread did I ask how often to oil a Hammond. It just kind of popped up via spontaneous generation, as it were. I decided to riff on the fact that this unintentional poll came out of nowhere and showed no convergence towards a consensus. Mistake on my part, I guess. sigh (Note also that not one person cited an official source for their oiling schedule.) 5) Uh...and while we're at it, why the hell doesn't the official Hammond owner's manual mention oiling anyway? You'd think that it would be easy to find in the maintenance section if it was all that necessary. (I wish I could remember where I got the 'fill the cups twice, annually' info, but my mind is blank on that one; it's just a handwritten note.) 6) As a corollary to the oiling thing: I'd always wondered how often Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson, et. al. oiled their Hammonds on tour--and how the oil stayed in the organs, what with all the jostling about. I'm going to guess, especially given the answers in this thread, that they oiled 'em once before they left home and let that be it for the whole tour...and maybe for the next two or three tours. Who knows? 7) This tendency amongst people to assume things, based on varying interpretations of what I (and everyone else--I'm not saying it's just my posts) write is exhausting. It's inevitable that we all bring our various viewpoints to the table, but there's a growing trend to assign the worst possible interpretation to everything. It doesn't need to be that way. Obviously there will be misunderstandings from time to time, but hopefully those can be cleared up with one or two posts of clarification. But this willful, persistent reading of hostile intent where none was intended, even after clarification, gets really, really old. And you can't tell them otherwise because they insist that their interpretation is 'obviously' the right one and that you're just trying to weasel out...yadda, yadda, yadda... It shows more about their internal anger than they realize. Oh, well. Okay, now I have made what will inevitably be a futile gesture to clear up some misunderstandings. This post will generate its own misinterpretations and...on it goes. It's an iterative process with no end and I'm totally tired of it. Completely. Absolutely. I do my best to say things as clearly as I possibly can and...you guessed it...someone finds a way to take it the wrong way. Nah. I'm done. I need that energy to work on the house and be a parent to my boys (who will also choose to [willfully] misinterpret/mishear what I say--parents of teenagers among you will understand). I'm off to start my day. I'm going to try not to be back, but I'd heard from some members that this thread was in danger of going sideways so I thought I'd attempt some repairs. Wish you guys and gals the best. Grey

There are nasty little things called pine beetles. The female of the species chooses a (you guessed it...) pine tree in which to lay her eggs and that, my friends, is pretty much a death sentence for that tree. Why? Because that one pine beetle emits a pheromone that summons other female pine beetles to lay their eggs in that same tree. One beetle, the tree might be able to handle. Dozens, hundreds, thousands...it's over. The tree's a goner. We have a situation here at Keyboard Corner not unlike that of the unfortunate pine tree. The signal went out and lurkers who were watching sensed a hospitable environment; they became members and logged in. Trolls, by their very nature, tend to urge one another on, testing the limits, saying more and more outrageous things, becoming more and more extreme. Sometimes it's easy to look at a post and say, "This one crosses the line." Other times it's just a teeny-tiny bit more extreme than the one that came before, an incremental, creeping, sly progression of toes-over-lines. I've had to back away from too many threads recently. I need to keep my head together so I can deal with things here at home. I just got done talking to one of my sons, who's bravely walking into a mess tomorrow afternoon--partly listening, partly making suggestions as to how to deal with things he might run into. Just, you know, being there as a sounding board and as support. The resource. The backstop. Poppa. That's where my head needs to be, not distracted by some empty-headed nincompoop who's saying a bunch of stupid, negative crap online...and in the process summoning yet more pine beetles...er...trolls. I'm only going to say this once, so clean your glasses and read carefully, okay? I do not blame dB for what's happening. Got that? Is that clear enough? I was a moderator once and it was a miserable existence. Trolls made my life hell. It started with two (I can't prove this, but I believe they knew each other out in the real world and worked together to present a concerted front), although it seemed like more, because one of them had a bunch of sock puppets. It was a whack-a-mole situation. As soon as I dealt with one, another would pop up and start being a nuisance. Then more trolls arrived. Then still more. Then I had a death in the family (not my daughter, this was longer ago than that--my mother passed, due to cancer), then another death, and it got to be too much. I resigned after a couple of years at the helm. For what it's worth, the guy who became moderator after me didn't even make it six months. It's a thankless job, especially with the world going the way it's going. My hat's off to dB. He's a better man than I am to shoulder the load and carry it for as long as he has. I'm going to close my Keyboard Corner tab on my browser now. It's been there for years, always patient, always there when I needed to escape into the world of music. I'll drop back in and take a look from time to time. It'll just be a while, I think. Maybe a long while. To people of good will: Thanks for putting up with all my questions and just kinda...you know...being there. That GAS that you inspired? All is forgiven. We're cool. To the trolls: Fuck off. May your karma bite you on the ass as soon as you roll out of bed tomorrow morning. Grey

I'm afraid that the places on my A-100 are beyond a mere touch-up pen. Cigarette burns and circular scars that might be from drinks (if alcohol dissolves the finish, then it might be shellac--but for all I know it was a container of lacquer thinner, which will attack most any finish). The bench has a few legitimate scratches, but the organ has some larger places. It will be forever before I get a chance to worry about such things. The house takes precedence at this time. And single-parenting. And all that stuff. If and when I get a chance, I'll conduct some experiments in the proverbial "inconspicuous place" before committing to the places on top. As I said, I'm fortunate in that the wood is in very good condition, it's just the finish that's messed up. Grey

See? See? Dammit, dB, I don't do this on purpose! I swear! I thought I was joking when I said there'd be a controversy over the confusticated oil. But, noooooo... Grey had to go and put his damn-fool foot in it. Okay, here's where things stand as of 17:34, 3/3/24: Outkaster: “...once a year.” mate stubb: “I’ve not oiled any of my tonewheel organs for years. IMO the factory recommendation for filling the cups every year leads to puddles under organs.” jpgxk3: “...2-3 drops of oil covers a lot of parts with the lightest coating.” Jim Alfredson “You don't fill the cups. You put about 10 drops in each every 2 years or so.” JoJoB3: “The more often it's used the closer we adhere to a yearly oiling. Some choose to do it every 2 years. And what's been mentioned is correct, we don't "fill the cups" with normal maintenance…” CEB: “I oil every September. It does not take much.” Grey's oil containers, both "official" Hammond oil: "Once a year," but they don't say how much. (The containers are very different--one's a long, narrow plastic tube with graduations on the side. The other's a metal can. As I said, they're both Hammond.) Grey's handwritten notes: "Fill cups at each end twice, once a year." (I have no idea where I got this information.) My original Hammond manual: Mum's the word. If there's info in there about oiling the stupid thing, I can't find it. There's a maintenance section, but it's all about how to wipe down the keys and woodwork, not a word about oiling it. DISCLAIMER: I'm in migraine mode and my noggin's not working so good. I may have looked straight at the oil info and not seen it. And that's just the oiling/maintenance schedule. There's no consensus on where the blinkin' oil goes (my original question), either. It seems to be evenly divided between "evaporates" and "flung out." No, I'm not asking for an authoritative answer on the mechanical ticking--I haven't done my part, as far as disassembly and examination on this end. I'll take the heat for that. I'm off to find some sort of chemical assistance for my head. Back in a bit to see if the trolls have started accusing me of being provocative... Oh, and just to really tempt fate, lemme ask this: What kind of finish did Hammond use? Lacquer? Shellac? Varnish? My organ's wood <ahem> is in fine shape, but there are a couple of places where the finish could use a little touch-up. It looks to me as though it probably includes a stain, possibly mahogany or cherry, incorporated into the finish itself. It will take a bit of matching to get the color right. Yes, I have colors--use 'em when I'm building guitars. I use lacquer for guitars, but will try to use whatever Hammond used if possible, just to be authentic. I hate repairs--I'd rather build--but a nice instrument like this deserves to look its best. Grey

Honestly, it's been so long since I used it I don't remember how it sounds. How does one go about flashing a Hammond? Do I have to take my clothes off to do so? Will I be taken to court afterwards for indecent exposure? Given that the thing is 60 years old or so, at least it's not under aged! (Is this where the thread goes awry?) Grey

Mechanical. The thing spins inside, yes? I'm thinking--not having opened it up--that the spinning arm is hitting something once per revolution. That's just supposition on my part. It's on my to-do list to look at, but it's down around #998 and there's no telling when I'll get to it. Time is dear. Grey

Me no gots Leslie...just an A-100. The chorus dingus makes a repetitive clicking noise: Tik, tik, tik. Not having time to work on the thing, I'm tempted to disconnect it. I don't use the chorus anyway. Would that cause problems? Grey

Ha! Caught you. Before anyone snarks, "It goes in the funnel, stupid!" that's not what I'm asking. The thrust of my question is this: Once you've added oil to your Hammond, the clock starts ticking and you're supposed to add more in a year, right? So, where does today's oil go? Does it evaporate? If so, then what's the stuff made of that it doesn't leave a residue? I know that, say, naptha can evaporate and leave nothing behind if it's pure enough, but it's not necessarily a good lubricant. So what's thicker than naptha that won't leave a gummy deposit? The more complex the hydrocarbon, the more likely it is to leave a mess. This stuff must be pretty simple to evaporate, yet...it takes a more complex long-chain molecule (or mixture, but one of the ingredients will need to be bigger) to be a good lubricant. An interesting conundrum. Or did I miss something and you are, in fact, supposed to break down your Hammond at intervals and clean it out? On a more general note, I've grown weary of the shit-flinging that's going on here. Some people just want to be ugly and I have enough bad things going on in my life right now that I don't want to be around that sort of negativity. Once I get this question resolved, I'll likely withdraw from the site as a whole. It's no longer worth it. Yes, I'll probably drop in from time to time and look around, but it won't be near as often. I've kept Keyboard Corner on a tab on my browser for years so I could glance at what's going on every day or two, even if I don't participate. I think maybe it's time for that tab to go away. It's become radioactive. Now I'll sit back and watch to see how long it takes this thread to go off the rails...I don't know how they'll do it, but they'll find a way. (All the while proclaiming, "Who, me?" all wide-eyed and innocent--and also accusing me of being provocative, like I was supposed to know ahead of time that Hammond oil was some big controversy. Jeez.) Grey

I find it unsurprising that certain people completely miss the points I've been trying to make. I expected it. As I said in my previous post, they've already rationalized their behavior and have no intention of changing. I could go to the trouble to extract the parts of my posts that relate to things they're saying and place them side by side for contrast and compare purposes, but...to what end? They're still not going to admit they're out of line and it would take too much of my time...which I need to flail at this stupid house. (Today's more mud and tape...have I mentioned how much I hate mud? I HATE MUD! There, I said it, just in case I hadn't before. [See? Even I am filled with hate...]) I'm not sure how I can say this without crossing the line into politics, but I'll give it a try. A few years back there was an event that, shall we say, allowed all the racists to come crawling out from under their rocks. People were horrified. "Where did all these racists come from? Things were going so well and now they're going to hell in a hand basket!" Well, I, for one, was not caught off guard. I knew they were there all along. I worked with them, bought groceries from them, and stood next to them on street corners, waiting for the light to change. They were never gone. They just went underground, seething and simmering at a society that they resented, waiting for their chance to try to remake the world in their image--one based on a hierarchy wherein they would be the masters once more. When their chance came, they seized it with both hands. Now they march openly instead of grumbling to themselves in the closet where no one can hear. There are always hate-filled people. Always. They will never go away. The most you can hope for is to build in enough restraints, woven throughout society, that they are forced to keep their ugly-assed comments down to uneasy muttering instead of shouting them from the rooftops. Does this somehow restrict their First Amendment rights? The First Amendment is not absolute. It is not the preeminent right, superseding all others. A Mafia boss cannot, for instance, order someone's murder, then hide behind the First Amendment, claiming that they can say anything they want. There are real limits. With the right to free speech comes responsibility--the responsibility to think before speaking; to self-edit, if necessary, the things that the Id wants to say. That's why Freud posited the Ego (to control the Id) and the Super Ego (to oversee the whole unruly mess). But as I've said, a large percentage of society has completely abandoned any pretense of civilized behavior. It's all Id, 24/7. The child is loose upon the world and, yea verily, it is an ill-tempered, petulant, spoiled brat, with an evil pull-the-wings-off-of-flies mentality that will not be satisfied with anything less than pure pain, chaos, and destruction. It's sad to watch this happen at Keyboard Corner. Intellectually, I knew that it was likely, but that didn't stop me from hoping that the madness would, somehow, pass this site by, leaving an island of relative calm. Alas, 'twas not to be. The tendrils have slowly encroached upon even this humble oasis...and will continue to grow. I don't see a way to stop them any more than there's a way to stop them in our larger society. The monsters are out of their dark, dank, hidey-holes and they will not be going back without a fight. The time has come for me to withdraw from this thread. The people who are behaving badly have had a sense of entitlement instilled in them by their masters that permits them to do as they please, when they please, and damn the consequences. Like my altercations with Jody, I'm not big enough to win this fight. I don't have long enough arms and I'm not strong enough. Time to go. And, as I always say when I leave: You guys have fun. Grey

Yep, that excuse is one of the common ones: a) "Move along...move along... Nothing to see here." The problem is that by enabling bad behavior, you encourage it. The steady coarsening of dialog here in the US (and, indeed, around the world) has been brought about, in part, by people not calling out bad behavior. By degrees, things get worse. Like the proverbial lobster thrown in cold water that slowly gets hotter, people only wake up to the fact that there's a problem when the bubbles start popping as the water finally comes to a boil. b) "Oh, they'll stop. They'll realize that they've stepped over the line by themselves. You don't have to do anything." Um...really? No, really not. There are reams of examples of odious behavior that has not been self-correcting. In fact, it's getting worse. c) "It's free speech!" I'm an author. You won't find anyone who's a bigger champion of free speech than I am. But on the other hand, there comes a time to call out bad behavior. Just because you are have the right to free speech does not mean that you have to dive to the bottom of the shit barrel to express yourself. This is a crucial distinction that certain people (and their apologists) refuse to acknowledge. It's pedal to the metal, all day, every day. They're not happy unless they're antagonizing and provoking someone. d) "It's not my fault! I'm just pushing back against [fill in the blank]." This is a tricky one. I'll use something from my past to illustrate: When I was in elementary school I lived in a conventional residential neighborhood full of parallel streets and cookie cutter houses. My across-the-back-yard neighbor happened to be the neighborhood bully. Most of us were 6 to 8 years old, but Jody was, I think, 12 or 14, which means that he had a sizeable advantage in strength and height. That was bad enough, but here's the real kicker--Jody had this infuriating habit of coming up to you, giving you a wallop, then screaming at the top of his lungs, "What did you hit me for?" Did you catch that? He hit first, then screamed that he was the victim in order to justify really cutting loose on you. This attitude has become increasingly prevalent and eventually it becomes incumbent on the rest of the population to actually...you know...fight back. Of course, as you might imagine, when you finally had enough of being bullied by Jody and hit him, he'd scream even louder that you were hitting him and amp up his attack to an even more frenzied level. There's no good way to handle someone like this. The whole 'I'm the victim' thing is used as a get out of jail free card to excuse all manner of bad behavior these days. Now, at that point, it was true...yes, you had actually hit him...but look at the circumstances. Sometimes you have to hit slo-mo instant replay to see who really instigated the thing. Jody was my first exposure to this technique and to this day I harbor a special dislike for people who employ the tactic. Eventually we moved away. I hope somebody eventually cleaned Jody's clock. The son of a bitch richly deserved it. I just wasn't big enough and strong enough to be the one who visited justice on his smirking face. e) "Oh, that wasn't so bad, you're just being a wuss! Look--you're not even bleeding, so you're not hurt!" Part of living in a civilized society is the right to not be continually attacked, directly or indirectly. Yes, there are places and times where terrible things happen, e.g. Ukraine, and the people there have to endure unimaginable horrors every day. Yes, they have had to toughen up. But should they? Is that really the right way to live? There are other points I could bring up, but to the ones who are behaving badly they will fall upon deaf ears. They've already rationalized and justified their behavior and, in essence, it all boils down to "Because I can and because I want to" and nothing else matters. No, you don't 'got this.' Grey