From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!trb
Newsgroups: net.singles
Title: pawing
Article-I.D.: floyd.1474
Posted: Wed Apr 27 11:46:22 1983
Received: Thu Apr 28 03:16:15 1983
References: flairvax.117

I'm tired of seeing people in this group maligning the person who
posted the original netnews about advice on pawing.  If you thought it
was just a dumb joke, then ok, you should have ignored it.  Realize
that if it's not a dumb joke, but rather a real request, and you treat
it as a joke, then your are hurting a person who is probably pretty
sensitive about his problem (his insecurity was evident in the nature
of his request).  Such insensitivity on the part of someone who would
derogate such a person borders on criminal.

Realize that the whole world isn't filled with people who have your
social grace.  There are many people who have enormous problems
dealing with other people, particularly members of the opposite sex.
Just because I'm somewhat comfortable holding a girl's hand, that
doesn't mean that everyone who reads net.singles is.  Let's say you
shared the fruit off your experience with this guy.  Either he's a
fraud and it's no skin of your nose, else he was in dire need, and
maybe your advice helped him, at least he knows that you took the
time and interest to reply.

Yea, the guy stated his feelings in simple realistic terms, the way he
felt them, in simple English.  He was clearly uncomfortable about a
situation, and he expressed it in an anxious way that might have made
him feel a little more comfortable than if he had just asked a simple
ignorant question.

Sometimes the narrow minded insensitivity in netnews pisses me off.

	Andy Tannenbaum   Bell Labs  Whippany, NJ   (201) 386-6491