There are a few guys and gals (no disrespect) on this board who seem to universally command respect among the brethren. Examples would be Capt. Russ, Nigel, DonM, Rikkibears, and several others. They sort of define 'Class Act'. A few of us come close but sooner or later and ever so briefly, fall off the wagon and knock ourselves off the list. I always thought of Gary as being on that 'list', and in fact, still do. I think the "ASS" comment was an aberration and in fact, technically, he didn't actually CALL someone an 'ass', just that they should stop ACTING like one. Splitting hairs, I know, and neither is probably acceptable by the majority of the members (plus, I'm guessing you won't hear Gary repeat it).

Truth is, talk about people 'getting it', Sunny seems to be the only one. Diki is talented, knowledgeable, logical (if this were Star Trek, he'd be Spock), well-spoken (if people bother to read carefully what he says - as opposed to just reacting to what they perceive as the 'tone' of what he says), and most of all, feisty. If he thinks he is right on an issue, and he usually is 95% of the time, he might not concede a point as quickly as some others just for the sake of civility. All I know is that if I had to choose between Diki's 'straightforward ' approach and some others over-hyped sense of themselves and their talent and abilities, I'll take Diki every time. At the very least, he knows how to use spellchecker and is willing to throw in an occasional punctuation mark (please don't respond to that unless the shoe fits).

What we need to understand is that each of us posesses a very unique personality, any of which may be more or less compatible with our own. Me, I like people that share some of my interests. If they happen to have a few warts, so what. It's not like I don't have any.

chas