I figure the whole "Order of the kilted Lebowski" thing is just a way to make a statement that not everybody has to aspire to be a "kilted gentleman" as outlined by a core group of guys here on X Marks. I thought that GGGP's mention of the Big Lebowski was perfect at the time, considering as it's more or less as surreal and kind of twisted as the whole notion of being a "non-gentleman" online is.

However, in my mind, there is no hatred associated with it. Annoyance, sometimes, but hatred, or a "challenge"??? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I honestly believe that the site needs all sorts of kilties to be successful, and I also believe that a little friction between the members now and then is not a bad thing.

Some folks probably see me as sitting at the keyboard in my study, pounding away and screaming at the top of my lungs as I foam at the mouth and rant, now and then....'tain't so. I tend to write kind of forcefully, sometimes. But me? PERSONALLY? I'm 'way laid back. WAY laid back. Don't believe it? Ask people on the forum who actually know me, face to face...GGGP, Panache, WalkerK, smayniac, monkey@arms and so on.

I also appreciate the craftsmanship in 8 yards of well pleated wool, or a well-made sporran, and I'm a bit of a history nut especially re: the UK. It's just that the history that I'm interested in is usually more like Iron Age to post-Roman UK, not so much Victorian era, where all the "kilt history" is. Like this.....truth. About a year ago I bought a ticket that was NOT cheap, and drove an hour and a half on a weeknight after work to to to UC Berkeley to listen to a recitation of Beowulf in what this particular scholar believes is the real thing, the real language. It was accompanied by plucking on a 6 string saxon harp, reconstructed from several found in well-preserved graves of that era. It really felt like it took me back to some ancient campfire, inside a circle of pounded wooden staves around homes of wood and thatch, where everybody just KNEW that "out there...there be monsters. Like Grendel."

I don't see the Lebowski of the movie attending that recitation!

Whatever, the case, there is room on X Marks for a whole lot of people, with different outlooks, and as long as everybody gets a reasonable hearing, now and then...life is good!