I heard it early on in military training when some older sergeant would say it as a way of indicating how long a break might be. If you didn’t hear that you may not have had much of a rest. And if you did light up anyway you ran the risk of a pissed off NCO, a serious consideration up to field grade.

“You are standing in a large open space surrounded by trees. You are being excoriated by a Velociraptor.”

I rarely get mad. At times I do get frustrated. Mostly when I have to drive obvious points home with a ten-comment jackhammer when it should have been possible to just lay them on the table in one statement and stand quietly back.

Nutshell: ER got so mad at me he left. Bowser got mad at me and left, but came back. Rob is mad at me, but this time it’s a misunderstanding. Tom is reflexively mad at me but grappling with the unusual spectacle of me being sympathetic. I’ve been excoriated by a Velociraptor. podrock declared the Zone dead but added the disclaimer that he’s jet-lagged. Jody’s flirting.

The usual.

You’re welcome.

By “willing accomplices” I was actually thinking of opponents who collaborate in the politicization. That thread on Space was a collaboration, each ratcheting up the heat over a sequence of exchanges.

One of the things in that thread that set me off was that ER seemed unwilling to let Tom off on the charge of politics even if he had to goad him into more vehement political expressions. People who insist on Tom being political help politicize every damn thing.

Sorry I raised your hackles, dude. It wasn’t intentional (this time).

You can use standard HTML code in that window (img src= etc.), but I just work around it by posting the comment first, than using the more robust comment edit form to get tricky with pictures and such.