TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT

INTERNET USER, BEWARE!

I wouldn't be writing this except that the other day I looked up my own name on Google. There was a lineup of photos of several guys with the name of Lanny Howe, none of them me and all of them better looking.

But about three entries below this there I was, no photo but linked with a December 25, 2013 issue of "My Village Blogger" and a post addressed to me by the infamous "Eduardo" of 2-3 years ago. "Eduardo" proceeds to rake me over the coals with such assertions as "you choke, sneer, wheeze and expel [two words deleted] when you’re asked to respond intelligently to someone else’s opinions" and (in capital letters) "YOU, LANNY HOWE, NEED TO BE FIRED FROM THE UCO REPORTER!"

Well, that was all right, although I have to say it sounded like a frustrated fourth-grader lashing out and didn't display quite the imagination of Olga's denunciation of nine of us as "bigoted cockroaches." Fortunately for me, I guess, the longsuffering coeditors of the Reporter keep me on.

As I read on, however, I discovered that Gary Olman, the "blogmeister," had printed a response by me to this post. But it wasn't a response by me! First of all, I had never before even seen this post. Second, I had certainly never responded to it.  And third, I know how I write and this was not me! It read like a fourth-grader's attempt to sound like me, partially succeeding for a few lines but then—unable to keep his own personality in check—yielding to it and ending with a threat of "revenge."

What I am suggesting is simply this. Don't trust Gary's blog for ANYTHING, including supposed responses to what is posted. It is one thing to voice your own opinions making false allegations and using vile language. It's another to make up fictitious responses as by the infamous "Eduardo" or the three people who (when it served the interests of the "malcontents") supposedly responded in support of Wi-Fi within two minutes of each other at 6:00 a.m. (Give me a break!) 

It is beyond reprehensible, however, to make up a response and attribute it to a real person. Only a person lacking in any scruples and wanting to stir up controversy where there is none does this.

Internet user, beware. This kind of stuff goes on all over the Internet a LOT. It's sad to have it happen among us in Century Village by people we know.