Oh, yes. I got into it with him a little bit in a previous thread about the putative need to spend upteen thousand dollars for an sufficiently competitive and reliable racing bike (plus high-end wheels) for a teenage kid. No meeting of the minds was achieved, as I recall. My fault, no doubt.

That specific sideshow aside, it's the pointless, ubiquitous Sharks v. Jets bickering that gets me down.

And it need never have happened. If only Petersen hadn't hit on his marketing strategy ("You're not a penny-pinching miser, you're a Keeper of the Flame!") . . .

In its absence, the worst of it would probably have been some unfocused resentment of the road guys, i.e., the eternally cool kids from high school, still lording it over the also-rans.

That's the perception, of course, not the reality. Still, I can't help fantasizing that if Grant had decided against buying up pallets of Suntour Cyclone derailleurs (sorry: "derailers"), things would have been much more collegial around here.

Oh, well. If the Avengers had gone back in time and strangled baby Thanos; if Spartacus had had a Piper Cub (deep cut), etc., etc.