Note to the wise: watch out for the rumor mill!  Steve and and i have
been on the FML since the beginning.  When it was small there was no
rumor mill, but one began later.  Almost ALWAYS the rumors have been
FALSE.  One dirty technique which is sometimes used is that a respected
third party is FALSELY claimed to have said something which that person
did not say.  Then the original liar uses everyone else down the line in
the rumor mill as an unwitting dupe top keep passing it along.  Watch
out; when you sling poop you invariably get stinky from it.  Don't let
someone else use you to pass along a lie because you are going to be hurt
much more than the originator who sometimes has become hidden once the
rumor goes through enough mailboxes.  If someone says to you that a third
party said something about another then VERIFY, VERIFY, VERIFY and keep
it under your hat until you do!  If you see evidence which makes the
rumor unlikely -- as in a situation in which the two people work together
each and every day on a project to help ferrets -- then that is further
evidence that the originator was a big time liar.  Beware!  Rumors don't
only hurt the victims of the rumors, ultimately, they hurt the dupes
who were unthinking enough to continue passing the rumors along!  Those
people wind up being thought foolish and easily used, or nasty and happy
to say ugly things, or unreliable and untrustworthy.
[Posted in FML issue 4010]