Re: Whither Oxyaena?

On 04-Dec-24 15:14, erik simpson wrote:

On 12/4/24 11:04 AM, Kestrel Clayton wrote:

On 04-Dec-24 13:03, erik simpson wrote:

On 12/4/24 9:45 AM, Martin Harran wrote:

On Tue, 3 Dec 2024 15:49:46 -0500, Kestrel Clayton
<richZIG.e.clayZIGton@gmail.com> wrote:
>

On 03-Dec-24 13:54, Martin Harran wrote:

On Tue, 03 Dec 2024 18:34:31 +0000, Martin Harran
<martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:
>
[...]
>

Glenn was exceptionally nasty
to her about the whole thing.

>
Bad choice of words ... nothing exceptional about Glenn being nasty :(

>
I presume you meant "Exceptionally nasty even by the exceptionally nasty
standards of Glenn."
>
(Glenn's posting history shows decades of slowly growing angrier and
more paranoid. I feel a little sorry for the guy, even though I know
it's at least partly self-inflicted.)

>
Towards the end of the 'old' TO, I began to take the notion that Glenn
might be a sock puppet for Nyikos. Despite some indicators, I didn't
have enough evidence to call it out and I also doubted whether Nyikos
actually was capable of being able to maintain such a level of
subterfuge for so long.
>

I believe Nyikos and Glenn were separate cranks, neither sock puppets of anyone else.

>
Yeah, my bellyfeel is that they were separate people. Peter Nyikos was already pretty spiteful; I don't know that it would have made sense to create a sock puppet just to be abusive when he was already doing that on main. Besides, Dr. Nyikos clearly wanted to be seen as formidably intellectual, which very much ran counter to Glenn's style.
>
I suppose it's not impossible he rolled a sock puppet just so he could post the occasional smugly lowbrow "Says you" and "Neener neener," but if he had, I doubt he would have been able to resist praising himself with it, or rushing to his own defense when challenged.
>
>

Nyikos was an excellent mathematician, albeit in a deadend branch of mathematics.  This excellence made him pretty unique as a crank, and I stupidly interacted with him for a long time, not recognizing his crankhood.

He had a certain energetic eloquence, too, I'll grant him that. He was probably a pretty good professor, as long as you weren't visibly queer and stayed away from political topics and biology.
It's weird how being smart and educated isn't an inoculation against crankitude, and sometimes seems to make it worse. I guess some bright folks never outgrow the need to be the smartest in the room.
--
[The address listed is a spam trap. To reply, take off every zig.]
Kestrel Clayton
"Every normal woman must be tempted, at times, to stoke the fire,
host the black mass, and begin eating hearts." — Rose Bailey