I haven't found his comments to be thought provoking. They sound to be merely defensive to me. I can't for the life of me figure out why a man would want to hang out in a forum full of women. Perhaps as a lurker, with the intent of learning something about 'how women tick'. But to reply defensively our posts and imply by this same defensiveness that our thoughts, impressions, and feelings are invalid - well, that just seems like more of the same ol' same ol' that gave us our opinions in the first place. Don't believe it? Go back and re-examine the posts. Look how far back in forum history those threads were started. Instead of participating in what we have been discussing NOW, Sparticuss chose to reintroduce threads in which he had a stated agenda, i.e. defending the male perspective of what we had to say about certain subjects. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but ladies, really - part of the benefit of this forum is to have our FEMALE opinions validated. I, for one, have no interest in seeing the man's point of view in our discussions because we, as Boomers, have worked hard to determine who we are by our own reckoning. We've all spent more than enough time trying to live up to someone else's idea of whom we SHOULD be; most often those ideas of whom we should be were given to us by men. Spart, if you are a woman, I'm sorry for your troubles. If you are a man, consider yourself ignored. Dotsie, please forgive me for being contentious - this forum is to me like hallowed ground - and I aplogize for any desecration I may have caused with my post. Feel free to hit the big DELETE key.