"TCA -- anytime you have had your chain yanked, (a terrible term to use) you have been rebuked by certain groups from the pool of collective articipants, for what appeared then as lackluster efforts"

Well, either the effort is lackluster or it isn't. Make damn sure that the effort is lackluster before dissing it on the Grid. And don't expect anyone to forgive your imperfections. Thing is, I don't want to discourage criticism, but I think this forum is the appropriate place for criticism, not Gridcosm itself.

I just spend a half hour looking at the old levels recommended by NataLukas, Eva, and Oliver Reimer. I've become hypercritical of my own work. I can't enjoy it anymore, I'm always focusing on the flaws. And there are plenty of flaws, I must confess. The biggest flaw is boxiness. I've struggled with blending to make the image fit in. I've improved, I think, gradually and fitfully. Too gradually, too fitfully.

Anyway, I withdraw the comment about clowns and yanking chains.

"or obsessive attentions to strange peripheral topicalities, appearing so often in the Grid your position could border on that of publicist, lobbyist or campaign manager for said issues."

Yeah, I don't upload that kind of stuff to Gridcosm very often these days. The Bush poster was just a riff on Robbie Conal. The multicolored Bushes were a conceptual variation on a square that Eva did of Bertie a long time ago. Her square was more lickable than mine. Heh.

"Regardless, I have looked through the Grid over the past few minutes, trying to find one of the terrible panels: the task is fruitless as are the [arguments] we have .... One cannot tell which panel arrived first, ignored what or succeeded where."

On the whole, I think the Grid looks better when I'm gone. My shortcomings are mostly those of technique, or lack thereof. I've said this before. Right now I'm feeling burned out. Me gone for awhile. Maybe I'll come back in 1776 if I'm feeling revolutionary.

"OK, I gotta get back to the cold of our apartment here."

Think of me in August when it's 110 degrees here. The military conducts desert warfare training exercises not too far from where I live. The roads of Baghdad don't look terribly unfamiliar on the tellie. It's almost as hot as hell here in the summer.