Author’s Note: Let me know if you like this kind of column, for a change.
Sometimes there are many ideas fighting for attention in my mind, covering all the subjects I tend to write a column about, but each isn’t worthy of its own full-length coverage. Consequently, I collect them. So, in no particular order, here are my current random musings. 
E-mail etiquette is so ubiquitous that we forget that it isn’t talking on the phone or having a conversation in person. Subtlety, facial expressions, or tonality are all lost in an e-mail message. I have found this has gotten me in trouble when I think I’m being funny, subtle, or sarcastic in an e-mail. And, the habit many of us have of forwarding a joke, photo, or an article creates even greater problems in many cases.
I think e-mail should probably be treated as Eliza Doolittle was advised in “My Fair Lady” about making conversation. “Stick to the weather and health” was Professor Higgins’s caution. Even that proved problematic as Eliza went into too much embarrassing detail about her own family’s health, before she completely blew it with her expletive encouraging one of the racehorses to “move your bloomin’ ass!”
I find it hard to believe that I’m a grown man and I still pout. When my wife and I don’t get along and our communication is in the toilet, I am a sulking guy pouting, and take all my toys and go hide in my cave. Okay, maybe not all my toys, but you get the picture.
After all my time in therapy, all my time in my men’s group, all the ups and downs of marriage, divorce, dating again, and getting married again, I still act like a little boy when my feelings are hurt.
