Yea, that old Aesop..he was a pretty smart guy

I'm referring to the little parable of

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

. Y'all know the story.

Let me preface this by saying that I'm certainly not calling anyone a liar. That's not the point of the story...really. I probably should just keep my mouth shut...for a lotta reasons. The main reason is that this is probably gonna come across as judgmental or snarky...or just plain mean. I really don't mean to be mean. But I know how I write, so it'll probably sound that way.

The second reason that I oughta keep my mouth shut is because everyone else does. Nobody else seems to mind...or if they do, they're kind enough to keep their mouths shut.

Unfortunately, kindness isn't one of my outstanding virtues.

There's something that really bothers me about this whole blogging thing. Those repeat "Tin Cup Bloggers"...eh....maybe 'Bleggars' is more appropriate. You know the ones I'm talkin about. The bloggers who always have one or two crisis' (crises?) goin on at any given time. It doesn't seem to be gender-based...it's not something that's specifically a male/female problem, though the circumstances are usually different.

Generally, the men need 'help' to keep their blog going or to go to this blog meet or that blog meet and the women need 'help' with...well...all kinds of things.

Either way, it bothers the hell outa me. And what bothers me even more is that some do it in a kind of...underhanded...way. They don't come right out and ask for help. I'd respect 'em more if they did. Instead, they use these "oh, woe is me" stories. Again and again.

Don't get me wrong...I bitch and moan and whine about my circumstances occasionally. Hell, that's what a blog is for as far as I'm concerned. Us bloggers are damn good at commiserating. And we're damn good at rallying around someone who's in the middle of a bad patch. We've all been there at one time or another. Bloggers also seem to be a generous bunch. That's a wonderful thing.

But let's face it...there are also a lotta gullible people out there, bloggers included. That's what bothers me. Those that get taken advantage of again and again and again. Those that fall for every hard luck, down and out story. Over and over again.

As much as we'd all like to think we know the bloggers we read every day, we don't. Not really. Not when it comes to cold, hard cash.

I started to say that there's no way in hell that I'd ever resort to blegging. But I usually try to never say 'never'. If I ever found myself in a place where blegging was my only resort (knock wood)...well...come to think of it, you'd never know about it.

I'd have cancelled my MSN service by that time.