Bruner Blog

So here’s a first: the Bruner Blog makes the New York Times. In fact, the first two words of the article are “Rick Bruner.” So why am I not pleased? Because the subject of the article is how blogs can screw up personal relationships, and my mention in the lead is to the effect that I once used my blog to tease a friend, and it went down quite badly. In fact, the article writes “their friendship barely survived the episode,” which is true, but said “friend” now informs me that our friendship has not survived my having resurrected the sordid tale for the New York Times. (The writer wanted to hear both sides of the story, so I email my friend to see whether he’d agree to be interviewed. No way, no how. So he’s known this was coming. The fact that he’s treated anonymously in the story apparently has not softened the blow.)

I would just as soon not have even acknowledged this story at this point (although I doubt it will escape notice in the blogosphere), but I want to make a fervent request to any bloggers out there who know me and might remember this incident from nearly a year ago. While it may be my opinion that said “friend” is over-reacting to this whole thing, its his opinion that ultimately counts in this context. Therefore, I beg you please, please, please resist any temptation to identify him in relation to this fiasco. That would be about the only thing that could possibly make him hate me even more.

The only silver lining, such that it is, would be that a search of “fat and runs like a girl” on Google renders nothing, and likewise a search of his name remembers nothing of the post (which I quickly took down as soon as it became clear how distinctly unfunny he found it). For the record, he is neither fat nor does he run like a girl. It was only supposed to be a joke, albeit a mean one. And, without retelling all the details, lest you think he’s hopelessly thin-skinned, I was indeed meaner than simply calling him names as recounted in the Times – I stooped so low as to steal a photo of him from his apartment (among a pile on his coffee table at the time) and posted that, too, needless to say without permission, which I have no trouble recognizing in retrospect definitely crossed a line between funny and just wrong.

So there you have it: my 15 minutes of fame (or infamy) is for being a bad friend.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 17th, 2003 at 12:43 pm and is filed under aa-home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.