There isn't anyone from this site who has not proven to be wonderful when I've met them in person. That is one of the hallmarks of HHW: that people who are charming when they are at their keyboards are, in person, just as charming in real life. Some things really cannot be faked.
But that's generally true, that nice people on-line will prove to be nice people off-line. On one occasion, Der Brucer and I had a wonderful lunch with a young woman I had met on-line at a foodie site, one whom he had had no contact with before, and they got along smashingly. Another time, we met Mr. Bakalor when he was appearing in Into the Woods in San Jose.
But when someone is by nature acidic when they type, the odds are they will be very nice in person...on the surface. I've had this happen several times. Once, der Brucer and I went to a cabaret performance at the Cinegrill (not the one that BK recorded with Jason Graae, that came later), where we met some of the people from another theater site. The leader of that pack could become very snide when his ego got in the way, although he thought of himself as being absolutely charming. And he was, indeed, charming in person...to those present. About those not present, he was quite catty. He was even catty and dismissive about our BK, who I did not yet know, but there was something in his tone that led to my dropping away from his site shortly after that face-to-face.
On another occasion, a group from yet another site filled a very large table at a restaurant in West Hollywood. The leader of that group, when he finally arrived (late and flamboyant about it, as if he'd studied Quentin Crisp), was someone with whom I had not been getting along. As he introduced himself to the rest of us and realized who I was, his face basically froze, teeth bared and clenched. Later, back at the site, he took elements of conversation der Brucer had been part of and attributed them to me, as if we are one and the same person. That wouldn't have been so bad, but he then proceeded to attack the the remarks and the person who had made them...which to his way of thinking, since we were the same person, meant attacking yours truly, for things I had not said at all.
Fortunately, the good eggs far outnumber the bad ones. If only the bad ones didn't sour the stomach so!
