I guess I do tend to get defensive on the part of other people,
because...I don't know, I guess I'm just wired-up funny that way. It may come
from being raised in the kind of family I was raised in, and those of you
who've come from families with heavy drinking above you will know instantly
what I'm talking about: you start protecting others around you, whatever the
personal cost might be.

When it comes to stuff directed at me...unless it's absolutely off the
wall stuff like allegations of lying...it tends to just wash off because I
can't take myself very seriously on the best of days, and thus it doesn't
bother me. I'm goofy on the best of days, I sometimes screw up
*monumentally*...the kind of screw-ups that can just take your breath away and
make one *very* relieved that I've had a vasectomy...so when someone points
out that I committed a dumbness, it basically goes into the pile with all the
others that creep out from under the bed at night and dance behind my eyes
when I'm trying to get to sleep.

John: thanks for the good words, and my condolences (I guess) on your
change in perspective. More than anything else, I wanted to create with
Babylon 5 something that would outlive me, that would *excite* people and get
them talking, thinking, debating, arguing. We're not here to preserve a
franchise, we're here to tell a story. If we succeed in that attempt, then
everything, *everything*, was worthwhile.

jms