BL> I grew up in Newtown.

 BG> The violence of 40 years ago is nothing like the violence of
 BG> today.

  Every heard of a razor gang? They call them skinheads now.

 BL> We had a murder, several rapes, a suicide (very messy, he cut
 BL> his throat) burglaries galore and wife-bashings every day of
 BL> the week, not to mention drunk and disorderly as a way of life.

 BG> Welcome to Logan. You'll be right at home here, I promise you.

  I think the difference is space and isolation. 20-40 years ago
Newtown was at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. I'd guess quite
a bit lower than Logan - do you have derros? We did. But the people of
Newtown are crammed in closer and were more supportive. If the guy
next door bashed his wife (and he did every Saturday), then someone
stopped him killing her. When I moved to Concord the thing that struck
me most was the separation between people; the lack of density. It
seemed empty! It is.

  A place like Campbelltown (or Logan, I guess) is as spread out as
Concord but with the same problems of old Newtown. If I had fired a
gun or smashed a window in Newtown (and I did) 20 people would have
seen me do it and known me. In Campbelltown I can get away with it
because no one sees or if they do, they don't know me.

 BL> Predators are a real worry... I suppose you mean that alien who
 BL> nearly got Arnold Swartzenegger. It was lucky he had an SLR.

 BG> Very droll.

 BL> I liked it too. I rewrote it several times to get it just
 BL> right.

 BG> You really needn't have bothered. Honestly. :)

  Us perfectionists find our pleasure internally.

 BG> And if I remember rightly, it was actually a nuclear explosion
 BG> which finally despatched the Predator in the movie of the same
 BG> name anyway. 

 BL> Serves him right for going nuclear. He should have stuck to his
 BL> SLR, or his self-loading claw, anyway.

 BG> Not any more. They're on the banned list as well...

  No self-loading claws! Where will it all end?

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
@EOT:

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