With, of course, the obvious caveat that some athletes are heroes.

And, I wonder, if I look up at someone, anyone, and see in them an example that helps me change my life for the better, does that make them a hero?

What ita said. There are many many ways people can be heroes. While fireman may be braver, I think the amount of good MJ does and the impact he can have makes him somewhat heroic too, and one should not negate the other.

Amount of good he does for Nike or for the Vegas economy?

I was thinking for Hanes, actually.

t memememe I frequently write on the bus, then post stories with only a basic run through for grammar, punctuation, spelling, and typos. I think I've only really had three stories beta'd. Not sure what that makes me. t /memememe

Alison, I never thought that your stuff was bad. Far from it. It has always been interesting, well-written stuff. Your first drafts, as you well know, just need organisation. And they pull together beautifully.

He's also donated millions to charity.

I dunno. I don't think I've ever inspired anyone to be achieve, or change their circumstances for the better. And I don't think that should be disregarded as a positive effect on the world.

There's lots of ways to affect people.

I've got a virus and am about as headachey and twelve-hours-of-sleep-exhausted as someone can be and still propped up in front of the computer; so I'm going to be quick & make this a longer LJ post later.

I'm being flip. It's one of the enduring arguments of fandom. Do people have the right to criticize publicly-posted stories, where they should do so, what rights the author should have, "if you can't say something nice...", etc, etc.

I am *fascinated* by this issue, personally. Not in a debate-it-on-a-list way, but. At what point does someone change over to being they themselves a public text? If a Buffista, someone I interacted with every day, wrote a story that was (I thought) flaming horrible (I am of course speaking hypothetically), I wouldn't be able to insult it flat-out and roundly in one of these threads, because this board is a personal space, and an attack on one's work in a personal space means an attack on one's self, as well as some other things. But if someone I don't know personally writes a story & it's bad &c, I feel completely right in critiquing it publically, because they sent it to lists and archived it, and fandom in whole is a *public* space, and impersonal critique is a vital feature of public spaces.

etc etc. this relates to things in wider literary-world workings, and the question of BNF-ism, of course, but I'm aware of how odd I'm sounding, so I'll stop now.

Hey Ms. Lizard, I'm virus-ridden, too, and have the honor of having passed it on to my pals that I had over to watch Buffy and SV last night. I hope they think it was worth it.

Just to let you know, there is a post buried way in Literary now about our mututal love for Hood by Emma Donoghue. In case you don't read that thread. I {heart} that book.

Back on topic, I've read BBF, and it is whack.

I'm feeling better that they weren't accepting new people when I tried to join in last year. Life is too short.

I'm just reading it, as of last night. I feel the dirty wrongness for joining just to rubberneck, but I plan on sticking around after it all blows over.

I'll rec, I'll be good, I promise.