Actually, OED says "curfuffle." So we're all wrong.

But I like "kerfluffle" because of the "fluff" part.

I've been staying out this here, but at the end of it I feel like I need to say something.

I've been on the Internet since Bush Sr was in the White House. I was a pretty heavy participant in the Usenet back in the days. I know what trolling is. I know what it looks like. I know that using "troll" as a noun is actually incorrect to describe someone who trolls.

Heck, I've done it myself.

So I look at the thousands of comments that have been written about all of this, and I'm kinda stumped at the "trolls" various writers are alluding to. Because I see there are a few, but I also see a lot of people with some very real concerns here being dismissed as "trolls." Or "non-readers." Or "cranks."

And it seems this easy dismissal, combined with the caustic moderation, has only fed this kerfluffle. It makes me think you're not willing to admit that maybe there is some truth to what's been said.

I mean, in a sense, you're responding to these comments with non sequiturs and name-calling. Isn't that what trolls do?

And it saddens me to see how poorly you've handled all of this. I mean, who's the "winner" in this mess? Yeah, exactly. She could just sit there and grin while you all stumbled through this mess. Meanwhile, you've been pilloried in the papers and on blogs around the world for all the mistakes listed in this post.

It's sad. I really liked reading you guys, but lately I feel like I'm listening to some band's rehashed new album wondering what the hell happened. All this kerfluffle was just the concert tour you phoned in on top of the bad album. Get back to being creative. Stop being so stretched between your thousand projects. Get interesting again.

And stop being so dismissive of anyone who opposes you as "trolls" or "cranks." Many of us read the blog from the beginning, some (not me) read the zine. I think we have the right to say that you've lost the plot and not get called a bunch of cranks or lumped in with a bunch of trolls.

There were two Casa Bonitas, the other being in Tulsa. Every bit as kitschy, but without the cliff divers, unfortunately. When I was a kid in the late 1970s-early 1980s, having a birthday party at Casa Bonita was The Cool Thing To Do.

It closed in 2005 but then reopened under another name. Here's a Flickr photoset of its last days.