Taking a constructive approach to RaceFail '09

Conversation with a customer last night:

Her: "Do you know anything about Will Shetterly?"

Me: "Nothing to recommend him.  Have you read any Octavia Butler?"

(Useful fact: normally, asking "do you know anything about this author?" is not a particularly useful approach.  I can tell you that Author X writes Y books, and they are popular/critically acclaimed/criminally underappreciated, but I don't actually know much about the author.  I mean, I can answer the question, but I find it frustratingly vague.)

Also, in a shocking twist that will surprise precisely no one...

I am cot_tossed.

I mean, so are a bunch of people, but I started it.

SHOCKED SOCKPUPPET IS SHOCKED! SHOCKED I SAY!

I was planning to PULL OFF MY MASK AND REVEAL MYSELF at some point, but then cesario went and made me a maintainer on fic_tossed, and I figured the time had come.

So, for the record (because cot_tossed is a sock, not a troll, and therefore doesn't barge into people's LJs) here are some things I've been wanting to say:
- I chose the name because the quote makes me laugh, and made a good username.  A friend used to have it as her email .sig.  I was mildly bemused when people interpreted it as a sign of disdain for all fic everywhere.
- I was even more surprised when the icon was held up as evidence of contempt for fandom.  It was just the first picture of Dorothy Parker I found that I (a) liked and (b) hadn't seen everywhere.
- There is nothing I said as cot_tossed that I wouldn't say under my own name, but a pseudonym made it easier to distance myself from the politics of personality and engage with stories, as distinct from authors.
- There is some really shit fanfic out there. 
- I am speaking here for myself, not the other puppeteers.  Whether or not they choose to reveal themselves is entirely up to them, and I respect their choice.