Fellow Galoots,

I would like to interject a little bit of healthy skepticism here.  One of
the boons (and banes) of the internet is the relative difficulty of
ascertaining the source of any bit of e-mail, and thus the credibility of
any of the info contained therein. 

I had a conversation with me dad, an attorney, about this subject a few 
months ago.  He pointed out that in the legal system, any testimony is 
directly linked to the identity of the witness.  With e-mail and usenet, 
it is virtually impossible to identify the source of any bit of info.

Therefore, the only info that has any real merit is the info that can be 
independently verified.  In the real world, we are a bunch of helpful 
folks with a shared interest.  Most of the info we post up here is the 
best that we have, otherwise we wouldn't bother typing it in.  So we get 
lulled into a sense of false security where we implicitly trust the 
truthfulness of what we read here.

But every so often there are posts in which the identity of the author or
the information in the post cannot be verified.  These posts are neither
here nor there.  They are simply unverifiable assertions.  It is
especially difficult when the assertion is something that we want to
believe in. 

Now Mr. HF is an enormously popular star.  I know that I would like to 
believe that I am electronically rubbing elbows with him, and I think 
that goes for the rest of us, too.  But Darren C. Addy could be posting 
with his caps lock ON proclaiming himself to be HF and it still wouldn't 
mean a damn thing.  So there is no such thing as 'outing' him.

Maybe he is, and maybe he isn't. I know what I am personally rooting for, 
but I also know at the very same time that I am deluding myself if I 
think that any definitive answer is forthcoming.

-John-

Just Say(tm) - No, *I* am HF!!!!!  ;^)