A fair and well-considered response by Mr. Ritter IMO. Editing history (however minor it may seem) is the slipperiest of slopes; but we reserve the right of rebuttal, with vigorous and prominent footnotes. So we progress.

Great story Mark. Thanks! Love London!

I read that one early on. It stuck with me. Probably why I am such a firebug now.

Also for the record, when I reread my previous post it sounded like I had already passed judgement on CK's story also being a work of fiction. As I am not in a position to make that call, I just thought I should clarify my statement a tad. i probably should have added IF it turns out to be a fictional story to my previous post.

Good advisory note. Well-handled situation.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/20...ruz-island.html

An online friend from the forum-yes, some folks did not flee from me like a cancer or leprosy victim- alerted me to this thread.

My privacy is just that-PRIVATE. I had a family situation that
found me focus of a 'perfect storm' of multiple crisis and meddling third parties. Sometimes, even in these days a guy can find himself locked in the equivelant of a german cattle car with little resources.

I would have replied earlier. Doug Ritter chose to ban me from the website for a year.

There are six islands in the califronia coastal islands. Only three fall under park jurisdiction. Two are controlled by the USN
and then there is Santa Catalina 26 miles across the sea to all and sundry.

I was NOT in charge of the clusterpuck I related. It was one more
misadventure of a archaeological shovel bum who has since moved far beyond the internicine pissing matches of S.O.P.A. and the
mob mentality of ETS.

Do people get stranded on the channel islands?

yes

Doug, you can ban me again. But, this time kindly delete all my contributions to this forum. I mean all.

For what it's worth, Chris, count me as one who always enjoyed your thoughtful and informative posts. I have no comment regarding the dust up in question, but I do hope you stick around.

And the plot thickens......this is an unexpected twist to the story. Now normally I would consider this best handled privately in PM's, but since Chris was called out publicly and his reputation questioned, it seems only fair that he should have a right to defend himself and clear his name. That and I'm very curious to find out the real story now. Either way, Doug handled it nicely, just put an advisory on the story and let people draw their own conclusions.

Now if only Tom Brown would join the forum, we could have a nice little soap opera going on.

+1 Welcome back Chris.

IMO, 'nuff said about this whole topic.

This thread has made me uncomfortable since it stared and now it's worse.

Wait a minute. Is there another, smaller, more obscure Santa Catalina island in the Channel Islands group or are you talking about the tourist attraction commonly referred to as "Catalina"? Because that would make this story even more interesting.