Dear Tim,

You seem to be in a pique. A receptionist come to me in tears, along with my assistant, and they reported that you had called and were venomous. They were so rattled they could only remember three things you said:

• "You dumb bitches better get this straight!" (confirmed by the other receptionist to whom you spoke).
• Then something to the effect of, "Byrne didn't show me any professional courtesy, and he's going to be sorry."
• "What I'm going to write will make Byrne regret what he did!"
  

They both said that this was all repeated in a loud voice and laced with worse vulgarities.

The latter two are absolutely asinine, Tim. As if by posting your email I lost the fair treatment that I am sure you intended, as is amply reflected in your letter. And my experience of your "professional courtesy" is to be spoken at like…. well, like one reading your letter at high speed with pauses brief enough to say "uh-huh uh-huh" before rushing on (You, Roddy, Karen Richardson, etc. all seem to have been trained in the same school in that sense, and again, it speaks to some weird ambivalent feelings about power, in my experience: Bethany is the exception, in that she is generally gracious, at least).

But calling two women (both are temp workers who are under 20) who are not even part of the discussion "bitches" is a little much, even for one of your crowd.

Remember Goethe's dictum, "Only a coward threatens when he is safe."

Most sincerely,
Patrick