The Rhinestone

Hello readers.

Thank you for taking time to read the posts on my website, “The Rhinestone”.  The intention of this website is to amuse by way of satire.  My own leanings in humor tend toward the bizarre and quirky, and I hope that people who come across this site might find my writing funny as well.

Humor can be a tricky thing.  Some say that comedy always comes from the pain of another (which is why slapstick seems to endure against all odds); I disagree, because I feel that the best humor comes from recognition of the absurd.  Frequently, mocking the ridiculousness that surrounds us all can be done in a way that everybody can appreciate.  However, that’s not to say that such recognition won’t ever come at the expense of someone/something else.

I tend to believe I’m a fairly nice person, and try to be considerate at all times.  As an Eagle Scout, respect, kindness, and courtesy were instilled in me through both instruction and example; they are values that I hold quite dear.  It’s not my intention to use this website to be overly-mean and cruel towards anybody.  Also, while my humor on here tends to be satirical, I have no wish for any of it to be in poor taste.

Recently, there was a sudden, unexpected spike in site-views on one of the posts here.  Having received no feedback (neither positive or negative), and being unable to find the Facebook posts that were apparently sending all the traffic my way, I began to wonder if the post had been taken poorly and/or was felt to be written in poor taste.  Just to be careful and considerate of others, I temporarily took the post-in-question down.  As it turned out, people had apparently found the article very funny (for which I’m quite grateful), and I gladly opened the post back up for viewing the next day.

Satire, by its very nature, will inevitably tend to rub someone the wrong way, eventually, and I recognize that.  Writing this blog walks a fine line for someone like me.  I won’t always take a post down just because one person doesn’t like it, but I do promise to do my best to keep from ever being either unfair or in poor taste.  After all, humor loses both appeal and audience when it’s biased, and there are already enough people out there writing in poor taste.  Who needs that kind of competition, honestly?

If a reader ever has any concern about material on this website, please contact me at nashvillerhinestone@yahoo.com.  If you have a valid cause for being upset and/or offended by any post on this site, I’ll be glad to speak with you about finding a way to redress the grievance.  That might mean a follow-up piece, an alteration of an existing piece, or even temporary or permanent removal of a post (though I hope it wouldn’t come to that).  That said, I’d like to think that the posts on here will be written in such a way that everyone (or almost everyone) can appreciate the gag and be fine with it.  Please be assured, again, that I have no intention of doing anything with this website beyond providing the people of Middle Tennessee something to laugh about.

With all that said, thank you again for reading The Rhinestone.  Enjoy all the silliness and quirk that Middle Tennessee has to offer!