diary: A weeklong electronic journal.

Moira Redmond

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Updated Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2001, at 12:00 PM ET

Who is this person?

The rational thing to do would be to drive the children to school and drive straight on to the office, but I believe that family health and communication dynamics demand that we walk to school. The children, being healthy, active, and normal, say, “Can’t we drive like everyone else?” and then display dynamic family communication of the “He kicked me/she pushed me” kind. A story on the way helps: often one from my long ago days as a crime reporter. “Tell us the one about the murderer you knew, Mummy.” I reply: “Which murderer, the one who was on the run, the 12-year-old boy, or the one who named me in court?” This is why the Fray doesn’t bother me: A big section of my working life was spent with criminals and politicians, followed by some time bringing up small children and a stint writing about etiquette. Excellent preparation, all of it.

I walk home then race to the office (which is at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, near Seattle) for the Slate editorial meeting. There are also offices in Washington, D.C., and New York, so this is a telephone conference, and some Slate people will be calling in from home (often to the entrancing accompaniment of small child noises). Events of the day and story ideas are batted around. The main benefit for me (other than that the meeting is always both interesting and funny) is that I get some idea what Frays are likely to be active in the next few days.

Usually I would spend the rest of my day finding good posts and adding them to the articles, but right now most of my time is taken with identifying the problems with the Fray, passing them on to the technical staff who can solve them, and answering the mountains of mail. And, as always, trying to maintain order in various Fray wars. That’s the hard part of my job, together with the related issue of deciding exactly which posts are offensive enough to delete.

Some readers (and Slate writers) shake their heads about the anonymity of the Fray, and the possibilities for multiple personas, and think we could solve a lot of those problems by ending that. But I think that’s part of its greatness, gives the Fray its unique character. We have just enough control now. About a year ago, the introduction of the “More by This User” button suddenly made it easier for me (and everyone else) to keep track of posters to a small extent. This caused uproar. I still haven’t wholly got over the fact that several of my top 10 best posters all turned out to be the legendary A.G. Android, the Pride of the Fray. (Android is, among other things, a musician, and I once asked him if his music was as good as his Fray posts, whereupon he kindly sent me some of his—excellent—CDs. I’m still working on my plan to get the head of Mercedes Benz to post, so I can ask him a comparable question …)

I am collecting questions from the Fray and have answered some of them there. LT asks whether there are any posters I can’t stand, and I think the answer is truthfully no. I don’t even have a grudge against the man who, nicely transparent, posted in the Fray the words “It’ll be easy to get her fired” (apparently, it wasn’t). And I can’t resist a good line in invective: One poster used to refer to me as “Red Moira in her Jackboots Redmond, Independent Nazi Brownshirt media elite Contractor.”

I leave work just in time to pick up my children: My car is already full of an enormous costume (my daughter is going to be a bunch of grapes) and snacks for a Girl Scout Halloween party. When it was being planned, I said to her in the words of working mothers everywhere: “Please volunteer us for something we can buy, not something we have to make.” Yes! Apples. Phew. Two children, two backpacks, and a trumpet squeeze in. One child is dropped at the party, another at a playdate. Later, my husband does bedtime duty (as he does every night), and then he and I get to spend an hour together. Most of my spare time is consumed by books and the cinema (anyone want to discuss the last section of Mulholland Drive with me?); tonight I won’t make a movie but might get some book time. And no, I don’t spend any of my spare time posting on bulletin boards or visiting chat-rooms.

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Updated Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2001, at 12:00 PM ET

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Moira Redmond is Slate's Fray editor. E-mail her at .

Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum

What did you think of this article?

POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES

Answers to Questions:

Ender: First, I noticed you replied to a few posts as Fray Editor. Force of habit but it occurred to me that it might be more appropriate to post as Moira Redmond for the duration of your diary.
MR: So noted, so implemented.

Do you have an all time favorite post?
MR: About ten or 15 of them. I might feature them in Best of the Fray sometime.

Do you ever have a desire to post on topic or join a discussion? Are you restricted from doing that?
MR: Only by my own conscience. I have strong views on almost everything, but think professional ethics require that I bore my friends with the political ones, not foist them on the Fray. (People who disagreed with me might find it hard to trust me.) I do occasionally post on music and books and suchlike subjects, giving my own opinions and getting into discussions. I just posted on Arthur Stock’s dogs.

If you took a better job tomorrow, would you still read the Fray, i.e. become a Frayster? MR: Could there be a better job? I can’t imagine life without the Fray now. I would certainly read. Posting: it might be unfair on whoever took over my job to do that (especially if I kept my fabulous Fray superpowers--double star for my every post etc.)

Name a current Frayster whose style/politics/demeanor/etc. is most similar to you if you were to become a Frayster.
MR: No comment (go on, you’re dying for me to say Amber aren’t you?)

Have you ever experimented, posting anonymously, just to see what it is like from the other side?
MR: No, I would feel obliged to be transparent.

Do you spell check yourself?
MR: yes on Fray Notes and Best of Fray, not on email. Don’t have enormous faith in spellcheck anyway. U.S. spelling still occasionally catches out this Brit.

Have you ever written a caution to posters who are behaving badly, thought twice about it and decided that it was too harsh and opted for a more composed warning? If yes, do you still have it and can we read it?
MR: No, what I think is what you get. There was a famous open letter to a certain poster: I put it in the Fray, and people saved it and re-circulate it from time to time, saying “This is what she’s like when she’s really angry.” I have, however, occasionally written email to other Slate people, saved it in draft, and thrown it away the next day. I hope that will please those who wanted more tough talking and anger

Which Frayster do you feel you know best?
MR: There’s a bunch of star posters that I email with. Not saying more than that.

If Fraysters were the last men on earth, who do you think you would be happiest with?
MR: No comment.

If you had to choose one of us to fill in for you the next time you went on vacation, who would you pick?
MR: Well, there are those (possibly including those who have filled in for me) who would think I should pick someone I dislike (2^nd prize: two weeks as Fray Editor!) so I’d better not say. I will always have a soft spot for Claude Scales for writing his ‘Moira is away’ haiku (and generally for being a great human being).

Do you think if you gave the ghost of a-z a star she will leave Publius alone?
MR: No

Do you think we are too hard on Robert Wright sometimes?
MR: No comment. Or possibly: yes but he doesn’t care.

--Ender and Moira Redmond

(To find or answer these two posts, click here and here )

(11/2

Notes From The Fray Editor:

[Conflict of Interest Declaration: I wrote the diary, I’m choosing the comments.] RonK hit us where it hurts, and we like the Frayster’s diary. We’ll try to find some tough talking for Reader—no-one has ever accused us of being too mild before, it’s very disturbing.

Reader Comments:

100 emails a day, huh? But far fewer Fray posts to read! Things always work out for the best, don't they?

--RonK of Seattle

(To find or answer this post, click here.)

Your explanation that it caused an overload in your email box was mild. I think you’re fooling your diary. Don’t you have any harsher words?

--Reader

(To find or answer this post, click here .)

Eventually there'll be a Frayster's diary up here:

Monday, bored at work, decided to see how my posts from Friday were doing. The exegesis of those Shinto texts wallowed ignored in Chatterbox, but my quip about Renee Zellweger had a checkmark next to it.

I clicked around Ballot Box and the all-but-abandoned Breakfast Table Fray, trying to dig up an interesting thread. Amber was doing something sexual; the ghost of a-z had something on crystalline structures. I jumped over to Frame Game, where Zeitguy had gotten 63 responses to his thoughts on the Carter administration. I thought I might add my own. 30 seconds later, I was on fire.

--BML

(To find or answer this post, click here .)

(10/30)