For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 14, 2010

Forewarned is forearmed.

Men can be way worse gossips than women at times…. but so much more self-righteous about it. :)

Actually, Nab, gossip is also the unauthorized spreading of factual information, such as passing on a secret you were told to keep to yourself. A “tattletale” is condemned from the time we are small. Why should we think that the early training will stop just because we grew up. I think this is why we denigrate whistle-blowers, because we were taught not to tolerate a tattletale.

Gossip? A polite form of murder by character assassination.

Besides, it’s so much better to just be able to tell them so after it crashes and burns… :D

I’m not one to go round spreading rumours.

Really I’m just not the gossiping kind.

You’ll never hear me repeating gossip.

So you’d better be listening close the first time.

(hee haw) (snicker, snicker, snicker)

\\//_

I, too, thought of the Hee Haw Honeys.

Gossip can, indeed, be completely true. Our old Rabbi taught that one of the best ways to stop someone from telling you gossip, was to ask, “Can I quote you on this, when I check with [name of subject of gossip] about this?” Very few gossips want the subjects of their tales to know they were spreading the story.

If it’s something that you don’t want the person to know you said about them, then - in most cases - it’s better left unsaid.

LOVE it! Men love gossip tidbits as much as anyone else =)

There was an old Mayberry show that showed how men are just as bad at gossip than women are. It was a very funny episode. But I can prove that gossip can kill, with just two words: Princess Di.

That’s a funny poem DKram. Not new but funny.

Gossip often has some basis in fact but is distorted and is usually malicious. I once heard his distinction: If you say that someone had a baby, that’s news. When you start counting the months since the wedding, that’s gossip.

The whistleblower is sometimes a disgruntled employee who wants revenge (better than a shooting spree). Sometimes they deserve a “Profiles in Courage” award.

@Hoomi - that is a great principle!

There’s a little gossip hiding inside of all of us. Some are better at keeping it under wraps than others.