by Geoff Hoff~

There are those who actually set out to offend their audience. I can certainly understand the impulse, and even possibly respect it as a way of getting a point across, but it isn’t my style. I never set out intentionally to offend. I will often even soften things, put them in the most diplomatic terms, in order not to offend.

There are those, however, who are committed to being offended and I can’t be bothered to try to take care of them.

LATR covered the first Hollywood Fringe Festival last month as best we could. We were proud of our coverage, and proud of the entire Los Angeles theatre community. We printed a daily review sheet that was left each morning at many of the venues hosting shows for the Fringe. We called that sheet “The Daily Rag.” I was told recently that someone, perhaps several someones, took exception to that name. At first, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why. Then I realized they thought we were referring to, if you’ll pardon the phrase, sanitary napkins.

A rag is a slightly derogatory term for a newspaper, and we thought it was kind of a fun name, in keeping with the vibe of the Fringe. It is also a derogatory term for a feminine necessary. However, in what world would anyone want to name a daily newspaper after that, and in what world would someone assume someone had?

If you like taking offense at any and all possible stray utterances or occurrences, no mater how obscure, bless you and I hope you derive some sort of pleasure from the experience. I will even go so far as to apologize for any unintended injury we may have caused.

To the rest of you, I hope you enjoyed our daily tampon.