Capn Jimbo's Rum Project

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This entertaining missive will be incalculably improved if you first read "The Ministry of Rum: Unplugged" (Link here), wherein this writer relates his surprising encounter with the Minister, the Prophet, the "It's all good" Preacher, the famous Mr. Head, er, Ed - and I don't mean the talking horse (a horse is a horse, of course, of course...). Respected, intelligent and fun to be around - and I don't mean the Minister.

It seems Mr. Ed (the talking minister version) noted that I called him out publicly on (a) his decision to "ban" me - after I'd left, (b) his refusal to delete my account and finally (c) his decision to retain my few (perhaps four) remaining blank "Capn Jimbo" posts - apparently for the sole purpose of subtitling my name as "banned". A lesson to sycophants. Never you mind that I resigned, deleted all the posts I could, and politely requested that he delete my account. Never you mind that previously banned members - just a couple he claimed - were completely deleted. It's easy really, just a click of the administrator's mouse.

Nobody, but nobody really questions the Prophet's self assumed "expert" status. I can only imagine: "No sirree, you can't quit, I'm firing your ass! And if that isn't enough, I'm NOT gonna delete your account. Nope, I'm gonna keep it around, keep the Capn shackled in the public square - tarred, feathered and labeled "banned"! No links to your rum site either!"

No matter Eddie, as the adult in this matter, I'm happy to link your site, it's all good, right?

Obviously embarassed by my expose of such petty and transparent silliness, the pouting Prophet did finally remove the subtitle "banned" (cheers - giddyup Ed!) - but - then replaced this epithet with the subtitle "Liberated from the Rum Lovers Forums" (boos - clearly Ed requires yet another flick of the whip, lol)! "Banned" - replaced by the face-saving "Liberated" - rather than the truthful "Resigned".

And in what can only be interpreted as an obsessive attempt to get even, the Edster spent considerable time restoring about 30 of the 90-some posts I'd deleted. Trust me, as a webmaster, this is not easy - it's a time consuming task - requiring motivation, tunnel vision, search and restoral of backups - and copious quantities of rum and emotional incentive.

Of course the posts that counted - my postings regarding agricole (privately praised by the Minister as "valued and educational") - along with the cheap shot one-liners they drew (some from Mr. Ed hisself!), and my final fare-thee-well post (explaining my decision to leave what had become a silly and abusive environment) - went unrestored.

Let it be known that the Minister was selective. Some posts were restored as is - for example those where I'd praised Robert Burr's magnificent tastings. In these, my words were left entirely intact. Not the rest though. In these Ed was took the time and effort to (a) restore the post, (b) delete my mostly benign comments and (c) replace these with his own description of what I had posted. Let's consider a couple:

Posted by "Capn Jimbo", subtitled "Liberated from the Rum Lovers Forums".
Subject: Define it and they will come
Body by the Minister: "Capn Jimbo offered some of his bountiful words of wisdom on the origins of the rum industry in the Caribbean before liberating himself to do bigger and better things with his time."

Actually this post was my lengthy article setting forth a case for reference tasting standards, a case with which our dear Minister in crisis took issue. (Link: A Case for Reference Standards) Based on the date of this article it seemed restorable. It wasn't.

Posted by "Capn Jimbo", subtitled "Liberated from the Rum Lovers Forums".
Subject: On Rum Tasting
Body by the Prophet: "Capn Jimbo offered a link to rums from Reunion, but chose to delete his post before liberating himself from this forum so he could do bigger and better things with his time."

Nope. Actually I'd linked an extremely competent article on tasting from a leading French rum tasting expert, F. Paul Picault, of the Spirit Journal University. (Link: How to Taste Rum, Pacault)

Posted by "Capn Jimbo", subtitled "Liberated from the Rum Lovers Forums".
Subject: Mabi Taino Seybano
Body by Ed: "Capn Jimbo offered some thoughts on the island drink called Mabi before liberating himself to do bigger and better things with his time."

Nope again Ed. This one was actually a couple gorgeous pics of some bottles of mixers from a company named Taino, one called "Mabi Taino Seybano" and the other "Mabi Taino Cacheo". These are commercial soft drinks from the Dominican Republic, based on fermented bark extract, spices and cane sugar. No matter.

1. You can lead a horse to water. Too proud to drink, Mr. Ed prefered to snort, buck and try to claim that he had "banned" me, after I'd already resigned and left the barn. The real, true story of my decision to leave the Cult of Rum and the Minister's silly response is here (Link: The Ministry of Rum: Unplugged ). A amazing, fun story.

2. You can drive a horse to water. Faced with this expose of his faux banning, the Minister finally fessed up and relabeled me - only slightly more accurately - as "Liberated from the Rum Lovers Forum". I guess "resigned" is too painful for the Prophet, who simply can't bring himself to delete me, as requested. It's the Hotel California rum bar, lol.

But on the other hand, and although I never really thought about it, "liberated" may indeed be closer to the truth. It's hard composing articles with the stricture of not knowing how much truth our sometimes robe-less preacher can tolerate.

3. But he still ain't gonna drink. I must give some mixed credit to the Preacher here. On the positive side, he clearly valued my commentaries and context enough to restore a few of the more benign. OTOH, he couldn't or wouldn't restore any of my previously praised posts that apparently conflicted with his own positions on rum in general, and cane juice rums in particular.

But in the end - and as the sponsored Minister Ed repeatedly chants - "it's all good", and it all works out for the best. Don't tell him, but thanks to the Minister's intransigence the number of hits on the Rum Project and Forum have dramatically increased. Best yet, he spelled my name right, lol.

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