Horn trashing stories

Someone on the list is irritated at horn trashing stories:

     I think the opinions and stories about horn trashing
     have been raked in the dust.

     Once I wrote a great story about horn trashing.  I took it
to a writers conference, and carelessly left it on my chair.
     Well, during the intermission, several brutes (romance novelists,
as I recall) knocked my story off the chair, spilled coffee on it,
and raked it in the dust. There were large rips on the last
page, just two inches above the paragraph about humongous dents
in my bell.
     My story was mangled. My horn was dented. I was crushed.
     I was able to take it to a reputable editor, who had it retyped
as good as new.  Even so, the story never sounded the same, and
I never was able to publish it.
     Always be very careful of your horn trashing stories.

Gotta go,
F. Scott Cabbage