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Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
EchoNet(c): Quality Echoes for the Users of Quality BBSes
Editor in Chief: Ed Lawyer
Copyright 1990-1992, EchoNet(c). All rights reserved.
Duplication and/or distribution permitted for non-commercial
purposes exclusively; credit to EchoNet and author must be given.
EchoNews(tm) is published monthly by the EchoNet(c) private
International Electronic Communications Network. It is a compil-
ation of individual articles contributed by EchoNet(c) SysOps
and/or their callers or other interested parties; contribution of
articles to this compilation does not diminish the rights of the
authors.
You are encouraged to submit articles in plain ASCII format for
publication in EchoNews(tm). Articles will be checked for
spelling; the editor reserves the right to edit title and content
when he judges such action necessary.
General opinions and controversial compositions are welcome,
these being the views of the authors and not necessarily those of
the Editor or of EchoNet(c).
=================================================================
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
1. Thoughts and Recognitions
From the Board .......................................... 1
2. ZNTC John Radford's 'Techy Bytes'
From _Computer User's Dictionary_ ....................... 3
3. About Echomail
Commonly Asked Echomail Questions ... by Jeremy Charles . 5
4. A Celebration
THE GREATEST FREE SHOW ON EARTH! ... by Rick Luquette ... 7
5. Pigeonholing
The Art of Missing the Point ... by Alan Gilbertson ..... 10
6. Quotes
Just for fun ............................................ 13
EchoNews Page i
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
=================================================================
T h o u g h t s a n d R e c o g n i t i o n s
=================================================================
1992 promises exciting news for EchoNet: Our membership
continues to grow with quality SysOps in the United States and
Canada; our Policy revision, soon to be released, broadens a
clearer understanding of our philosophy and in many simpler
terms; our administrative staff reaches greater heights of
responsibility, especially with the creation of an annual Board
position to the *Z structure; and, our echomail conferences
blossom in maturity and variety. The Board salutes Michele and
Bonnie.
<*C of the Month>
Region 5020 Coordinator Michele Hamilton-Stewart (a woman whose
overburdened schedule never tires of building EchoNet) and her NCs
lengthen Enetlist with first-class nodes almost weekly. Michele
serves as a fine example for others to emulate: The energetic and
innovative *C seeks members from among SysOps recognized as running
a productive and echomail-oriented BBS, offering them the opportunity
of becoming active in a network where quality reigns higher than a
slogan. The Board salutes Michele Hamilton-Stewart.
<Moderator of the Month>
A straight-A high school student with enough extracurricular
activities to slow most of us by just listening to the litany, Dan
McCarriar also is active with computers at the United States Naval
Academy and assists local modemers with setting up their Amiga
computers. In addition to moderating a FidoNet conference, Dan
moderates PIRATES BEWARE! for EchoNet and exemplifies the hard
work involved maintaining our policy in spirit and in form. Dan
is an expert at sparking a thread, easing it down some when
necessary, and keeping his eyes open for mechanical malfunctions
such as erroneous origin lines. Usually without embarrassing a
participant, Dan recognizes a breach with the unwritten spirit of
EchoNet's policy and makes gentle corrections; he is not above
contacting his NEC for advice. This is a man who knows what he is
doing and yet isn't embarrassed to ask for help. The Board salutes
Dan McCarriar.
<SysOp of the Month>
Those of you who participant in several of our conferences
recognize the name of the SysOp of GenericLand BBS (5608/4,
Madison, WI), Jeremy Charles. His postings are lively and
frequent; his extremely kind concern for the feelings of others
illustrates the familial spirit of EchoNet. Jeremy is known as
someone who runs after a participant threatening to leave a
conference with a handful of pleasantries so sincere that only
die-hard stubborness can resist. Moderators spread their
welcoming wings to this SysOp/participant in appreciation of his
love for EchoNet and the conference they moderate. Jeremy offers
our network his support and talents whenever requested (and often
without), and is a SysOp always to be relied upon. For example,
if interest in a new conference is shown but no hands raise to
EchoNews Page 1
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
moderate it, Jeremy sends netmail with an offer to help; if
this newsletter fails to be published due to lack of articles,
Jeremy sends an article very quickly. Much more could be listed
here. Let it suffice, however, merely to state that EchoNet
appreciates and salutes SysOp Jeremy Charles.
EchoNews Page 2
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
=================================================================
Z N T C J o h n R a d f o r d ' s ' T e c h y B y t e s '
=================================================================
The following excerpts are from the paperback book _Computer
User's Dictionary_ by QUE, copyright 1990, a fine "easy-to-use
glossary of common computer terms" that may help new modemers
understand this marvelous hobby, while refreshing the memories
of those of us who have enjoyed computers for many years.
***************************************************************
<> asynchronous communication <>
Pronounced "ay-sink'-roh-nuss." A method of data communication
in which the transmission of bits of data is not synchronized by
a clock signal but is accomplished by sending the bits one after
another, with a start bit and a stop bit to mark the beginning
and end of the data unit.
Computer information is conveyed in two ways. Synchronous com-
munications sends data in parallel along a bus, with each wire
corresponding to one bit of information in a binary number. Syn-
chronous can be compared to sending eight cars side-by-side down
a freeway. The cars travel together, and they arrive at the same
time. Asynchronous communication comes into play when you have
only two wires. The bits are sent one after the other, with a
start bit and a stop bit. Asynchronous communication can be
compared to sending eight cars, one after the other, down a one-
lane road, with a motorcycle policeman at the beginning and end
of the procession.
Because the telephone company relies on two-wire cables, asyn-
chronous communication is synonymous with telecommunications.
<> modem <>
A device that converts the digital signals generated by the
computer's serial port to the modulated, analog signals required
for transmission over a telephone line and transforms incoming
analog signals to their digital equivalents. In personal com-
puting, people frequently use modems to exchange programs and
data with other computers, and to access on-line information
services such as the Dow Jones News/Retrieval Service. [Ed.
Guess they never heard of bulletin board systems. :-) ]
Modem stands for MOdulator/DEModulator. The modulation is
necessary because telephone lines were designed to handle the
human voice, which warbles between 300 Hz and 3,000 Hz in ordin-
ary telephone conversations (from a growl to a shriek). The
speed at which a modem transmits data is measured in units called
bits per second (technically not the same as bauds, although the
terms are often used interchangeably).
<> Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) <>
An integrated circuit that transforms the parallel data stream
within the computer to the serial, one-after-the-other data
EchoNews Page 3
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
stream used in asynchronous communications.
In early IBM Personal Computers, the UART was contained on the
Asynchronous Communications Adapter, but the UART now is found on
the motherboard in most designs. Serial communication requires,
in addition to the UART, a serial port and modem.
<> serial port <>
A port that synchronizes and makes asynchronous communication
between the computer and devices such as serial printers, modems,
and other computers easier.
The function of the serial port is not only to transmit and
receive asynchronous data in its one-bit-after-the-other stream:
the serial port also negotiates with the receiving device to make
sure that transmissions and receptions occur without the loss of
data. The negotiation occurs through hardware or software hand
shaking.
To connect a serial printer to your IBM-compatible computer,
you may need to use the DOS or OS/2 _MODE_ command.
EchoNews Page 4
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
=================================================================
A b o u t E c h o m a i l
=================================================================
Commonly Asked Echomail Questions ... by Jeremy Charles
I started out with echomail about a year ago participating
in a few FidoNet conferences on a BBS in the city of Madison,
Wisconsin. In the summer of 1991 I became a point of another
local FidoNet system. Shortly after that, in late August, I
joined EchoNet as a node. Through all that time I have come
across a number of questions asked by almost all echomail
novices, and even by myself. With a little research, I
eventually found out the answers to those questions. To aide any
new echomail novices out there, I'd like to pass along the
answers to the two most frequently asked questions that I have
heard and answered several times.
The first question is, "How far does this thing go?" Right
now, EchoNet covers a good deal of the United States and has a
bunch of nodes (BBSes which are members of the network) in
Canada. As of the nodelist for Friday February 7, 1992,
EchoNet's node count runs up into the high 200's. If that is
multiplied by the amount of potential users on each of those
nodes the resulting number is somewhere up in the thousands.
The second and more involved question is asked in several
different forms. Some of the more popular ones are, "Why does it
take you so long to reply to me?", "Are you still out there?",
and "Why did I get a message from you today that is dated five
days ago?" The root question here is, "Why does it take so long
for messages to get from place to place?" The answer to this
question lies in why this whole thing is called "echomail". The
name echomail comes from the fact that the messages (referred to
as "mail") bounce ("echo") off of several different computer
systems to get from place to place.
To find out why, one must understand how the mail is
transferred. There are four main levels that the mail is sent
through. They are as follows:
The Backbone: This is a computer in Baltimore, Maryland.
It is also referred to as EchoNet's HeadQuarters. This is
because it is the main point for echomail transfer in the network
- all national EchoNet conferences go through this system.
Regional Echomail Coordinators (RECs): The REC is
responsible for handling mail for a given region of the network.
For example, I am in region 5011 which covers the states of
Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and West
Virginia. The REC for 5011 is responsible for handling the mail
coming in and out of all those states.
Network Echomail Coordinators (NECs): The NEC is
responsible for handling mail for a given net. A net is a
collection of nodes usually defined by an area code. I am in
area code 608 (Madison, Wisconsin and surrounding area),
therefore I am a member of net 5608. The NEC for 5608 is
responsible for handling the mail going in and out of the Madison
area.
EchoNews Page 5
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
System Operators (SysOps): The SysOp is responsible for
handling mail for his/her node. It's probably the simplest job
in the network.
Now let's illustrate what happens when a message is sent,
and find out why it takes so long for messages to get around.
Let's say I posted a message on my node, 50:5608/4. The message
must take several hops through the network as it makes its way to
you. The first hop is when it goes from the SysOps level
(myself) to the NEC level (5608 NEC). The second hop is from the
NEC level up to the REC level (5011 REC). Then it takes a third
hop to the Backbone. After this point, the message spreads out
rather quickly.
The fourth hop is from the Backbone back down to the REC
level. It gets sent to every REC except for 5011, because he/she
has already gotten it. It then takes fifth and sixth hops to
NECs and SysOps that it hasn't already visited.
A message can start out at places other than the SysOp
level. For example, a message could be posted by the 5011 REC.
It would then disperse from that system to both the NEC "below"
him/her (including my 5608 NEC) and up to the Backbone at the
same time. A message could also start out at the backbone, in
which case its first step would be dispersing to the RECs.
Each of the hops has the potential to take a full day to
complete, so each message has the potential to take up to a week
to get everywhere on the network. But, fortunately for us, many
of those steps happen in one day making the average time for a
message to get everywhere about four or five days.
Hopefully this hasn't confused anyone too much. I tried to
explain everything in as simple and un-techie-type terms as
possible. If one of the above two questions was one of yours, I
hope it has now been answered. Maybe you might even be able to
help out a confused echomail novice in the future.
EchoNews Page 6
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
=================================================================
A C e l e b r a t i o n
=================================================================
THE GREATEST FREE SHOW ON EARTH!
Such a statement! And yet, without a doubt, it's the truth.
It's Carnival Time in South Louisiana.
This year, Mardi Gras is being celebrated on March 3rd. Held
each year on the 46th day before Easter Sunday, Mardi Gras day is
actually the end of the Carnival season, which begins on Twelfth
Night, otherwise known as the Feast of the Ephiphany (January 6th),
the day that commemorates the Wise Men's visit to the baby Jesus,
and the last day of the Christmas season. Traditionally, the
season is kicked off by a group known as the Twelfth Night
Revelers. Several activities take place between January 6th and
the first parade day, which this year was on February 21st, but the
festivities don't really begin in ernest until the parades begin.
This year there were 60 parades scheduled in the Greater New
Orleans area alone, with perhaps a hundred or more set for outside
the GNO Metro. The small community of Houma (HO-mah), 50 miles
southwest of New Orleans on U.S. Highway 90, has 7, while the
smaller town of Thibodaux (TIB-a-doh, remember Hank Williams' song
Jambalaya?) just north of Houma, has 5. They're just about
everywhere.
When I say "parade", what does that bring to mind? Do you
think of the Rose Parade, or the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade? Both
are nice, but neither would qualify as a "parade" Carnival style.
Imagine the Rose Parade with all float riders wearing masks and
throwing out beads, imprinted cups, panties, bras, frisbees, super
balls, stuffed animals, roses, candy, commemorative coins called
"Doubloons", and any other kind of trinkets the Orientals can think
of; the spectators clawing for the trinkets en masse as though they
were starving and grasping for a morsel of food; many spectators
wearing costumes more elaborate than the riders, and you might
begin to imagine what Carnival time is like in a community like
Houma (population 35,000). Swell the crowd to more than a million
people, add patrols by the New Orleans Police Department (the
recognized worldwide authority on crowd control), throw out nearly
all laws on public drunkeness and nudity, and add such events as
the transvestite beauty contest, and you'll begin to imagine Mardi
Gras Day in Downtown New Orleans.
What is Mardi Gras? Technically, it's "Fat Tuesday", the day
before Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Christian period of
penance known as Lent. In France, Mardi Gras was the final day of
celebration before Lent, the time to kill the "Boeuf Gras" (fatted
calf) since Lent is a time of fasting and abstaining from meat.
The celebration probably began in New Orleans in 1699 when the
French explorer Iberville sailed up the Mississippi River and named
a bend in the river "Pointe du Mardi Gras" in honor of the holiday
being celebrated in France that day (ironically, it was March 3rd).
Mardi Gras itself probably began as a pagan fertility celebration
held in the Roman empire, that Christians converted to their own
purposes. During the 1700's balls and festivals were held during
the Carnival season, which at one time officially stretched from
November to May. But Mardi Gras would never be the same after
1857, when a group of New Orleanians who were formerly members of
EchoNews Page 7
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
the "Cowbellians" (who paraded on New Year's Eve in Mobile) decided
to hold a parade and formed the "Mistick Krewe of Comus". They
established several Carnival traditions including the formation of
a secret society; choosing a mythological namesake; presenting a
themed parade with floats and costumed maskers, and staging a ball
combined with a pageant known as a "tableau", at which elaborately
costumed maids and dukes, along with the King and Queen, parade
before invited guests, most of whom must leave before the actual
party begins.
While Comus is the oldest of the Carnival organizations, the
King of Carnival is Rex. According to the story, the Grand Duke
Alexis Romanoff of Russia had a serious crush on a popular female
singer and followed her to New Orleans in 1872. In honor of his
visit, the first daytime Mardi Gras parade was staged, called
simply Rex, the King of Carnival. Rex adopted the colors purple,
green, and gold, and the woman singer's biggest hit song, "If Ever
I Cease to Love", as the official colors and song of Mardi Gras.
You can be certain that if you hear someone humming "If Ever I
Cease to Love", they've been to the Mardi Gras!
Rex officially takes over the city on Lundi Gras ("Fat
Monday"), the day before Mardi Gras. He arrives by barge on the
Mississippi River and is greeted by the mayor, who manages Rex's
kingdom as "caretaker" during the rest of the year. Rex is always
a prominent and wealthy New Orleans civic leader, and his Queen is
always a debutante. Each Krewe has its own king and queen, of
course, but Rex and his queen are the aknowledged King and Queen of
Carnival. In a tradition dating back many years, the Rex and Comus
balls are both held in the divided Municipal Auditorium. One half
hour before Midnight, the divider is removed and the courts join
each other in tribute. Rex pays homage to Comus as the oldest
krewe, while Comus honors Rex as king of Carnival. The two trade
queens and parade around the auditorium. This was particularly
interesting about four years ago when the two organizations,
separately and quite by accident, chose twin sisters as their
queens!
One of the most popular traditions of the Carnival season is
the King Cake. This is an oval cake sort of halfway between a
coffee cake and a pastry, coated with glaze or sugar died purple,
green, and gold, and containing a small plastic baby. According to
tradition, the first King Cake of the season is eaten at a party on
January 6th (Twelfth Night, remember?). Whoever gets the piece
with the baby has to throw the next party, and the last one to get
the baby each year throws the first party the following year.
According to Mardi Gras historian Arthur Hardy, about half a
million King Cakes are consumed each year in the New Orleans metro
area alone. With the advent of overnight delivery services, it is
now possible to ship King Cakes to displaced revelers all over the
United States. By the way, the annual Mardi Gras Ball in
Washington, D.C, sponsored by the Louisiana Congressional
Delegation, is one of the hottest tickets of the year in the
nation's capital.
Who pays for all this? Each year, the krewes spend about $38
million in New Orleans alone for floats, trinkets, balls, costumes,
etc. The total impact on the economy of New Orleans is estimated
at half a billion dollars. Aside from police protection and
garbage collection, not a single penny is provided from public
EchoNews Page 8
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
sources. The krewe members themselves pay dues and hold fund
raisers to cover the costs of the parades and balls. They each buy
their own throws (as the trinkets, cups, doubloons, etc., are
called), which can cost $1,000 or more, and also pay for their
costumes and dues to the organization. I don't think there's a
carnival krewe in existance that does not have a long waiting list.
While some krewes are all white or all black, or all male or
all female, Carnival itself is totally non-discriminatory. There's
a krewe for everyone. If all else fails, you can always get your
neighbors together and rent a flat-bed truck, decorate it, pay a
small fee, and ride in one of the many "truck parades" in the area.
The best known is the Krewe of Orlenians, sponsored by the Elks
Club, which follows Rex each year. The Rex parade begins at 10 am,
and it's often dark before the last of the nearly 200 floats in the
Krewe of Orleanians parade turns off of the city's main street,
Canal Street.
Well, there it is. I've tried to give you a "thumbnail"
description of Mardi Gras, but I promise I've left out more than
I've put in. Carnival is indescribable. It simply must be
experienced. Before I close, though, I would like to add one more
thing. While the city of New Orleans has a population of about a
half million, each year the crowd on Canal Street alone is
estimated at well over one million people. Any time you get that
many people together there are bound to be unpleasant incidents,
pickpockets, prostitutes, etc. But serious incidents are rare.
There are always some arrests for disturbing the peace, fighting,
etc., but seldom any killings or other serious crimes (unlike most
other times in New Orleans, which has a high murder rate). It
seems that even the bad guys know that Mardi Gras is a time to have
fun, and for New Orleans to put its best foot forward to the world.
One more thing. Don't bother calling on March 3rd. We won't
be home.
Laissez les bon temps roulet (LAY-zay lay BOHN TOHN roo-LAY):
Let the Good Times Roll! Happy Mardi Gras, y'all!
EchoNews Page 9
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
=================================================================
P i g e o n h o l i n g
=================================================================
The Art of Missing the Point ... by Alan Gilbertson
PIGEONHOLING - THE NOT-SO-GENTLE ART OF MISSING THE POINT
Most of us read newspapers or watch television news pretty
regularly. We feel a certain obligation to stay up to date on
current affairs; to be able, at the least, to say something
intelligent when the discussion turns to the latest developments in
Russia or what the Governor said about the state budget. But,
beside the fact that a concentrated stream of bad news can be
pretty depressing, too heavy a diet of journalism has another
effect, more subtle, that occasionally spills over into echomail
and causes plenty of trouble. It's not press bias or censorship,
which I suppose most of us know about and try to compensate for, it
is the insidious practice of "pigeonholing", relied upon by
journalists, but quite deadly to real people.
Press stories and TV news are written under extreme deadlines. The
old Hollywood image of the bustling newspaper office is not so far
off the mark, even if these days the reporters use computer
terminals, rather than typewriters, and the copy is delivered over
the LAN, rather than by a racing copy boy. Because they are
writing hurriedly, not to say harriedly, reporters use a highly
developed form of linguistic shorthand when describing people,
events, ideas, and situations.
Years ago, for example, I was rather bitterly amused to realise
that the British press had developed a standard headline vocabulary
for disasters. "Plane Crash Scare" indicated that nothing much
actually happened, perhaps some people sustained a minor bruise or
two, at most. "Plane Crash Terror" usually indicated some
injuries, nothing fatal, although the situation could have been
much worse. "Plane Crash Tragedy" meant someone, perhaps three or
four people, had died. "Plane Crash Horror" headlined a disaster
tale with many deaths.
Once you start to notice this kind of thing, you begin to see it
more and more: dozens upon dozens of hackneyed ways to communicate
crude ideas without involving the imagination, without requiring
any original thought, burying the uniqueness of a particular event
or story in cliche. The nastiest use of this technique is as
applied to people. A woman (who is, to herself and to those who
know her, a distinct individual, different in a thousand ways from
any other in the world) becomes "Homemaker, 35", or "activist Mary
Jenks". The reporter has labelled her, and feels no need to write
anything further in the way of description or explanation. She has
been depersonalized: assigned a monochrome category of being, a
world away from the personality, motivations, and points of view
which are uniquely hers. This is what I mean by pigeonholing.
The danger is that the reader is fooled into believing he or she
has been told something about this person, without ever having a
clue as to who she really is. All the reader has is a convenient
category: "One size fits all." The reporter has presented us, not
with an individual, but with a symbol.
EchoNews Page 10
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
Another favored trick, popular with PR people and propagandists of
all stripes, is "isms". A statement by a political or religious
leader on some topic may be perfectly rational in its context, but
the reporter (or a rival politician) calls it "Imperialism", or
"Racism", or "Colonialism." This is just a different form of
pigeonholing, perhaps less immediately depersonalizing, but just as
wide of the mark and, alas, just as popular. The real meaning or
intent of what was said is corrupted, or so obscured as to make it
effectively null.
Many reporters are so addicted to pigeonholing that they become
quite confused when they have to write about a person who doesn't
fit any of the standard categories. The usual cop-out in this case
is to label the person "eccentric" or otherwise play the story as
if he or she is a slightly-less-than-human oddball, or drop the
story completely. It substitutes well for thinking, and it removes
the need to understand or to explain. Pigeonholing is also at the
root of prejudice and bigotry, both of which evaporate in the glare
of real knowledge and understanding.
How does all this relate to echoes and message posting? The
pigeonholing habit is highly contagious, not always easy to
perceive in oneself or others, and it can carry into our echoes,
where it does NOT belong.
You may see a message which, taken on its own merits and without
reading anything else into it, is quite reasoned and sensible. But
the response is "This is pure ---ism." (What follows will be an
attack on the "ism," not a response to the original message.) Or
the reply begins: "You are obviously a (fill-in-the-label)," and
contains an attack on whatever the respondent thinks this generic
type believes or does.
Needless to say, in all but a tiny fraction of cases these replies
are far wide of the mark. They miss, by a mile, whatever point the
original message poster was trying to make, and the thread either
degenerates into a slanging match or wanders so far from the
original topic that one would need a powerful telescope to find it.
Rational discussion vanishes while people post messages to
conceptual pigeonholes instead of to each other.
What makes this worse is that we instinctively detest being
pigeonholed, and tend to react with emotion, rather than reason,
when we find it happening to us. It takes some fortitude to
recognize the other guy or gal is merely pigeonholing and NOT react
in kind.
Some echoes/topics are more prone to this than others. Anything
concerning politics, religion, or other matters of personal opinion
is particularly vulnerable, but it can happen anywhere. And when
it does, moderators have to step in and try to cool things down.
It always leaves behind an ugly taste, though, and a moderator
who's just a fraction less comfortable, a little less enthusiastic,
about the echo. Sometimes the combatants don't even know quite how
they got to such a pass, or aren't sure why their posts were found
objectionable.
Discrimination - the recognition and separating out of differences
- is the antithesis of pigeonholing. The pigeonholer, the lazy
EchoNews Page 11
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
press reporter, would create a flavorless world where types replace
individuals, and labels substitute for understanding. Our echoes,
by contrast, are diverse, and rich, founded on live communication
between real people. Realise that the person you're responding to
is highly individual, and it's very unlikely that any handy
category you inadvertently apply will actually fit that specific
person. Read a new post (especially if you disagree with what it
says) as a single message from a single individual.
Discriminate; don't pigeonhole.
You can catch yourself pigeonholing if you read over what you've
just written, before you save it. If you thought to yourself "I
know the type," the chances are your reply is going be off the
mark. The recipient isn't a "type." He or she is an individual.
Another warning sign is the presence of words like "obviously,"
"apparently," or "evidently." If these appear in your post, as in
"You obviously..." or "Evidently, you are...," rework it, because
odds are you're writing to your mental pigeonhole, not to the
poster of the message. It's not for nothing that manuals of style
suggest you avoid these particular words, because they are
generally used in veiled insults, rather than polite communication.
If you find someone using them in a message to you, recognize that
they're not communicating to YOU, but to some misshapen idea of
"your type". Take the time to differentiate yourself, and help the
other person discriminate.
People are different, one from another. Appreciating and exploring
those differences is more fun than mushing them into categories.
We're not reporters. We have no pressing deadlines. We don't need
convenient pigeonholes. Afford yourself the enjoyable luxury of
discovering the individual behind the message.
Besides, it makes the echoes more readable, more rational, and
much, much more informative.
EchoNews Page 12
Volume 2, Number 3 March 7, 1992
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Q u o t e s
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Young men want to be faithful and are not; old men want to be
faithless and cannot. -Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
When I want your opinion I'll give it to you.
Sometimes the pilgrimage from rags to riches is a journey from rage to
wretchedness. -R.M. Huber
The suffering of the rich is among the sweetest pleasures of the poor.
-R.M. Huber
Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies. -de Balzac
We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.
-von Braun
Bores bore each other too; but it never seems to teach them anything.
-Don Marquis
Platonic love is love from the neck up. -Thyra Samter Winslow
Only little boys and old men sneer at love. -Louis Auchincloss
Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence. -J.W. Krutch
All snakes who wish to remain in Ireland will please raise their right
hands. -Attributed to St. Patrick (c.373-464)
Where words fail, music speaks. -Hans Christian Andersen
Music is to the mind as air is to the body. -Plato
There is a chord in every heart that has a sigh in it if touched
aright. -Ouida
Music is love in seach of a word. -Sidney Lanier
Roses are red, violets are blue,
I'm a schizophrenic, and so am I.
-Frank Crow
Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a
friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.
-Franklin P. Jones
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