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- Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
- Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!yale.edu!jvnc.net!princeton!crux!roger
- From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
- Subject: Re: quite unique research?
- Message-ID: <1992Nov17.161732.2605@Princeton.EDU>
- Originator: news@nimaster
- Sender: news@Princeton.EDU (USENET News System)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: crux.princeton.edu
- Reply-To: roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig)
- Organization: Princeton University
- References: <1992Nov16.143026.23853@news.columbia.edu> <1992Nov16.210423.11779@Princeton.EDU> <1992Nov17.044553.27898@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 16:17:32 GMT
- Lines: 58
-
- In article <1992Nov17.044553.27898@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> sborders@nyx.cs.du.edu (Scott Borders) writes:
- >roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig) writes:
-
- >>In article <1992Nov16.143026.23853@news.columbia.edu> gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Gabe M Wiener) writes:
- >>>In article <1992Nov16.112547.22880@black.ox.ac.uk> microsoc@black.ox.ac.uk (Marc B.A. Read) writes:
-
- >>>>(I'm still shaking at the memory of Roger's flames to this newcomer to
- >>>>Usenet about "concertize"....)
-
- >>>A pity, isn't it.
- > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
- >>What's a pity? That people can't walk over to the dictionary (or hook up
- >>with the on-line OED)? That whole issue was avoidable, and the people who
- >>spoke of that usage as being "depressing," "ugly," etc. might have saved
- >>their breath.
-
- >I believe the writer was referring to your penchant for becoming rude
- >and abusive when others disagree with you.
-
- You know, I'd like to see a posting of mine in which I become rude
- because people disagree with me.
-
- Yes, occasionally I say rude things around here. But they're
- generally reactions to things *I* perceive as being far more rude:
- calling people who use this or that idiom "ignorant" or "illiterate"
- or "wrong" without any reason. Talking about the terrible decline in
- standards -- without evidence that things were ever better, or telling
- what the standards might be. Using language as a club to enforce
- class differences.
-
- I think we can all do better than that.
-
- >This was the reason I
- >dropped the recent thread on "pro-active" and "impact"; I didn't
- >feel like responding to personal abuse and snide remarks.
-
- Well, if I offended you I'm truly sorry. But I'd like to
- see those remarks again. As I recall, the arguments against those
- words involved things like "copywriters/politicians/marketing people
- use these words so they must be bad."
-
- I guess I *do* respond badly to such combinations of counterfactuality,
- illogic, and sneering; why not consider what the words mean, how they
- are and aren't used, and why they might have arisen in the first place?
- Time and again, someone will post a peeve about this or that word, and
- not even bother to ask or speculate on how the word might have arisen,
- or why it's used. I think we shouldn't skip that step.
-
- >If you'll excuse me, I'm going shopping for some asbestos Fruit of
- >the Looms. With Roger around, it's best to be prepared for those
- >below-the-belt flames, too.
-
- No flames intended here or elsewhere. If you have a specific posting
- of mine you'd like to discuss, let me see it. If I was rude, you'll
- get an apology immediately.
-
- Roger
-
-