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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittvax!qumix!amd!dual!hav
From: hav@dual.UUCP (Helen Anne Vigneau)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Chris's Major Conniption
Message-ID: <830@dual.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Oct-84 15:34:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: dual.830
Posted: Tue Oct  9 15:34:30 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Oct-84 04:03:40 EDT
References: <605@trwspp.UUCP>, <826@dual.UUCP> <1271@ihuxq.UUCP>
Organization: Dual Systems, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 50

<*munch*>

Well, Ken.  I'm stunned.  I had until now had a goodly amount of respect for
you, but it appears that this was unwarranted.

=> Maybe you say so, but you're wrong-o!  Such Victorian stodginess about
=> so fluid a thing as language is silly.  I know your kind, Helen.  You
=> think grammar is a set of arbitrary rules that one memorizes and uses
=> inflexibly.  But you didn't even do that well--there is such a word as
=> "lastly", not even "obs." or "coloq."  It's a perfectly acceptable
=> English word.  And "IC's" is OK too.  Really.

My kind, eh?  Yes, I'm a doddering old maid schoolmarm turned techno-twit.
And you, when was the last time you picked up an English text and actually
*read* it?  Third grade, you say???  Well, I'm sorry you have this problem
with remembering the rules and following them.  I guess people of *your kind*
(sic) belong in an anarchy like the net.

=> If you were ever to do any serious writing, you'd know that manuals of
=> style disagree on numerous points, especially in the punctuation sense.
=> The most recent proponent of the apostrophe for plural acronyms is
=> William Safire, in an "On Language" column in the Times Magazine last
=> month.  Read him sometime, Helen.  Or don't you love language?  I
=> guess you don't, since for you it's just a jumble of immutable rules.
=> There are rules, but they are a window on the mind--grammar reflects
=> orderly thought, and thus it lives and breathes.

I do plenty of serious writing, and I am fully aware that manuals of style
disagree, et cetera, et cetera, blah, blah, blah.  I frequently read William
Safire, although I seem to have missed the column you mentioned.  Would you
mind transcribing a copy and mailing it to me?  After all, I *love* language.
I make no pretense of defending the immutability of the rules of grammar, but
I *do* try to follow them.  If I am reading something and it's unclear to me
because some asshole decided he was exempt from following the rules, that, to
me, is a problem.  It is a window on the mind of the person who writes,
clearly or otherwise.  If you would like to debate the rules and/or the
possibility of changing them, let's meet in net.nlang.

=>                     *** ***
=> JE MAINTIENDRAI   ***** *****
=>                  ****** ******  06 Oct 84 [15 Vendemiaire An CXCIII]
=> ken perlow       *****   *****
=> (312)979-7188     ** ** ** **
=> ..ihnp4!ihuxq!ken   *** ***

Don't you thing it takes a lot of gall to include a peace sign in a followup
like yours, Ken?  :-)  *Sigh*

Helen Anne Vigneau
Dual Systems Corporation