Bethany...

[Lynne Murphy]

The person who posted this to Bethany should be excluded from the list,
since he is not adhering to its terms, and his harassing behavior should be
reported to his ISP.  He is not taking part in the discussion, not actually
addressing the points that Bethany made, but rather making ad hominem
attacks.  In a debate over the role of intention in offensiveness, I think
this guy's intentions come through loud and clear.  He will go off and tell
his friends that those "intellectuals" find him too much of a threat, but
we'll know the real reason he doesn't belong here--that he doesn't know how
to behave in an e-mail list.  Was Bethany the only participator he
targetted?

Btw, a lot of people have been asking for the list moderator to come in and
do something about potentially offensive posts, but the list has no
moderator.  See: http://www.americandialect.org/adsl.shtml.

Lynne

--On Tuesday, July 3, 2001 4:06 pm -0400 "Bethany K. Dumas"
<dumasb at UTKUX.UTCC.UTK.EDU> wrote:

> I want to be certain that everyone on the list gets to enjoy the
> high intellectual content of the private message I just received.
>
> Bethany
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 14:48:01 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Trimtantre at aol.com
> To: dumasb at utkux.utcc.utk.edu
> Subject: For : Bethany Dumb Ass
>
> Bethany K. Dumas"  <dumasb at UTKUX.UTCC.UTK.EDU> writes
> on the ADS (American Dialect Society) listerv.:
>
> Question: What do you call those vertical entities (some are very
> heavy-duty - for moving refrigeraors and such) that allow you to move
> heavy loads easily?
>
> Answer: Italians.
> ==================================================
> My Question : What do you call a Bethany who is a Bigot?
>
> Answer: A  "Dumas"!  Pronounced "Dumb Ass"
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Annotico
> trimtantre at aol.com
>
> PS. To those dozens I have blind copied, please excuse my resorting to
> rather idiotmatic semiotics.
>
> And yes, idiomatic was purposely "modified" to better suit the
> circumstances.
>
> And I will not mention that Bethany needs to learn how to spell
> "refrigerator".
> Perhaps, if that word is too polysyllabic, she might try "ice box" or
> "cooler".
>
> Is this Bethany person of that "ilk" belong on a presumably "intellectual"
> Bulletin
> Board, and why would the Board permit such a "posting"?
>
> Perhaps, this is another example that "education" does not necessarily
> make one wiser, and certainly not more "civilized".



M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
fax   +44-(0)1273-671320