LL-L: "Nomenclature" (was "Names") [E] LOWLANDS-L, 03.SEP.1999 (02)

[Sandy Fleming]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 03.SEP.1999 (02) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Joseph W. C. Carson [samizdata at earthlink.net]
Subject: "Nomenclature"

Dear Ron, And Comrade Lowlanders,
          In your post of Thursday, August 26, 1999 (at 5:40) under the
subject thread "Resources," you wrote, "As the captain of MS Lowlands-L ..."
Sir, I think I speak for all of the lads below decks when I propose that
you're a Commodore, at least. Or, to use ranks for other branches of the
Armed Services (or Forces, depending on when your hitch happened, in the
U.S., that is,) perhaps you would consent to be our psychotic Colonel (a la
Viet Nam,) or rogue Brigadier, or rebel Rand Lord, or superannuated Tsar, or
four-star, two-fisted, cigar-chomping, Old Testament quoting, "Shermans and
Sikorskys" General, or Aircraft Carrier Pacific Theater Fleet "Scourge of
the Straits" Admiral, U.S.A.F.F.E., or "Big Bollocks" Bwana of Botswanaland,
or Flight Wing Commander, U.S.A.F., or the bonnie Laird Bruce o' Loch Glen
Lithgow, or ... but it's best to submit this matter for thorough vetting by
the brass, pending your approval, naturally, Sir; hereby duly requesting
your permission to proceed; halt, parade rest, present arms, salute, at
ease, dis-missed!
          Captains will do for prisons or chain gangs, maybe, but for the
cream of the crop (what an odd idiom that is, written down on paper, as it
were) among online linguistics communities to be so commanded doesn't pass
muster.  As George W. Bush, Sr. said before the commencement of Persian Gulf
hostilities, "This will not stand!"  So Kaiser, you have but to speak, and
we who are about to die will gladly salute and obey!  Are there any more
suggestions for an appropriate appelation or designation of rank or patent
of nobility out there congruent with historic or contemporary realms of the
Lowland regions we cover, suitable to the position of supreme power held by
consent of the ruled, for our glorious Generalissimo, Ron (Reinhard) Hahn?
"List Moderator" and "Captain" just don't cut it, if you ask me. Beyond
that, although the LL-L List's chain of command is well-established, it
still sadly lacks a "nomenklatura" for its "apparatchiks."  Such could be
decreed by imperial ukase or colegially arrived at in deliberations by the
boyars concerned, but either way, until then, the issue remains unaddressed.
The heraldry of the Netherlands' Kings (and Queens) and Saxon Knights must
provide a fascinating area of study purely on its own merits, and opens up a
novel thread in any event, that will be challenging fun as well.
Respectfully submitted, G.I. Joe Carson, P.F.C.

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