Hooray for Bapopik

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

I confess that I generally delete Popik's postings. Deleting is easy enough
for me. I delete Popik's entries--and many others--simply because I don't
have time to read them all. I open things that look (by their subject
headers) interesting.

However, I fully appreciate that much of P's research may be of interest to
professional lexicographers, and for that reason alone I welcome his
continuing to share his work with the American Dialect Society. I prefer to
see ADS appeal to the widest possible audience. I am also delighted that
Popik's work is being archived by the ADS in searchable form: to be sure, if
I ever want to check on a particular lexicographical question, I begin by
searching the archive, in part because I know that Popik's enormous efforts
repose there.

I do find Popik's whining tantrums about Safire, Chicago, etc., annoying and
off-topic, and I have whiningly complained to him about it off-line. However,
if that is the price we pay for having his efforts in our archives--and
available to the specialists who subscribe to ADS-L--then it is well worth
it, in my opinion.