a hard, gem-like flame

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 1/29/03 12:22:07 AM, Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:


>   Do we have to have a flame about this?
>    Don't I ever do anything that you do like?
> 

I didn't think that I was "having a flame about this." I'm always eager to 
apologize if I've offended.

I was just trying to have a discussion about a couple of linguistic issues 
that Barry raised in suggesting that SNAIL SALAD belongs in DARE. And I got 
some discussion of the nature of regionalisms and what might qualify SNAIL 
SALAD as a word and not just the result of a productive noun adjunct process. 
And even a little bit of discussion on compounding as a process. These are 
issues that interest me. I'm still not convinced that SNAIL SALAD is a 
regionalism, despite the fact that some people in Rhode Island and Hollywood 
may make their SNAIL SALAD out of conches, which are just big snails, after 
all. I'm still not convinced that it is really a "word" in the sense of 
plausible dictionary entry. Barry feels otherwise. The people who actually 
put the dictionaries together get the last word. I will be happy either way. 
And maybe I'll have learned something from the discussion.

I do think of this list as more than just a site for listing zillions of food 
terms from around the world and zillions of antedatings (and complain that 
the world doesn't appreciate them, despite the great personal expenses that 
their lexicographical efforts cost them). I don't mean to suggest for a 
moment that the LISTINGS are inappropriate, and it is clear that many others 
find them interesting (and are at least willing to accept the complaints as a 
worthwhile trade-off that can be amusing). And it takes me very little time 
to delete them without reading them, though I do occasionally open one if the 
headword catches my eye. 

So, live and let live, eh? I hope if Barry does indeed jump off a bridge (as 
he suggests he may do) that he does it off a very low bridge into some very 
warm water. I try do that every once in a while when I'm on my travels. And 
then I crawl up into a beach chair, read a book for its content and not its 
lexicographical significance, and just CHILL OUT.