wide array of death euphemisms

[Robert Wachal]

I fail to understand why some folks would get their underpants in a twist
over the harmless lack of punctuation in the very clear unpunctuated two
lines of the message from Kara Everman. I for one am tired of these
"barbarians are at the gates" attitudes. Considering the slaughter and
starvation going on throughout the world, is the fact of a few missing
commas really worthy of comment and parody?

At 12:36 PM 8/31/2004, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: wide array of death euphemisms
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Thanks Mark this is a new phenomenon I encounter all the time in
>undergraduate and especially email writing it annoys me too whatever
>happened to freshman comp?!
>
>At 01:10 PM 8/31/2004 -0400, you wrote:
> >         >>>>>
> >Date:    Mon, 30 Aug 2004 16:05:08 EDT
> >From:    Kara Everman <Karaeverman at AOL.COM>
> >Subject: wide array of death euphemisms
> >
> >to identify with the life philosophy of laughing instead of crying where
> >trouble is concerned is the fact of a wide array of these death euphemisms
> >to buy the farm
> >to bite the dust
> >curtains
> >to kick the bucket
> >to punch ones ticket
> >to sleep with the fishes
> >to meet ones maker
> >  where do these euphemisms originate and how are they made
> >         <<<<<
> >
> >Dear Ms. Everman:
> >
> >to read unpunctuated text is rather a nuisance that is why punctuation was
> >invented to provide to the reader who after all is not present when the text
> >is being created a partial substitute for the writers speakers tone of voice
> >prosody etc im not sure how to parse the first two lines of your message
> >please use something at least approximating standard punctuation thank you
> >in advance
> >
> >Also, what do you mean by (if I read it correctly) "to identify with [that
> >philosophy] *is the fact of*" these euphemisms? I don't see anything happy
> >in "biting the dust".
> >
> >Having gotten that off my chest, I'm sure you will get useful answers on
> >this list.
> >
> >-- Sincerely,
> >    Mark A. Mandel