Subject: Re: wide array of death euphemisms- icebreaker?

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 9, 2004, at 1:10 PM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Subject: Re: wide array of  death euphemisms- icebreaker?
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>
> Kara Everman writes:
>
>>>>>>
>   I had every intention to use the inappropriate and quite obviously
> absent punctuation in this post. This was the first post I had ever
> made on this list.  I guess you could say that my first post was a
> test to see how the people in this group would respond. I know this
> isn't a social group but a community of scholars. I assure you,
> however, that the student is doing her job. I did not have any idea
> that I would be burned at the stake for intentionally forgetting a
> period. The first message I posted was an icebreaker to me of some
> sort. I suppose that my idea of an "icebreaker" is the idea of
> something crude, horrible, and disgusting to quite a few pompous
> stiffs. I thought the idea of this list was to celebrate people who
> are interested in linguistics and to share at least one common
> denominator that I could call "word wit." Now instead of celebrating
> the beauty and flexibility of the English language here I find myself
> feeling degraded and, "picked out," as a middle schooler may feel when
> they are the last person left standing that no one wants on their
> team. I am a twenty-four year old student at a regular college. I
> would like to address in this post that of words a statement had been
> made: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never harm
> me."
>  <<<<<
>
> Well, you've just had a lesson: social customs differ from one
> subculture to another. What works as an icebreaker for you and your
> peers doesn't work here. That's the way of the world. Know this: you
> and your friends and colleagues and those you hang out with are not
> typical of the world.
>
> Neither are the participants of this list. Our way of getting along
> with each other is not the same as everybody else's in the world. But
> we know it, and you evidently don't. This is called parochialism, and
> nobody is immune to it.
>
> Ignorance is not in itself a sin, and neither is the particular type
> of ignorance that constitutes parochialism. What IS a sin, or an
> offense, or a kind of rudeness, is persistent refusal to learn. Please
> learn this. You will be welcome on this list if you... well, instead
> of repeating them I will just refer you to the comments that your
> posts here so far have evoked from other people as well as myself.
>
>
>>>>>>
> I do believe that it is the intention of some scholars to master
> the English language so that they can cruelly manipulate and subjugate
> their peers and coeds. This psychological emotional sadistic
> projection of emotion is probably an entirely different government
> list. Semantics of the articulated phonetic sounds within the English
> language have very little to do with the speakers, or communicators,
> actual intentions. If a scholar wants to humiliate a layman, that
> scholar will never come out and actually say, "I am trying to
> humiliate you." The communicator can carefully manipulate the
> semantics of his language to make his humiliation his coed seem
> innocent and unintentional.  Oversensitivity to case sensitivity can
> simply be an communicative emotional handicap.
>
> Sincerely,
> Kara Everman -
> JuSt AnOtHeR nAmElEssS fAcElEsS nUmBeR iN tHe CrOwD oF mAnY
>
> <<<<<
>
> Forget it, kid, you ain't gonna guilt-trip us. We are not your
> classroom bullies. Believe it or not, it's your choice. Read the above
> and learn. If you don't believe us, I'm done

Don't you mean, "I'm through ..."?

-Wilson Gray

>  wasting my time with
> you. I give trolls one chance to reform, maybe more in some cases, but
> I don't tell them in advance how far they can push me. Any more shit
> from you and you're on my kill file.
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel
> [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
>