From: nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos)
Subject: Re: Nyikos and SAT
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date:  2 Nov 92 20:40:52 GMT

In <1992Oct27.130414.29618@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gjh@galen.med.Virginia.EDU (Galen J. Hekhuis) writes:

>Peter, it is not that we are laughing at your SAT scores.  At
>least not in my case.  I, for one, am laughing at you.  Far from
>being simply a "hee-haw in-joke" your posting of your SAT scores
>revealed a few things about you.

>First, it revealed that you thought your credibility so in doubt
>you thought in necessary to post your scores at the request of
>the very people whose opinions you claim mean little to you. 

I had no idea who it was that made the direct request for my scores.
Had I not received a direct request, I would not have posted such
things which mean so little to my present-day self.  [I could use
them to become a Mensa member, but Mensa always seemed irrelevant
to the big world to me.  Maybe I should take another look at them.]

> Not
>only that, you seemed to think it necessary to bring up your
>academic credentials in an attempt to show someone (g[G]{h}od[d]{ess}
>knows who) that you were actually a worthwhile person.  

"Bring up" is a misrepresentation, and the clause beginning with "to
show..." is even worse.  Did you miss my "The Genesis of this Whole
SAT Flap" post?

In reality, I wanted to conceal my credentials on the net as long
as possible.  In my very first post I said simply that I was 
"on the math faculty" at USC to avoid giving the impression that I was
trying to pull rank on anyone.  It was only because Larry Margolis
was repeatedly calling my veracity into question while posting lies
about me, that I felt necessary to hit back with this information 
about me, to counter his claim that I had shown myself to be rather
ignorant of set theory and logic.                      ^^^^^

And yes, I don't care what Margolis or Lyman or Cochran or Storga
or even Adrienne think about me, but I do care what some others, influenced
by what these people post about me, think about me.

>Second, it reveals that you believe that your scores and math 
>achievements somehow leak over into your performance in talk.abortion.

I never said anything like this.  The closest I ever came was to
say to Bense that if my credentials, which he showed quite a bit of
skepticism over, were to be as I said they were, that would help
my credibility were I a pro-choicer, but as it is, I am afraid
a snowball would have a better chance in hell, assuming there is 
such a place as hell.

>Third, it reveals that you consider those to be quite important, whereas
>others (myself, for one) have never, ever been asked about 
>SAT scores in regards to employment or anything else. 

Interesting sentence.  I respond to a request from a bozo, even appending
"Sorry, I just could not resist this opening,"  a tongue-in-cheek
statement whose true nature was revealed when the hee-haw in-joke was
revealed to me and I responded with, "Well, you know what they
say about boxers who can't resist an opening."

As to why you have never been asked by that bozo or any other, your
guess may be as good as mine.  My guess: being pro-choice, you have never
been hounded as persistently on talk.abortion as Larry hounded me
during the time preceding the query by said bozo.

>Peter, your continued attempts to portray yourself as the somewhat
>innocent victim of an "in-joke," as you put it, misses the mark 
>entirely.  You look like a fool.  Whether it is due to egotism,
>shallowness or dishonesty I don't know.

My guess: you need a remedial course in reading comprehension.

Again, your guess may be as good as mine.
 
Peter Nyikos

Newsgroups: talk.abortion,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.elections