HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ah@dunaad.co.uk (Alan Hunter)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: A fishy tale (was for newbies (was Project B.F.D. (was an apology))
Date: 23 Dec 92 19:44:08 GMT
Organization: Johnson Hunter Limited

RABworm mourned:
	Mark Taranto writes:

		Alan Hunter writes:

			OBbook, don't have one, let me off, it's Christmas

		No problem -- besides, your article was Travel Literature 
		at its best.

	Oh I dunno. I kept hoping his Gran'Pa would come out with the Classic
	Fart.

							RABworm

Didn't realise you knew my Granda:-) 

Alan
-- 
Alan Hunter
Johnson Hunter Ltd
Isle of Islay, Scotland
A.Hunter@dunaad.co.uk          fax: +44-496-2336         voice: +44-496-2286
From: loosemore-sandra@cs.yale.edu (Sandra Loosemore)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Good Westerns
Date: 23 Dec 1992 12:14:05 -0500
Organization: staff hacker @ Yale Haskell project
NNTP-Posting-Host: functor.systemsz.cs.yale.edu
In-reply-to: chuahl@ocf.berkeley.edu's message of 23 Dec 1992 15:56:16 GMT

chuahl@ocf.berkeley.edu (Chua HakLien) writes:

   After seeing "Unforgiven", a friend asked for some good western
   ( pulp or non-pulp.. ) reccomendations. Can anyone help me out?

"Riders of the Purple Sage" by Zane Grey is probably *the* classic
western novel.  It's a rather serious book with strong philosophical
overtones (and the sequel, "Rainbow Canyon", is even more so).  Grey
also wrote many lighter novels.  A couple of my favorites are "Raiders
of Spanish Peaks" and "Nevada".

-Sandra

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Maddoxian flatus (was Re: Flatulence)
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 22:24:52 GMT

In article <RAwbs*4M0@prolix.apana.org.au> dac@prolix.apana.org.au (Andrew Clayton) writes:
>If your books were as candid as your messages, then they would
>certainly eclipse Rabelais' efforts, you fat fuck.

	I am touched by your conviction that with a little effort my literary 
efforts can be made to stand beside those of the immortals, though 
disconcerted by the testy and imprecise epithet, "fat fuck."  

	Perhaps your ambivalence is caused by two things.  First, you are
overwhelmed by the magnificence of _Halo_, which is touching.  (And I thank 
you again for buying the hardbound, even though the paperback was 
available; further testimony of your devotion to my work, no doubt, as 
the alternative explanation is that you were simply too stupid to inquire 
about a paperback).  Second, alas, you remember with some bitterness the time I
called you Caliban, and you didn't know who that was.  Certainly, I wouldn't
have taunted you that way (though you were growling and flinging your own
feces about your cell) if I had known the extent of your fannish devotion.
I would have considered you more Bottom than Caliban perhaps (this time, 
Andrew, ask someone who Bottom is, and don't get all petulant about your 
ignorance).

-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
	"That's a bird bone, chair, Bob.  I don't know if I should sit there."
				Tom Waits
From: colten@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (marc.colten)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Stark Naked
Summary: Joke names
Date: 23 Dec 92 21:14:10 GMT
Organization: AT&T

In article <1992Dec23.184618.12377@ncsa.uiuc.edu>, pingleto@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Mike Pingleton) writes:
> I'm wondering if it mentions my favorite Shakespearian actress, 
> Nora Lenderby.
> 
> craven kabloona
> 


On a recent episode of BOB the daughter put out a sign up sheet
for contributions.  I forget all the names except:

       Sam and Janet Evening
       I.P. Nightly


marc colten
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mtaranto@panix.com (Mark Taranto)
Subject: Re: Anyone read "The Turing Option" yet?
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 21:23:09 GMT
Organization: The Inner Clique


Mark Martinez (mlbm@lanl.gov) writes:

> Has anyone read "The Turing Option" by Harry Harrison and Marvin Minsky?  
> Apparently it is a thriller about a fellow that develops a true AI 
> and becomes the target of an assortment of villainous agencies who 
> want it. Or something like that. 

Well, at least one occasional poster to r.a.b has read it.  Perhaps,
if we ask nicely and promise not to flame him, Marvin Minsky will tell
us about it?

Mark
From: nadel@attatash.aero.org (Miriam Nadel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Self-knowledge of bookstore workers
Date: 21 Dec 92 20:44:24 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization

In article <1992Dec17.191623.24770@grebyn.com> fi@grebyn.com (Fiona Webster) writes:
>My impression is, most educated people have large identifia-
>ble areas of ignorance--e.g., one of mine is the history of politics,
>wars, and potentates--in which the separate items of ignorance
>cluster together.  No one should be surprised to find, for example,
>that I don't know what country Ruler X belongs to, what dates corres-
>pond to the birth of parliamentary democracies, and so on.  Even if I
>didn't know who Henry the VIIIth was, you might be astonished, but
>it would still fit in with the general scheme.  But what of those
>interesting, curious, perhaps even admirable, souls whose patterns
>of ignorance are more like small isolated spots here and there, rather
>than one all-encompassing blob?  That's what intrigued me about the
>women who knew of neither "Hellraiser," nor Katherine Anne Porter,
>nor Joe McGinnis' _Fatal_Vision_.

It strikes me that the classic example of large identifiable areas of
ignorance is the speech Sherlock Holmes gives in one of the early stories
about how his brain has room for only so much information and he can't
clutter it up with things like knowing who the queen of England is when he's
much more interested in identifying various types of mud by location.


Perhaps the large area that the bookstore worker was ignorant of happened
to be books?  Though not necessarily.  I could tell you nothing about either 
"Hellraiser" or _Fatal Vision_ and am aware only that Katherine Anne Porter
was a writer (I think I may have read some utterly forgettable short
story by her once) but I've been known to bore people to death on various
other literary subjects.  

Remember too that most of us have areas of astonishing knowledge.  I
was involved in a discussion of this some time ago and was quite surprised
that a casual acquaintance knew quite a lot more about archeology than
I would have guessed.  Other people were surprised that a person with as
little musical ability as I have (my best instrument being the CD player)
would know a fair amount about the history of musical instruments.  


Miriam Nadel
From: mark@cambridge.apple.com (Mark Preece)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Making notations in your books?
Date: 21 Dec 92 16:54:32 GMT
Organization: Apple ATG

In article <j2dr-rd@lynx.unm.edu> Roger Squires,
rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu writes:
>	Agree, though I'd have to read some of the annotations first
>	and judge their quality :)  I have a copy of a book called
>	_Albert Camus, A study of his work_, by Philip Thody, which
>	has two sets of notes by the same person: one set from when
>	he read it the first time, the other from a second reading
>	six years later (he wrote the dates in).  Was interesting to
>	see how his opinions changed.

I have recently become interested in a topic I studied a good deal as an
undergraduate, and so have unboxed and re-read some books I annotated
heavily two short decades ago. One good thing about writing in books that
hasn't been mentioned yet -- it can an effective tool for maintaining
your sense of humility. What an airhead that kid was!

-mwp
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: lew@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (lewis.h.mammel..jr)
Subject: Re: *Any* kind of r.a.b split, or at least a *serious* discussion
Organization: AT&T
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 18:08:50 GMT
Summary: boys 137 : frogs 0

In article <1992Dec20.091759.27869@netcom.com>, tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox) writes:
> 	A *joking* attitude, it's called, and is easily recognized as such
> by anyone with either a clue or a sense of humor.

The boys throw stones at the frogs in jest, but the frogs die in earnest.

Lew Mammel, Jr.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: New Yorkers: d'ja go hear "Agrippa"?
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 07:34:57 GMT

In article <1956@heurikon.heurikon.com> gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor) writes:
>Does it indeed shred Proust? 

	"Agrippa" is an autobiographical poem, modest in ambition.  I
rather like it but have no illusions about its cosmic importance, and the
notion that it should be compared with Proust in any way is ludicrous.
-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
	"That's a bird bone, chair, Bob.  I don't know if I should sit there."
				Tom Waits
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: hbsperki@kraken.itc.gu.edu.au (James Perkins)
Subject: Re: Celebrating McGonagall
Organization: ITC, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
Date:  2 Jan 93 11:03:15 GMT

Ah!  Good to find another Spike Milligan fan!!  They seem to be few and far
between these days.  Have you ever heard the tape "Unspun Socks from a
Chicken's Laundry?"  Get it and have a listen: it is hilarious!

James.
From: jzimm@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Joann Zimmerman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: For newbies (was: Re: Project B.F.D. (was: An apology))
Date: 23 Dec 92 23:27:43 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <1992Dec21.231700.22263@alw.nih.gov> don@helix.nih.gov (donald seto) writes:

>In article <1992Dec21.222446.7832@samba.oit.unc.edu> joan@med.unc.edu (Joan Shields) writes:

>>thoughtfully.  I can at least appreciate a good arguement, whether or not
>>I necessarily agree with the point taken.

>wouldn't it be better if we all just got along....

No, it would not. It might perhaps be more peaceful, but it would be
considerably less interesting.

And I seriously doubt whether significant progress has ever been made
by a flock of sheep.


-- 
"Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion
borders on the chaos of memories" 
                                                -- Walter Benjamin
 ...!cs.utexas.edu!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu!jzimm   
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: hennebry@plains.NoDak.edu (Michael J. Hennebry)
Subject: Re: Anne Rice Fan
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 20:11:31 GMT
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network

In article <105531@bu.edu> mcelroy@bu.edu (Carl Mackin) writes:
>Are there any Anne Rice fans out there anymore?

There is my aunt Marlys. Me, I thought The Withcing Hour was a horror
story all right.

-- 
Mike   hennebry@plains.NoDak.edu
"I myself have had to change banks having filled the first one up."
                                                            Terry Pratchett
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kasprj@operators.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: Re: For newbies (was: Re: Project B.F.D. (was: An apology))
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge 
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 12:32:04 GMT

In article <1992Dec21.231700.22263@alw.nih.gov>, don@helix.nih.gov (donald seto) writes:
|> In article <1992Dec21.222446.7832@samba.oit.unc.edu> joan@med.unc.edu (Joan Shields) writes:
|> >thoughtfully.  I can at least appreciate a good arguement, whether or not
|> >I necessarily agree with the point taken.
|> >
|> >
|> wouldn't it be better if we all just got along....
 
 Nah. Think of the oatmeal shortage.
------------------------------------------------------------------
     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Sam Adams,Spaten# Life is too short #Hudson Lager,Beck's 
     \_| Pilsener Urquell#to drink cheap beer#Pete's Wicked Ale
      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kasprj@operators.its.rpi.edu (Jim Kasprzak)
Subject: non-fiction reading (was Re: _Dog Soldiers_ by R. Stone, a wild ride!)
Reply-To: kasprj@rpi.edu
Organization: The Big Wedge 
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 17:15:02 GMT

In article <BzL9xt.6Gt@wsrcc.com>, alison@wsrcc.com (Alison Chaiken) writes:

|> By the way, does anyone on this group ever read NON-fiction?   I read
|> non-fiction about 50% of the time, but I would guess that I am in the
|> minority here.
  
 I was going to say that about a third to a quarter of my reading is non-
fiction, but going back over my list of what I've read in the past year, 
I'd have to amend that to about one-tenth. I _buy_ a lot of non-fiction, 
but somehow I find it easier to push it to the bottom of the reading queue.
This sometimes results in amusing situations like the time last year when 
I was looking for material on the annexation of Texas and how the slavery 
question affected the issue. I knew that a few of my books covered subject
areas similar to that, and figured that I could look in their bibiliographies
for something that would point me in the right direction. So I looked among
my American history books, and what should I find but a book I'd had for 
the past few years, entitled _Slavery and the Annexation of Texas_. 
 
 My non-fiction reading consists mainly of history and biography dealing
with late 19th/early 20th century Europe and America, plus a smattering
of physics, astronomy, geology and anything else that catches my eye at
the right time.
 
 I've also recently started collecting (I can't really say "reading" for
the reasons detailed above) books on the history of cities. These prove
to be harder to find than one might think. New York, of course, is easy
given my proximity to it and the fact that _everyone_ writes about New 
York. If anyone can reccomend any good books on the history of specific
cities in North or South America, I'd love to hear about them.
 
 Someday I'll take a year or two off and actually _read_ all the books I
own. But then again, what fun is a library full of books you've already 
read?
------------------------------------------------------------------
     __  Live from Capitaland, heart of the Empire State...
 ___/  | Jim Kasprzak, computer operator @ RPI, Troy, NY, USA
/____ *| Sam Adams,Spaten# Life is too short #Hudson Lager,Beck's 
     \_| Pilsener Urquell#to drink cheap beer#Pete's Wicked Ale
      ====  e-mail: kasprj@rpi.edu or kasprzak@mts.rpi.edu 
 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Re: Facts on FAQs
Followup-To: rec.arts.books, alt.fan.lemur
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 03:27:44 GMT

In article <1992Dec18.181935.7731@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) writes:
>In article <1gsobtINN7vi@morrow.stanford.edu> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:
>> Evelyn C. Leeper writes:
>> 
>> 	I should also note that the rec.arts.books FAQ does mention
>> 	rec.arts.sf.reviews as a place to find book reviews.
>> 
>> I am a regular user of the net and have been for some time, and while I
>> know what a FAQ is (some might not) I haven't a clue how to get into one.
>> It would be helpful if FAQ reminders described what a FAQ was and informed
>> on their use.
>
>What we have here is a bootstrapping problem.
>
>A FAQ is a "Frequently Asked Questions" list posted regularly to the
>group; in this case the Subject: line would be "rec.arts.books
>Frequently Asked Questions".
>
>The use of FAQs is discussed in the various documents in
>news.announce.newusers.

	Another point that might be made is that most of the FAQ
documents can be acquired from various sites. I know that the
Arthurian FAQ lists such information below the header. For example,
the RAB FAQ can be found by ftp to pit-manager.mit.edu with login as
"anonymous" and your email address as password. Then cd
pub/usenet/rec.arts.books, do a "ls" to make sure it's there and you
can "get" the FAQ downloaded to you by typing "get <filename>. This is
a necessarily abbreviated point that is, I hope, accurate in its
essentials.

	Further info is available, as Evelyn suggests, in
news.announce.newusers. 

	Keith
--

Keith Morgan kamorgan@athena.mit.edu
In the end nothing could be said of his work except that it was
preposterous and true and totally unacceptable. Edward Whittemore
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
Subject: Re: Stark Naked
Reply-To: jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
	<1992Dec23.233225.529@u.washington.edu>
Date: 23 Dec 92 18:38:51

The _American Spectator_ lists as its law firm "Solitary, Poor, Nasty,
Brutish and Short".
--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Re: Good Westerns
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 19:05:25 GMT

chuahl@ocf.berkeley.edu (Chua HakLien) writes:
>After seeing "Unforgiven", a friend asked for some good western
>( pulp or non-pulp.. ) reccomendations. Can anyone help me out?

	Owen Wister: The Virginian
	Oakley Hall: Warlock
		     Apaches
	Zane Grey: Riders of the Purple Sage
	Norman Zollinger: Corey Lane
	
	and anything and everything by Louis L'Amour

	Keith

--

Keith Morgan kamorgan@athena.mit.edu
In the end nothing could be said of his work except that it was
preposterous and true and totally unacceptable. Edward Whittemore
From: carl@class.gsfc.nasa.gov (Carl F. Hostetter)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: HELP locating quote -- Martyrs
Date: 21 Dec 92 18:47:25 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: NASA/GSFC

I've been looking for the source of a quotation. I can't recall
it verbatim, but it is very close to:

"We have endured much, but the martyrs endured and to the end."

Can anyone help me locate the source for this?

Thanks!

|===================================================================|
|         Carl F. Hostetter      carl@class.gsfc.nasa.gov           |
|                                                                   |
|                    Ars longa, vita brevis.                        |
|          The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.            |
|  "I wish life was not so short," he thought.  "Languages take     |
|  such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about."  |
|===================================================================|
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Sjowall & Wahloo and other series
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 04:39:34 GMT

In article <1993Jan2.015850.2821@athena.mit.edu> kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan) writes:

>	Mike Godwin writes:
>
>	This C.K. Chesterton fan wonders whether "K.C. Constantine" is a nom de
>	plume. Is it?
>	
>Yet, Chesterton is G.K. is he not? i.e. Gilbert Keith.

Of course it is. Look for my autobiography: THE MAN WHO WAS QUAYLE.


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"I'm waiting for the one-man revolution
mnemonic@eff.org| The only one that's coming."
(617) 864-0665  |                           
EFF, Cambridge  |                   --Robert Frost
From: drm@esl.com (Don McGregor)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The in-crowds of usenet
Date: 1 Jan 93 19:09:24 GMT
Reply-To: drm@esl.com

In article <1992Dec31.174402.25244@athena.mit.edu> kamorgan@athena.mit.edu  
(Keith Morgan) writes:
> 
> So, is this us: Populist, argumentative, and in the know?  
> 
Everyone who isn't a Gucci-wearing elitist knows the answer to this  
question, and which FTP site to get it from.  

--
Don McGregor | The Revolution will have an alt newsgroup.
drm@esl.com  | 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Judith Mth that collections of
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 08:07:27 GMT

In article <Bzz243.JCx@NeoSoft.com> claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird) writes:
>z
>Tom Peters and some business journalists give the impression
>that CPI is in the little things:  one lone operative in the
>Rockies hiring a helicopter to get the parcel through, one
>production team voting to rationalize its break schedule.  I
>suspect there's some rugged-individualist Americana in this.
>At the same time, I know how easy it is to abstract my work-table
>illumination problem to the point where we'd have a fantastic ROI,
>but we're unable to accomplish anything definite ("no, this is
>Expires: 
>References: <Bzs03t.KKH@dcs.glasgowwe really
>need to provide adequate lighting for all the welders--no, we
>have to make sure that lclaird
>Caitlin
>tm
>trn
>nn   R

	A remarkable posting, fit to stand beside Mark Taranto's sublime
"alias" text.


-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
	"That's a bird bone, chair, Bob.  I don't know if I should sit there."
				Tom Waits
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mtaranto@panix.com (Mark Taranto)
Subject: Re: A note on Modal Logic that has nothing to do with Ikky Sex
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 08:17:28 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC


zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny) writes:


> mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto) writes:

>> zeleny@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Zeleny) writes:


> MT:
>> Ah, if this is the case, it does not address the problem that I brought
>> up about quantifying over all possible worlds.  I agree that there are
>> solutions when we limit our set of possible worlds M to a set.  But the
>> collection of ALL possible worlds is not a set, and has no cardinality
>> which can be attached to it.

> Mark, I gave your claim the charitable interpretation; now you eliminate
> the last possibility of charity.  In standard Carnap-Kanger-Kripke
> semantics, the collection of all possible worlds is certainly a set.
> But let me humor you by granting that it is a proper class; it suffices
> to adopt the class analogues of the ZFC axioms to derive the very same
> results for the concept corresponding to cardinality, -- in honor of
> Kripke, let me call it "shmardinality".  There goes Your Negativity.

Were I using the Carnap-Kangor-Kripke definition of possible worlds, I would
agree with you completely.  I was not, and made this clear.  I will be 
charitable to you and assume that you either did not realize this, or
chose to ignore it, rather than the third possibility -- which would be that
you are dense (which I believe is not the case).

In the future, you might want to make sure that you understand how people
are using words before you draw conclusions from their statements.  The
definitions you use are common in a restricted field, but not in common
language.


> MT:
>> I've seen too many papers in Modal Logic which ignore this fact.

> That's because it's a "fact" of your own making.

There are a number of papers that were written using a more Leibnizian sense 
of possible world.  These are scary things to read :-)


> Two suggestions: if you want to discuss your ideas of philosophy of
> language (or "Philosophy of Language", as you might put it), consider
> looking up some basic math (or "Foundations of Mathematics"), and
> cross-posting to a venue more likely to appreciate your speculations.

You crack me up Mikhail!

Been there, done that.  

You sure love to argue about nothing.  Using your definitions, I agree with 
everything you say.  I suspect that you would agree with my points if you 
used common definitions.  But you are right about the venue.  I'll not 
continue this discussion here.  

I'd continue in another newsgroup, but I find the logic and philosophy 
newsgroups too dull -- not enough idle chat.






Mark

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books