HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Self-knowledge of bookstore workers
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 15:26:42 GMT


While channel surfing this morning I saw a bit on one of the network
morning shows. It involved the owner of a bookstore giving his
recommendations for holiday gift giving. This man was a panic. His
name was (I believe) Louis Meyer and he's from Tulsa. As he
entertained me with his spiel I was reminded of Fiona's thread
suggestion of appalling ignorance on the part of bookstore people. Was
it Francis who amended the idea to amazing knowledge? Anyway, Meyer
was a veritable fountain of information. What struck me was the
impression Meyer gave of having READ most of his recommendations. The
host had to keep moving the bit along as Meyer went from one amusing
anecdote to another. This is the guy that should own a bookstore!

Keith
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Morgan		 	|A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
kamorgan@athena.mit.edu  	|		Jonathan Swift
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: hoosiers@carson.u.washington.edu (Mary Loveless)
Subject: Re: A modest proposal (was: Git)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 20:36:30 GMT

In article <17DEC199214050314@rigel.tamu.edu> spb0457@rigel.tamu.edu (SubGenius) writes:
>+-------------------------------------------SubG------------------------------+
>'Round our way we just don't wear knickers.  Although I do have this smashing
>pair of flannel boxers.  Helps deal with these here cold winter nights in south
>Texas.
>
>Crickey, but it's impossible to find any thermal underthings around here.
>
>SubGenius

______________________________________________________________________________
Have you seen the Dave Barry holiday gift guide?  There's a firm in
Houston which is marketing a possible substitute, which would seem more in
keeping with Texas aesthetic values (thermal underwear is a little Pacific
Northwest ecofanatic, don't you think?):  bull scrotums ("each...with a
convenient leather carrying strap"), which could easily be tailored into
lederhosen style underthings for the fashion conscious SubGenius.  $35/ea
from Goode Company Barbecue, (713) 464-1901.  Heaven protect me if Barry
**INVENTED** this item.  I know **everybody's** gonna want a pair. };)
Mary Loveless

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
Subject: Re: 'alt' group proposed - alt.quotations
Organization: Generic American College Kids (G.A.C.K.)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 04:47:19 GMT
Reply-To: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
X-Posted-From: cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

tjc50@juts.ccc.amdahl.com (Terry Carroll) writes:
>mgm@world.std.com (michael g moncur) writes:
>>
>>  Proposal for a new alt.group - alt.quotations (name is open for debate.)
>>  
>>  PURPOSE:  for quotations, quips, .sig lines, witticisms, and discussions
>> of all of the above. 
>
>Would this newsgroup also entertain discussions of the "who said ... ?" 
>variety?

Not when posted by all those bandwidth hogs named Terry...oh, sorry, Mr.
Carroll.  :-P

No, really, I think it would probably be a resource for tracking down
quotations, but requests of the "Who said <insert mangled misquotation from
obscure source>?" variety would probably get less attention than "Here's a
portion of a speech, I think it's Abraham Lincoln but I can't find the title"
or "What's the exact phrasing of the bit about 'The hungry sheep look up, and
are not fed' in Milton's _Paradise Lost_."  At least, were I elected God,
that's how I'd have it be done.

Personally, I'm more interested in trading favorite correct, checked,
authentic quotations than in tracking down ones I already know.

Seth L. Blumberg          \ Warning: This posting has been determined to cause
slb22@columbia.edu (play)   \ cancer in laboratory animals.  Please make sure
sethb@ctr.columbia.edu (work) \ that no white mice are allowed to read it.  
    > No one I know shares my opinions, least of all Columbia University. <
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Re: question for Arabian Nights fans
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 18:14:00 GMT

			David Haan inquires:

		Anyone out there have thoughts on the recent Burton bio?


	I enjoyed it for expanding my understanding of Burton, for
clarifying the unfortunate actions of Mrs. B. after his death, and for
some evaluation of his reputation. That said, I didn't find it particularly
incisive. The author had done his homework by reading everything by
and about Burton but something seemed missing. I haven't read any
other bios so I can't compare.  

Keith
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Morgan		 	|A nice man is a man of nasty ideas.
kamorgan@athena.mit.edu  	|		Jonathan Swift
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: Making a virtue of complacency
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 18:16:19 GMT

In article <BzCrv4.478@dunaad.co.uk> ah@dunaad.co.uk (Alan Hunter) writes:

>Mike Godwin said:
>
>		In fact, it was to promote a sense of this obligation 
>		that I first promulgated Godwin's Rule. 
>
>That word *Rule*, sounds like coercion to me...

I thought about calling it a "law" (and, indeed, it is often referred
to as "Godwin's Law"), but wanted to avoid another recurring Usenet
theme: that lawyers like passing laws. 


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"Everything one invents is true."
mnemonic@eff.org| 
(617) 864-0665  |                           --Flaubert
EFF, Cambridge  |                           
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jperedo@beethoven.helios.nd.edu (jayme peredo)
Subject: P.D. James
Organization: OUC, University of Notre Dame
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 08:26:41 GMT

Hi! I've been away from this newsgroup for a loooong while.
Does anyone know if P.D. James has a new novel coming out
anytime soon?

Just curious,
Jim

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: gwr@hedonist-1.lanl.gov (Graham W. Redgrave)
Subject: Re: excellent reading!
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 18:17:10 GMT

In article <scottj-141292100825@iamac-1.dml.georgetown.edu>, scottj@magic.dml.georgetown.edu (John L. Scott) writes:
|> In article <9212112029.AA07957@cfdev1.shearson.com>, mtaranto@shearson.com
|> (Mark Taranto) wrote:
|> > Heather would probably claim that it is OK to be snotty in response to
|> > snottiness.  But I would neither agree with this logic, nor agree that
|> > Tom was snotty first.
|> 
|> One should never forget who fired the first snot.

"The snot heard 'round the world" ???


Yours in being unable to resist, despite the observation
(mostly to myselft) that I seem unable to post anything
of quality <sigh>,


-- 
Graham Redgrave    |    --  I don't speak for the government, 
gwr@life.lanl.gov  |        but I wish the government would speak for me ...  --
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22659 misc.education:5382
From: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,misc.education
Subject: Re: decline in SAT scores
Date: 17 Dec 92 19:42:07 GMT
Reply-To: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Followup-To: misc.education
Organization: COMANDOS Project, Glesga Yoonie

chucks@uars2.acd.ucar.edu (Chuck Smythe) wrote:
[ on the decline in American secondary-school-age
  test scores over the last few decades ]
> The problem is, that few people today, even the best and brightest, are
> habitual readers. They watch television, go out for the evening, god knows 
> what else.  School assignments just won't do the job.  Even the most
> rigorous literature requirement cannot substitute for the habit of reading
> an hour or three every day as a primary form of entertainment.  Few people
> do this anymore, and it is beyond the power of schools to make them.
> Possible way of disproving this: is the loss of reading as a customary form
> of entertainment also occuring in other industrial countries?

A recent European survey on educational attainments was given dismal
prominence in the Scottish papers a few weeks ago.  Scotland came out
near the bottom in the EC on most criteria of educational effectiveness
you could name.  Scottish kids also watched by far the most TV.  Presumably
this is a positive feedback loop: the less you've learned to read, the more
TV becomes your only media option and the less practice you get reading...

Followups to misc.education ONLY.  I will not respond to anything
crossposted to rec.arts.books; these non-book threads are getting
way out of hand.

-- 
--  Jack Campin    room G092, Computing Science Department, Glasgow University,
17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, Scotland   TEL: 041 339 8855 x6854 (work)
INTERNET: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk or via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk    FAX: 041 330 4913
BANG!net: via mcsun and uknet     BITNET: via UKACRL    UUCP: jack@glasgow.uucp
From: hoosiers@carson.u.washington.edu (Mary Loveless)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Backhanded compliments and other things I get
Date: 17 Dec 92 17:10:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Dec17.171012.28786
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <9212171539.AA07893@cfdev1.shearson.com> mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto) writes:
>
>
>spb0457@rigel.tamu.edu (SubGenius) writes:
> 
>> Which, belatedly, brings me to the point of my commentary, the crux of my
>> query--can anyone else think of, or has anyone else been the subject of
>> comparisons that could be interpreted as either praise or condemnation?
> 
>I've been called "nice."
> 
>Mark
> 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
And, dear, you have *such* a pretty face!  ;)

Mary Loveless
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22457 rec.food.historic:879
From: nichael@bbn.com (Nichael Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.food.historic
Subject: Re: Goober, a Southernism??
Date: 15 Dec 92 21:44:40 GMT
Reply-To: ncramer@bbn.com
Organization: BBN, Cambridge MA
NNTP-Posting-Host: kariba.bbn.com
In-reply-to: bobdev@hprpcd.rose.hp.com's message of Tue, 15 Dec 1992 16:17:41 GMT

In article <BzB6LH.6HD@icon.rose.hp.com> bobdev@hprpcd.rose.hp.com (Bob Devereaux) writes:

   Gang--

   Yes, yes, I know that "goober" means peanut.  And I know that Goober was
   a character on the Andy Griffith show.  My point is, neither of these
   makes sense as a griffito.  Let me be more explicit:  Does "Debbie Loves
   Goober" have a more specifically sexual connotation in Southern (or
   elsewhere) slang?

   Robert Devereaux

Just suggesting a point of departure...

If you're intent on pursuing this line of thought, you might be
interested in knowing that in his collection of Texan expressions,
_Texas Crude_, Ken Weaver cites the use of the term "booger" --note
that this an anagram for your "goober"-- as denoting a section of
feminine anatomy (unspecified, but situated at the top of the legs).

As I recall the workings of the 7th grade mind, this wouldn't required
too great a leap.

N

(Why is this in rec.food.historic?)
From: kassover@rumsey.crd.ge.com (David Kassover)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Making notations in your books?
Keywords: books notations
Date: 19 Dec 92 18:20:12 GMT
Organization: nope

In article <1992Dec18.145935.3372@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) writes:
...
>
>In 84 CHARING CROSS road, there's an interesting exchange along these
>lines.  The English shop owner (sorry, I can't recall his name) sends
>Helen Hampf a book inscribed to her--on a card inserted in the book.
>She writes back that that is the bookshop owner in him--she likes books
>annotated because then she feels she is sharing the experience of the
>previous owner as well as getting her own (or something like like).

A friend of mine tells the story of having to take an otherwise
uniteresting philosophy course to fulfill a requirement.  He
ended up in a class in which the professor had been known to be
in a rut for at least a decade, and accordingly purchased a used
textbook.  Now, it so happens that this book had been owned by a
mad underliner, and was rather rich in marginal notes.  It
further so happened that the professor's lecturing style
consisted of reading from the textbook.  (My friend was not clear
on whether the prof had written the text).  In any case, about
halfway through the term, my friend was skimming ahead, when he
encountered the annotation "when he gets to here, he will make a
joke about a dog".  Some minutes later, the prof did get to the
indicated spot, and did make such a joke.

Personally, I hate writing in books, even books intended for that
purpose (my professional journals have holes months wide in
them).  Probably because of my upbringing in grade school, in
which the *only* time inscribing stuff in books was permitted was
the adding of one's name, the date, and condition of the book to
the register.


-- 
David Kassover             "Proper technique helps protect you against
uupsi!khazad!kassover	          sharp weapons and dull judges."
kassover@aule-tek.com                   F. Collins
kassover@ra.crd.ge.com
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22892 sci.philosophy.tech:4598
From: werewolf@cwis.unomaha.edu (Eric E. Buckner)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.comedy.british,soc.culture.british,alt.fan.monty-python
Subject: Re: Get fucked. Was: Re: Git (was re: Et in Arcadia ego)
Date: 17 Dec 92 22:14:32 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha

pete@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
> rob@minster.york.ac.uk wrote:
> > 
> > The art of gratuitous fucking must have reached its peak with Derek and Clive
> 
> What about Lenny Bruce?!
>

You're forgetting about Billy Connely (the Scottish gentleman who says "fuck"
incessently [sp?])
 
> pete

Eric aka the swearing around here is ridiculous

> --
> *Peter Fenelon -- Research Associate -- Software Safety Assessment Procedures*
> Dept. of Computer Science, University of York, York, Y01 5DD (+44/0)904 433388
> EMAIL: pete@minster.york.ac.uk `There's no room for enigmas in built up areas'
-- 
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22315 alt.comedy.british:2745 soc.culture.british:17416 alt.fan.monty-python:9992
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.comedy.british,soc.culture.british,alt.fan.monty-python
Subject: Get fucked. Was: Re: Git (was re: Et in Arcadia ego)
Date: 13 Dec 1992 21:40:54 GMT
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
NNTP-Posting-Host: oas.stanford.edu

Sue Miller &al write:

	Fuck, fuck ad nauseam (?)

In Oz there are persons for whom it is not enough to sprinkle fucks
but must include intersyllabic ones too. Thus:

	A bleedin' Eye fuckin' Tie.

Someone of Italian descent who has irritated you in some way.

							Fido

Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22199 alt.comedy.british:2722 soc.culture.british:17334 alt.fan.monty-python:9953
From: dodd@mycenae.cchem.berkeley.edu (Lawrence R. Dodd)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.comedy.british,soc.culture.british,alt.fan.monty-python
Subject: Re: Git (was re: Et in Arcadia ego)
Date: 11 Dec 92 12:16:43
Organization: Dept of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnic Univ, NY, USA
	<1992Dec11.130826.15919@abekrd.co.uk>
	<Bz3vzD.JM0@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: dodd@roebling.poly.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: mycenae.cchem.berkeley.edu
In-reply-to: streater@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU's message of Fri, 11 Dec 1992 17:45:13 GMT


>>>>> "Tim" == Tim Streater <streater@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU> writes:

  Tim> In article <1992Dec11.130826.15919@abekrd.co.uk> graeme@abekrd.co.uk
  Tim> (Graeme Griffiths) writes:
>
>Thank you for referring to my last post as "_very_ British". In a country
>that is rapidly becoming just another state in the union I do try and do
  Tim>                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Tim>                                              |
  Tim>                                              |
  Tim>                          Fuck that. >--------+

  Tim> Tin.

ditto.
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22427 news.groups:24346
From: rhogan@phakt.usc.edu (Ron Hogan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,news.groups
Subject: Re: Call For Discussion: rec.arts.books.reviewed
Date: 14 Dec 1992 20:51:18 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: phakt.usc.edu
Keywords: reviews books

One thing that I would like to see with this moderated newsgroup,
should it come into existence, is the ability to carry on the
free wheeling discussions we've all come to love and hate by
having followups to articles posted in r.a.b.r. directed here.

I also support the idea of having a forum for reviews that are
geared more towards critical appreciation and analysis rather
than simply being the equivalent of thumbs up and thumbs down.
The latter is useful in some cases, but I think most of us in
r.a.b.-- of course, I speak with very little time in the newsgroup--
care more about literature than that.

Ron
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: scottj@magic.dml.georgetown.edu (John L. Scott)
Subject: Re: excellent reading!
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: J. Random Misconfigured Site
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 15:09:34 GMT
X-Posted-From: iamac-1.dml.georgetown.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <9212112029.AA07957@cfdev1.shearson.com>, mtaranto@shearson.com
(Mark Taranto) wrote:
> Heather would probably claim that it is OK to be snotty in response to
> snottiness.  But I would neither agree with this logic, nor agree that
> Tom was snotty first.

One should never forget who fired the first snot.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: doom@elaine36.Stanford.EDU (Joseph Brenner)
Subject: Re: Making notations in your books?
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: 20 Dec 92 16:38:44


> What are your feelings about making notes, highlighting, etc., in the
> books that you own?  Although I wish I could do so in my books (it does

When I was a young teenager, I decided that this was a
really cool thing to do, one of the few excuses for actually
owning all of the books I wanted to own (rather than check
them out of the library the way a more sane person would
probably do things).  Somewhere I have a copy of Buckminster
Fuller's "Ideas and Integreties" that is so full of
underlining and marginal notations (e.g. "What the *fuck*
does he mean by 'four-dimensional'?!?") that I doubt it
could be read by anyone but me.  And as an undergrad, I
frequently underlined textbooks, usually using a pencil,
sometimes a pen...  More recently I've been so often annoyed
at used books ruined by someone's obsessive underlinings
that I've tended to avoid it (and the invention of the
infamous "yellow sticky things", i.e. the "Post-it Note" has
made it much less excusable).

I sometimes indulge in a condescending smile at the Stanford
undergrads I see solemly running over lines of text with
brightly colored high-lighters.  It seems to me like a trick
for focusing your attention that a better scholar wouldn't
need.
From: wagner@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Literary SF, Nabokov's _Ada_
Date: 18 Dec 92 11:59:41 EST
Organization: The Ohio State University, Department of Physics

In article <1992Dec17.173633.21673@blaze.cs.jhu.edu>, callahan@biffvm.cs.jhu.edu (Paul Callahan) writes:
> matt@physics.berkeley.edu (Matt Austern) writes:
> 
>>In article <wfT=CC@engin.umich.edu> rcj@engin.umich.edu (R o d Johnson) writes:
> 
>>> Not to mention "Ada," which is one of the great alternate-world
>>> novels, in my opinion.
> 
> ....
> 
>>I certainly agree that it's a great novel, though, no matter how you
>>classify it.
> 
> Personally, I found it nearly impossible to read.  In contrast I really
> enjoyed _Lolita_ and later, _Despair_.  It just seemed to me that in _Ada_,
> Nabokov had written something that only a few people in the world (himself
> among them) had enough language ability to understand and enjoy.  I should
> probably reread it.  I found parts of it engaging, but the whole never
> solidified in my mind.
> 
> --
> Paul Callahan
> callahan@cs.jhu.edu

[All of the following is to be read with the tsentral european accent, please]

Sir, first allow me to compliment you on excellent taste you show 
in selecting two finest novels of V. Nabokov- these two are also 
my Favorits, showing as they do the highest development of novelist's
art.

Secondly, please allow me to try to explain the part of charm of Ada;
Nabokov points out that US and XSSR are not so different as people 
think.  Estoty-Land and, and, well, however the other place was 
named are both Russo-English hybrids for the remarkably similar
"Union of..." and "United States".  What is intention of this strange
punning?   Probably intention is to show that Russian character and 
American character are so similar; both peoples are fearlessly shouting
in restaurants, grabbing vegetables in market and nearby siblings,
engaging in bad philosophy about sweeping hands of clocks without any
provocation, showing childish fascination for the new gadgets, etc.
Perhaps central characters of the novel, Van and Ada, are intended
for personification of these not-so-different character traits....

Probably, though, this is only secondary theme.  I think novel is more
about the memory and passage of time.  Very funny is the bit at the end,
"obviously" written by Van and Ada's secretary after the unpleasant event 
which awaits us all has caught up with them.  As for language ability,
only weak knowledge of Russian and French is necessary for the appreciation
of puns, I think.

						-Lukas

[If the accent offended anybody, my sincerest apologies- I meant to 
lay down a fond rendering of a particular type of pedant.  Certainly 
no offense was intended.]
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,alt.comedy.british,soc.culture.british,alt.fan.monty-python
From: hiscrp@nuscc.nus.sg (C R Pennell)
Subject: Re: Get fucked. Was: Re: Git (was re: Et in Arcadia ego)
Organization: National University of Singapore
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 00:18:12 GMT

rogers@ial3.jsc.nasa.gov (andy rogers) writes:
: ala American early readers:
: 
: >        See Fuck
: >        See Fuck fuck
: >        Fuck, Fuck, fuck!!!
: 
:          See Fuck fuck Cunt.
: 
:          Cunt is fucked.
:          Now Cunt is really fucked.
:          Fuck fucked cunt.
. . .  etfuckingcetera
	Sounds more like Ted Hughes to me (cf crow)

Richard Pennell History NUS
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tvorst@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Tommy Che Vorst)
Subject: Scientists?
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 01:25:33 GMT

I'm not sure if this counts, but check out the following:

		"Entropy" - short story by the elusive T. Pynchon
		_The Cuckoo's Egg_ - excellent, very human 'spy' novel by
		Cliff Stoll

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  Tommy ( Yogi )                              Dept. of English, UofM
                (the REAL UofM - nyaaaah Vid! (Minn.)) 
                     email:  tvorst@ccu.umanitoba.ca  
            ....residences in Canada, France, and Holland.
                       "YAAH! DEATH TO OATMEAL!"
                   Remember: it's just my opinion.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 


 

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: excellent reading!
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 22:17:47 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.165159.17322@csusac.csus.edu> yarnot@babbage.csus.edu (Jan Yarnot) writes:
>I just assumed, myself, that Tom was being his usual charming net.self.

	Heather!

	Grandma's being an old snot again.


-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
		"The Reptoids eat humans like we eat chickens."
				Alex Alexander
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:22309 alt.comedy.british:2744