HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: karsten@netcom.com (karsten)
Subject: Re: Anne, will you marry me?
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 22:06:46 GMT
Organization: Karsten's Bit Bucket
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

richh@netcom.com (richh) writes:
> --got the ring picked out, too
> --using the "two-month salary guideline"
> --but, since I have no income....well, you know

You can affort to spend $17.50/month for net access, so at the very
least you should be looking for the best $35 ring money can buy.

--karsten

(Points are smaller than carrots.  What's smaller than a point?  The
 diamond on the ring richh will buy.  In fact, if no such unit has
 yet been defined I would like to recommend the adoption of the "richh"
 by the gem industry.  If this recession lasts much longer they will
 be selling a lot of rings in the 2-3 richh size range.)
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Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 00:31:00 CDT
From:         "tk0jut1@niu.bitnet Jim Thomas"
 <TK0JUT1%NIU.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject:      What to eat in IRC

   >>Only if it's a veggie simulacrum on wheels. I have an aversion to
   >>cooked flesh and avoid it when possible.
   >
   >...then we won't be doing that Grand Tour of the IRC?

No sweat--most of the denizens there are assorted fruits and nuts with
a smattering of vegged out k-rad d00dz.

Jim (IRC is the tofu of the cybermenu) Thomas
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Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 00:14:00 EST
From:         CROSEN%BGSUOPIE.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu
Subject:      Re: WHTMITL2

Greetings,

Egads!  I'm turnin blue and am about to expire.  If the tension doesn't
alleviate soon, I'll have to contract 15 facial muscles and send some
electrical charges to my upper lip!

Marty
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Date:         Mon, 7 Sep 1992 12:45:09 +0200
From:         torkel@SICS.SE
Subject:      Re: Gleanings (58)
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
              07 Sep 92 10:21:50 +0000. <9209071036.AA29029@sics.se>

  Bayla says:

  >Isaac Asimov said that Wodehouse was his favorite
  >author, and pointed out how difficult it is to write in the first-person
  >character of a blithering twit without coming off as a twit oneself.

  Not a very perceptive comment by Asimov. Bertie Wooster is not at all
blithering twit.
From: mgarber@DHVX20.CSUDH.EDU
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Gleanings (58
Date: 9 Sep 92 18:51:08 GMT
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Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

Female forensic anthropologist.  I know of one where the
author is Sharon McCrumb and her heroine is Elizabeth
someothing...marrying a scottish biologist..
She is often very funny. Marilyn
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Organization: Current Science Tel: +44 71 323 0323 Fax: +44 71 580 1938
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Date:         Sat, 5 Sep 1992 01:15:05 EDT
From:         Graham Toal <gtoal@CURSCI.CO.UK>
Subject:      Re: Private vs. Public Schools
Comments: To: Words-L and the Bandwidth Hogs <words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu>

On Fri, 4 Sep 1992 11:22:00 EST, CROSEN@BGSUOPIE.BITNET wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> I suspect the proper usage would be "user unfriendly" rather than
> "un-user friendly."
>
> What do you think?

Yeah, I dunno what kids learn at private schools nowadays.  Most of them
can barely string two hyphenated prefixes together...

G
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Date:         Wed, 9 Sep 1992 21:19:40 GMT
Comments:     Converted from OfficeVision to RFC822 by PUMP V2.2X
From:         "Don Moore (813) 974-4078 S/C 574-4078"
 <DBFABAK%CFRVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject:      Re: Family Tree

What's this about a tree?  I have a certain fondness for trees!!!


        /\_____/\
       -/ ''''' \-
        {''o o''}   ....Muffy
        {  \^/  }
       ////'''\\\\

                            Peace,
                                  Don
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Date:         Fri, 11 Sep 1992 00:55:00 EST
From:         CROSEN%BGSUOPIE.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu
Subject:      Stagecoach politics

Greetings,

An interesting essay in the 9-14 Nation prompted me to view John Ford's
classic 1939 movie *Stagecoach* this evening.  I particularly relished
the following speech (which is spoken by a banker named Ellsworth
Gatewood).  The stagecoach is passing over territory controlled by
hostile native Americans (Geronimo and his band of Apaches, if you
must know); the cavalry officer who had been escorting the stagecoach
has orders which keep him and his troops from continuing the escort.
As the cavalry rides away, Mr. Gatewood speaks:

We pay taxes to the government, and what do we get?  Not even protection
from [sic] the army.  I don't know what the government is coming to.  Instead
of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business.  Why, they're
even talking about having bank examiners!  As if we bankers don't know how
to run our own banks.  You know, I actually have a letter from one
popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books!  I have a slogan
that should be emblazoned on every newspaper in the country:  America for
Americans!  The government must not interfere with business.  Reduce taxes.
Our national debt is something shocking.  Over a bilion dollars a year.
What this country needs is a businessman for president.

Of course, Mr. Gatewood in on the stage because he has just absconded with
the miners' payroll.

Republican cant hasn't changed much in the intervening 50-odd years.  Gatewood
sounds to me like a cross between Pat Buchanan and Georgie boy.  Earlier in
the movie he says: "What's good for the banks is good for the country."

I, on the other hand, think what's good for libraries is good for the
country.

Stay tuned, soon I'll release my agenda for Marty's economic revitalization.

Marty
From: TONY@VM1.MCGILL.CA (Tony Harminc)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Today's pop quiz
Date: 13 Sep 92 16:48:31 GMT
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              11 Sep 1992 11:29:37 MED from <gtoal@STACK.URC.TUE.NL>

On Fri, 11 Sep 1992 11:29:37 MED Graham Toal said:

>Also that's why I suggested asking who had heard of both first.  If
>on seeing both, they haven't heard of disinterested they can no longer
>answer the question.  A second independent test should also be done
>on *different* students (who haven't had either of these words
>primed) asking 'what is another word for 'unbiased'.

Curious, Graham, that you persist in calling disinterested a synonym
for unbiased.  Certainly the meanings are similar, but one can easily
imagine (say) a judge who is not disinterested but who manages to
remain unbiased.  Likewise one who is biased even though disinterested.

Tony H.
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Date:         Sun, 13 Sep 1992 13:18:41 EDT
From:         Rita Marie Rouvalis <rita@EFF.ORG>
Subject:      Garcia Marquez
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Dear Professor Giggles,

	Have you sufficient knolwedge of Gabriel Garcia
Marquez that if I asked you weird questions like "what
is the significance of the name "Melquiades" for the old
gypsy in OHYOS, you'd be able to rattle off the correct
answer to an essay question?

Regards,

Czarina Rita
(making note that "Garcia y Rouvalis" would be a
multicultural abomination, so we're breaking with
the tradition).
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Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 16:06:25 CDT
From:         "Natalie Maynor" <maynor@RA.MSSTATE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: "Prescriptivism"
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

> and completely incorrect. Please note: I do not prescribe the abandoning
> of this incorrect and idiotic usage.

And I don't see anything in what you said that would lead me to call you
a prescriptivist.
   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)
From: ak743@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Doretta Hanschka)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Bertie Wooster 2
Date: 9 Sep 1992 19:36:43 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ak743@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Doretta Hanschka)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, torkel@SICS.SE () says:

>  >Wodehouse's world, like any fictional world, has nothing to do with the
>  >real world. Automatic writing on this order does exist there.
>  Very feeble. You may as well postulate that the Wodehouse characters
>are all Martians.
>
You mean they're NOT?  <sigh>  One more youthful illusion bites the dust.

-- 
Nethead, aka the Ruth Hanschka, hath enscribed herein, a message
	ap290 and ak743 , both of the Cleveland Freenet
			Here Be Dragons
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From: bayla@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bayla Singer)
Subject: Re: WHTMIHC
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 15:30:43 GMT


I was so flustered by our move to florida, that when the <pool service
technician> introducted himself (Hi, I'm Bill), I responded, "Hi, I'm Bob."


I corrected myself quickly, but he gave me a *very* funny look....

--bayla (now *where* did I put myself? has anyone seen me lately?)
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From: richh@netcom.com (richh)
Subject: Re: Anne, will you marry me?
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 92 21:31:17 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

Carol_Carmick@BEAV.INTERSOLV.COM writes:

>     Anne, your suitor is apparently the mutant son by sperm fusion of
>     Philip Roth and Bret Easton Ellis.  I wouldn't do anything
>     drastic if I were you.

oh, Carol!
Just keep reading...

RICHH
--"Caraol's Complaint"
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Date:         Fri, 11 Sep 1992 19:28:49 EDT
From:         mgarber@DHVX20.CSUDH.EDU
Subject:      Re: Today's pop quiz
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

re the sheep effect:  find it outrageous that your
teacher, Dutch or otherwise, would let a whole class repeate
an error just to prove a point. Those kids go away remembering the
error not the correction, even if they remember the story.
Marilyn
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Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 03:34:50 EDT
From:         Rashmi <rashmi%Spl3.ECE.Drexel.EDU@COE.DREXEL.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Family Tree
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Re Tushar and his four wives, ggs and Ruth write:

> >But, I think that they actually *do* that sort of thing in the old
> >country where <ts> comes from....  or is that somewhere else?  I

Eeeeennntt!!  Bigamy is prohibited under Indian civil law.  You're probably
thinking about Islamic religious code, which permits it.

> It's a lot of places.  I think Tushar's old homestead allows it, and if not
> the whole clan probably moved to one of the Arab states.

It might be legal in those Arab states that have Islamic law.  What about
Utah -- could the clan move there?  They'll save on moving expenses.

rashmi
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Date:         Fri, 11 Sep 1992 12:36:39 EDT
From:         mgarber@DHVX20.CSUDH.EDU
Subject:      Re: Zen
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

Hands together?  I thought it was more a matter of one hand
clapping!  Marilyn
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Date:         Sat, 12 Sep 1992 13:55:04 EDT
From:         Rita Marie Rouvalis <rita@EFF.ORG>
Subject:      Re: afterthought
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu
              92 12:42 am

> It occurred to me, after I'd logged off, that Graham's gripe about women's
> groups was a perfect example of a new usage: "women" meant to include all
> humanity.  Is this something new from soc.bi, Graham?

	Hee!  There's a reason I read everything Bayla posts.
Tell your grandkids that they're lucky.


Rita
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Date:         Tue, 8 Sep 1992 09:06:21 EDT
From:         EL406041@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU
Subject:      Re: Plumbing Woes
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Posted on 8 Sep 1992 at 07:01:09 by Bayla Singer
>If the gasket has anything to do with the connection between the tank and
>the rest of the toilet, *leave it alone*.  I usually do a lot of our minor

I understand your point, Bayla, but someone has to fix it--the gasket is
loose and won't let the tank hold water unless I fool w/ it.  I will mention
it to my landlord--he can be responsible for breaking anything!

Karen
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Date:         Mon, 14 Sep 1992 16:02:50 EDT
From:         Elaine M Brennan <ELAINE%BROWNVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Re: Review

Judith said :

>Elaine brought Grant over for tea this morning.
>Anne-next-door and Elva-Frank's-advisor's-wife
>and my-daughter-Marya were also present.
>
>We all approve. He was properly appreciative of my
>bread and the last of Ruth's jams, among his many
>other virtues.
>
>Elaine, you may keep him :-)
>
>love, judith

and then abh said:

>...that noise you just heard was the Net rippling.
>
>-abh

and then Karen said:

>>Elaine brought Grant over for tea this morning.
> ...
>>Elaine, you may keep him :-)
>
>But she promised to share!
>
>Karen

and last, but certainly not least, Graham said:

>        >Elaine brought Grant over for tea this morning.
>        ...
>        >Elaine, you may keep him :-)
>
>        But she promised to share!
>
>        Karen
>
>You too!??!??!  Poor guy'll be exhausted..
>
>G

after passing all of those messages along, the question may be
whether he'll keep *me* ...

Elaine
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Return-Path: <tushar@math.uchicago.edu>
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Date:         Sun, 13 Sep 1992 23:02:34 CDT
From:         tushar@MATH.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject:      Re: Father's Day, Anne, Father's Day

>El Torque--Tushar's spin doctor.

I get it, I get it! Rolling words round your tongue, huh? I get it, ha, I
get it. Revolutionary names, these. I get it, I get it, ha. Like Larrihill
and Toughtertrees. Ha.

Torque, by the way, is directly proportional to the axleration. The

tushar
From: aharwell@PANAM1.PANAM.EDU (Bandwidth Pig)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: RE: Bill's Life
Date: 15 Sep 92 18:45:34 GMT
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Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

>No lies please. I am sure there are very few reasons why you vote
>for Bill Clinton. My reasons are:
>
>He is for change, committed to helping the poor and will not screw up the
>environment.
>
>
>later
>
>alec
>
>
>P.S. Just saw the new Bush ad on T.V. It was awful. It painted Bush as
>God.

No offense, but if this is the kind of critical thinking we can expect from
Clinton supporters...well, you know.

"Some people just shouldn't be political."

-abh
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Date:         Mon, 14 Sep 1992 09:14:06 EDT
Comments:     Resent-From: GUBERT@UKCC.UKY.EDU
Comments:     Originally-From: Tony Harminc <TONY@VM1.MCGILL.CA>
From:         GUBERT@UKCC.UKY.EDU
Subject:      Re: Today's pop quiz
              11 Sep 1992 11:29:37 MED from <gtoal@STACK.URC.TUE.NL>

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On Fri, 11 Sep 1992 11:29:37 MED Graham Toal said:

>primed) asking 'what is another word for 'unbiased'.

then tony h said

Curious, Graham, that you persist in calling disinterested a synonym
for unbiased.  Certainly the meanings are similar, but one can easily
imagine (say) a judge who is not disinterested but who manages to
remain unbiased.  Likewise one who is biased even though disinterested.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMHO, in a legal context it would mean almost surely mean unbiased -- i.e.,
without a vested interest in the outcome.

JAG
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Date:         Mon, 7 Sep 1992 06:50:27 -0400
From:         Agnes Kruchio <kruchio@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA>
Subject:      Re: Gleanings (58)
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu
              7, 92 5:03 pm

> 26) NIMBY (Agnes)

="Not In My Back Yard" - usually refers to some environmentally
unpleasant thing about to happen - like a dump (or "waste disposal
site" in bureaucratese) being started: the implication is that while
we all know that we need dumps, no one wants one in their OWN back
yard and/or neighbourhood  and some people with influence - often
affluent middle class homeowners in good neighbourhoods can and DO
stop dumps in their own backyards, often involving organizing protest
meetings, petititoning politicians etc.-- even if politicians thought
for a minute they could get away with putting a dump (or whatever) in
a good neighbourhood (defined here as having enough people with either
clout, i.e. connections and/or organizational and media savvy living
in it). By extension it's been dubbed NIMBY movement of such-minded
people in relation to  all sorts of unpleasant things. For example,
discussions about toxic and nuclear waste disposal often involves
a "NIMBY" protest - the latter rather topical for Japan right about
now, I would think.

Is there one - a NIMBY protest in Japan about the plutonium being
shipped to Japan for the breeder reactors? Or has its implications
not dawned on the Japanese public yet?

BTW - I can't remember the exact context, but I think I reallly
stretched its meaning in my post - just to be playful, thinking it was
common knowledge. Obviously not, as you weren't the only one enquiering
about it.

Agnes
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Date:         Fri, 11 Sep 1992 11:12:00 EDT
From:         Gilbert Smith <N567126@NCSUADM.ACS.NCSU.EDU>
Subject:      Re: WHTMIHC
Comments: To: Doretta Hanschka <ak743@CLEVELAND.FREENET.EDU>
Comments: cc: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <WORDS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>

> C'est tout, no sordid details of she/hes in mini skirts and spikes, no library
> shelves, no Quintana Roo.  Just the general hairyness of trying to negotiate
> three miles of construction in an unfamiliar area.  Which was probably
> interesting enough....
>
> Ruth
> waiting for the mail to start pouring in as it's supposed to...
> Giggles, old chap, WHERE'S PART THREE???
> --
> Nethead, aka the Ruth Hanschka, hath enscribed herein, a message

--ggs is experiencing a memory lapse....  the effects of approaching
*five-five* I think....  it will be forthcoming in the <foreseeable>
future.....
--- (well, I never, my *own* name just slipped my mind....)
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Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 09:48:22 CDT
From:         aharwell@PANAM1.PANAM.EDU
Subject: Re: wordsler birthdays
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

>Why does the name "crontab" make me think of Faulkner and sex...


Natalie, Natalie, Natalie....why do *so many* things do that?

Therapeutically yours,
-abh
The Bear: symbol of the Old South or of Male Libido conquering the damp, dark
woods?
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Date:         Sat, 12 Sep 1992 19:13:18 -0500
From:         Anne Burton Harwell <harwell@TENET.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Query
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

On Sun, 13 Sep 1992, Graham Toal wrote:

> It's just you.  Or your hormones.
>
> G

Hey man, the rain falls on the righteous man's fields as well as the sinner's!
If you don't like this mood swing, stick around another week or so.

-abh
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Date:         Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:26:41 EDT
From:         EL406041@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU
Subject:      Re: Labour Days
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Posted on 7 Sep 1992 at 13:01:54 by Anne Burton Harwell
>Probably has more to do with the fact that so many of our cars are made in
>Canada now.

Yes, well...saves them from having to cross the border to come to work,
doesn't it?

Karen
who remembers this from her youth as a border child
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Date:         Sun, 6 Sep 1992 12:45:53 -0500
From:         Doris Smith <dorisann@TENET.EDU>
Subject:      Re: The [t] in often
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Comments: cc: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

> I've wondered why everybody seems to use "Don Jew-on" when referring to
> Byron.  Is it because Byron pronounced it that way?
>    --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)

He must have pronounced it that way, because every anthology, every
teacher/prof, and every reference to the poem make a point of mentioning
that Don Juan in Spanish is something like hwan, but Byron's Don Juan is
joo an. (I can't get the symbols used as keys to pronunciations on this
keyboard.)
Doris
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Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 22:03:01 -0400
From:         Agnes Kruchio <kruchio@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA>
Subject: Re: wordsler birthdays
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu
              11, 92 2:35 am

Isn't keeping track of people's birthday cruel and unusual punishment?

Agnes
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Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 16:27:04 EDT
From:         BGRISSOM@UKCC.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: prescriptivism again
              10 Sep 1992 09:14:40 CDT from <maynor@RA.MSSTATE.EDU>

>> To make things clear, what I want to know is what dictates usage. And all
>> this is going on (from my side) to establish who "prescriptivists" are -
>> i.e. whether there is a well-defined group of people like that or whether
>> the definition is so loose that we all are prescriptivists.
>
>See Tony Crowley's -Standard English and the Politics of Language-, U of
>Illinois Press, 1989.
>   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)

Another one is Thomas J. Creswell's -Usage in Dictionaries and
Dictionaries of Usage-, University of Alabama Press, 1975.  I mentioned
this a while back, but have only just read it.  Creswell takes the 1969
American Heritage Dictionary and compares the 300 or so locutions it gives
usage panel votes on to their treatment in nine other dictionaries and ten
guides to usage (Bernstein, Follett, etc.).  A fascinating study --
Creswell effectively undermines the claims of these sources (surely
a fairly well-defined group of prescriptivists) "as to objectivity,
reliability, and authoritativeness in the treatment of usage.... opinion
is found to be a less than satisfactory guide, and a proposal is made
for a more reliable method of deriving judgments about usage."  (His
proposal has to do with analysis of computerized databases like the
Brown University Standard Corpus of Present-Day Edited American English.)

This book comprises numbers 63-64 in the series -Publication of the
American Dialect Society-, so should be widely available in libraries.

brad
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