Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: From the Night's Plutonian Shore

What happens when you have a long afternoon, you notice some suspicious
posts related to Edgar Allan Poe, enough beers are calling your name from the
fridge, and you have "The Raven" somewhere in the house? What follows comes from 
the dangerous combination of the above elements. It could have been much worse if I had 
access to the right chemicals, though. Let's call it just an exercise in packaging a troll bait with
rhymes. Diligent readers might notice references to past postings, flamewars and a couple
of attempts at a similar type of low level poetry on the ng. Only this is much better, of course :))
The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, with Usenet slow and weary
the lonely Keeper laid down thinking, nearly napping
when a subtle noise, a clicking, broke his thoughts and made him wary
"Someone's posting" half he muttered "tonight on Icling"
Only this, and nothing more
So back he sat and tried to sleep
but the noise was ceaseless - freaking
"Must be a moron, perhaps a creep"
as he started his newsreader wondering, fearing
Or just a newbie, and nothing more
Seconds passed, the download completed
while he stared at the phospors peering
'Til on the screen the new header surfaced:
"I am the Butterfly" it read gleaming
"To you children I bring my (f)art and lore"
Merely this, and nothing more
"Oh no, not you again" said the keeper's fading smile
"Already I chased you from this domain; 
Be gone, you evil, in my kill file!
For all you bring are bad vibes and pain
Please be gone, and post no more"
"Your filters are lost on me, for I can change names"
squealed the Troll with eyes aflame 
"and your users for sure will miss me, on the lonely Icling shores
Here I am with new ID, stronger, meaner than before"
He sat and perched on the router, and said no more
And the troll, never  flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
among the postings of the newsgroup we love
And his eyes have all the seaming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamplight over him streaming throws his shadow on the floor
And the keeper's soul is heavy, time to raise Abuse once more
May we hear from the Troll - nevermore!
+--
I know you can't speak, I know you can't sign
So cry right here on the dotted line


Hey, you guys down there in Sunnyvale must be breathing in a lot of Si to come
up with stuff like this.  Not bad...not bad....for a bunch of engineers and
computer programmers.  Gee, I didn't even think you people had ever heard of
Poe.  Well, you proved me wrong.  
bye
AriaNNA


Hey, I am glad you appreciated my humble literary boutade; engineers are normally
stereotyped as terminal nerds without a life, and it may be true that there is little evidence 
against that, but some of us still show signs of brain activity every now and then.
I know of computer programmers who even got married. Yes, I have a foggy notion of 
a world out there, too (outside Sunnyvale, that is) and I like reading. Besides, reading 
helped me a lot in learning how to write in english; one day I will learn how to speak it too. 
I am a simple creature sorely aware of its limits; do you know where I learned
of E.A.Poe? From an old record, "Tales of Mistery and Immagination" from The Alan
Parsons Project,  a superb, timeless recording which you should have in your collection
if you like Poe. 


 I know of computer programmers who even got married.
How, c'mon... do you really expect us to buy that?
It has to be an urban legend.
And, in case you thought of him, Bill Gates isn't a computer programmer,
he's a tycoon.
saluti,
Peltio
: )))))
(How come that 'an urban' sounds so strange to my ear? I had written 'a
urban' but, on second thought, I corrected the 'a' to an 'an'. Anyway,
forget it: I don't care anymore about the article. It the preposition that's
bugging me now:
Is it possible to say: correct <something> *to* <something else>?
Or is it _into_?
Or I should have stuck with a plain old 'changed to'?

 
I think I found some examples on the Web supporting this usage, e.g.:
  To use the PLC formalization, one must of course observe a
  color, correct it to an intrinsic color, and then independently
  determine a fundamental period in order to calculate a luminosity.
Max


Nobody in his right mind would ever think of Gates as a computer programmer


I know of computer programmers who even got married
Yeah... I heard that.  But after careful chromosomal analysis, it was
determined that they  belonged to a non-human species believed to be extinct.  
ciao
Ari

 I think I found some examples on the Web supporting this usage, e.g.:
ok, thank you very much.
My Picchi was of no support on this issue.
saluti,
Peltio