From: Richard Loosemore (rpwl@lightlink.com)
Date: Thu Mar 23 2006 - 14:04:38 MST
Ah, you may need to be a little careful, yourself, about those tricky
universal quantifiers ;-), as in my phrase "please STOP assuming that
*everything* I write is emotional...."
This is different from "please DO assume that everything I write is NOT
emotional".
The word *everything*, in the original, allows me to say that I am
unemotional 99% of the time, whilst at the same time reserving the right
to emphasize one small point with a carefully chosen emotive word when
it is appropriate.
Was it actually appropriate? Well, in this case, where I was referring
to unjustified emotional behavior in *someone* *else* (one single
individual), the context makes it fairly reasonable to describe that
person's behavior as "asinine".
I doubt that it is evidence of a "serious social problem" on my part.
[That said, I have just written about a possible misunderstanding of my
comment.]
Richard Loosemore.
Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2006 at 02:25:58PM -0500, Richard Loosemore wrote:
>> [And I stand by what I said (the word "asinine" was perhaps a little
>> strong, but I would argue that it was appropriate).
> [snip]
>> More generally:
>>
>> Would people please STOP assuming that everything I write is emotional
>> and angry .... I have had several comments come out of the blue in the
>> last few months, asking me to be less emotional in situations where I
>> have shown no emotion or anger. I find myself completely bemused by
>> these comments!
>
> If you think that you can use the word "asinine" *and* have people
> respect your request to believe that you are not being emotional you
> either are not a native speaker of English or you have some sort of
> serious social problem. The two are mutually incompatible.
>
> -Robin
>
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