Language and English

On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Richard Erlacher wrote: > When I was in the 8th grade, one of the courses we were required to take

> in typing. I've never gotten particularly good at it, but I did learn

> a period at the end of a sentence is followed by two spaces, for

Wow. I really _do_ learn something new every day. Cool. (Never took typing, and, in fact, make do with the left index finger.) > If you insist on writing in a style reminiscent of E. E. Cummings

> you may find that your messages are read by readers of this forum with

> the same frequency as E.E. Cummings' work, which might be a shame, in

> you really do have something significant to contribute. or in case I'm

Nah, I like ee cummings. And not to nitpick, but your rendering of his name is incorrect. I do detest the fact that the owners of the copyrights to his work systematically search the web for quotes of his poetry, and complain and/or sue. That is, however, a whole other thread. cummings' poetry is entirely without capitalization, and mostly without punctuation, but he used line placement and his phrasing to pull the reader *gracefully* through a poem. Assuming, naturally, that you enjoy his work. I submit that as an advanced literary skill, rather than a lack of training. I submit further that none of the mortals on the classiccmp list have evolved to that literary level. I also don't think that an objection to intentionally poor communication is snobbery. I don't smoke, and I don't allow smoking in my house. It is a matter of preserving a healthy, comfortable environment. While I don't flatter myself that this is "my" list, I joined it because the virtual environment is comfortable. Before anyone asks, "Yes." The arguments and the general codger factor were/are a large part of the draw. Technical flame wars are the WWF of the modern bit-nibbling crowd. Doc