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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!ihnp4!houxm!mhuxl!ulysses!princeton!eosp1!robison
From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: Re: Tobias' remarks in net.jokes (holocaust)
Message-ID: <291@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Nov-83 01:20:08 EST
Article-I.D.: eosp1.291
Posted: Tue Nov 15 01:20:08 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Nov-83 04:57:25 EST
References: <671@ihuxi.UUCP>
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 34

Thanks for both the flames and supportive comments, folks,
both private and public.  A few brief follow-on comments:

I posted my letter in jokes, rather than jokes.d, because I
was under the rather spectacular misapprehension that jokes.d
was a subgroup meaning "jokes.dirty".  I see now that it is
"jokes.discussion".  How fascinating.

Several writers have taken me to task for claiming that Elie Wiesel
coined the word "holocaust", since it is in any standard dictionary.
It is, but if you will bother to look at the definition,
you will notice that it means "burnt offering", which has nothing
whatsoever to do with the destruction of a few ants or people by
golfclubs.  Nor did the word aply to mass murder until Elie Wiesel
so applied it after WW II.
The word was used, in the joke, to refer to mass murder, but in a
fairly meaningless way, which was what my letter was about.

One responder was concerned that I may have made the author of the
joke feel "like SLIME".  That was certainly not my intent, but
considering how often net.jokes make the readers feel like slime
(judging from their comments), I don't see why we should be too
concerned about the writers.

Finally, apologies for being unable to make private replies to
those who sent private mail.  The net nodes to which our VAX is
connected will only pick up and deliver public mail from us,
although they do deliver both public and private mail to our site.
I will make public summaries of responses to me wherever appropriate,
and will take due note of U.S.nail addresses and phone numbers.

				- Tobias D. Robison
			          decvax!ittvax!eosp1
				  or:   allegra!eosp1