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From: jbf@ccieng5.UUCP (just being friendly)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: greatest among three
Message-ID: <208@ccieng5.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Dec-83 20:29:20 EST
Article-I.D.: ccieng5.208
Posted: Mon Dec 19 20:29:20 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Dec-83 04:32:51 EST
Lines: 52

While I agree with Mr. Welsch's attitude regarding grammar and spelling,
he should give me the benefit of the doubt -- I might actually MEAN exactly
what I am saying!

    Rather than worry about grammar it is better to be concerned
    about understanding.  The statement:
    (1)
	    "if X were applying for  employment at my company, and I had any
	    say in the matter, he would be accepted when grammatical  errors
	    disappear from the net!"
    may be grammatically correct but lacks common sense. I think
    what the writer meant to say was:
    (2)
	    "if X were applying for  employment at my company, X makes 
	    grammatical errors on the net and I had any say in the matter, 
	    then X would be accepted when X no longer makes grammatical errors 
	    on the net"
    Perhaps not grammatically correct but at least it doesn't make
    hiring X dependent on an event that is unlikely to occur. 

I intended to make hiring X dependent on an unlikely event!  "When grammatical
errors disappear from the net" is a less hackneyed form of "when hell freezes
over" or "on a cold day in July".  Mr. Welsch understood the implications of
my statement, and refused to believe that I did!  Here I could quote something
about Faith, Hope, and Charity.

    To change the subject to flora and fauna, I took a look in
    "Webster's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged" (c)
    1981 for flora, fauna, defloration, deflowered, enfauned, etc.
    First, there is no word enfauned! I suggest Reed Fire check the
    dictionary referenced above.  Second, flora and fauna refer to
    animal and plant life.  Third, while defloration refers to loss
    of a hymen which can only happen to a woman, deflowering is loss
    of virginity which can happen to a man.  I suggest that what
    Reed Fire says is known to a few, is known only to him.

				Larry Welsch
				houxu!welsch

Amazingly, Mr. Welsch again strikes true.  "Enfauned" was entirely whimsical,
since I had just made it up (I thought the ugliness of the word was compensated
by the beauty of its justification).  As I stated originally, by looking up the
up he saw JUST HOW FEW really knew about the word.  Had he given me credit for
sanity, he might have appreciated an admittedly contrived caprice.

Reed Fire
PS:  My pronouncement on grammar and spelling: don't worry about it unless it
is so dreadful that it becomes hard to understand.  I never use a dictionary
unless I am trying to settle an argument; some other people would have to
look up every fourth word.  It is easy for those who are naturally good at
spelling to tell those who aren't to spend 80% of their time with their noses
in a dictionary.