[Sca-cooks] Digests - SORRY

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jun 4, 2008, at 7:34 PM, Suey wrote:

> Obviously Dragon and Phil Troy took the phrase "ble, ble, ble" as an  
> insult when the opposite was meant.

I'm glad to hear that, but I did not take it as an insult. I suggested  
that it could be interpreted as one (since most people using that  
expression in English are in fact being deliberately insulting:  
dismissing someone else's words as inconsequential nonsense not worth  
listening to or repeating), and was intended as a potential refresher  
course in English usage, since, as you suggest, English is not your  
native language.

> Many thanks to both of you and to Amy Cooper and Lilianah, who  
> didn't flip out with my terminology

Yes, they reacted pleasantly and in reasoned, entirely appropriate  
tones to what you wrote. So did I, and everyone else who responded, as  
far as I know. Should we have a pleasant discussion on the meaning of  
"flip out" in English as well?

Over the years there have been several list members for whom English  
has not been their first language, and since they have done us the  
great honor and courtesy of making the effort to address us in  
English, and also requested corrections of the occasional minor error  
in usage, no one has ever felt the need to get angry over these small  
misunderstandings. They have addressed the occasional comment to the  
speaker that that was perhaps not the best choice, and that some other  
phrase would be more appropriate. As Urtatim suggested, "<snip>" or  
SNIP is generally considered the international standard Internet  
user's code phrase to indicate content that is being deliberately  
removed for brevity. Unfortunately, "ble ble ble" sounds too much like  
"Blah, blah, blah", a phrase commonly used in English by disrespectful  
children making fun of their parents' words.

> -, many thanks for your patience and understanding
> I shall ask Dragon to put me on Digest. I sounds great. You know I  
> never receive personal calls at the office and every time the bell  
> rang that SCA had a new message for me it unnerved me so this does  
> sound like the solution I need.

Yes, I thought so. You should hear my computer announce new mail with  
a sound bite from the old "Addams Family" TV series, complete with  
ship's emergency siren (maybe it's a foghorn) and Carolyn Jones  
announcing that the mail's in... "Ah, thank you, Thing!"

Adamantius




"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter