[Sca-cooks] Crocodile was Magpies

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Tue Mar 4 17:43:05 PST 2008


On Mar 4, 2008, at 7:13 PM, Kimberly Vallance wrote:

> No more then my opinion of fresh tomato being icky is a flight of  
> fancy

That's not a flight of fancy, ma'am. That's sacrilege ;-).

> or
> that khli *a fermented meat dish of Morocco* is just ewww.

I'm not up on that one. Is it more ewww than corned beef, a fermented  
meat dish of England, Ireland, and the U.S., or any of the tangier  
sausages that are fermented meat dishes of X? Of course, for all I  
know it's fermented moose noses or something...

> An opinion is not the same thing as saying something is a fact. It  
> is to
> quote m-w.com 1 a*:* a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the  
> mind about
> a particular matter 2 a*:* belief stronger than impression and less  
> strong
> than positive knowledge.

There's nothing at all wrong with an opinion clearly presented as  
such. It can get a little bit difficult if it's not clearly identified  
as an opinion. For example, my certain knowledge that eggplant is the  
work of the Devil is simple, empirical fact. Those other things,  
_those_ are opinions. Luckily, I'm not in the least bit opinionated.

> I rarely post to this group as I am afraid of getting my head bitten  
> off for
> being wrong or having the wrong opinion. I can see having  
> documentation if
> someone wanted to present something as a fact. But getting on  
> someone for an
> opinion?

Honestly, my own feeling is that it wasn't about having an opinion,  
per se; it was how the statement was presented and justified (or  
perhaps not justified, fully). And then, of course, there's the fact  
that you can have an issue with something someone is saying without  
being disrespectful to the person saying it. I'm truly sorry if you've  
been made to feel insecure as a poster here, but I've known a lot of  
the people here for a long time, and perhaps that does cause me to cut  
them more slack than otherwise, but I honestly don't see any hostility  
being expressed here, not between people. Disagreement, yes, often,  
but I spend a fair amount of time on UseNet, and hoo-boy, I know a  
flame when I see one.

> Now I will probably get flamed

Oh, you big meanie. You're... ummm... not nice.

There. How'd I do? ;-)

> and told how wrong I am but meh I
> don't like watching someone get flamed for an opinion.

I wouldn't like it myself. I really didn't see what happened in that  
way, but on the other hand, surely the occasional reminder that it's  
possible to disagree without hostility is never wasted. And for that,  
you should be thanked! Which I do...

Adamantius



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