ADS-L AGAIN



Tim and Beverly's comments were really directed at something else. If a

joke doesn't work, you don't say anything, or you write to me privately. You

don't "boo" me in public. They've never "cheered" me in public (and I've

posted heaps), so where's the balance?





I think the present process is very painful for a lot of people, and the

jokes felt like salt in a wound to them. I don't know that people were

objecting to the sheer listing and discussion of coinages.



Both Tim and Beverly have written or at least strongly hinted in the past

that anyone (me) who posts etymologies is "unprofessional" and shouldn't be on

ADS-L.



Of course there should be more here than lexical discussion. But an email

list is the sum total of what people put into it. People who are looking to

discuss vowel-shifts or sociolinguistic issues (etc.) need to ask

themselves: If not me, who? If not now, when? Those topics, interesting as I

or others might find them, are very rarely raised by anyone. Given the

topics people do raise, the list is presently about 95% lexical and

pronunciational.



Gregory {Greg} Downing, at greg.downing[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]nyu.edu or downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]is2.nyu.edu