If you want X, you know where to find it (was Re: do...until wisdom needed...)

[Steve Holden]

"Paul Prescod" <paulp at ActiveState.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.987782495.20933.python-list at python.org...
> Steve Lamb wrote:
> >
> > On 19 Apr 2001 17:58:40 -0400, Douglas Alan <nessus at mit.edu> wrote:
> > >My dictionaries disagree with your dictionary.  My Webster says that
> > >abuse "stresses harshness and unfairness of verbal attack".  It is the
> > >*attack* that must be "harsh" for words to be "abusive" -- the words
> > >themselves do not need to be harsh.
> >
> >     Well, gee, Alex hasn't been harsh in my book.  I mean, you're
> > the one who made the comment, and I'm paraphrasing here....  $#%$
> > you!  You know, fsck you in unix terms.  I think that given the
> > two labels and the two people in the thread you're the abusive one.
>
> I'm having a hard time seeing how this has anything to do with Python!
>
> Douglas came in with an idea. Arguably a bad idea. I guess the perceived
> badness of Douglas' idea annoyed Alex and Steve so much that they
> started to take it personally and attack Douglas personally.
>
Paul:

Mailed not posted, to avoid further unjustifiable extension of the thread,
but I suspect the whole thing started when Doug said, in reply to a post of
mine, something along the lines of "let's be honest, ...".

Alex, whose first language isn't English despite his excellent rhetoricall
skills, took this as a slight against me. I, of course, recognised it as a
colloquial term imputing no dishonesty to me, and pretty much ducked out
there and thyen, excepting an occasional oiling of the troubled waters (I
hoped...).

Anyway. Looks like the storm is over and we're set fair to return to more
normal sensibleness levels now. Thanks for being concerned enough to dampen
things down still further. c.l.py can do quite well (better, even) without
that kind of nonsense.

regards
 Steve