Need cleanup advice for multiline string

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:04:58 -0700, Carl Banks wrote:

> On Aug 17, 5:40 pm, Mensanator <mensana... at aol.com> wrote:
>> On Aug 17, 4:06 pm, Carl Banks <pavlovevide... at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > On Aug 17, 10:03 am, Jean-Michel Pichavant <jeanmic... at sequans.com>
>> > wrote:
>>
>> > > I'm no English native, but I already heard women/men referring to a
>> > > group as "guys", no matter that group gender configuration. It's
>> > > even used for group composed exclusively of women. Moreover it
>> > > looks like a *very* friendly form, so there is really nothing to
>> > > worry about it.
>>
>> > I like how being very friendly means calling people after a guy who
>> > tried to blow up the English Parliament.
>>
>> So?
> 
> I also like how making an amusing pointless observation gets people all
> huffy.
> 
> (BTW, lest anyone is not aware, that is the origin of the word "guy",
> this was not some random association.)


Yes, apparently the slang term "guy" for "man" (and these days, "person") 
was derived from Guy Fawkes:

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-guy1.htm


but the name itself is much older, and comes from Old German for "wood" 
or "warrior". In old French, it was "Gy", and in Italian (and presumably 
Dutch) it is "Guido".

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Guy
http://www.blurtit.com/q113276.html


You'll also note that "guy" the noun has a number of meanings:

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=guy


I don't know if there's any point to all this, but it's interesting, even 
if off-topic.




-- 
Steven