Dennis,
You prove Ron's point, as well as my own about the way this list reacts to
its "lone" (or nearly lone) woman. Why is this "advice to Judy"? Judy
answered a question made to the list in a good-natured low-key way. The
flap was started by Luis, who made a heated and scornful attack on my
reply, *to the list,* deriding my suggestions for "breaking the rules" of
English -- although his opening salvo had been "there are no rules."
But then you probably wrote Luis *off-list* to chastise him?
Not that I fault Luis for starting the flap. I even dare consider him "a
friend." But he's only human, and he could have a problem with uppity
women. In fact, I sympathise, because I, too, have a problem with uppity
women: Their penalty is to be the center of controversy, which is both
mortifying and debilitating.
(But just in case, I'm going to write Luis for the secrets of his
impunity: maybe he can give me some pointers.)
However, my friend, after delivering your own polemic about the "mother
tongue" (which I can only hope was meant to be more ironic than it
sounded), you added grandly,
> Now, please, can we all get back to photography?
For your sake and ours, I have deleted your polemic, but neither your tone
nor your content were conducive to the peaceful contemplation of
art-and-science.
But surely you weren't serious about this "across the pond" call-
your-language-something-else stuff? On the remote chance that you were,
permit me to suggest that many of us on both sides of "the pond" can
match your knowledge of usage, vocabulary, construction, and literature,
not to mention human relations -- in "English"-- any day of the week, and
we roundly disagree with you.
Also, permit me to suggest that if "English" English doesn't show a change
from the exclusive "he" for all persons (if it follows that form now,
which I suspect may be more prevalent in photo magazines than the
mainstream) within five years, I will -- well, I seldom bet less than a
million dollars, which you might consider an American vulgarity, so let's
just say I'll be surprised.
Judy