Re: Fibber McGee's Closet

I am going to write to Judy separately offlist, but I think a couple of
things I need to mention in onlist:

> Still, I really appreciate your support (and support from offlist: "Go
> Girl Go!", etc.), also your calm approach, but ....

Judy, I didn't write you the "Go Girl Go" message. Did you mean other
supports from other people offlist? Or maybe there was another Dave who
wrote you that message.

> Meanwhile... Dave, are you still here? Do you remember the time, maybe
> one of your first posts to the list, maybe 10 years ago... You were
> writing about a generic photographer you referred to as "he." Then you
> stopped and asked the list, "Do I have to say 'he or she'?" I wrote, "you
> betcha," adding a short but brilliant explanation I forget now --

Yes, and I remember saying (not sure it was onlist or offlist though) about
having to type extra words every I have to refer to someone generic, and we
talked about active and passive voice and the use of s/he, etc. I didn't
consciously use voice change because that would involve some extra thinking
process in the mind but I chose the use of "s/he" in the subsequent years
and have used it outside this list too.

Ah, that has been at least 10 years now.

> and all hell broke loose. Luis Nadeau went positively ballistic. One of
> the nicer things he called me (tho that was offlist, I still loved it) was
> "cultural imperialist," meaning that I was trying to make the world
> (including French Canadians!) follow the USA's politically correct rules.
> (I wonder if they ever did...?)

Was he joking or serious? I probably didn't/couldn't follow the discussion
closely because at that time I was more culturally distant, so I often
missed the fine argument in emails and wasn't sure what exactly people were
talking about. I thought he and you agreed on most things though. More than
one time he said that he liked and enjoyed your sense of humor.

Dave S
Received on Sat Mar 12 10:16:21 2005