Remember Dr ATKINS!!!!!!!!!!!

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:25:33 -0400, "Mathilda Jane"
wrote:

Nina wrote in message
Well, until you actually provide evidence that you actually write for
a living, then everyone has no reason to believe that you're anything
but a sad fat girl who's incredibly jealous of everyone who actually
does.

If I had time to maintain a personal web site where I posted my inner
thoughts to for the world to see, would that classify me as a writer in your
book?


If said site is published as a book, or is developed as a television
show, as mine is being considered to be, then I might consider you a
professional.

But anyone can have a web site, darling, even you. Professional
writer means that you get paid for what you do, even make a living at
it. I don't make my living off my web site, I make a living off
television. You could try it, but I think they require two spaces
after a period.


Oh, and speaking of professional writing, you will remember that I am not
the one who still thinks two spaces after a period is correct. If you need
help moving beyond this, please see any Associated Press Style Guide and
Libel Manual. Or Chicago Style Guide. Or APA Style... or any book, newspaper
or magazine for that matter.

As for me, I'm young, rich, and good-looking.

Of course you are. That's why you are posting to a diet newsgroup.

You are adorable. If you were able to use just a smidge of that
supposed brain, you'd know that I lost my weight and hang around here
for fun.


And that's also why you don't feel thirty, you drive a Jetta with no air
conditioning, you have undergone Botox injections and you buy most of your
clothes secondhand.

Exactly! Who needs to spend the money on something silly like a car
or clothes, when I can spend on things that actually matter to me.
You're catching on!


It's been a blast, darling. Let's do it again, sometime, shall we?

Sure.

Alas, I don't think you're up to the task. Pity.

xo
Nina
delicious! evil! calorie free!
http://www.theslack.com

In article ,
Nina wrote:

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 11:40:27 -0400, "Mathilda Jane"
wrote:

Nina wrote in message
I can assure you that I have never gotten a script thrown back at me
for two spaces.

Good for you.

I have been nominated for an Emmy, won a Nickelodeon's Kid's Choice
Award, a Gracie Allen Award, an Environmental Media Award, and a whole
host of other BS awards that I can't bother to remember.

Again, good for you.

And yet no one's mentioned the two spaces. Funny, how that is.

I don't think it's funny. I think it's embarassing.

BTW, you might want to work on your publicist. A google search of your
name doesn't bring up a single writing credit.

I suppose you think "The Queen of Cans and Jars" is her real name, too.

Well, until you actually provide evidence that you actually write for
a living, then everyone has no reason to believe that you're anything
but a sad fat girl who's incredibly jealous of everyone who actually
does.

As for me, I'm young, rich, and good-looking. So your envy is totally
understandable.

It's been a blast, darling. Let's do it again, sometime, shall we?

Ta,
Nina
delicious! evil! calorie free!
http://www.theslack.com

The returning champion!!! Game, set, and match!

And so well-spaced!

(Nice, Nina!)
--
Wayne Crannell

In article ,
"Mathilda Jane" wrote:

Nina wrote in message
Well, until you actually provide evidence that you actually write for
a living, then everyone has no reason to believe that you're anything
but a sad fat girl who's incredibly jealous of everyone who actually
does.

If I had time to maintain a personal web site where I posted my inner
thoughts to for the world to see, would that classify me as a writer in your
book?

Oh, and speaking of professional writing, you will remember that I am not
the one who still thinks two spaces after a period is correct. If you need
help moving beyond this, please see any Associated Press Style Guide and
Libel Manual. Or Chicago Style Guide. Or APA Style... or any book, newspaper
or magazine for that matter.

As for me, I'm young, rich, and good-looking.

Of course you are. That's why you are posting to a diet newsgroup.

And that's also why you don't feel thirty, you drive a Jetta with no air
conditioning, you have undergone Botox injections and you buy most of your
clothes secondhand.

It's been a blast, darling. Let's do it again, sometime, shall we?

Sure.

Mathilda



Come on. Tildy. As a distinguished linguist and the champion of all that
is writing, you are simply going to have to do better than that.
--
Wayne Crannell

In article ,
Nina wrote:

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:25:33 -0400, "Mathilda Jane"
wrote:

Nina wrote in message
Well, until you actually provide evidence that you actually write for
a living, then everyone has no reason to believe that you're anything
but a sad fat girl who's incredibly jealous of everyone who actually
does.

If I had time to maintain a personal web site where I posted my inner
thoughts to for the world to see, would that classify me as a writer in your
book?


If said site is published as a book, or is developed as a television
show, as mine is being considered to be, then I might consider you a
professional.

But anyone can have a web site, darling, even you. Professional
writer means that you get paid for what you do, even make a living at
it. I don't make my living off my web site, I make a living off
television. You could try it, but I think they require two spaces
after a period.


Oh, and speaking of professional writing, you will remember that I am not
the one who still thinks two spaces after a period is correct. If you need
help moving beyond this, please see any Associated Press Style Guide and
Libel Manual. Or Chicago Style Guide. Or APA Style... or any book, newspaper
or magazine for that matter.

As for me, I'm young, rich, and good-looking.

Of course you are. That's why you are posting to a diet newsgroup.

You are adorable. If you were able to use just a smidge of that
supposed brain, you'd know that I lost my weight and hang around here
for fun.


And that's also why you don't feel thirty, you drive a Jetta with no air
conditioning, you have undergone Botox injections and you buy most of your
clothes secondhand.

Exactly! Who needs to spend the money on something silly like a car
or clothes, when I can spend on things that actually matter to me.
You're catching on!


It's been a blast, darling. Let's do it again, sometime, shall we?

Sure.

Alas, I don't think you're up to the task. Pity.

xo
Nina
delicious! evil! calorie free!
http://www.theslack.com

(Now I know why I don't spar with Nina anymore....brilliant, and quite
sure to put a spring in the step of all of us who are burdened by the
thought that Tildy is actually running around without her medication.)
--
Wayne Crannell

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 00:20:30 GMT, Wayne Crannell wrote:

In article ,
Nina wrote:

On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:25:33 -0400, "Mathilda Jane"
wrote:

Nina wrote in message
Well, until you actually provide evidence that you actually write for
a living, then everyone has no reason to believe that you're anything
but a sad fat girl who's incredibly jealous of everyone who actually
does.

If I had time to maintain a personal web site where I posted my inner
thoughts to for the world to see, would that classify me as a writer in your
book?


If said site is published as a book, or is developed as a television
show, as mine is being considered to be, then I might consider you a
professional.

But anyone can have a web site, darling, even you. Professional
writer means that you get paid for what you do, even make a living at
it. I don't make my living off my web site, I make a living off
television. You could try it, but I think they require two spaces
after a period.


Oh, and speaking of professional writing, you will remember that I am not
the one who still thinks two spaces after a period is correct. If you need
help moving beyond this, please see any Associated Press Style Guide and
Libel Manual. Or Chicago Style Guide. Or APA Style... or any book, newspaper
or magazine for that matter.

As for me, I'm young, rich, and good-looking.

Of course you are. That's why you are posting to a diet newsgroup.

You are adorable. If you were able to use just a smidge of that
supposed brain, you'd know that I lost my weight and hang around here
for fun.


And that's also why you don't feel thirty, you drive a Jetta with no air
conditioning, you have undergone Botox injections and you buy most of your
clothes secondhand.

Exactly! Who needs to spend the money on something silly like a car
or clothes, when I can spend on things that actually matter to me.
You're catching on!


It's been a blast, darling. Let's do it again, sometime, shall we?

Sure.

Alas, I don't think you're up to the task. Pity.

xo
Nina
delicious! evil! calorie free!
http://www.theslack.com

(Now I know why I don't spar with Nina anymore....brilliant, and quite
sure to put a spring in the step of all of us who are burdened by the
thought that Tildy is actually running around without her medication.)

I think I'll let her have the last word. It seems only right,
considering the amusement she's provided everyone today. And perhaps
it'll give her that self-esteem boost that she so desparately seems to
crave.

Cheers,
Nina
delicious! evil! calorie free!
http://www.theslack.com

Mathilda Jane wrote:

Bob Pastorio wrote in message .

As if. The smart girl in the class would know better than to assert
that there's only one way to use the language and that she's the only
one who's qualified to posit what it is.

I can't believe you're truly this obtuse. It has to be a deliberate
effort on your part. A trolling exercise. Any other explanation
demonstrates a seriously lamentable mental instability for you.

Would the teacher be qualified to assert how to use the language? Because I
hate to break this to you, but teachers are now teaching one space.

Yet you concede that there are situations where it's not necessarily
"correct." Little bit schizy? My daughter is taking typing in her
school and, well, they don't teach it there. I'm sure you have a
perfectly wonderful and glossingly snide non sequitur to dismiss that
reality. In your usual fashion.

I take the word of professionals like me on both sides of the
editorial desk. People who have thousands of published pieces ranging
from articles in local newspapers to national pubs to books. I've
been an editor of magazines and books and have written for literally
hundreds of them.

Yippee for you.

Please try to miss the point even more widely. This is credentials.
I'm still waiting for yours.

I have hundreds of publications to my credit. Editors like me, too,
because they don't have to do a find/replace to delete the extra spaces in all
my work.

Editors like me because I write well and spare them the need to edit.
I had hundreds of publications to my credit by the time I was in my
20's. Hell, I probably had that many before finishing college. I'm
well into the thousands now.

Good for you. Did I ask about your writing credits? Or did you just feel
compelled to share them with me because you're a pompous ass and it makes
you feel special?

Gee. It looks like you raised the issue immediately above my comments
above. I feel compelled to share them with you to get you to put up or
shut up. I note you do neither. I note that my professional output is
at least a whole order of magnitude greater than what you claim yours
to be. No examples, though. Fake name. Did you, by any chance go to
the Mu school of discourse?

That's not what you mean. You mean "It would be nice if everybody
agreed with me, no questions asked." Your passive-aggressive
manipulations feel like the delicate ministrations of an unusually
corrupt used car salesman. You twist the words and the assertions of
others to gain ascendancy. It's all about the victory for you. The
perfect absoluteness of your rightness and everybody else's error
unless they unquestioningly accept your "truth."

The one space rule is not my rule. It happens to be a rule that I abide by,
but I did not invent it. How you can say that I want people to agree with me
is absurd. I just want people to care about what is correct.

Your selflessness is an example to us all.

Puhleeze. It's what you *say* is correct.

If people want to look uneducated, sloppy and backward, they can use two
spaces. I'm just glad that I don't have to be responsible for their
embarassment.

You seem not to even notice your own here. How does that Jonathan
Edwards song go?
"He can't even run his own life,
I'll be damned if he'll run mine."

So why don't you actually abide by your own theory and throw all grammar
and punctuation rules out the window with the "one space" rule?

See how well you do this? You take a simple statement and make it into
something it isn't. I didn't say, imply or assert that all rules or
any rules should be thrown out.

No, you said that there are no rules. "It's all construct" I believe is how
you worded it.

I said that all language is a construct. Now I understand. You don't
know what that means. You've never studied anything about linguistics.
You've never studied the history of language. You've never studied
semantics. Now I get it.

I didn't realize that you simply didn't have any sense of that whole
concept. In a nutshell, what that means is that all language is
artificial. People invented it as the needs for greater communication
became important. More and more elaborate grammars and forms evolved
to suit changing conditions and the social and technological changes
that caused evolutionary changes in human functions and interactions.
As such, there's no good reason for a dog to be called "dog" except
that it's a *mutually-agreed-upon* construct. English speakers have
this informal pact to call them by that name.

The same thing applies to the structure and forms the language takes.
Different cultures put different premiums on different elements of
verbal and written expression. So Latin has many more cases and
declensions than English. Japanese has no distinction between singular
and plural. Swiss German has extremely denotative structure; Arabic is
extremely connotative. There are no sentences as we know them in
Chinese. These are all "rules" for the specific languages as formed by
the people who use them.

Rules for any language are what the users of that language do. There's
generally a dichotomy between scholarly or academic usage and
vernacular usage for form and style. Depending on the discrepancy,
speakers at extremes of those descriptions may not understand each
other. Someone with a Scottish burr and someone speaking Gullah, for
example.

So there are most assuredly "rules" in all languages. But none of
these "rules" are absolute. They're variable and evolving depending on
circumstances, intent, audience, etc. So putting the sentence into
the order of "subject-verb-object" (SVO to linguists) is the basic
rule for the way that English sentences are formed. Not always correct
is this form. And there's an example of a "broken" rule. But everyone
reading it understands what it says. "Rules" of form are like that.

In the US, quotation marks usually go after terminal punctuation
except when they don't. In England, the "rule" is different.
Ostensibly the same language. Fragments "break" the "rules" as well.
But they're useful and generally acceptable.

The crux of my note (and others before
it) is that there is no absolute in language formulation. Nothing is
always correct. Nothing is mandatory. There are generally accepted
forms that provide the necessary minimum for understanding. Every
language group has them and every one is different than every other
one in that respect. There are guidelines for every language based on
how the people who use that language mutually agree works for them.

Therefore, you cannot correct other people's grammar, punctuation and
spelling. Because none of it is correct, according to you.

I've just decided that you're either too stupid to grasp what's
essentially a simple idea or you're deliberately baiting. In either
case, it's a pointless exercise for me and now I tire of your strident
and proud obtuseness.

And for every guideline, there are violations that don't hamper
understanding. Yoda is still comprehensible. People speaking broken
English with word order all screwed up can still be understood. Poets
routinely break the rules. The rules are all postulated for
somebody's convenience. There is no governing body that determines
the perfect usage and, in spite of efforts to do exactly that, it's a
doomed exercise. The French have demonstrated that better than any
description. The speakers and writers of the language determine
rectitude and "correct" usage. Differences include style, dialect,
custom, venue, intent and a lot of other criteria outside of anyone's
control. Editors say what they want. No more.

Stop criticizing
others on this group in the "grammar, etc." thread because, as you
state, there are no rules.

Bite this rule, Mathilda. There are no *absolute* rules. I have never
said there are no rules.

Um, you just did. Just because you used an adjective behind it does not mean
you did not say "there are no rules."

Really, do take a remedial English course. Just to try to prevent your
writing sentences as stupid as this one. I most assuredly didn't say
there are no rules. There are many rules. Just none that are absolute
in language usage and form.

What is a rule if it is not absolute? Just there for the hell of it? Meant
to be broken?

It's nearly impossible that you're this plain-out stupid.

If you want to debate it, let's. If you want to barefacedly lie and
distort what has actually been said about it like that I state that
there are no rules, **** you. Any questions?

I have lied about nothing.

You have and the proof is in this crippled sentence of yours: Stop
criticizing others on this group in the "grammar, etc." thread
because, as you state, there are no rules..

I have never stated that there are no rules. Period. Your asserting
that I did is a clear, unabashed, unvarnished, demonstrable and deeply
stupid lie. Period.

The fact is that I've illustrated, explained, defined and clarified
the nature of language, its rules and forms. You clearly don't have
enough education to understand and probably not enough IQ.

I'm not the one being vulgar and saying there are
no rules out of one side of my mouth and then correcting people's grammar
and punctuation out of the other.

Schitzo much?

**** you, Mathilda. You aren't just a relatively incompetent liar,
you're also a rather sad case of a combatant ill-equipped for your own
belligerent game.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Ite, missa est.

Pastorio

Mathilda Jane wrote:

Dawn Taylor wrote in message

What movies were you watching that had court reporters using anything
other than stenotype machines? Just curious.


Maybe it was a stenotype machine. If I knew what that was, I would be able
to tell the difference between that and a typewriter.

How proud you must be of your untainted mind. Not cluttered with facts
and not used for research.

Tabula rasa at your age...

Pastorio

Mathilda Jane wrote:

Bob Pastorio wrote in message

No, they didn't. They use a very different device with an extremely
abbreviated keyboard designed specifically to allow the court reporter
to take down exactly what anyone says. That machine requires that more
than one key is depressed at a time. Almost impossible to transcribe
speech in real time with a conventional keyboard. Much like the
relationship between conventional script and Gregg (or any other)
Shorthand.


Thanks for taking the time to explain the wonderful world of court reporting
to me.

Didn't do any good, did it?

It's this sort of assuming that leads you so far astray. "I assume it
so it must be true."

If I had ever seen one of these devices up close and personal, perhaps I
would be able to tell the difference between that and a typewriter?

I've never seen one up close and personal, either. But I do read
things. And I do watch courtroom dramas and pay attention to what's
going on. Never seen a scene in a movie or tv program where the judge
asked the reporter to read back what was said? Long narrow strip of
paper feeding through a small machine...? Missed it?

It's all a matter of a sort of cultural illiteracy that's a result of
not paying much attention to the world around you. Pity.

My apologies for not hanging out in
courtrooms with lawyers and criminals.

Are you always this snide and self-excusing?

I'm just being honest.

That's simply bull****. You're being a perfect bitch trying to snide
your way to one of those valueless usenet victories.

Pretending to know everything is silly, as there is
nobody in the universe who knows everything.

What a profoundly stupid thing to say. There's a vast, vast difference
between pretending to know everything and punching "court reporter
machine" into Google. The first entry on the page
http://tinyurl.com/s5lq describes it.

I freely admit that I do not
know anywhere close to everything,

Well, I for one am shocked. Based on your knowledge of every newspaper
and magazine in the universe, I thought you did. You certainly seemed
to be claiming it.

and court reporting is one area where I
do not possess great knowledge.

Actually, you posses *no* knowledge of it. And you're too
intellectually lazy to do even a quick google search.

The difference between me and others here is that I have enough self-esteem
to know that it is OK to not know everything, and that I don't have to
pretend to be a know-it -all to try and impress others. I post for my own
enjoyment, not to try and show a bunch of strangers on the internet how
witty, smart or intellectual I am.

That's good. You've certainly achieved your goal. No one has been
shown how witty, smart or intellectual you are. Or maybe they have
been shown. Sorry about that.

Pastorio

Then stop judging me on content from nearly 10 years ago.

I post the link because 1 I can and 2 its easy and 3 its effective and most
importantly its habit. I do not even sig it. I type it.

One day I will update it. If a webpage was done by hand their would be few
errors in it.

Alas most of my site was done with notepad before their was a Front Page or
other wysiwyg editors existed so all my typing errors (FAR worse then than
now) are blantantly prominent. I had a Gopher page before the WWW became the
default.

So your saying your website (if you have one) is perfect ehh ?

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/


In fact I do not think their is anything else on that site that I have
TOUCHED since ?? 1997 or 1998 ??

it shows.

I have autonomy in what those actions are. your decision dictate which path
I take.

I can not give it up. too many have made it personal. they have turned it
into a flaming bully fight.

I have ego and principles to stand up for and more importantly getting the
point across that I do not tolerate trolling/bullying. TO do that I have to
make sure they know that messing with me will result in a very long drawn
out fight.

this will usually (100% sucess rate so far) result in them not bothering to
bully/troll me in the future.

even here this "flame" fest FOLLOWED me from thread to thread. when that
occurs I have no choice I must defend myself.

Peaceful ending is easy. leave me alone (flaming/bullying/trolling) and all
will be peaceful.

but I will not submit first. that implies a victor for the trolls and
invites future "attacks"

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

"Duffy Pratt" wrote in message
news

"Chris Taylor Jr" wrote in message
...

those are the only 2 options. the 2nd of which is simply not an option
since
I desire to exist here peacefully.

So the choice is your. YOU dictate my actions. you are in COMPLETE
control
of my actions.

There are two other options, Chris. You could make peace. It's really
not
that hard. And then you would be able to exist here peacefully. Or you
could just give up these threads and pretend they never happenned. Not
every fight has to be won. Sometimes the braver course is to make amends,
or simply to let go. And that does not mean you have to leave.

Personally, I would never allow someone else to have complete control over
my actions. I put too much faith in my own autonomy. If you don't have
any
trouble with other people leading you around by the nose, I guess that's
not
my problem. But I don't understand the impulse.

Duffy