secrets, handshakes, ducks, and poetry (96)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Thu, 2 Mar 89 20:08:39 EST


Humanist Mailing List, Vol. 2, No. 668. Thursday, 2 Mar 1989.


(1) Date: Wed, 01 Mar 89 23:40 PST (6 lines)
From: Robert Kirsner (213)825-3955 <IDT1RSK@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: secret society of Humanists (47)

(2) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 89 08:19:32 GMT (27 lines)
From: Sebastian Rahtz <spqr@CM.SOTON.AC.UK>
Subject: bards and mallards

(3) Date: Thu, 02 Mar 89 09:57:00 -0800 (24 lines)
From: mbb@jessica.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Why stop with a secret handshake? (sigh)

(4) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 89 09:06:00 EST (9 lines)
From: N.J.Morgan@vme.glasgow.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Author? author? (89)

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 01 Mar 89 23:40 PST
From: Robert Kirsner (213)825-3955 <IDT1RSK@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: secret society of Humanists (47)

How about a Society of HumanOIDS??? There are plenty here, especially
in the Administration.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------32----
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 89 08:19:32 GMT
From: Sebastian Rahtz <spqr@CM.SOTON.AC.UK>
Subject: bards and mallards

Are OUP living in the real world? Am I alone in thinking that #150 for
20 floppy discs with text marked up in OCP is not exactly the most exciting
idea in the world, or the cheapest? If they sold it for half the
price (ie at the price of a Borland program), or packaged it with
something like Wordcruncher, it might be more attractive. Do they
seriously think it will harm the sales of the paper version? do YOU
read the bard on a manky computer screen - no of course not, you want
a real book. Why should the electronic version cost more? But I don't
suppose OUP will answer because, unlike real software firms, they
haven't heard of electronic mail.

Its a sad blow about the All Souls mallard, though an excellent
anecdote. But I am quite attached to the duck in general, though I am
assured that mallards are not nice creatures at all. Perhaps a duckophile
could suggest a webbed friend with a more equable temperament, as
befits the august HUMANIST.

I'd suggest that humanisttes (may I murder the language?) might prefer
a bow tie version? a tattoo? but no T-shirts, please. My favourite
reconginition code comes from Lou Burnard - 'Who had 20 pounds of
headlines stapled to his chest?'

sebastian rahtz
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Thu, 02 Mar 89 09:57:00 -0800
From: mbb@jessica.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Why stop with a secret handshake? (sigh)


I think Abigail's suggestion about a secret handshake
is only the beginning. We must have a handshake, as
well as secret rituals of greeting, so as to make sure
we can recognize each other. We must also have a code
of beliefs, shared by everyone, and in order to maintain
coherence as a group, demand strict adherence to the
code of Humanist!! This way we can protect ourselves
against "those others" who don't think like us. We could
even arrange for the removal of those who write things we
don't like and firebomb stores that sold such writings
...and that would just be the beginning...

Naw, we could never pull it off. Such things never happen
in the REAL world in which people behave rationally.

<sigh!... the real world is all too real...>

malcolm brown
stanford
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 89 09:06:00 EST
From: N.J.Morgan@vme.glasgow.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Author? author? (89)

Basketball good, poetry bad.

So I go for the mallard as author.

Nicholas Morgan