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Subject:Re: end user vs end-user From:"Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 23 Oct 2003 10:48:24 -0700
"Dick Margulis" <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net> wrote in message news:217344 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
> Chuck Martin wrote:
>
> >"Dick Margulis" <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net> wrote in message news:217306 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
> ><snip>
> >
> >>I used to work in a deli. We had a guy who stretched his food budget by
> >>coming in every week and asking us for ends. He was an end user. But we
> >>didn't need to write a manual--or a cookbook--for him. He knew exactly
> >>what he was doing.
> >Wouldn't he then be an end eater?
> >
> Not at all. He _used_ them in preparing meals for his family. He dealt
> with them as ingredients of more complicated dishes. He was down on his
> luck, not incompetent or lazy.
>
OK, my tongue was sorta in cheek for the response, but I gotta ask:
How did he _use_ them? Did he not have spoons and ladles so he needed the
ends to stir the meals in the pot? Or maybe he had no hot pads so he needed
something to protect the serving dishes when they were placed on the table.
How anyone could imply from that sentence that the person was "incompetent
or lazy" is beyond me. I'm just imagining someone reading that sentance and
the picture in their mind is of a homeless type in rags buying ends and as
soon as he walks out the door, rips open the package and wolfs the meat
down. That's not the picture that came to *my* mind.
In addition, not only down-on-their-luck people shop for bargains. I
woulnd't make that assumption based on where people shop or what they buy.
(That said, you may have known him and his circumstances, but still....)
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