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"Walker, Arlen P" wrote:
<...Justice Potter Stewart once wrote, "I can't give you a working legal
>definition of pornography, but I know it when I see it!" That's the way it
>is with a lot of good tech writing...
I know what you mean but I wish you wouldn't keep on being rational - a
recent experience has taught me the value of Certification. It showed me the
three stages of seeing the light: unknowingness, awareness, and acceptance.
Once I was "Redux"-illiterate, I can admit it now. I thought I knew what the
word meant - I thought I could figure it out from context - but I didn't
really know for sure. I remember wondering why people would use such an odd
word when many people would not know what it meant and there were perfectly
good words in common usage that could do the job. I was unknowing.
Then several people told me what the word meant - they had looked it up -
and I was invited to apply for certification. I pondered my position and
began to see that having a certificate to use a word nobody knew could give
me the edge over my competition. It would create a gap beteen me and the
others. I could see the value of my elevation. I was aware.
So now, having sent Eric Haddock $75 (in monoploy money of course) for my
certificate, I can look forward to the day when I will be duly authorized to
use the word in public without quotation marks. I will have joined an
exclusive club. I will be accepted.
Bill, please cease and desist: see what this thread has done to me?
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