BACK TO JOE | 2006-07-18
Joe said,
"Not Spam. **A sponsor's first responsibility is to lead a pigeon through the 12 Steps. It is not the sponsor's responsibility to prevent the pigeon from falling down. If they fall and you blame yourself you are not fit to be a sponsor. That, by the way, is not an unusual occurrence. There's a lot of sponsors who don't know what their job is and it shows.
Yes, you're still going to use "silly" and "sophisticated" excessively because you are not one to accept correction.
That piece you just wrote, by the way, didn't make a damn bit of sense to me. I mean the whole piece. I'm not talking about the stupid nonsense about me being a neoconservative. That's taken as a joke. That's all it could be. Mderpelding wasn't giving you a compliment, Bob. He was slapping your face as I read it. When somebody says, "who made you God?" that's not a compliment. That's a challenge. No, don't send me any money. The lesson is free.
Comment by joe rorke
** I damn near marked this as Spam, and NOT on purpose. See comment below, "Random Comments."
MY REPLY:
I also said in recent piece that I was acting like a Jew. When I think you are acting like a neo or a Buckley I say so. I say so precisely because that is not how you want to act. If I thought you WERE a neo or a George Will this would not be corection, but a compliment. I do not see you taking it as a compliment.
The day I urge I urge you to take neos seriously is the day you can blow a gasket. Don't hold your breath inthe meantime.
I read over your comments again and you want me to use better words. "Silly" is, as you say, girl's word. It is the sort of word one would use to describe girlish behavior. Two commenters gave examples of social science teachers who had hysterics in their classrooms.
You are fully aware of the derivation of hte word "hysterical." It is a feminine term, as in historectomy."
I said that attitude is everything. What is the exact attitude that professors adopt against us? It is either hysterics or giggling. You have run into it plenty, and I defy you to say there is anything masculine about:
"But, dear boy, that is so GAUCHE! Isn't, Chauncey, isn't it Bertram?" Bertram and Chauncey join in the giggling. "My dear boy, no one wears that opinion any more! Don't you read the Fashion Journals? They would laugh you to death at the Sorbonne!"
Joe, you said in your comments you had substitutes for my words, but you woldn't tell me what they were. I have not played "I know but you don't!" since about the third grad, and I am not about to start now. If you have suggestions, make them like an adult. I have accepted many, many corrections here and I have apologized here, but I will not respect grammar school games.
Until you have the basic respect to state an alternative, I will not use a masculine adjective to describe hysteria and fashionable giggling.