on mr. greenspun's lusenet? they include sites devoted to: "raising rabbits for meat," "marin urology" (check out the first thread there -- yipes!!), "heath ledger [who's he??] fan site," and a hedgehog site. puts our own fanatial interest in perspective. by the way, there are several other camera site apart from this one and the well-know LF and MF sites.

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), May 20, 2002

Answers

Roger,

There is also one devoted to punctuation and capitalizing. I forgot the address, though.

-- Olivier (olreiche@videotron.ca), May 20, 2002.

Olivier,

In all seriousness, do you know if there is such a site? I always completely skip over contributions (like Roger's) in these forums that ignore capitalization, but I always feel I should provide those contributors with a link rather than directly criticizing them. Much obliged, if so.

. . . . . .

-- Terry (tcdvorak@aol.com), May 20, 2002.

Terry, sorry, it was just a little joke. I don't know of such a site, but I have to admit being a little aggravated by a lack of basic punctuation and capitalization. Roger is not alone. It's spreads out like a disease. I don't know if it's laziness or ignorance (I doubt it) but, hey guys, do you have any idea how difficult it is to read a post that does not follow these basic rules? ;-)

-- Olivier (olreiche@videotron.ca), May 20, 2002.

just helping you keep your grey matter in trim. and while i do eschew capitals (a very modern innovation i can, as an anglo- saxonist, assure you), my punctuation is generally sound. i do tend to type these messages at about the limit of my typing ability, and don't proofread all that vigorously. we're not writing for the ages. as for a site to which to direct miscreants like me, the MLA has quite a good one.

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), May 20, 2002.

Olivier, we should be thankful that we aren't reading Roger's stuff in German! ;<)

-- Andrew (mazurka@rocketmail.com), May 20, 2002.

are you kidding -- you can get away with much more with inflected languages. heck, then i wouldn't even have to about word order worry!

-- roger michel (michel@techfoundation.org), May 20, 2002.

Of course, roger, (you do prefer you name written that way, right?) you must like German even more than I think since it allows you to save even more typing with all those omitted spaces!

-- Andrew (mazurka@rocketmail.com), May 20, 2002.

Imagine roger writing in German without any capitization, diacritical marks or word order....the guy surely likes a smallest possible audience. ;-)

-- Andrew (mazurka@rocketmail.com), May 20, 2002.

have to keep the lads up in hermeneutics busy you know!!

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), May 20, 2002.

to briefly detour on-topic on the off-topic thread, i strongly encourage the bored to click on "lusenet" above, scroll down to the "active forums" area, and click onto "ask a drunk." the level of comic ability is prodigious and puts our own phill to shame. i must admit that some of the exchanges sail above my head, and so i apologize in adavance if the material is subversive/lewd/addictive. i just wasn't sure what to make of it.

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), May 20, 2002.

Okay, guys, roger doesn't seem to be on his way to amendment, so I gues we'll just have to leave him at his «modern innovations» and just pass his posts. Too bad, though, he has quite a bright mind, but, as McLuhan once said, «the medium is the message.» Message received, roger :-)

-- Olivier (olreiche@videotron.ca), May 20, 2002.

Here's an amusing angus_macniven@hotmail.com), May 20, 2002.

Wow, can anyone else do that?! ;o)

What I was trying to say is that there's an amusing style guide at the Economist web site:

http://www.economist.com/library/StyleGuide/index.cfm

Cheers, Angus

-- Angus Macniven (angus_macniven@hotmail.com), May 20, 2002.

someone back up there somewhere asked about punctuation websites. since it started off-topic we might as well take it as far as possible. who knows, it might mutate back to photography or something....

http://www.sharoncolon.com/

Sharon Colon's Apostrophe Page. Dedicated to the documenting the abuse of the apostrophe in the English language. Apostrophe catastrophe's.... (yeah, i did it on purpose. why no caps? cuz i get lazy. :)

-- Carey Russ (careyruss@earthlink.net), May 20, 2002.

in my favor, i must say that i am very stingy with my apostrophes (- phae??). m6s are always m6s, never m6's. the latter really vexes me so i can at least empathize with the frustration over my lack of capitals.

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), May 20, 2002.

Angus, much of the Economist Style Guide seems to be based on an outdated dictionary. Quite disappointing for this well-respected journal. They even sell a hard-copy version. What a shame.

-- Andrew (mazurka@rocketmail.com), May 21, 2002.