> But if I'M exasperated by posts with remorselessly lower case > sentences & the practice strikes me as an affectation employed > only by unoriginal & self-congratulatory writers how do I express > this exasperation without being 'personal' about those who *do* > employ it? Anti-semitism bad, sloppy writing all right, right? gee scottie, i really wonder if you might need to talk to someone about your obsession with the inappropriateness of lower case letters at the beginning of sentences and proper nouns. you don't like it. we know that. consider your exasperation expressed. you've made it abundantly clear, expressing your feelings at every possible moment, whether it relates to the conversation or not. it seems as if you can't post without dropping little hints about it. what would freud say about this? if you don't like my posts, don't read them. filter them out, and you won't even have to know of their existence. i don't have a problem with the way i type informal mail. if there are others on the list who also neglet their capitals, i am not aware of them. i am not a writer, and have never claimed to be. the writing i do is largely confined to grocery lists and phone numbers on scraps of paper, email to friends, and posts on this list. > Anyway, why all this demand for kindness? It's frightfully bad > for one. The soul strengthens & flourishes in a chill climate. > I'm sure my own cheerful equanimity is largely thanks to all > the unkind treatment I've received over the years - not least > on this list. I'm endlessly grateful. thank you for your concern for my soul. i greatly appreciate the consideration and i will be forever in your debt, except that if God is anything like you, i will be damned to hell for my typing despite your efforts. as for people's demands for kindness, if nothing else it might make you feel a little better. but i see no reason to argue with you about the benefits of it. as a matter of fact, i haven't argued about it. after my first message or two to you, i dropped it. i have continued to respond to posts from you that i felt i had something to say about. otherwise i leave you alone. > Do we really want the primary consideration > of the list to be a pernickety care for the sensibilities of > the most delicate, the most touchy, the most 'correct'? > (Because I suspect you were really smarting from my mockery > of your finding 'Star Wars' racist.) on the contrary, i think the coddling on this list is not to those who might be sensitive or touchy. i think you,scottie, are being coddled. how does it feel? no one is now asking you to take your greivances with me off-line. in fact it seems most people feel that it is completely acceptable for you to berate the capitalizationally challenged 8) publicly, while those who might suggest to you a different tone (perfectly fair turnabout, given your tendency to offer your suggestions to others) are put on the defensive. you are the one who cannot take criticism, assuming colin would find fault with your behavior only because he was lashing out after having his feelings hurt in stead of having a legitimate complaint. whatever. if this is the kind of list we have so be it. i can't make scottie be nice. he can't make me capitalize. i beleive we have reached an impass. elizabeth