An end to capital punishment

Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Mon, 26 Jan 1998 08:18:56 -0600 

> --- You wrote:
> piscussing
> --- end of quote ---
>
> was this an intentional pun or just a typo?
>
> either way, it's a pretty damn accurate way to describe the goings-on on this
> list of late...

As I said in a recent post (after a mini-sabbatical) I have been wading
through the backlog of messages, unsubscribing the people who misdirect
their requests, removing (with regret) the people whose accounts seem to
have vanished, and doing some general housecleaning.

And also reading the private messages from people who have complained about
the general nosedive (their sentiments, not entirely all mine) things have
lately taken on this list.

>From what I can tell, the traffic here has focused on a number of topics
that go from how people cannot punctuate, how they cannot spell, how they
cannot capitalize, how they cannot get to Cornish, and other miscellany.
Yes, we go in cycles, but this is not a particularly helpful cycle.

I propose calling a truce.

If you all want to have little sniping wars, please do it privately; it's
embarrassing to many of us to see it in action.  If you want to nitpick,
please do that in private too.  On the other hand, if you'd like to talk
about something new you've found in a Salinger story, or you'd like to talk
about how some current writer does or doesn't measure up to Salinger, that
would be a wonderful contribution.  If (as some people have done lately)
you've only recently been introduced to Salinger's work, and you want to
talk about that, go right ahead.  This list has been many things at times,
but it has never been much of a boxing arena.  There are places for that,
and I myself would love to see the personal hostilities taken there.

There have been some good, enticing posts in the last couple of days, and
I'd like to focus on them.  I'm intrigued by the talk about how people
first encountered Salinger; we've been down that road before, collectively,
but it never loses interest as new people come along; I'm always interested
in hearing how someone encountered Salinger's work, and how they reacted.
I suspect a lot of our silent readers may be interested, too.

Cheers to all ... from Texas!  all the land, all the sky, oh my!

--tim o'connor