Brick wall
Robin Bignall
"mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
Curious, no?
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England
Maria
> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
> Curious, no?
MENDING WALL
Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
------
--
Maria
Donna Richoux
> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
> Curious, no?
I suppose it's curious if you think the job of the fence is to prevent
the *people* from crossing the property lines. Try thinking of livestock
instead.
You've heard of Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," right?
--
Best - Donna Richoux
Evan Kirshenbaum
Part of the point of which is that for people who can "go behind
[their] father's saying", some walls are completely unnecessary:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/frost-mending.html
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The plural of "anecdote"
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |is not "data"
Palo Alto, CA 94304
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com
(650)857-7572
Peter Moylan
> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
> Curious, no?
Building or repairing a fence is often the joint responsibility of both
neighbours. Even when the local law says that one party must bear the
whole cost - because of a rule saying that everyone is responsible for
their east and south fence, or something like that - there still needs
to be some sort of agreement on the nature of the fence. If the
neighbours won't talk to each other, the fence will be left to deteriorate.
--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain
eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer
receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet
address could disappear at any time.
jinhyun
A hedge between keeps friendship green.
LFS
> Robin Bignall wrote:
>
>> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>> Curious, no?
>
>
> MENDING WALL
> Robert Frost
>
<snip>
I'm sure many readers will have immediately thought of that poem. But
that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a form that
makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds this deeply
irritating?
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email)
LFS
> Robin Bignall wrote:
>
>> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>> Curious, no?
>
>
> Building or repairing a fence is often the joint responsibility of both
> neighbours. Even when the local law says that one party must bear the
> whole cost - because of a rule saying that everyone is responsible for
> their east and south fence, or something like that - there still needs
> to be some sort of agreement on the nature of the fence. If the
> neighbours won't talk to each other, the fence will be left to deteriorate.
>
Our fences are marked on the house deeds so responsibility is clear.
We've just replaced the back fence but didn't consult the people on the
other side, other than to warn them to remove things they had attached
to their side. Similarly, our neighbours have just replaced our joint
fence without consulting us, other than to warn us that their fence man
would need access to our garden.
Stuart Chapman
Thanks for that.
I'd forgotten that I'd 'studied' that poem in high school.
It's funny how you enjoy things so much more later on.
Stupot
the Omrud
I suspect that it would, but it doesn't look like prose to me in
Gravity - it's short lines of poetry. However, looking down at
Stuart's quoting of it in the post below, I see that it has run
together into a paragraph; presumably you are seeing it as he is.
--
David
=====
the Omrud
> Robin Bignall wrote:
>
> > While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
> > "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
> > someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
> > literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
> > Curious, no?
>
> MENDING WALL
> Robert Frost
>
> Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
> That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
> And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
> And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
...
For the record - this is how my newsreader shows the poem, which is
presumably how Maria posted it.
--
David
=====
Peter Moylan
> Maria wrote:
> <snip>
>
> I'm sure many readers will have immediately thought of that poem. But
> that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a form
> that makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds this
> deeply irritating?
Maria is posting with software that specifies "format=flowed" (or, as
many people prefer to put it, "format=flawed"), and you and I are
unlucky enough to be using a newsreader that respects that
specification. Anyone whose newsreader is smart enough to ignore the
"format=flowed" will see the poem laid out as Maria typed it. The rest
of us will see the line breaks deleted.
To my chagrin, I find that Thunderbird also generates that ill-conceived
"format=flawed" layout. If anyone can tell me how to disable that, I
will be most grateful. It's one of those ideas that must have seemed
like a good idea at the time, but which in hindsight has turned out to
be a disaster. It's just our bad luck that some software designers have
a bit of lemming in them.
John Dean
It looks A-OK to me. Maybe it's a newsreader thang? You and Stuart seem to
see it as prose and are both using Thunderbird. I see Maria's original as
poetry and she and I are both using OE. David sees it as poetry and he's
using Gravity.
How say Ye, members of the e-jury?
--
John Dean
Oxford
John Dean
> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
> Curious, no?
To stop your livestock getting out and annoying your neighbours.
--
John Dean
Oxford
Wood Avens
<john...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>LFS wrote:
>> I'm sure many readers will have immediately thought of that poem. But
>> that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a form
>> that makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds this
>> deeply irritating?
>
>It looks A-OK to me. Maybe it's a newsreader thang? You and Stuart seem to
>see it as prose and are both using Thunderbird. I see Maria's original as
>poetry and she and I are both using OE. David sees it as poetry and he's
>using Gravity.
>How say Ye, members of the e-jury?
It came out as poetry on Agent.
--
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @
Nick Spalding
on Wed, 7 Mar 2007 14:49:24 -0000:
I see it as poetry using Agent.
--
Nick Spalding
R H Draney
>
>It looks A-OK to me. Maybe it's a newsreader thang? You and Stuart seem to
>see it as prose and are both using Thunderbird. I see Maria's original as
>poetry and she and I are both using OE. David sees it as poetry and he's
>using Gravity.
>How say Ye, members of the e-jury?
Poetry through Newsguy's DRN (Direct Read News) interface....r
--
"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!"
"You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!"
Archie Valparaiso
<john...@fraglineone.net> wrought:
Save on fence-repair costs: lear and heft your livestock!
--
Archie Valparaiso
Former Manchester United winger and European Cup winner
John Aston now runs a pet shop in Stalybridge.
Mike Lyle
"John Dean" <john...@fraglineone.net> wrote in message
news:5581ujF...@mid.individual.net...
Which is important: nothing provokes rural neighbours more than straying
stock, so prompt repairs to boundaries are taken as a sign of good
character. And if it can be done as a joint task, each on his own side,
and one party isn't a poet, it provides the opportunity for
conversation.
--
Mike.
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
John Kane
It is not curious if you're a farmer. A neighbour's broken fence may
mean that you have his cattle, horses, sheep or whatever on your
property. A hundred head of cattle in the wheat field just before
harvest is not amusing. In fact, speaking from experience, just
having two or three of the neighbour's horses stomping around in the
garden outside the bedroom window at 5:00 AM is not all that much
fun.
A persistant failure to mend fences can easily lead to strife between
neighbours. "Good fences make good neighbours" conveys something of
the same meaning.
John Kane
> Robin Bignall wrote:
> > While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
> > "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
> > someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
> > literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
> > Curious, no?
>
> Building or repairing a fence is often the joint responsibility of both
> neighbours. Even when the local law says that one party must bear the
> whole cost - because of a rule saying that everyone is responsible for
> their east and south fence, or something like that - there still needs
> to be some sort of agreement on the nature of the fence. If the
> neighbours won't talk to each other, the fence will be left to deteriorate.
We actually have people called fence viewers to help deal with such
problems. It is a position of some responsibility in a rural area
where a line (boundary) fence may run for miles. See
http://www.pecounty.on.ca/fence.html for an example.
Sara Lorimer
> John Dean filted:
> >
> >It looks A-OK to me. Maybe it's a newsreader thang? You and Stuart seem to
> >see it as prose and are both using Thunderbird. I see Maria's original as
> >poetry and she and I are both using OE. David sees it as poetry and he's
> >using Gravity.
> >How say Ye, members of the e-jury?
>
> Poetry through Newsguy's DRN (Direct Read News) interface....r
Poetry, MacSOUP.
--
SML
Skitt
> Robin Bignall wrote:
>> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>> Curious, no?
>
> Building or repairing a fence is often the joint responsibility of
> both neighbours. Even when the local law says that one party must
> bear the whole cost - because of a rule saying that everyone is
> responsible for their east and south fence, or something like that -
> there still needs to be some sort of agreement on the nature of the fence.
> If the
> neighbours won't talk to each other, the fence will be left to
> deteriorate.
Speaking of which, one of our side fences will be replaced next week. Our
neighbor and we will go halvesies on it.
--
Skitt
Living in The Heart of the Bay
http://www.ci.hayward.ca.us/
Tony Cooper
wrote:
>Speaking of which, one of our side fences will be replaced next week. Our
>neighbor and we will go halvesies on it.
In Florida, you are required to build a fence with a minimum of one
foot of set-back from the property line. It has to be your fence or
his fence.
That doesn't mean that we don't share the expense of building or
repairing a fence, though.
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
the Omrud
> On Wed, 7 Mar 2007 10:51:50 -0800, "Skitt" <ski...@comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
> >Speaking of which, one of our side fences will be replaced next week. Our
> >neighbor and we will go halvesies on it.
>
> In Florida, you are required to build a fence with a minimum of one
> foot of set-back from the property line. It has to be your fence or
> his fence.
So who mows the two-foot gap between your fence and your neighbour's?
--
David
=====
Skitt
> "Skitt" wrote:
>> Speaking of which, one of our side fences will be replaced next
>> week. Our neighbor and we will go halvesies on it.
>
> In Florida, you are required to build a fence with a minimum of one
> foot of set-back from the property line. It has to be your fence or
> his fence.
>
> That doesn't mean that we don't share the expense of building or
> repairing a fence, though.
Yup, I remember that strange situation, and we actually had two fences on
one of the three fenced borders of our back yard. On our property there was
a low chain link fence, and my neighbor had a high wooden board fence on his
property. They were both there before we bought the place, but there was
practically no space between the two fences -- just enough for Bermuda grass
to grow there to unprecedented heights. I have no idea whose single fences
were those on the other two borders. The neighbor kept fixing our back
fence, so I guess it was his. I replaced a side-fence section that a
hurricane blew down with a ready-made section from Home Depot. Fifty bucks,
as I recall. I did it because we had a pool, and our neighbor on that side
didn't.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
http://www.geocities.com/opus731/
Evan Kirshenbaum
Prose with Gnus. I saw it as
Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the
frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the
sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is
another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they have
left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of
hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen
them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them
there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to
walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall
etc.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |If all else fails, embarrass the
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |industry into doing the right
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |thing.
| Dean Thompson
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com
(650)857-7572
Robert Bannister
I had another look, and it still reads like prose to me. I hear no
rhythm, metre or melody to it. Fine prose, but no poetry. Perhaps when
prose is set out like a poem, it automatically turns into one, but I'm
afraid for me that is like calling a piece of modern art a picture.
--
Rob Bannister
Robert Bannister
Netscape: prose.
--
Rob Bannister
Jeffrey Turner
> Robin Bignall <docr...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>
>>While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>>"mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>>someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>>literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>>Curious, no?
>
> the *people* from crossing the property lines. Try thinking of livestock
> instead.
>
> You've heard of Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," right?
Where he's being ironic in stating that "Good fences make good
neighbors"? You should find a better counter-example. Sorry, but one
of my peeves is all the people who have taken that line literally.
--Jeff
--
The most extravagant idea that can arise
in a politician's head is to believe that
it is enough for a people to invade a
foreign county to make it adopt their laws
and their constitution. No one loves armed
missionaries... --Robespierre
Evan Kirshenbaum
> Donna Richoux wrote:
>> I suppose it's curious if you think the job of the fence is to
>> prevent the *people* from crossing the property lines. Try thinking
>> of livestock instead. You've heard of Robert Frost's poem "Mending
>> Wall," right?
>
> Where he's being ironic in stating that "Good fences make good
> neighbors"?
He doesn't state it. His neighbor does, parroting his (the
neighbors') father. He thinks it's silly to have a fence unless
there's a reason to have a fence.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |It is one thing to be mistaken; it is
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |quite another to be willfully
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |ignorant
| Cecil Adams
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com
(650)857-7572
Jeffrey Turner
> On Wed, 7 Mar 2007 14:52:14 -0000, "John Dean"
> <john...@fraglineone.net> wrought:
>
>
>>Robin Bignall wrote:
>>
>>>While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>>>"mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>>>someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>>>literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>>>Curious, no?
>>
>>To stop your livestock getting out and annoying your neighbours.
>
>
> Save on fence-repair costs: lear and heft your livestock!
"Lear and heft" is a new phrase on me, could you explain it please?
Thanks.
Donna Richoux
> Donna Richoux wrote:
> > Robin Bignall <docr...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >>While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
> >>"mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
> >>someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
> >>literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
> >>Curious, no?
> >
> > I suppose it's curious if you think the job of the fence is to prevent
> > the *people* from crossing the property lines. Try thinking of livestock
> > instead.
> >
> > You've heard of Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," right?
>
> Where he's being ironic in stating that "Good fences make good
> neighbors"? You should find a better counter-example. Sorry, but one
> of my peeves is all the people who have taken that line literally.
Counter-example? Sorry, you appear to have leapt to some conclusions
about my interpretations of the poem. I just asked Robin whether he knew
about it, him being a Brit and me not trusting as to how well American
poets are known on that side.
I don't think the poem itself is about walls and neighborliness at all,
it's about magic, belief, creativity, and mischief. Want to dispute
that?
But the *proverb* quoted therein is about the benefits of mending
fences. Whether or not you (or Frost) believe it is good advice.
--
Best - Donna Richoux
An American living in the Netherlands
Default User
> la...@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk had it:
> > I'm sure many readers will have immediately thought of that poem.
> > But that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a
> > form that makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds
> > this deeply irritating?
>
> I suspect that it would, but it doesn't look like prose to me in
> Gravity - it's short lines of poetry. However, looking down at
> Stuart's quoting of it in the post below, I see that it has run
> together into a paragraph; presumably you are seeing it as he is.
It came across without line breaks for me too.
Brian
--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)
Maria
> Maria wrote:
>> Robin Bignall wrote:
>>
>>> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>>> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>>> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>>> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>>> Curious, no?
>>
>>
>> Robert Frost
>>
> <snip>
>
> that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a form
> that makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds this
> deeply irritating?
I don't know, but I'm upset to have irritated (or offended) anyone.
On my own screen, it looks like many lines of poetry. I copied and
pasted it from a poetry site, and that may have been the beginning of
the problem. Perhaps I should have retyped it, manually placing the line
breaks.
I'll do four lines that way to see it if makes a difference:
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
(Sorry if there are typos, but it won't make any difference in this
test.)
So: Do you see four separate lines or one paragraph?
If you see the excerpt as four lines, we'll know that typing is the
answer.
With long quotes, however, I'm not sure that's something I'd generally
have the time (or the inclination) to do. So URLs would be the answer
then, but sometimes that's impractical: items within a site may not
always be clickable on their own, but only as a page -- which one must
then search through.
I wonder if this same line-break thing happens in email...
--
Maria
LFS
> LFS wrote:
>
>> Maria wrote:
>>
>>> Robin Bignall wrote:
>>>
>>>> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>>>> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>>>> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>>>> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>>>> Curious, no?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> MENDING WALL
>>> Robert Frost
>>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> I'm sure many readers will have immediately thought of that poem. But
>> that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a form
>> that makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds this
>> deeply irritating?
>
>
> I don't know, but I'm upset to have irritated (or offended) anyone.
I'm only mildly irritated. I thought that any response would be from
those advising me to use a "proper" newsreader but it appears that
others have also seen it as prose.
>
> On my own screen, it looks like many lines of poetry. I copied and
> pasted it from a poetry site, and that may have been the beginning of
> the problem. Perhaps I should have retyped it, manually placing the line
> breaks.
>
> I'll do four lines that way to see it if makes a difference:
>
> Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
> That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
> And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
> And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
>
> (Sorry if there are typos, but it won't make any difference in this test.)
>
> So: Do you see four separate lines or one paragraph?
Four lines: it looks like it should.
>
> If you see the excerpt as four lines, we'll know that typing is the answer.
>
> With long quotes, however, I'm not sure that's something I'd generally
> have the time (or the inclination) to do. So URLs would be the answer
> then, but sometimes that's impractical: items within a site may not
> always be clickable on their own, but only as a page -- which one must
> then search through.
>
> I wonder if this same line-break thing happens in email...
>
With some messages I have to use "rewrap" before I can read them: is
that what you mean?
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email)
LFS
Can you really not hear the rhythm? Does it make a difference if you
read it set out properly? You can find it at
http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/frost-mending.html
I'm interested in knowing how what you see affects what you hear.
Peter Moylan
> LFS wrote:
>> I'm sure many readers will have immediately thought of that poem.
>> But that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a
>> form that makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds
>> this deeply irritating?
>
> I don't know, but I'm upset to have irritated (or offended) anyone.
I doubt that the irritation was directed towards you. The fault lies
with software that doesn't do things that reasonable people would expect
it to do.
> On my own screen, it looks like many lines of poetry. I copied and
> pasted it from a poetry site, and that may have been the beginning of
> the problem. Perhaps I should have retyped it, manually placing the
> line breaks. >
> I'll do four lines that way to see it if makes a difference:
>
> Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
> That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
> And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
> And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
Four separate lines, and I'm one of the people who saw the first poem
all squashed together. If the original was copied from a web site, it's
all a matter of how end-of-line is encoded, but that still leaves room
for several possible culprits: the original web site; the mechanism that
copies text to your clipboard; the software that copies text from your
clipboard to your editor; and so on. Figuring out exactly where the
problem appears would be more trouble than it's worth, so we just have
to live with the risk.
Something I sometimes do - because my newsreader has the same bad habit
of creating text with the "format=flawed" option - is to do a "rewrap"
operation before sending, and then going back and seeing which lines have
been messed up by the rewrap. Then I reinsert the line breaks manually.
Of course, that's tricky if it's a really long text.
(I was careful to exclude your four lines of poetry from this rewrap.)
--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain
eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer
receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses. The optusnet
address could disappear at any time.
Archie Valparaiso
<jtu...@localnet.com> wrought:
>Archie Valparaiso wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 7 Mar 2007 14:52:14 -0000, "John Dean"
>> <john...@fraglineone.net> wrought:
>>
>>
>>>Robin Bignall wrote:
>>>
>>>>While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>>>>"mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>>>>someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>>>>literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>>>>Curious, no?
>>>
>>>To stop your livestock getting out and annoying your neighbours.
>>
>>
>> Save on fence-repair costs: lear and heft your livestock!
>
>"Lear and heft" is a new phrase on me, could you explain it please?
>Thanks.
[Stolen] Dartmoor sheep could not be easily replaced as they
are "hefted" or "leared", meaning that, through breeding and
nurture, they possess a characteristic "homing instinct" to
their patch, making a certain part of the moor their home -- a
feature that allows farmers to keep them unfenced and to
easily locate them.
www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,,2016146,00.html
"Heft" and "lear" are surely unassailable in their current position as
AUE Verbs of the Year 2007.
the Omrud
> Counter-example? Sorry, you appear to have leapt to some conclusions
> about my interpretations of the poem. I just asked Robin whether he knew
> about it, him being a Brit and me not trusting as to how well American
> poets are known on that side.
In answer to that, I know the poem intimately, but only because it
Frost was on the syllabus for my O-level (age 16 public exams)
English. Along with Walter de la Mare (spit). I don't think I would
recognise it otherwise.
We also studied Great Expectations and Twelfth Night. You can tell
the age of us old Brits here by asking what book we studied for O-
level English (Shakespeare is less certain as there was a limited
number of plays used for this exam).
--
David
=====
John Holmes
"Peter Moylan" <pe...@ozebelgDieSpammers.org> wrote in message
news:45ee97cf$0$21144$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
>
> To my chagrin, I find that Thunderbird also generates that ill-conceived
> "format=flawed" layout. If anyone can tell me how to disable that, I
> will be most grateful.
Go to the advanced options tab, and the button called "config editor".
There are two parameters you can try tweaking:
mailnews.display.disable_format_flowed_support (set 'false' by default)
mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed (set 'true' by default)
Toggling the first fixes the display of Maria's original post. Toggling the
second should stop you sending similar.
There are all sorts of other goodies in there to play with, too.
Whether the program actually honours what you set might depend on the
capabilities of the version you are running. Some of the parameters that are
listed are in there for beta testing or future developments.
--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au
Nick Spalding
on Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:08:46 GMT:
School Certificate for me. I don't remember there being any set book
other than Macbeth in my year.
--
Nick Spalding
Wood Avens
wrote:
>Along with Walter de la Mare (spit).
If I had aspirations to be a published poet, I think I'd try to get it
set in legal stone somewhere than my poems were never to be studied in
schools, let alone to be set as examination material, never ever, in
perpetuity. Take any halfway-decent poet and force-feed some of their
simpler, catchier verse to kids, and their name becomes embellished
with "(spit)". Tragic.
--
Katy Jennison
spamtrap: remove the first two letters after the @
the Omrud
> On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:08:46 GMT, the Omrud <usenet...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Along with Walter de la Mare (spit).
>
> If I had aspirations to be a published poet, I think I'd try to get it
> set in legal stone somewhere than my poems were never to be studied in
> schools, let alone to be set as examination material, never ever, in
> perpetuity. Take any halfway-decent poet and force-feed some of their
> simpler, catchier verse to kids, and their name becomes embellished
> with "(spit)". Tragic.
Ah, but I fell for Frost at the age of 16, but only because I spent
some time studying his poetry. I hated de la Mare's poetry, but not
because I was required to study it.
--
David
=====
Wood Avens
wrote:
>wood...@askjennison.com had it:
>
>> On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 09:08:46 GMT, the Omrud <usenet...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >Along with Walter de la Mare (spit).
>>
>> If I had aspirations to be a published poet, I think I'd try to get it
>> set in legal stone somewhere than my poems were never to be studied in
>> schools, let alone to be set as examination material, never ever, in
>> perpetuity. Take any halfway-decent poet and force-feed some of their
>> simpler, catchier verse to kids, and their name becomes embellished
>> with "(spit)". Tragic.
>
>Ah, but I fell for Frost at the age of 16, but only because I spent
>some time studying his poetry. I hated de la Mare's poetry, but not
>because I was required to study it.
Oh, all right then.
I don't remember doing any de la Mare at school, though I think we
must have done. I knew his stuff because we had various volumes of
his at home. (And because my mother had the curious idea that I
shouldn't be allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the
books in the house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
She meant to keep me away from Enid Blyton and suchlike, but the main
result was that various obscure ninetenth- and early twentieth-century
authors had an interesting effect on my vocabulary.)
Archie Valparaiso
Oleg Lego
>tr...@euronet.nl had it:
>
>> Counter-example? Sorry, you appear to have leapt to some conclusions
>> about my interpretations of the poem. I just asked Robin whether he knew
>> about it, him being a Brit and me not trusting as to how well American
>> poets are known on that side.
>
>In answer to that, I know the poem intimately, but only because it
>Frost was on the syllabus for my O-level (age 16 public exams)
>English. Along with Walter de la Mare (spit). I don't think I would
>recognise it otherwise.
In junior high school, we had a publication that appeared once per
year, showcasing the best prose/poetry written by students. It was
called _The Pegasus_ and I was asked to submit one of parodies I had
written as a class assignment. The following is from memory...
Susan
When Susan's work was done, she'd sit
With the television lit,
And volume opened wide to win
The wild west sounds to enter in.
There's more, but I don't remember it offhand.
I wrote it because I hated the poem, and was a tad miffed when the
editors added, under the title, "With apologies to Walter de la Mare".
At the time, I thought old Wally should have apologized to his captive
school audience.
The transistor is a curiosity, and will never amount to much.
- Mr. Stringer, Basic Electronic Instructor, RCAF, 1962.
Oleg Lego
Drat! I forgot the .signature characters preceding the last two lines.
Peter Moylan
> "Peter Moylan" <pe...@ozebelgDieSpammers.org> wrote in message
> news:45ee97cf$0$21144$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
>> To my chagrin, I find that Thunderbird also generates that
>> ill-conceived "format=flawed" layout. If anyone can tell me how to
>> disable that, I will be most grateful.
>
> Go to the advanced options tab, and the button called "config
> editor". There are two parameters you can try tweaking:
> mailnews.display.disable_format_flowed_support (set 'false' by
> default) mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed (set 'true' by default)
Thanks. Unfortunately I don't have that button. I've just realised that
I'm still running version 1.5, and never did get around to updating
Thunderbird when I updated Firefox. I'd better do it soon.
Peter Moylan
> [...] And because my mother had the curious idea that I shouldn't be
> allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the books in the
> house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
Perhaps you should ... no, forget it, a spelling chucker wouldn't have
picked up that one.
Wood Avens
<pe...@ozebelgDieSpammers.org> wrote:
>Wood Avens wrote:
>
>> [...] And because my mother had the curious idea that I shouldn't be
>> allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the books in the
>> house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
>
>Perhaps you should ... no, forget it, a spelling chucker wouldn't have
>picked up that one.
Oops! I wish we were allowed smileys. Or smieys.
Maria
> Maria wrote:
>> LFS wrote:
>>> Maria wrote:
>>>>
>>>> MENDING WALL
>>>> Robert Frost
>>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>> I'm sure many readers will have immediately thought of that poem.
>>> But that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a
>>> form that makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds
>>> this deeply irritating?
>>
>> I don't know, but I'm upset to have irritated (or offended) anyone.
>
> I'm only mildly irritated. I thought that any response would be from
> those advising me to use a "proper" newsreader but it appears that
> others have also seen it as prose.
I found that interesting, too. I never suspected....
[big snip]
>> I wonder if this same line-break thing happens in email...
>
> With some messages I have to use "rewrap" before I can read them: is
> that what you mean?
I guess so. I'm unfamiliar with the "rewrap" option, but I see some
emails that seem improperly formatted. So now I wonder if my own emails
looks poorly done to some recipients.
This is one case where standardization would be acceptable to me. (I
usually fight too much standardization. There's just something Not Right
about it.)
--
Maria
Default User
> On my own screen, it looks like many lines of poetry. I copied and
> pasted it from a poetry site, and that may have been the beginning of
> the problem. Perhaps I should have retyped it, manually placing the
> line breaks.
>
> I'll do four lines that way to see it if makes a difference:
>
> Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
> That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
> And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
> And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
It came out fine for me this time. The previous message had the lines
run together.
Oleg Lego
>On Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:40:43 +1100, Peter Moylan
><pe...@ozebelgDieSpammers.org> wrote:
>
>>Wood Avens wrote:
>>
>>> [...] And because my mother had the curious idea that I shouldn't be
>>> allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the books in the
>>> house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
>>
>>Perhaps you should ... no, forget it, a spelling chucker wouldn't have
>>picked up that one.
>
>Oops! I wish we were allowed smileys. Or smieys.
I had to reread that about five times before I picked it up. Now I'm
trying to visualize one.
LFS
Wordsworth (The Prelude) Shelley (a selection) and Milton (Il
Penseroso), The Mayor of Casterbridge, Mansfield Park, The Tempest.
Put me off Hardy and Austen but I enjoyed the poetry. The English
teacher I had in the years before O level was excellent. She introduced
us to Dylan Thomas, Hopkins and J.D.Salinger's short stories.
I like de la Mare. His stuff featured prominently in the several
anthologies of poetry, Dad's school prizes, that were among the few
books in our home when I was very young. (I was raised never to buy a
book that one could borrow from the library, which is probably why I am
so extravagant about buying books these days.)
Nick Atty
<la...@DRAGONspira.fsbusiness.co.uk> wrote:
>the Omrud wrote:
>> tr...@euronet.nl had it:
>>
>> In answer to that, I know the poem intimately, but only because it
>> Frost was on the syllabus for my O-level (age 16 public exams)
>> English. Along with Walter de la Mare (spit). I don't think I would
>> recognise it otherwise.
>>
>> We also studied Great Expectations and Twelfth Night. You can tell
>> the age of us old Brits here by asking what book we studied for O-
>> level English (Shakespeare is less certain as there was a limited
>> number of plays used for this exam).
>>
>Wordsworth (The Prelude) Shelley (a selection) and Milton (Il
>Penseroso), The Mayor of Casterbridge, Mansfield Park, The Tempest.
>Put me off Hardy and Austen but I enjoyed the poetry. The English
>teacher I had in the years before O level was excellent. She introduced
>us to Dylan Thomas, Hopkins and J.D.Salinger's short stories.
Great Expectorations, Henry V, St Agnes Eve, Christabel, The Lotus
Eaters, Michael.
And of course we read Robert Frost, even if our partners read Emily
Dickinson.
--
On-line canal route planner: http://www.canalplan.org.uk
(Waterways World site of the month, April 2001)
My Reply-To address *is* valid, though likely to die soon
R H Draney
>
>Great Expectorations, Henry V, St Agnes Eve, Christabel, The Lotus
>Eaters, Michael.
>
>And of course we read Robert Frost, even if our partners read Emily
>Dickinson.
We read Frost because the school made us...if we had any propensity for poetry
at all on our own, we read Sandburg, Poe and cummings....r
--
"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!"
"You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!"
Default User
> Oops! I wish we were allowed smileys. Or smieys.
They aren't allowed?
:(
Robert Bannister
OK. I concede. Now I'm left wondering whether poetry isn't just
something that's written out like a poem, because when I read it as
prose, that is exactly how it was for me. I wish I could think of
examples, because I know I have read some prose - intended as such -
that read like poetry.
--
Rob Bannister
Robert Bannister
> Something I sometimes do - because my newsreader has the same bad habit
> of creating text with the "format=flawed" option - is to do a "rewrap"
> operation before sending, and then going back and seeing which lines have
> been messed up by the rewrap. Then I reinsert the line breaks manually.
> Of course, that's tricky if it's a really long text.
What surprised me was that when I copy text from web pages, the usual
result is a whole load of short lines with line breaks. I even created a
Word macro to shorten the time it took to convert such text to something
more readable.
--
Rob Bannister
Robert Bannister
Hmm. That would have been O-Level English Literature rather than
English, wouldn't it? I get mixed up; I passed 11 O-Levels (not
simultaneously), but I managed fail Eng. Lit. I know we did Henry IV Pt
2 and the "Friends, Romans, countrymen" one for O-Level and that I did
Hamlet for A-Level, but we had to read so many of Shakespeare's plays, I
lose track. Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard II are the only plays that stick
in my memory. I hated Lear and The Tempest at the time, and I didn't
really understand Measure for Measure. It didn't help that our English
teacher was trying to get into TV and was rarely present.
--
Rob Bannister
Robert Bannister
> On Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:40:43 +1100, Peter Moylan
> <pe...@ozebelgDieSpammers.org> wrote:
>
>
>>Wood Avens wrote:
>>
>>
>>>[...] And because my mother had the curious idea that I shouldn't be
>>>allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the books in the
>>>house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
>>
>>Perhaps you should ... no, forget it, a spelling chucker wouldn't have
>>picked up that one.
>
>
> Oops! I wish we were allowed smileys. Or smieys.
>
Amazing how the brain auto-corrects. I had to re-read that sentence four
or five times before I saw it. In fact, if your "smieys" hadn't given
away the L factor, I doubt I would have spotted it at all.
--
Rob Bannister
Robin Bignall
wrote:
>Jeffrey Turner <jtu...@localnet.com> wrote:
>
>> Donna Richoux wrote:
>> > Robin Bignall <docr...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >>While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>> >>"mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>> >>someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>> >>literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>> >>Curious, no?
>> >
>> > I suppose it's curious if you think the job of the fence is to prevent
>> > the *people* from crossing the property lines. Try thinking of livestock
>> > instead.
>> >
>> > You've heard of Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," right?
>>
>> Where he's being ironic in stating that "Good fences make good
>> neighbors"? You should find a better counter-example. Sorry, but one
>> of my peeves is all the people who have taken that line literally.
>
>Counter-example? Sorry, you appear to have leapt to some conclusions
>about my interpretations of the poem. I just asked Robin whether he knew
>about it, him being a Brit and me not trusting as to how well American
>poets are known on that side.
>
I have heard of Frost, of course, but we never studied poetry at
school and as a consequence I have read little and haven't developed
any particular enthusiasm for it. Call me a heathen if you wish. I
watched a few of the first episodes of Dr Who in the 1960s and thought
it was silly. So, definitely a heathen.
>I don't think the poem itself is about walls and neighborliness at all,
>it's about magic, belief, creativity, and mischief. Want to dispute
>that?
>
>But the *proverb* quoted therein is about the benefits of mending
>fences. Whether or not you (or Frost) believe it is good advice.
I have no idea whether "Good fences make good neighbours", except in
the practical sense of ensuring that livestock doesn't stray. I
mentioned it merely because the literal meaning of "mending fences" --
recreating barriers -- is opposite from the idiomatic meaning of
removing barriers, and is perhaps a better example of that effect than
"I could care less", or other ironic phrases.
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England
Nick Atty
wrote:
>OK. I concede. Now I'm left wondering whether poetry isn't just
>something that's written out like a poem, because when I read it as
>prose, that is exactly how it was for me. I wish I could think of
>examples, because I know I have read some prose - intended as such -
>that read like poetry.
Like Ern Malley's poem about mosquito's then?
Nick Atty
wrote:
>the Omrud wrote:
Yes, that was lit. We didn't do any books in lang.
Marius Hancu
> In Florida, you are required to build a fence with a minimum of one
> foot of set-back from the property line. It has to be your fence or
> his fence.
Clever. Millions of small wars avoided.
Marius Hancu
CDB
[mending wall, speaking in prose]
> OK. I concede. Now I'm left wondering whether poetry isn't just
> something that's written out like a poem, because when I read it as
> prose, that is exactly how it was for me. I wish I could think of
> examples, because I know I have read some prose - intended as such -
> that read like poetry.
That's the thing about iambic pentameter: it's almost natural in
English speech. I was reading a novel recently in which one of the
characters started speaking in that metre, and I didn't notice it
until the author had one of the other characters point it out.
Pointing something out myself, I note that Frost liked having thought
of "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" so well he said it
again. Part of his charm.
Peter Moylan
> And of course we read Robert Frost, even if our partners read Emily
> Dickinson.
And note your place with bookmarkers, to measure what you'd lost.
blm...@myrealbox.com
> >>
> >>> While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
> >>> "mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
> >>> someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
> >>> literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
> >>> Curious, no?
> >>
> >>
> >> Robert Frost
> >>
> > <snip>
> >
> > I'm sure many readers will have immediately thought of that poem. But
> > that's the second time lately a poem has been posted here in a form
> > that makes it look like prose. Am I the only person who finds this
> > deeply irritating?
>
> see it as prose and are both using Thunderbird. I see Maria's original as
> poetry and she and I are both using OE. David sees it as poetry and he's
> using Gravity.
> How say Ye, members of the e-jury?
>
A data point from someone using a now-obscure text-based newsreader,
trn:
A-OK here.
But the odds are good that trn has no idea about this format=flowed
thing.
--
B. L. Massingill
ObDisclaimer: I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.
Wood Avens
It took me a close examination of every word, and I'd probably have
given up if it hadn't been my own post. I usually spot the typos when
I read through before clicking on Send, but I'm not surprised I missed
it.
Archie Valparaiso
<docr...@ntlworld.com> wrought:
>On Thu, 8 Mar 2007 01:00:07 +0100, tr...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux)
>wrote:
>
>>Jeffrey Turner <jtu...@localnet.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Donna Richoux wrote:
>>> > Robin Bignall <docr...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >>While spraying my fences with preservative I thought of the phrase
>>> >>"mending one's fences", which means making up differences with
>>> >>someone; in effect, removing the obstacles to the relationship. The
>>> >>literal meaning of the words, however, is to recreate a barrier.
>>> >>Curious, no?
>>> >
>>> > I suppose it's curious if you think the job of the fence is to prevent
>>> > the *people* from crossing the property lines. Try thinking of livestock
>>> > instead.
>>> >
>>> > You've heard of Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," right?
>>>
>>> Where he's being ironic in stating that "Good fences make good
>>> neighbors"? You should find a better counter-example. Sorry, but one
>>> of my peeves is all the people who have taken that line literally.
>>
>>Counter-example? Sorry, you appear to have leapt to some conclusions
>>about my interpretations of the poem. I just asked Robin whether he knew
>>about it, him being a Brit and me not trusting as to how well American
>>poets are known on that side.
>>
>I have heard of Frost, of course
Who hasn't? The *Twin Peaks* scripts were magnificent.
Maria
> Robert Bannister wrote:
>> Wood Avens wrote:
>>> Peter Moylan wrote:
>>>> Wood Avens wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> [...] And because my mother had the curious idea that I
>>>>> shouldn't be allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all
>>>>> the books in the house, of which there were hundreds if not
>>>>> thousands.
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps you should ... no, forget it, a spelling chucker wouldn't
>>>> have picked up that one.
>>>
>>> Oops! I wish we were allowed smileys. Or smieys.
>>>
>> Amazing how the brain auto-corrects. I had to re-read that sentence
>> four or five times before I saw it. In fact, if your "smieys" hadn't
>> given away the L factor, I doubt I would have spotted it at all.
>
> It took me a close examination of every word, and I'd probably have
> given up if it hadn't been my own post. I usually spot the typos when
> I read through before clicking on Send, but I'm not surprised I missed
> it.
I was prepared to announce that "should" does indeed have an 'L' in it,
at least in the US, when I finally spotted the word actually in
question.
--
Maria
Evan Kirshenbaum
> shouldn't be allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the
> books in the house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
Are there many of us left here who can't read that phrase without
thinking of
This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the
entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if
not thousands of dollars to send everywhere.
Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [yn]
?
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |_Bauplan_ is just the German word
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |for blueprint. Typically, one
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |switches languages to indicate
|profundity.
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com | Richard Dawkins
(650)857-7572
Garrett Wollman
Evan Kirshenbaum <kirsh...@hpl.hp.com> wrote:
>Are there many of us left here who can't read that phrase without
>thinking of
>
> This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the
> entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if
> not thousands of dollars to send everywhere.
>
> Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [yn]
Good to see you still have an rn installed even if you don't use
it....
-GAWollman
(rn user since 1989, and it was old then)
--
Garrett A. Wollman | The real tragedy of human existence is not that we are
wol...@csail.mit.edu| nasty by nature, but that a cruel structural asymmetry
Opinions not those | grants to rare events of meanness such power to shape
of MIT or CSAIL. | our history. - S.J. Gould, Ten Thousand Acts of Kindness
the Omrud
> Wood Avens <wood...@askjennison.com> writes:
>
> > shouldn't be allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the
> > books in the house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
>
> Are there many of us left here who can't read that phrase without
> thinking of
>
> This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the
> entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if
> not thousands of dollars to send everywhere.
>
> Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [yn]
Some, at least. Especially in the case of that typo.
Of course, it's horribly out of date now. It is probably millions of
machines, the uncivilized world is included and it costs next to
nothing.
--
David
=====
Pat Durkin
"Evan Kirshenbaum" <kirsh...@hpl.hp.com> wrote in message
news:y7m6zb...@hpl.hp.com...
> Wood Avens <wood...@askjennison.com> writes:
>
>> shouldn't be allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the
>> books in the house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
>
> Are there many of us left here who can't read that phrase without
> thinking of
>
> This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the
> entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if
> not thousands of dollars to send everywhere.
>
> Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [yn]
I. All I see is "hundreds" and "thousands" and my mouth starts watering
for cake and cookies and sprinkles.
Jeez. A whole hour until lunch!
Evan Kirshenbaum
> In article <y7m6zb...@hpl.hp.com>,
> Evan Kirshenbaum <kirsh...@hpl.hp.com> wrote:
>
>>Are there many of us left here who can't read that phrase without
>>thinking of
>>
>> This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the
>> entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if
>> not thousands of dollars to send everywhere.
>>
>> Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [yn]
>
> Good to see you still have an rn installed even if you don't use
> it....
Nah. I just used it long enough that it's burned into my mind.
> -GAWollman
> (rn user since 1989, and it was old then)
I think I first used it shortly after it came out in 1984. I used trn
and slrn for a while, but I switched to Gnus in (let's see, seems to
have been) 1997.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |There is no such thing as bad data,
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |only data from bad homes.
Palo Alto, CA 94304
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com
(650)857-7572
Roland Hutchinson
> Wood Avens <wood...@askjennison.com> writes:
>
>> shouldn't be allowed to join a pubic library until I'd read all the
>> books in the house, of which there were hundreds if not thousands.
>
> Are there many of us left here who can't read that phrase without
> thinking of
>
> This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the
> entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if
> not thousands of dollars to send everywhere.
>
> Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [yn]
>
> ?
At least two.
--
Roland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food.
NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to
remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it.
John Holmes
"Peter Moylan" <pe...@ozebelgDieSpammers.org> wrote in message
news:45f01f90$0$5744$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
> John Holmes wrote:
>> "Peter Moylan" <pe...@ozebelgDieSpammers.org> wrote in message
>> news:45ee97cf$0$21144$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
>>> To my chagrin, I find that Thunderbird also generates that
>>> ill-conceived "format=flawed" layout. If anyone can tell me how to
>>> disable that, I will be most grateful.
>>
>> Go to the advanced options tab, and the button called "config
>> editor". There are two parameters you can try tweaking:
>> mailnews.display.disable_format_flowed_support (set 'false' by
>> default) mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed (set 'true' by default)
>
> Thanks. Unfortunately I don't have that button. I've just realised that
> I'm still running version 1.5, and never did get around to updating
> Thunderbird when I updated Firefox. I'd better do it soon.
It is in 1.5.0.10, Windows version, and I'm sure there was an equivalent in
earlier versions. If not, you can achieve the same thing by directly editing
the prefs javascript file in the user profile, as long as you can find the
right one.
--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au
blm...@myrealbox.com
Garrett Wollman <wol...@csail.mit.edu> wrote:
> In article <y7m6zb...@hpl.hp.com>,
> Evan Kirshenbaum <kirsh...@hpl.hp.com> wrote:
>
> >Are there many of us left here who can't read that phrase without
> >thinking of
> >
> > This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the
> > entire civilized world. Your message will cost the net hundreds if
> > not thousands of dollars to send everywhere.
> >
> > Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [yn]
>
> Good to see you still have an rn installed even if you don't use
> it....
>
> -GAWollman
> (rn user since 1989, and it was old then)
>
rn/trn user since .... 1989 sounds about right for me too.
EK's text (from memory?) matches my copy of Pnews, except that mine
adds, after "everywhere":
"Please be sure you know what you are doing."
and reverses the order of the choices ("[ny]" rather than "[yn]").
Possibly the prompt would be more effective if the stuff about costs
was replaced with something about one's (semi?-)Permanent Record?
Or not. One gets accustomed to typing "y" without thinking ....