On 11/7/03 6:54 PM, "Poor, Edmund W" Edmund.W.Poor@abc.com wrote:
You're good at rhetoric, my dear Cunctator, but you haven't pricked my conscience with your latest thrust.
It's really your first premise which troubles me: we don't want articles of limited interest.
Well, ex-cuse me, but what is an encyclopedia BUT a clinking, clanking, colossal collection of random articles each of which is of EXTREMELY LIMITED INTEREST to most people?
We each tolerate the boring articles, because the collection as a whole is useful to us in that we can easily find those few items of reference that we're looking for.
Now just stamp QED on my forehead, and I'm through.
Good. You do realize that I was attempting to make the argument for the side I don't agree with, right?
In other words, I agree with you.