Reply #125: well, as long as we're commenting ... [View All]

... on people's syntax and what not ...

I guess I wouldn't be surprised if someone who writes "I must of" didn't follow some of what I write. Sorry, but sauce for the goose and all that.

As to why someone with a degree in English wouldn't follow, I have no clue. I do write, day in and day out, for a very sophisticated audience, to be sure, and mainly read material written for the same audience, so I guess it's just a matter of habit, on my part.

Let alone making outrageous comments about the non-forthcomingness of answers, as someone who claims to have been "lurking" for months, and could therefore really be expected to know exactly how false that comment is when applied to me, me having been the one to whom the question in question was addressed, did here.

Well, let's break it down.

We have Pete Puma, who tells us he lurked for months before posting. I therefore assume that he has read lots of things I've written. Why wouldn't I assume this? Why would he have lurked and yet not read what I've written?

We have Pete Puma, claiming, in response to a post asking me a question, that no answer will be forthcoming. Why would he claim this, if he has read what I've written on this board over several months? What evidence is there that I don't answer questions?

He bases this claim (as I anticipated) on my having declined to answer his question about personal experiences with guns. In point of fact, I had answered that question in the past, much more than once, and had given ALL the information I have again summarized in the post I just wrote here, above.

I declined to answer his question in the instance in question out of pretty much sheer peevishness. I do get dreadfully bored with newbies arriving and interrogating people already involved in an ongoing and, one would hope, evolving discussion, about things that have been oft and thoroughly discussed in the past. And I do scratch my head about the reasons for these interrogations, and if I don't come up with a good one, I just don't feel any obligation to play.

The mere asking of a question does not impose any duty on anyone else to answer it, and I would say that this is particularly true when the question has been repeatedly answered in the past and there is no apparent reason for it to be asked again.

And anybody wishing to draw conclusions from anyone else's declining to answer any question really oughta have some basis for those conclusions.

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