[lit-ideas] Re: Naked Gentlemen

To return to the original quest., from which, like bucked-up lovers, we seem advertantly to have wandered. The philosophical issue is whether we somehow diminish a thing by naming it. Would we lose the element of surprise that experts say is essential to humor if we on this list called a witty tirade something indicative? "Witty tirade," possibly? As with aunts, this is of course, a balance of thingies issue. On the one hand, one does not like to give offence, particularly if the offendee is going to register hauteur and hubris and whatnot when you are reading e-mail with bleary eye, shortly after the crack of d. But on the other hand there is family loyalty to the spirit of the Enlightenment to consider. Where would we be if our swift ancestors had not stiffened the sinews from time to time? What if they had stayed the hand, failed to dip the nib, bundled up their funniest thoughts and reserved them for casual chat over a pre- lunch stiffener at the club? We'd be a jolly sight poorer if you ask me.

What we really need is a scheme of some sort from the Jeeves of the list. He, alas, is currently on vacation in Florida with the Mutton College Shrimping Team.

Bingo Richtea,
Protland, Urgun
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