On Tue, 8 Nov 1994, Eric Siegel wrote:
 
>           Hank,
>
>           I would like to make a public request that you consider
>           making your language a bit more restrained. By being
>           so...emphatic, you are inviting similarly emphatic
>           disagreement, and so on up a spiral.
>
>           Please remember that, unlike your newspaper column, these
>           posts are read by museum professionals with broad expertise
>           and experience. Some of your enthusiastic postings sound a
>           bit patronizing and unconsidered, to me at least.
>
>           A civilized request to maintain a civilized discourse. It's
>           rare enough in this world.
>
>           Eric Siegel
>           [log in to unmask]>
>
     Thanks for the patronizing sermonette, ES. I'm sorry if plain
English grates on academic ears, but not sorry enough to stop calling a
spade a spade. As for the elevation of this audience in comparison with
the great unwashed who only read newspapers, I am not impressed.
Credentials are no guarantee of credibility: An error is an error and an
inanity is an inanity, whatever the source.
 
* * * * *
 
Hank Burchard * Weekend Section * The Washington Post
1150 15th Street NW * Washington DC USA 20071-0001
VoiceMail (202) 334-7243 * Email: [log in to unmask]