I couldn't have said it better myself (and next time, I'll reply offlist!) -----Original Message----- From: Indigo Nights [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, February 12, 1999 2:47 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Polite Request: Cut The Fat Consider a cut of beef. Throughout the meat, you'll frequently find a marble of fat. Often, on a steak, it's at the edge. Some chefs will tell you to leave the fat on when you cook it because it adds flavor. Most health professionals will encourage you to not eat it, whether you include it in your cooking or excise it before you cook. Consider the Museums List. Lots of good meat, sometimes marbled with little bits, and other times globs, of fat. Some will tell you it adds to the flavor of the list--and let us not forget that basic nutrition also mandates there must be a tiny bit of fat in our diet in order to stay healthy (kind of like the oil in our car). Others will tell you that they get their fat in the real world, and have too much work or other mail to contain the additional morsels of fat contained here. Consider my analogy, and then please consider: 1. Trying to refrain from infusing volatile, nonmuseum topics for the sake of adding spice (read piss and vinegar) to your life at the expense of others. 2. Returning to the "accepted list serve practice" of keeping private posts private. Thank yous, most I agrees, and other grunts should be rendered privately. The list mail in the last couple of weeks has become, in some regards, as dysfunctional as the US itself as we endured the trials and tribulations of impeachment. That trial is over. Let decorum of the list return. Let's get back to the civility of this refined list and try to recapture its wonderful style of olde (as in last summer). Cut the fat. Quit the Us and Them Sniping of Canadians v. US, Aussies v. New Zealanders, Brits v. Other British Islanders, etc. Say thank you to the person who deserves the thanks, not the list, unless you truly feel grandstanding is necessary. Quit injecting threads that have no import to the Museum industry, especially if they could be hurtful to others. Please. In the name of civility, I ask you to seriously consider cutting the fat for the health and well being of the list and its plethora of fine members from many museums (and the afficionados of same), and from many nations. Oh, yes, and if you want to flame the person responsible for this post, send them to me privately--not to the list unless you truly feel grandstanding is necessary. Thank you! == Indigo Nights [log in to unmask] _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com