Buck wrote:
I've learnt much from this list, especially how to stop and consider
what I'm about to say. We have a vocal new member and the group
dynamic is changing. It will take a little while to find the new
balance point. Booth has a lot of fun playing the automatic Devil's
Advocate. Reading his posts these past years has helped me realise
that he is not participating in this list in order to entice or
cajole, but just to have a chat. Well, that's my reading. Yours may
differ <wry/>
...
Booth responds quite a lot; it's almost impossible to categorise his
participation as non-responsive given the volume of his posts. He
doesn't always stay precisely on point, and he has a tendency to find
connexions that the rest of us don't. That's how he is, and asking
him to put up or shut up is asking him to be someone he can't be.
It's not his nature to be driven by columns of facts and figures and
that's OK. I am his exact opposite, finding everything to be black
and white, simple to digest only when the columns of figures are
present. I'm much happier knowing my assertions are good to one
standard deviation than I am to propose a theory based wholly on my
opinion.
Buck -
It may not appear so, but I have also learned a lot from being on this list.
I often 'throw things out there' to promote discussion, with a preconceived
notion of how I feel about the subject, only to change my mind about it
once I see some discussion.
As far as Booth, I view him as a curmudgeonly troll - he mildly amuses me,
pisses me off, and at times makes me rethink my position on a given topic,
as well as forcing me to do more research to prove that he is usually full
of horse-sh*t...
And that's why I have a _special_ folder in Outlook named Booth - so
I can periodically flush his numerous posts - as of this writing, I have
454 posts in the Booth folder since 24-Oct-07 at 11:13 a.m.
Time to FLUSH!
Regards,
Steve
