New To List, by way of introduction

[Mattcapri at aol.com]

Hello Everybody,
I am new to the list, and an active list it is. I should hope that the self 
righteous complaints about misuse of bandwidth are all but forgotten among 
youse guys. Still looking for a good opening to jump into the discussion. I 
suspect the "jargon" discussion stems from that article in Lingua Franca 
about those two old guys. Interesting, back in High School I used to walk 
around with an "Ignorance is strength" button which received a nearly 
universal negative response from both students and faculty. But the thing I 
drew from "1984" (the year and the book) was the "ingsoc" (sp) dictionary and 
its implications. The idea that the dictionary needs to be shortened and 
terms replaced with "good" and "double plus good" was quite salient to me. 
The lesson I drew from this in some degree contradicts the characterization 
of Orwell in the LF article. A recent experience in a feature writing class 
brought this point home yet again, a classmate,  was mystified by my use of 
the term "prestidigitation." This word was good enough for George Burns in 
the movie  "Just You and Me Kid" with Brooke Shields and also for many 
professional magicians who make liberal use of such a clever sounding word in 
describing to their audience what they do. Another example is the response 
the same person gave to the phrase "cheek by jowl." This phrase was suitable 
for use by my third grade teacher,  a high school english teacher of mine and 
Andy Rooney.  There are other examples but the "too much information" reflex 
threshold, so sensitive in this decade is, I suspect, close to its 
psuedoautonomic paroxysm  for many.
But before I go I must say that all this reminds me of a certain regretful 
exchange between myself and a certain journalist over a perceived laziness on 
my part. Working as an editor for a tiny newspaper with a circulation list 
consisting of prisoners,  and long since closed P.O. boxes, I came across a 
word in his article which I thought needed some clarification. While quite 
overstressed by the collapse of the publication itself and frankly 
intimidated by the writer's stature, I failed to convey that it was not the 
dictionary definition I needed. Rather, I needed what he meant in his use of 
the word, had I found a civil and succinct way of requesting this of him, 
much sorrow (well really not that much) would have been averted.

OK, OK I am stopping

looking forward to taking meaningful part in the discussion in real time,
matt capri