Marsha said:Suze said:The point is that there are several people that post to the group that
obviously have advanced degrees and I know of at least one person that
has an MBA. So it seems a little self-satisfied to sign posts as
"resident MBA" and such.
The only reason I even asked "why" was to give him the benefit of the
doubt -- thinking he might be a young fella that just obtained his
degree and is just a bit proud of it if you know what I mean. Or
something like that.
Quoted message said:What a pretentious thing though. "I'm in a club for smart people."
Exactly. It also comes across as incredibly insecure.
"I'm smrt, I'm smrt! Really, I am..."
I agree that it's bad form to put that into posts here, but I'd disagree
that it says smart. I say it implies accomplishment, more than IQ.
Quoted message said:Actually, Suze, I find that much less irritating that Pastorio's posts
filled with $.50 words. That really smacks of an "I'm superior" attitude.
You only see it that way because you don't even try to write with
anything approaching precision. You deal in vagueness and innuendo. You
deal in an attitude that implies that your way is the only way, and
stunted vocabularies are good things. That emotionally loaded, extremely
partisan, superficial raving is somehow communications.
I write professionally and I have for nearly 50 years. I have no
apologies to offer anyone for having been fortunate enough to have
accumulated a large vocabulary. It permits me to express thoughts very
tightly and exactly. Other people are good at other things. Do you get
your undies all in a twist when a plumber uses words you don't know? A
doctor? Education will do that, you know.
What I refuse to do is dumb it down - for the likes of you or anyone. If
you think that using my vocabulary is arrogant, how much more so is it
to write things in small words so people like you can understand it
without using a dictionary? It would be condescending and disrespectful
to write that way - *that* would be "an I'm superior attitude." Kind of
a pat on the head for those linguistically "less fortunate" and
vocabularily "poor" I'd say. I'm not writing for the lowest common
denominator. I assume intelligence in anyone able to get here.
It's very interesting that in all the years I've been writing in
magazines and newspapers, and talking on radio and TV, others haven't
leveled that complaint. No letters to the editor about my language. No
phone calls condemning me for it. Our radio ratings are the highest in
the market. My columns won readers' awards. It seems to be a problem of
yours where you rant and rage and get called on the emptiness of it.
From a critic with an educated vocabulary.
In my years of schooling, I went to public and religious grade and high
schools, and state and religious universities. Got middling grades. No
aristocracy here; blue-collar, middle class family. I'm the second
person in my family to ever graduate from college. I have no reason to
be holding my pinkie up, and I don't. Your belligerent limits and
failings don't prompt me to change my methods.
And here's the other reality. My posts aren't mandatory for you to
struggle through and puzzle over, anguishing about my high-falutin'
language. Just skip them. Your blood pressure will be better, your
nights will no longer be taken up with festering over my $.50 words, and
you may rest easy knowing that you won't be given anything to actually
think about. Or learn any new words so you, too, could write carefully.
My prescription for you: Take a killfile and don't call me in the
morning.
Pastorio
