[MD] Irony

[Michael R. Brown]

Hi, Matt Kundert

> if you really were the snobbish, "traditional presciptivist" you say you 
> are

I didn't. "As a traditional prescriptivist regarding the backbone of 
language, I don't go with the trendy second meaning." I note you didn't 
quote me - purely accidentally.

> you would _not_ have looked up the meaning of a word in Wikipedia, the 
> antithesis of snobs.

As we see, and as is so often the case these days, this is a detection of a 
non-existent contradiction.

>  Say what you will about its virtues, there ain't no backbone in a thing 
> that can changed by whim or will.

Which Wikipedia is not. Here's some fun recursion: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia

> might have "looked it up in Fowler"

Fowler is neat. Often eccentric, but neat. Fowler & Fowler (in the original 
editions) is better yet.


MRB
http://www.fuguewriter.com