On Mon, 17 Feb 2003 18:21:28 -0800, you wrote: >At 05:58 PM 2/17/2003 -0800, Philip Hart wrote: >>I don't in fact use exclamation points. > >I do, occasionally. I'd miss them if they were gone. But you're right, >they're used way too much. I had a huge argument with Ace because they >would add exclamation marks to my cover quotes, and that would infuriate me. > >> >>In any case, I've seen too many sentences on the net which couldn't be >>spoken in the tone indicated by the attached emoticon to find them >>tolerable. Your mileage may vary, to quote the net. > >This argument, however, is specious. Misuse of a tool by some does not >show that the tool is useless. > >Although I admit that somtimes it does make one wish that the tool would >get lost in the box. > This reminds me of a Twain piece I read many years ago. (Going roughly from memory here.....) Two newspaper editors are debating the proper use of quotation marks in headlines. One editor claims they should be used to indicate a special item, while the other says they indicate that the word enclosed is being used in a questionable sense. The latter view won when he published the headline: Newspaper Editor Takes His "Wife" To Dinner -- lazarus "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American Public." -- Theodore Roosevelt