On Wed, 31 Mar 2004, skzb wrote: # # > Humph. I wish salesdroids would give readers more credit. #> # #Hmmm...I'm really having trouble getting this across. Maybe it's my #communication skills. Perhaps I should consider learning to write. # #It is not about the reader. It is about the salesman for the publisher, #"taking a lunch" with the B.Dalton buyer, and showing him the new catalogue. #And saying, "And then we have the Enchantress of z...the Ench...the #thingie...a new Terry Brooks novel that I'm sure you'll love." It's not your communication, it's your environment, or, rather, the difference between yours and ours. You're very much used to the concept of salesmen who sell TO the bookstores. We, your readers who are not professional writers or otherwise involved in the book trade except as customers, think of book salesmen as the people in the bookstores who try to sell US books. That's the difference that took me, and others too I think, a while to get hammered into our heads. -- Mark A. Mandel Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania