If you mean me and the shearing I was just passing on information with no barb
intended.
Incidentally I watched the lady shear the tup. (That's the man sheep folks
and he tups the lady sheep.) He is ring trained so he just stood there for 2
hours as she snipped away and the only time he checked where she was snipping
is when she got near his naughty bits. O that some boaters showed the same
patience and exhibited the same spirit of co-operation and even helpfulness as
that tup (Vincent) as they wait there turn at locks! In his case all our tup
got out of it was 20lbs of hot fleece removed for the summer while the lady
acquired a fleece that fitted in two bin bags which, by law she had to sell to
Defra for about £5!
I guess Vincent (van Gogh - the tup - so named after his show career ended
when he lost half of one ear to an infection) did best out of the deal! But
then tups is clever sheep - they sleeps, eats and tups...
David Cragg
Ken Hornstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Most of the list members are British and there *is* a particular
sense of
>humour in the UK. Unlike many cultures where, if someone makes a rude comment
>about you, you should feel insulted, in the UK it means the person making the
>comment feels sufficiently comfortable in your friendship to make personal
>comments in the expectation that you will not take them personally - and will
>expect you to respond in like terms to show you accept them as a friend.If you
> are going to boat around in the *real* Britain then, yes, in a way you will
>just have to understand it and accept it, I'm afraid, or you will find the
>experience of an evening in a pub a very harrowing one.
Okay, let me just address this one paragraph.
I have a number of friends who are British, so I feel I am reasonably
well acquainted with their humor. They take great delight in poking at
me (and others) at every opportunity. But there are a few differences
I have noticed.
- We've known each other for a while. Our long association gives me enough
experience with them to know when they're serious and when they're kidding.
Also, the familiarity brings with it the ability to joke around with
each other without taking offense; the normal sort of put-downs you
would hear between long acquainted pub goers.
- Their comments have enough humor in them to defuse the nastiness. It's
never a complete put-down; there's always enough sugar in there to defuse
the worst of the sting. I might get a little exasperated at times, but
never for very long.
Let me give you a recent example. David Craig just sent a message
continuing a barb by Barry Holland regarding the misspelling of the
word "sharing" (it was spelled as "shearing" in the original note).
Barry included a smiley face, and David continued the sheep joke. All
in good fun, and if I had been the recipient of that I would have
chuckled a bit. I've done similar things like that to other people,
and I consider it all within the bounds of fair play.
I went back and read the original note that started the data versus
datum thread, and it lacked any of those features. There was no humor,
no smiley face, nothing to take the bite out of the sting. What it
ended up being was kind of rude response I would have expected from
one of my fellow Americans.
I've glad that several people have chimed in saying, "Hey, we do welcome
all sorts of boaters". I imagine the owners are more dedicated and that's
why they post more; that is certainly understandable, but it's nice to
hear that renters and hopeful renters are welcome as well.
--Ken
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