I agree with you all, and I take a positive stand on both sides of the issue. I'm quite comfortable singing (and playing) the bawdy ballads of the lusty Scots of the age parallel to the European Renaissance, but I don't think I'd be likely to sing a lewd song. Is there a fine line, of course there is. The line between the suggestion and double entendre and the specific. The specific is more a creature of our modern day.
As to topic, and I run into this on other music lists, it isn't so much the actual message as the flow from the thread. Wayne, quite rightly, has suggested that several of us on this list who are interested in making lutes join the lute-builder's list for our discussions of the fine points of turning tuning pegs. And we have done so. And by doing so have a better resource on that topic. But at the same time Herbert is right. Why limit the natural flow of thoughts that may come when playing a lute. The real problem with off topic threads on any dedicated list isn't the initial thread, or the intitial answer. It is the follow up additions. The simple answer to that is for the participants to take the thread "off list" as they get wound up in their puns and examples. I speak as a guilty man, it is our own self discipline that makes a list relevant, not rules from the adminstrator (although he has that right I'm sure he'd rather not have to take the time to police it. Best, Jon To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
