In reply to:

Dear Jackie:

You are such a diplomat.

But AWADtalk is a closed preserve of self-enforced mediocrity.

And whoever gave this mediocrity the right to monopolize this space?

1. "AWAD talk is a closed preserve..." Not true. It's not a private board; some people join in and remain; others leave; but the board is not closed. It might not appeal to every person who visits here, but I haven't seen evidence of chasing newcomers off in the year and a half I've been here.

The 'closed' characteristics of the board might be the topics that are eschewed to some degree here: politics, religion, food and sports.

2. "Self-enforced"--I do not know what wordminstrel is writing about here. The board covers topics related to questions people have about definitions, derivations, and applications of words; humorous observations about word use; occasional development of puns. But I don't get the sense that these topics, mediocre-seeming as they are to wordminstrel, are enforced other than by than what wordminstrel would evaluate as the mediocre interests of the writers.

3. On the subject of mediocrity: The people who do write here fairly often or those who read these threads with interest and occasionally post return here because they are interested in word use. We begin often with individual words. Words may have been misused and abused, and the may have been put to soaring use. But we begin often by examining these words--their beginnings and their applications in various situations. It's a fascination, a love affair, and, like a lover who can see little fault in the beloved, any aspect of the beloved becomes cause for celebration. If wordminstrel doesn't share this kind of fascination with word exploration--if wordminstrel would prefer moving away from the individual words we examine here in our hunger to caress every hair on the head of our Golden Darling Language, then perhaps wordminstrel could suggest to Anu that there should be a forum here called something like:

1. Beyond the Mediocre
2. Exquisite Debates
3. Publishable Arguments
4. Scholarly Treatises
5. Thoroughly Academic

Jackie, I'm not bothered a twit by what wordminstrel wrote. In fact, I've enjoyed thinking about his viewpoint. I thought, "Well, is there a problem with wordminstrel's viewing what I enjoy as mediocre?" And I concluded that there was no problem. This place has seemed to me to be a safe haven to explore words with like-minded people--and it was a relief to find it a year and a half ago because no one in my 3D world could understand how I could spend hours reading (and become excited by reading) dictionaries.

So, wordminstrel, I sincerely thank you for your observations. This is the sort of mediocrity I enjoy--altough I disagree to some extent that it is enforced, other than the eschewing of political, religious, food and sports topics. Perhaps you find that eschewing in itself a mark of the mediocre.

Interesting topic here, however. It could end up being a full one and I hope a free one, and nothing less.