I will admit, i too, have been sidetracked in say colours, and started talking about art..but i did start off with colors, and words about colour, and did actually answer MG rhetorical question (did the color ever first, and the name after, or are colour name all from things.. lilac the plant, giving lilac the color..

but i have also started word thread, and added to word threads, and gone around looking for words threads

and what i find is way to much personal information (i really don't think i need to know who has or hasn't reach menopause, or about your first sexual experience) chats, about children's coloring books, and fewer and fewer word threads to explore.

i copied a 'conversation' from Animal Safari, that has all about words, and it stayed on words for a few post when it was first noticed, .. and they deteriorated, and is now dead..

Yes, there are Puns, and puns have always had a place here, but where are the words?

i guess everyone here knows the words mordant, noria, shingles, and strigil, (--the last one has many common words as first cousin's in English!) Words that have come up and just been passed by with almost no comment..

i explored the history behind crocodiles, and when i look at the word alligator , I didn't find much of interest on the root word of lizard, but on my way, stumbled across Lam, did any one else even look?

This used to be a word site, and yes, we did always go off on tangents, and several dedicated people, people who used to be regulars here, acted like a school marm's, and keep pulling us back on track.. and keep chattiness to a minimum-- and while we all griped and groaned, about the school marm, fact was, we liked having them about as guides, keeping us focused.. one person, trying to be possitive, posted, " I'm not in denial about what has happened, I'm simply not going to allow it to change what this board is about." but what has happened has changed the board..

Its a great place now if you are interested in most of the threads turning to sexy inuindo, no matter what the catagory, for personal chats, but where are the unusual idioms, the obsure words, that give rise to interesting discusions of words origins, and how they have move through languages, keeping a core meaning... ( who is surprised that the root word behind sugar is grit/gravel/pebble? we might think first of sweet, but few with argrue with gravel!)

its not just a dearth of new threads, especially on words , its that all the thread become chatty quickly, I keep coming back here, like a lost child, looking for what existed.. will it ever exist again?

Dear of troy: What I most would like to see is follow-up on your suggestion a couple months ago that we post about words we have found in what we read. Unusual words, word used wrongly, interesting coinages.

i guess where you and i have a fundimental disagreement, is you see the war as over, but i see the bomber as still actively posting, and most of the general population has become refugies.. and as long as the person who started the war is still here, then the war is still on.

you seem to say, it ok to life in a state of seige, thats the way things are now. and while i agree, they will never be the same, i would prefer not to live in a state of seige.

right now, there is some reconstrution going on, but there is also so guerilla warfare.

again, peace please.

it seems to me, tho, you always object to the guerilla warfare, and never to the tyrant (a wolf, now trying to dress himself up in sheeps clothing) who caused the problems in the first place.

Values, are ideas and abstract things that a person is willing to fight for, sometimes unto the death.. like freedom and honesty.

as for ignoring, it is difficut for others to ignore the words of someone who has used words as a knife, to cut their hearts out. what should they do when they come here, and find more of his words, everywhere? even if they are not sharpened knifes now, they are hard to ignore.

Silk, that was an unnecessary and uncalled for personal slap at me.
It steps backward from your good effort to put the fray behind us and move on to rebuilding.

Well, I did "look at the thread". And near as I could tell it was a simple discussion, clarifying points of view, which did not detract from another topic or another thread. It was NOT a "personal disagreement". I was not aware of any less than peaceful interaction between Of Troy and myself. There was no reason for anyone to interfere and call for "peace, please" (whatever that meant). It WAS a peaceful discussion. Ironic that "Peace, please" isn't heeded elsewhere. I'm not sure what the proverbial "slap" is, my actually ignoring posts - which proves that it can be done, with a little effort, or my honest admission that I have been ignoring them. If my policy of non-response is so offensive, then apparently conflict is preferred? My "good efforts" never stood a chance, as long as relentless reactionaries persist.

Enjoy your puerile little war, I hope it brings you countless hours of entertainment.

"peace, please" (whatever that meant) and
I'm not sure what the proverbial "slap" is

SilkMuse, the former responded to a post that used the terms bomber ... refugies.. the war is still on ... state of seige ... guerilla warfare, refering to a person beyond merely of-troy and yourself.

The latter referred to a post which you have now deleted, precluding further explication.

Silk, I do hope you're not leaving? I can't read the posts you've deleted but it sounds as though one of them advocates ignoring posts/posters (perhaps one in particular, whom I myself choose to ignore) in order to maintain calm and sanity on the board.

I do wish people would stop picking at each other here....Fortunately there's not a LOT of picking, but what there is, is still distressing.

I take Helen's point about words - but I don't mind some of the digressions. We're all human - who can know what's going to be of interest? If a thread gets "corrupted" by punning and discussion distant from the original intent, perhaps the original intent could be reopened in a new thread. I certainly had a thread corrupted way back when: can't even remember what it was originally about, because it so quickly (within two or three posts) turned into a discussion of uniforms!

Sugar coming from grit/pebble/etc: My mother sometimes talks about putting some sugar on some dessert - rhubarb or melon or strawberries or what have you - "for grit"! (yeah, Mum, like you don't want the sweetness too!)

Anyway....I really wanted to say, SILK PLEASE DON'T LEAVE! I enjoy your posts no end and love your integrity and positive attitude. Sometimes wish you had PM switched on so I could say "hello" without all the board looking on....the only thing I use PM for, really: maintaining private relationships with board members I love.

"Puerile war....countless hours of entertainment" - that about sums it up, really. Sighhhhh.