fek@wuphys.UUCP (Frank Kramer) (04/04/85)
Somehow I feel like Andy Rooney with his whiney .. "Don't you just hate it when ..." But I must protest against those who take perfectly general terms and confiscate them for their own purposes. Like the term holocaust. Look it up in any dictionary. The definition talks about things like "destruction by fire", but says nothing about Jews or WWII or a movie made for television. Sure, one might use the word in conjunction with the "final solution" perpetrated by the Nazis, but I used the word the other day in a discussion of a hotel fire and was promptly berated for using it in a way that had nothing to do with concentration camps. Give me a break. And another thing (boy, now I'm on a roll); what ever happened to the male-prefix when talking about male-chauvinism ? Chauvin was a nineteenth century french soldier who displayed an extreme patriotism and dedication to Napolean. It is used in the general sense of any person with a excessive attachment to a place or group to which that person belongs. I know, I know. Languages are meant to be dynamic and here I am, sitcking in the mud and bitching about things that most don't care diddly-squat about. But there is a difference between progress and sloppiness. I've gotta go. There's a jewish feminist on her way over here right now. That's all, Frank