Posted by Dr. Bob on February 4, 2006, at 12:54:40
In reply to Re: please be civil, posted by teejay on February 4, 2006, at 6:43:29
> > > I think he's ... ugly enough
> >
> > Please respect the views of others and be sensitive to their feelings.
>
> Its an English expression Dr Bob and is used as playful banter and not meant in the literal sense.....the terms big enough and ugly enough are used together to suggest he can handle a bit of "rough and tumble".Sorry, I wasn't familiar with that expression. I guess that's "ugly" in the sense of:
> 4 b : SURLY, QUARRELSOME <an ugly disposition> <the crowd got ugly>
as opposed to:
> 2 a : offensive to the sight : HIDEOUS
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/ugly
OTOH, I'm not sure how respectful and sensitive it would be to refer to him as surly or quarrelsome, either. Anyway, there would've been less room for misunderstanding if you'd just said:
> I think he can handle "rough and tumble" well enough to come and stand up for himself should he choose to do so ;-)
OTOH, he may be, but posters who support him may not be.
BTW, have you seen:
E-mails and egos
An inability to step outside of one's own head may be behind e-mail miscommunication, according to recent research.
By Lea Winerman
http://www.apa.org/monitor/feb06/egos.htmlBob
poster:Dr. Bob
thread:603925
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20060111/msgs/606287.html