[OT] Inquiring Minds want to know WAS: Re: Envy or Store or what?
Richard A. O'Keefe
squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
Thu Oct 31 01:49:53 UTC 2002
It has sort of always been a habit to put it in there. The point of it
is that since a PS appears below the signing this, as Patrik already
explained, clarifies that the PS was written by the same person.
Postscripts are, as a rule, written by the same person who wrote the rest
of the letter/message. Why call out the (overwhelmingly) commonest case
for special treatment? It is postscripts written by someone _else_ that
need to be flagged. In printed material, it is customary to indicate
material written by someone else by putting their role [Ed] or their
initials [D.S., for example] there; so to me, putting "DS" at the end
of a postscript could only mean that the postscript was written by someone
with initials "DS" who HADN'T written the body of the message.
In a message written in English, abbreviations other than English or
Latin ones are bound to confuse people rather than "clarify" anything.
Another thing - what kind of mailinglist greetings do you use?
As a native speaker of English, I find "greetings" out of place in
messages sent to mailing lists. If one _must_ have such a thing,
what's wrong with "Dear readers" or "Dear Squeakers"?
Dan uses the "Hi folks!" greeting which is neutral in gender etc.
It is perhaps a little too informal and culture-bound.
Imagine a stranger coming up to you and saying "Hey, cuzzie!".
I often like to write "Hi guys!" but somehow (even if it isn't
gender specific in speech nowadays - I have been told) in
writing it does seem to imply males to me. Or does it? Would
it be "kosher" to use that?
"guys" may be gender-neutral, but "guy" is not. Guy is a man's name.
In fact, in a few days' time we here will be celebrating the most famous
Guy of all time, although perhaps the Americans will criticise us for
remembering a terrorist.
However, the word "guy" has some rather unfortunate connotations.
1. A "guy" is "a rope, chain, rod, or wire attached to something
as a brace or guide", hence "to guy something" is "to steady,
or reinforce with a guy".
"Hi, ropes"?
2. A "guy" is an effigy displayed and burned as part of November 5th
celebrations.
"Hi, soon-to-be-burned effigies"?
3. To "guy" someone is "to make fun of" or "ridicule" them.
Hence a "guy" is the butt of ridicule.
"Hi, dumbos"?
4. A "guy" can be "a person of grotesque appearance".
It's not clear to me that this is really different from sense 3.
"Hi, freaks"?
5. A "guy" can be "a man or boy (an informal use)".
6. "In informal *American* English, you can address a group of
people as guys or you guys, whether they are male or female."
7. A "fall guy" can be the victim of a deception or a scapegoat;
typically made a scapegoat by means of a deception.
"Hi, dupes"?
As a homebrewed variant I have been using "Hi all!" but it
limps a bit (might be a Swedish saying). :-)
While pointless, it is at least inoffensive.
After checking around it also seems that most people think it should be
"PPS" as in "post post scriptum". But somewhere I saw that it could mean
"post scriptum secundum". He.
www.webster.com
"Etymology: New Latin 'post postscriptum'.
An additional postscript."
Of course, in e-mail we are at liberty to fold our postscripts back into the
body of the text without tearing up any pages or re-penning anything...
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