Dearest Sinister, On Mon, 27 Sep 1999, E. A. Hostetter wrote:

I have gotten my first permanent salaried job since leaving University in 1997 and earning that useless degree in Linguistics... Montreal will be my new home...I will be an online editor...

Congratulations! But I must protest. Linguistics is not useless. It's like working for the joy of giving. You can use it to come up with explanations for mishearings on the lyrics page, as in: "I know we've had this thread before, but don't you think it's odd that such a softly-spoken and not very raucous (rock beast Le Pastie de la Bourgeoisie excepted) band as Belle And Sebastian should create such confusion with their lyrics? On their theme tune Stuart Murdoch seems to sing his F's like B's. As in: 'Bella you are ill, you'd better take a weight up off your mind' and 'When I was young you were the only bun in town'" /b/ and /f/ both labial ... (And phonology isn't even the interesting part.) Michael Jones wrote:

It's all townies, upper-middlebrow TV quizzes and experimental syntax.

Who/what are townies? If they get lumped together with experimental syntax it must mean something pretty neat. I used the new search feature, but didn't find anything explanatory (only more questions - who/what are neds?). the Narrow Wizard wrote:

I accidentally insulted the poor bloke.

We were talking about this list and I said how good it was and how unlike many other internet groups it wasn't full of freaks with no social skills whatsoever. He said that actually he was one of those sorts of people and then I got kind of embarassed and ran away.

I think there would be no need for embarrassment if it was clearly understood who insulted whom. No, it was probably good intentions on both sides. What I like especially about the misfits in Belle & Sebastian songs is that they have a sort of pride, relative to their own standards - at least how I see it, or how I wish it to be. I met a woman who said call me Arantxa. (Her real name is Maria.) She said Arantxa was a name from the Basque region. It made me think of mountains and shepherding and white embroidered aprons, but I have no idea if that's right. It added romance to Lady Marian's past. Bye for now, Youn +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "jelly-filled danishes" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+