Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

David Walker — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:56:43 GMT

Great phrase: "Fraught with peril". Many things in this world are fraught with peril...

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

JamesNT — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:48:04 GMT

Very nice! I am going to have to remember that line:

"This idea is fraught with peril, and I fear that my answers to your questions will be interpreted as approval rather than reluctant assistance."

I cannot tell you the number of times I have gone out of my way to explain the difficulties of someone's idea to do xyz but as soon as I explained how it might be done, they go around and tell EVERYBODY that, "James told me exactly how to do this and according to him everything will be just fine!"

JamesNT

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

silky — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:58:15 GMT

Rick C said:

> Wouldn't it have made sense to make that the FIRST sentence

> of your reply?

Not really no, as people would tend to ignore the first sentence as useless preamble. If they've been following a chain of Q/A style answers, it seems natural to continue to read the last item in the list (even though it may seem out of place). Anyway, in the end it's subjective, so any decision is arguable one way or the other, so pick an approach and see if it works.

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

Pi — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:57:48 GMT

Raymond, I give you a star. You are welcome.

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

Karellen — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:32:08 GMT

Sounds like an "old shoe or glass bottle" moment.

weblogs.asp.net/.../408925.aspx

(Bonus quote from that article: "You need to stop building things for money until you understand the basics of construction.")

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

OmarF — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:24:05 GMT

It sounds a bit like what may have happened to our chief statistician in Canada. Reading between the lines, the politicians took his discussion about what he would do if they changed the rules as acceptance of the rule change. He finally had to resign to get his point across. He should have used your quote in the first place.

www.theglobeandmail.com/.../article1647348

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

Matteo Italia — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:33:00 GMT

[ i agree with rick. The customer probably read up to the answers and then just stopped reading. ]

The difference with a forum/newsgroup is that there the reply would be "tl,dr; could you write that for me? :)" (or, better: "plz give meh teh codez xD").

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

Leo Davidson — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:43:18 GMT

Little typo (FWIW): "precautions again" -> "precautions against"

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

ERock — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:36:32 GMT

I can no longer see the words "fraught with peril" without immediately also thinking about "the path of a true martial artist."

re: Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 7

kog999 — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:22:23 GMT

i agree with rick. The customer probably read up to the answers and then just stopped reading. not that it would have made any difference if that had read it anyway.