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From: Antonio Marques <no_email@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: PTD was the most-respected of the AUE regulars ...
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2024 08:51:31 -0000 (UTC)
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Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:41:13 -0700, HenHanna <HenHanna@devnull.tb>
> wrote:
> 
>> On 7/22/2024 9:40 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:
>>> PTD was a regular in sci.lang via Googlegroups, and suddenly jumped
>>> into aue as a result of something that was crossposted there.
>> 
>> When was that?
> 
> I can't remember exactly, but probably about 15-20 years ago. 
> 
>>> The instance I remember most was when he denied that the town of El
>>> Paso, Illinois, existed, and continued to deny its existence no matter
>>> what evidence was put before him.
> 
>> (thanks... i'll look that up)
> 
>> The instance I remember most was when he (PTD) opined that Most 
>> Chinese words consisted of 2 Chinese characters.
>> 
>> I and another person gave examples
>> ("Wo ai ni",
>> Wood, Water, sky, river, person, paper, ...
>> Most basic words and verbs are 1-character)
>> 
>> but that was when  PTD  became  [quintessentially PTD].
>> 
>> 
>> i couldn't quite tell
>> 1. if he was  convinced of some fact, info, or assertion, or
>> 2. if he was  just being like a 5 year old boy.

3. He was right (as usual), as in this specific case. That some of the core
vocabulary is the shortest applies to almost any language and as such is
not relevant to the discussion.

> In his own field he had some useful information, but outside his field
> he could be very dogmatic about things that he simply got wrong. 
> 

People desperately tried to jump on every unqualified statement of his for
some interpretation that would make him 'wrong'. What almost everyone does
is raise an objection to that course of action, but he consistently chose
to ignore that path, which in a way makes the other feel not acknowledged
as an interlocutor. That caused a huge amount of resentment, but who is to
blame? The answer depends on the degree of good faith on the part of those
trying to 'correct' him.

Then of course he may over the course of years have been wrong about things
he pronounced himself categorically on, but he was always very cautious
with that. 

There was stuff about which he said questionable things, but not while
pretending to be some kind of authority.

Maybe he'll get back one of these days. Usenet is just not something that
is effortless to setup. Istr someone got it running for him in the 90s, and
then when that computer broke down there was GG to make it effortless. I'm
sure he could have the expertise to get it running again, but it's probably
not that worthwhile. Not the setup, but the whole being on Usenet thing.
sci.lang has been down to a handful of commenters for a decade now.