Re: Book REview

[Dave <davedave@io.com>]

This letter is best read in a monospaced font.

On Sat, 11 May 1996, Todd Coniam wrote:
> Personally I would like to appologize to Richard and my other 
> planetary occupants for the unnecessary arrogant remarks made 
> by Mr. Jones.                           ^^^^^^^^

I began my letter by stating a resonable opinion.  I followed that with 
two suggestions -- one of which was complimentary to Richard and the 
other of which was complimentary to Australians in general.  I then 
stated two facts.  Based on those facts, I stated another reasonable opinion.
Then I closed my letter.  Where is the arrogance?

Personally, I think that someone around here *is* being arrogant, but I 
won't name names.

> I would like to assure everyone that not all
> Americans feel that the rest of the world is insignificant 
> and not worth the trouble.  

I did *not* say that Australia was insignificant.  I did *not* say that 
Australia was not worth the trouble.  If you had taken the time to read 
my letter you would know that I was making the following point:

Because the Australian market is small, it would be very unwise to risk a
position in the U.S. market in order to capture a position in the
Australian market.  (For the benefit of persons such as yourself, perhaps
I should not have left the following point implied:  By removing the
"Americanisms"  from the book, they might make it less attractive to the
U.S. market.)

In any case, the fact that I suggested a special Australian edition should
make it perfectly clear to anyone with a brain larger than a pea that I
*do* consider Australia to be significant.  (For those who live in
countries where there are not peas:  A pea is a small (about five
millimeter diameter), round vegetable.)

> 
> As a side note, Americans in general are not widely traveled or
> exposed to other cultures (except at restaurants, I mean eating 
> establishments, seems restaurant is an Americanism too... ;-)
> which does explain, though not forgive, their ignorance...
>            ^^^^^^^             ^^^^^^^        ^^^^^^^^^

Most of the Americans that I know are widely traveled and are exposed 
to other cultures on a regular basis.  Since I cannot *explain* Todd's 
*ignorance*, I guess that I will just *forgive* him for it.

-- Dave Jones
davedave@io.com