Hi Tweeters,

Whenever I see the phrases 'another list', 'off topic', "discuss privately
(so we don't get flamed)", etc., I cringe. I mourn the loss of tolerance of
comment, of the almost-electric joy of unexpected connection between what
someone may post from out of left field and what I'm pleased to think I
know. I become impatient with self-appointed, self-important List Police. I
wonder what is so threatening about eclecticism that people want to stamp it
out, as though it were an intellectual eczema instead of reality's rich weave.


I went away for just a couple of weeks, and came back to find all sorts of
nervously self-conscious remarks about getting flamed, and thought to myself
wonderingly "Ye cats, what appalling thing has happened on Tweeters while I
was away to make the folks on this normally freewheeling and inquiring list
start to pussyfoot so diffidently?"

Limericks, for pete's sake. Limericks.

One of the reasons I subscribe to Tweeters is precisely because it *is* so
free-ranging and eclectic. That's how *knowledge*, as opposed to
information, as opposed to data, is. That's how the *world* is. For those
who think puristically (fun to coin words, eh?) of a 'Birds Only, All Else
Verboten' list, I offer the following observation: except for that wonderful
series of limericks (which erupted while I was away--boy, ya can't turn your
back on them for a second, can ya?--and here I offer public thanks to the
admirable Ms. Smith for collecting and forwarding them to me in their
gloriously insolent entirety), refreshing in their frisky impudence, and
which can be more charitably treated as springtime cut-ups than a Threat To
Our List's Integrity, virtually all the posts *are* of birds or are related
(or *will* relate) to birds.

In virtually every negative comment I've seen on 'off-topic' material, the
subtext is: "this topic is not related to any bird-topic in which *I'm*
interested." regardless that it may, in fact nearly always is, directly or
indirectly related.

Instead, try seeing the supposedly off-topic information as a potential door
instead of a blind alley (or as a pure metaphor rather than a mixed one ;-),
one that opens to new relationships between what you think you know and what
you may find out from an unexpected direction.

Or if that's too much work, then just Delete them little doggies.

Bring it *all* on, I say, and let the chips fall while the iron is hot!

Cheers,

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
michael_price at mindlink.bc.ca