Re[2]: Cute Fable - good point!

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At 01:03 AM 10/5/95 -0500, you wrote:
>>>>>> "Kyle" == R Kyle Jones <rkjones@husc.harvard.edu> writes:
>
>    Kyle> Irregardless of how you look at it, education is a necessary
>    Kyle> predeterminant for salvation.  
>
>"Irregardless" is not a valid word.  Were it such, it would amount to
>a double negative, with the "ir" on the front cancelling the effect of
>the "less" on the back, resulting in "regard", which in this context
>would be better rendered "regardful".  

Nope.  "Irregardless" means the same thing as "regardless."  I think that
it's somewhat of a contraction/combination of irrespective and regardless,
or something along those lines.

It is, however, what you could term "non-standard usage."  So, you could
dock me for that.  I tend to use it quite a bit when I'm arguing against a
point that I want to prove wrong.  That way, I can play on the word's
negative connotation.  (This ties back to what you term "double negative.")
Then, if it's a point I want to prove right, I can use the simple word
"regardless" to show that any opposition is not that big a deal.  

>The proper word is "regardless".  A Harvard grad should know such
>things, and since you are still an undergrad, better you should learn
>it here than from a professor: I will not take off points and lower a
>grade because of it.  :)

I'm terribly sorry for using non-standard words.  I wasn't aware that all of
my correspondence was going to be examined for correct and proper English
usage. :)

Also, I'm not really sure that Harvard grads are too terribly much more
brilliant than us at the college.  After all, there's ten schools of them --
and there's only *ONE* college.  However, even I will have to admit that
they probably possess more knowledge than us.  (But not for long!)

Interestingly enough, I actually had an Expository Writing
proctor/fellow/whatever-they're-called tell me not to use those types of
words at all.  I think she referred to them as "intensifiers," and claimed
that they did exactly the opposite -- kind of caused you to glaze over the
point instead of grasping its real meaning.

>    >> God takes pleasure in our highly developed intellects?  Poor
>    >> old John the Baptist.  Living in the desert and all.  He missed
>    >> out on so much, but was still called a prophet of higher status
>    >> than any other before him!  Hmmmmm.
>
>    Kyle> John had an education.  After all, if he hadn't, he wouldn't
>    Kyle> have been able to write down all the stuff that he did for
>    Kyle> you.
>
>While I certainly agree with you that John must have had an education,
>seeing that his father was a priest, I do not know of any place in the
>scriptures that indicates that John himself wrote down "all the stuff
>that he did".  If I missed that somewhere, please give me the
>citation. 

Mmmmmmmmm . . . You caught me, Robert.  I was kind of hoping that no one
would really notice.  Truthfully, most of our scholarly evidence seems to
indicate that the majority of the Bible was an oral tradition which was
recorded in written form later.

I was assuming that John had something of an education because he was, at
least, able to communicate his views to others.  It's kind of a leap for me
to assume that he wrote anything down.

Kyle
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R. Kyle Jones is not a licensed nor practicing psychologist, but merely an
undergraduate studying psychology.  Any advice given should not be 
miscontrued in any fashion to indicate any form of professional counseling.
Please seek a practicing professional for any mental health or other
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