I was a very frequent contributor on an excellent LIST several years ago. That LIST is now almost non-existent. I hardly ever even get postings from there anymore-- most people have abandoned that LIST. It seems to me that most of us just gave up on it, when about 2 or 3 people just sort of took it over and started deconstructing every single post. 2 of those guys would oddly write out 500-1000 word responses to almost anything, arrogantly believing theirs was the final word, picking apart the posts being made innocently by the posters. Sometimes the postings sounded sinister. I hope the word "deconstructing" does not give anyone the impression I am anti-theory, or some such nonsense like that. These were people who, as Prof. Harris, put it, did not welcome certain kinds of questions or comments--or certain outlooks. I certainly hope that is not where this LIST is going. I feel the pain in Susan Harris's and in Mark Coburn's comments. Myself-- I always feel free to ask questions that I know will be quickly, smartly, and usually quite wisely answered on this LIST. I am not looking to this LIST for great effusive dialogue, or that it become less "stodgy." Probably for most of us, it is not stodgy at all--anymore than, say, MARK TWAIN A-Z ed. by Kent Rasmussen is a thing that can be labeled "stodgy." Necessary, and a great source of hard-to-find info, yes; stodgy, no. Harold K. Bush, Ph.D Dept. of English, Saint Louis University