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Dear List, Has anyone counted the number of abstract nouns in David Bircumshaw's posting of 13 Dec? Should we count twice for abstract nouns with really potent I-am-pure/you-are-muck connotations? There is a curious side-light on this in the way the North- East (home of Labour?) treats its critics. There, the dissident is usually characterised as a socialist or communist. Hence: I once selled a local history booklet to a smart-looking gent, who came back some minutes later, bought a second copy and enquired if the author was a communist? I thought a little about myself, and suggested that what he could recognise was a tinge of the anarcho-syndicalist. Paah - sez he - a bunch of communists then! My point being that abstract words have little definition other than the wish to promote one's own virtue or molest others. Indeed, given his association with Andrew Duncan, and his own fine skill in using 'Angel Exhuast' to satirise and vilify, I could not imagine anyone better qualified than David Bircumshaw to run a witchhunt. Under the guise of a very moderate affair, of course. bill [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%