Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!news.Brown.EDU!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!spool.mu.edu!wupost!dbsun!meyer
From: meyer@dbsun.uucp (Don Meyer)
Subject: Re: APOLOGIES TO DON - BOTH OF THEM!
Message-ID: <1993Mar9.202057.16654@dbsun.uucp>
Keywords: Strange, waste-of-bandwidth, linguistic, killfile
Organization: BioMerieux-Vitek, St. Louis Mo.
References: <1993Mar08.213952.29193@mixcom.com> <1993Mar9.103003.1@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 20:20:57 GMT
Lines: 35

Lori,
Good luck.  While I claim no knowledge of the origin of the phrase
"rule of thumb", I do know that:

   + It is in extremely widespread use.

   + No one has heard your explanation, therefore the phrase doesn't
     bother them a bit.

I also feel the need to comment that your saying that Clint "goofed"
is poor manners.  He merely used an incredibly common phrase that
you believe to be non-PC.  Cringing is okay, education is just
fine (I know I find cultural tidbits like this interesting), but
I would not say that he "goofed".

Actually, since I gave in to the urge to respond, I may as well
continue to skew off topic here (this thread is probably already
in killfiles worldwide ;-).  I realize that this is more properly
alt.sex.bondage turf, but I'd think that the _thinner_ the stick was,
the greater the force (psi) would be, and the more damage you could
inflict.  Wind resistance plays into it also, as does the material
the stick is made from (even if wood, there are many choices) of course.
Are you sure that it's not the other way around?  Perhaps you could
not beat your wife with a stick that was *less* than the thickness
of your thumb?

Apologies to net.police.wannabees for this off-topic reply.  I _did_
try to warn you in the keywords... :-)

Don Meyer
-- 
" 'Cause you see son, it's one of my responsibilities as a parent to wean
you from life's joy and prepare you for the relentless heartache that is
adulthood." -- Earl Sinclair to Robbie
    =========================================================
