I purposely do not reply to some things, because I can be um very opinionated, and do not want to hack anyone off with my viewpoint. Then again, there are times in life you just need to stay "shut upped"
One of the excellent things about this forum is the easy going nature of @Ken Anderson . As a member of many forums over the years and still others today, I find ken's mantra (paraphrasing)...to try not give offence and be not be ready to take offence easily , refreshing... and when people do get into a bit of a spat , he's not raining down with a big stick..just willing to let everyone ''debate'' 'till their hearts content, unless it gets ''personally'' too offensive... Otherwise we're given a lot more rope on this forum than any other I've encountered..
Thank you, @Holly Saunders. I appreciate your comments, even though you don't know how to spell "offense."
LOL...take no notice Gloria, Ken likes to try and push my buttons with regard to our ENGLISH spellings...
@Holly Saunders The spelling is to me not the facetious part, but rather the pronunciation is: "They took "odd-vawn-tage" of it". "Ahsk it? I co-mahnd it". "He odd-vawnst quickly in rank."
LOL...I have no idea who talks like that, ( even the queen doesn't speak like that) but do remember that although the UK is a small Island, the accents and dialects differ greatly , even to go 10 miles north south east or west and the accent is different. Anyone going from the South to the midlands or worse, the north of the country would have a very difficult time understanding the locals at all!!!
In some parts of the country, we have something similar here. Although a combination of traveling, television, and syndicated radio shows have greatly reduced the number of people here who speak with defined accents and blunted the accents of others, I couldn't understand what people were talking about in Maine when I first moved here, and some Boston accents make people sound stupid to me, even when they are clearly not stupid. Most of the Southern US accents are, I think, easy enough to understand but it can take them forever to get to the end of a sentence. Growing up in the UP of Michigan, I didn't think I had an accent but people have been able to guess that I am a Yooper, despite the fact that I moved from there when I was seventeen.
@Hal Pollner , I meant to comment on your Mars Opposition thread but sometimes I don't have time to post for several days and when I got back online, it had moved from the first page. And I forgot to comment. Can you post a link of where I can read more about. I am fascinated by the heavens.