On Tue, 07 Dec 2004 21:43:15 GMT, Alex Chaihorsky wrote:

> Rich, dear friend -
>
> 1. I never drunk any horse ****, so can't help you here. Now, about horse
> **** smell. Having been around horses quite a lot during my Siberian geology
> years I can tell you one thing - there are probably few substances in the
> world that smell that diversified. And mainly dependant on the animal's
> diet. None of which (the smells), I dare to say, are disgusting.

Now I know your senses are screwy.

> For your virtual collection of smells I will testify that a Cossack horse
> that grazed upon fresh mountain grass on alpine meadows around Hangar
> volcano on my beloved Kamchatka Peninsula leave a smell of its urine that is
> unmistakably strong smell of a freshly cut just baked rye bread. So much so,
> that the gentlemen who accompany these horses on their hard journeys across
> the mountains for months, as I did, would stop their monotonous and
> exhausting walk, lift their heads and inhale that smell with joy and hope of
> reaching a hamlet someday where they can actually enjoy a normal hot meal
> under a non-leaky roof.

Lucky you. The smell of stables where thoroughbred breeding mares have
been housed is quite the opposite. Especially when you're still
tasting it 3 hours AFTER getting home from work.

> 2. Your passage about non-native English speakers is a bit alarming. Have we
> been that annoying in our misuse of the language of Shakespeare and Chaucer
> so that you felt compelled to hint us of our shortcomings?

I think you've got your interpretation polarizers in backwards, Sasha.

Rick's comment, to me, reads like he's unsure of the grammar himself
and trusts non-native English speakers to know it better than those of
us who grew up "in" the language and take it for granted.

After all, we is the peoples who screws up the languages.

--
Derek

"If I couldn't laugh, I couldn't stand this job for 15 minutes." --
President Abraham Lincoln