On Fri, 3 Jun 2005 11:14:51 -0400, "Walter Maxwell"
wrote:

Why would you use 'Smith Chart' and 'anger' in the same sentence?

========================================
Just a figure of speech. "Anger" suggests setting about a job with
energy, determination and a sense of purpose. As distinct from mere
amusement.

And I thought I understood the English language. Obviously I miss some of the
ways you Brits use it. Thanks for the clarification--makes sense now.

Hi Walt,

I won't accuse you biting air on this one, again, Reg is in his usual
yarn spinning and this time both of you evidence the myth of those who
"use" a language believing they "know" that language. Brits are
terrible exemplars of best English usage. So are Americans, but they
rarely behave like they own the language they dominate (that is
changing as we write - the rest of the world is going to soon claim
that crown).

Reg has in fact fallen off the Anglo-Saxon wagon (or should I say
cart?) by trying to fit a new definition to an Old French import to
our common language. In a way, he has succumbed to the worst traits
of Americanizing English through cavalier redefinition.

Anger has always (to English speakers at least) meant just what you
thought it to mean - relating directly to the sense of pain or
affliction. Somehow Reg wants to convert those rather daily
experienced negative associations into something bright and cheerful.
Perhaps he has been reading too many missives from our White House's
pronouncements on the conduct of the war....

Anger comes by way of the Old French anquisse, or the Modern French
angoisse, derived from the Latin augustia meaning compression. Most
folks do not smile in anticipation of anguish becoming their "sense of
purpose." Not unless you are a fundamentalist perhaps.

Who would'a' thunk that this thread could be such a trove of language
instruction? ;-)

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC