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[V-Adore]

I've definitely felt the dialect-switch problem; my primary means of online communication for some time has been IRC, which, even on my fairly grammar-conscious server, doesn't permit any markup and thus relies primarily on *things like this.* It's taken training to get myself to the point that on phpBB-bases systems I can italicize properly.

That said, _this_ has always looked wrong to me for reasons I can't quite articulate. Maybe it just breaks my visual "flow" while reading text in a way that *asterisk emphasis* doesn't.

[wombat]

my meaning in using the word "dissertation" was the quality of going over your text as though it were to be presented to a board that held the ability to screw you over in their collective Hand.

as opposed to me, who goes over his text like he goes over his thinning hair with a wet hand, running 10 minutes late to meet his friend to play video games.

For someone who in another thread claims that he talks and writes badly, this is damned eloquent, Ark.

[arkabee]

That said, _this_ has always looked wrong to me for reasons I can't quite articulate. Maybe it just breaks my visual "flow" while reading text in a way that *asterisk emphasis* doesn't.

how odd that two people can be so different.

because, to _me_, circumnavigating an asterisk is, no pun intended, a risky proposition.  it's pointy, and it's scary, and it's rounded much like i'd imagine a mine would look like if i were in a boat surrounded by mines.

it lends a sense of forboding to a sentence: *HALT!* do NOT enter this thought, lest Ye Communicate!

where-as the faux-underline makes me think of an iced over lake in Just South of the Upper Peninsula, in Febuary, with kids skating and frolicking and having fun: Why don't ya'll just _zoom_ on into this here sentence, we'll all have some fresh hot cider! Carefull now kids, _this_ here's Adult Cider, the Children's Cider is over _there_, and watchout for *double-entendres*, *sarcasm*, and *hidden invectives*.

For someone who in another thread claims that he talks and writes badly, this is damned eloquent, Ark.

do you _want_ to see a tooth blush?  assuredly it would nto be a pretty sight.


Seriously, though, Pedro just tell your "guests" to leave, that an unruly tooth requires your opinion on the Internet!

[andalucia]

tooth blush

This is persistantly scanning as a rather clever pun for me, although the context indicates that it was not meant as such.  Bravo?

[arkabee]

tooth blush

This is persistantly scanning as a rather clever pun for me, although the context indicates that it was not meant as such.  Bravo?

no, no bravo for me.

i'm constantly told that i'm only funny when i don't try to be.

[miles]

Orwell discusses this quite a bit, that to reason clearly, one must speak and clearly.

I think you do have a point, but I don't think that language alone is causing this.  A primary cause of the change in political discourse is television.  Many politicians are very intelligent people with an ability to write and speak well, but it seems that the modern political observer cares more about soundbites and hairstyles.  It's much easier to say "I will be tough on crime" and flash a smile than to dive into a discussion of how to reform the criminal system.  Charm is much more important than intellect these days.

However, you don't need to look too far to find beautiful language being produced.  There are still masters of standard english out there.  I imagine that in all eras of the english languagate there were people who lamented current usage.  It's worked out so far.

I do see this as a cultural decline: political speeches even from the early twentieth century are written to a much higher grammatical and rhetorical standard, and reading them in history classes tends to make me envy the ages from which they came.
Of course, there is the argument that the contemporary tendency to appeal to the lowest common denominator is valuable, since it allows people outside of the upper echelons of education, and by extension, wealth, to understand and to participate in political discourse.