OT: Navy Rate Spelling & Microwave Ovens

[Bob Stockler]

Mark Luljak wrote (on Sat, Oct 21, 2006 at 02:44:46PM -0400):

| Y'all catch dis heeyah?  Wayne Smith been jivin' 'bout like:
| >  
| > Lots clipped out of WDG's original message below for brevity, when I saw how
| > he spelled his Uncles Rate in the Navy I nearly spilled my coffee. It is
| > SEABEE !!! Not CB, laugh. Oh by the way we have a metal shelf/rack in our
| > late model LG over the counter Microwave oven that seems to work fine. 

Says Robert C. Stockler, Ltjg USNR Retired . . .

  I understood CB to be an abbreviation, but the most glaring
  error (to me) was saying that that was his Rate in the USN.
                                             ^^^^
  Rate is the heirarchy in enlisted service (E1-E9 in my days).
  Enlisted personnel, Warrent Officers & Officers are the USN.
                                                  ^^^
  Seabee is the nickname for The US Naval Construction Force.
  the motto of which is "With compassion for others we build -
  we fight for peace with freedom" (http://www.seabee.navy.mil).

But I understood the message and admired the accomplishments and
resilience of the person being described.  So didn't nitpick.

| Rule #1:  Don't be a moron and criticise someone else's punctuation and
| spelling in a public forum.  If the intent and meaning was clear enough to
| you to know what they meant in the first place, it was 99.9% likely clear
| to everyone else as well.
| 
| Rule #2:  If you're -going- to be a complete idiot and abandon Rule #1,
| actually have the accuracy yourself to be in a position to criticise.
| "Uncle's, "over-the-counter," "BUT when I saw how,", a complete sentence in
| the form akin to, "It's not CB. *laugh*," all are corrections of your own
| flawed sentence and word structure.  There's a comma missing after, "Oh by
| the way,", and a couple other things that are debatable without my going
| back to actual textbooks to verify them.  Now that we know you live in a
| glass house, you want to put the rocks down?
| 
| Can't you just leave things alone without turning it into a p*$$ing
| contest, Smitty?  Obviously that's rhetorical, since the obvious answer 
| is, "No."
| 
| Bests,
| 
| The List Fairy
| 
| PS - Don't think that's gone unnoticed.  Your weak rationalisation of what
| that supposedly means was just that--pathetically weak and transparent
| to anyone with an IQ over 60.  Glad to see even Brian (with whom I oft
| disagree, to the point I only see quoted text of his in replies because
| I plonked him a while back) even sees and acknowledges it as such, and
| it's not just any paranoia on my part.  But you know, you're welcome to
| as -much- rope as you want.  I know what my grandfather always said about
| giving people plenty of rope, and I enjoy the show you put on in that
| respect.  Keeps my entertainment budget down.  Call me what you like.  At
| least you -have- a G-Rated, publicly printable term for what you think of
| me; I can't say the same in reverse. :)
| 
| PPS - I can just see you lamely latching on to the use of "criticise" as
| a misspelling.  I'll derail you right now by telling you It's the British
| spelling.  Many to most British variants use an 's' instead of a zed.  I've
| tried getting clarification of the exact rule by which this happens.  A
| Pommie seemed to give the most accurate summation to date, in lieu of an
| accurate rule and its exepctions:  "If there's a zed present, it's because
| a Yank decided to put it there."

"Pommie". huh?  Now I'll think your an Aussiephile as well.

Bob

-- 
Bob Stockler  +-+  bob at trebor.iglou.com  +-+  http://members.iglou.com/trebor