Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 02:08:15 +0000
Reply-To: Paul Dorfman <sashole@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Paul Dorfman <sashole@BELLSOUTH.NET>
Organization: PDC
Subject: Re: Seasons Greetings to all
Dianne,
Wow! This is quite an elaborate way to say "Merry Christmas!" Since I am way too crude to fully comprehend the intricately grandiose meaning of the longer version, I have no choice but to stick with the shorter one.
There is one thing, though, that I did get due to my linguistic roots, namely, "gender neutral". See, both Ukrainian and Russian have 3 genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Not only that, but the gender of a part of speech, say, a noun, is assigned according to the way the noun is spelled in the nominative case, and in no way defined by its material essense. For example, in Ukrainian "soba`ka" (meaning a dog) is of masculine gender regardless of the dog's sex. In Russian, the same "soba`ka", whether a male or female, is of feminine gender.
You must agree that such a wise arrangement already renders things fairly gender neutral. However, if that were not enough, there are whole bunch of nouns (and adjectives and participles) whose gender is simply hard coded as neuter. "Vikno", for example (Ukrainian for a window), is neuter, and so is "nebo" (sky), and so on.
Unfortunately, both languages have failed to make all things dear to us sas-lers completely gender-neutral. SAS, for the most marked example... However, the brief list below (where the gender is the same in U and R) shows that on the average, the things are not too badly gender-skewed:
Thingy Gender
---------------------------
SAS M
SQL M
program F
datum N
programmer M
head F
brain M
crap N
statement N
semicolon F
colon (:) N
log M
step M
tree N
array M
parenthesis F
assignment N
operator M
macro N
error F
variable F
record F
observation N
I would rather leave it on this optimistic note.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Kind regards
------------
Paul Dorfman
Jax, FL
------------
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Dianne Rhodes <diannerhodes@COMCAST.NET>
>
> I found this on the npr blog I read every day www.npr.org/blogs/mycancer
> I thought you would enjoy it!
>
>
> Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially acceptable, low
> stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced
> within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your
> choice, but with respect for the religious persuasions of others who
> choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to
> practice a religion at all
>
> Additionally, a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and relatively
> medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar
> year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of
> other cultures whose contributions have helped make our society great,
> without regard to the race, creed, color, religious, or sexual preferences
> of the wishes.
>
> (Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It
> implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes
> for himself or others and has no responsibility for any unintended
> emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the
> holiday spirit.)
>
> Dianne Rhodes @ bls
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