William,
Re your question below:
"That *is* a joke. Right?"
Joke? I was speaking EX CATHEDRA when I made my proclamations
("tough and colloquial" and "dark and sinister" are not quite
long enough, after all, to be properly referred to as
"encyclicals"), therefore the question is, now and forever,
closed.
Of course, I recognize that there are still some misguided
souls who resist the notion of my infallibility, but the
protestants were wrong several hundred years ago, and those
misguided souls are wrong now.
I have spoken and the matter is now settled.
In all seriousness, no one has offered up better definitions.
Except for Jack Bludis, all anyone has done is essentially
say, "That's too broad" or "That's too narrow" or "That
doesn't seem right" without offering workable alternatives.
And Jack's definitions, "tough" and "screwed," are
simultaneously too broad and too narrow.
On this list, Jim Blue once complimented me by saying:
". . . it certainly meets the criteria of a good definition -
it is precise, clear, simple, easy to apply, and it covers
most (or all) of the class under consideration, and few (or
none) of those who fall outside the class."
Come up with definitions that include more of the class under
consideration, and exclude more of those that fall outside of
the class, and I'll embrace it.
JIM DOHERTY
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