Re: OT: The greetings problem (Re: Never violate a universal unless it seems like a good idea at the time)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Harald Stoiber" <stoiberh@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 8:40 PM
Subject: OT: The greetings problem (Re: Never violate a universal unless it
seems like a good idea at the time)


> On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 11:29:44 -0400, John Cowan <cowan@...>
wrote:
>
> >> Greetings,
> >
> >BTW, in English "Greetings" is used only when meeting, not when parting.
> >Back when the U.S. had a military draft, it was used at the beginning of
> >the letters that told you that you had been inducted, and for people of
> >the right age, just saying "Greetings" carries the full connotation of
> >"Your ass belongs to us now."
>
> Ooooooops! Sorry for that one. As you can easily imagine,
> I had no idea of the bad taste of "greetings". ;-)
> It must be an equally bad habbit as to start
> something very unpleasant with the words "Wunderschönen
> guten Tag!" in German... and with a cynical smile on the
> lips. *g*
I would suggest that, as it has no connotations to the majority of
people(That is, non-americans, and those reaching adulthood after the draft
ended), that you should not be worried about using it.

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