Date:  Fri, 24 Oct 1997 02:11:24 EDT
From:  Julia Cochran <COCPROFS[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: - no subject (01IP5OGNV35Q8X2EE4) -

On Thu, 23 Oct 1997 19:57:44 -0400 Beverly Flanigan said:
>  Michael's right, of course; "Bless you" is the subjunctive wish that
>  God may bless you. And I agree with Peter that the speaker may or may
>  not be religious and has no reason to know whether or not I am. Mine
>  is a kneejerk reaction to childhood "blessings" and admonitions, I
>  suppose--so all right already, I'll start saying "Thank you"!

The childhood admonitions...now those are a topic unto themselves, and so often
paired with the "blessings" that it's easy to throw the proverbial baby out
with the equally proverbial bathwater. I recall one immediately, regarding
a certain Bible verse that reads that one should never call another person a
"fool." Relying on the King James translation, we assumed that there was some-
thing almost magically evil about the noun "fool," and never dared
use it to refer to anyone present or absent. Yet, we never hesitated to call
playmates "stupid idiots" and the like.