Date:  Mon, 27 Oct 1997 13:16:04 -0500
From:  Ron Butters <RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: unctuous speech -Reply

I agree completely. I don't think I've ever advocated rudeness in all my
postings on this subject! My basic purpose all along has been to point out
that "Bless you!" is a highly unusual linguistic response, and that its
function is ENTIRELY "phatic" (to use the term PHATIC the way it is generally
used, regardless of etymology). I'm not emotionally committed to stamping it
out--just a dispassionate observor.

*****in reply to:
Subj:  unctuous speech -Reply
Date: Mon 27 Oct, 1997 1:26 PM EDT
From: Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com
X-From: Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com (Mark Mandel)
To: RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]aol.com

A good point (and well made!). But "Bless you" is not always unctuous.
Sometimes I see it as a normal part of a subculture different from mine,
and then we're dealing with an interface problem... to which my
preferred approach is that the nuisance (of the -- to me -- misapplied oil)
is negligible for the sake of the more general flow of operations. That is,
making a fuss about it would cause more disruption than ignoring it.