"Jeff Morris" wrote
[snip] Sort of like the wince I got from an African-American/Cherokee
friend when I asked him how he was going to celebrate Columbus Day?
Ouch!

ps So how does your partner rate my explanations?
The great mediator saw truth in both models. He was a bit more forgiving of
my "impellor in a great centrifugal pump" analogy, but slapped my wrist for
saying this about centrifugal force: if it feels real, mustn't it be real?
By the time he was done, my head was spinning and yet somehow my brain
seemed to be bulging (quite appropriately) out of both sides of my head. In
the end he called me an English teacher, which is his way of slandering me,
and told me my paltry general science achievements were no match for his
superior physics and math skills. I told him he could forget about me taking
him sailing again and he took it all back.
He's never done the newsgroups though, and was quite impressed with the ease
with which like minded folks could debate a worthy topic.
Scout