Dan Abel > wrote:

> The initial post in this thread did not seem like a malicious troll.

Oh, really?

> There must be something wrong, though, since I didn't see it, due to my
> killfiling that other group.

Well, something made you killfile that group, did it not? Perhaps there
was a good reason? Perhaps it happened more than once?

> I don't know how many news clients warn about cross posting. Mine
> doesn't.

It does, but only starting with five or more newsgroups (and refusing to
post to more than twenty). You might want to write to Simon Fraser and
request an improvement.

> It seemed to me that you jumped on Serene quite hard for trying to help
> someone, although it's hard to tell the intent of a post on a newsgroup.
> Perhaps you were just trying to be helpful, but it didn't come across
> that way to me.

Please point out the hard-jumping part to me.

There are two things here, in case you missed them. One is a lack of
simple courtesy to the fellow users of a newsgroup. Either you pay
attention, or you install and set up a suitable tool, otherwise called a
newsreader, to "pay attention" for you. That is what computers and
software are designed to do - automating repetitive, boring tasks. It
is as simple as that.

The other thing is a deliberate refusal to pay attention to one's
surroundings. Month after month the same troll(s) keep(s) asking the
same kind of simplistic questions, crossposting them to the same
newsgroup, the nominally German-language ophthalmics one, but which has
long turned into a modern-day alt.fan.karl-malden.nose, only with the
Harvard students fortunately replaced with the relatively harmless and
meek special-education ones, pollute this newsgroup - and you (not
necessarily you, Dan) notice nothing? People oblivious to their
surroundings ought not to post at all.

ObFood: To add to the never-ending grilled-cheese threads, here is yet
another, refreshingly unorthodox variation, from _An Omelette and a
Glass of Wine_ by Elizabeth David.

Victor

French Welsh Rabbit
(Recipe by Comtesse Marie de Toulouse-Lautrec for a leaflet publicizing
Port-Salut cheese.)

'For 2 people: 2 large slices of bread, 4 oz. of Port-Salut, 1 large
glass of beer, 1/2 a glass of kirsch, 2 oz. of butter, Cayenne pepper.
'Melt the butter in a frying pan and put the bread slices in it so
that they are golden coloured on both sides. In a large saucepan, pour
the beer that you warm for 5 minutes. Then add the Port-Salut, minced
as thinly as possible, the kirsch and a pinch of Cayenne pepper. Stir
with a wooden spoon until the cheese is quite melted. Put the bread
slices in an oven dish, buttered beforehand, cover them with cheese
cream and leave in the oven to brown.'