I suppose I'm guilty as charged of having framed my discussion thread flippantly and of having spouted off a bit when called on it. My apologies. I'm very grateful for the moderation here and the general expertise of our forum members. Allow me to sentence myself to only dry, laser-focused, contentful posts for a period not to exceed 1 month. Well, maybe "contentful" at least.

Often I'm pleasantly surprised by insights gained in various threads when an apparent "tangent" is allowed some latitude to develop. It's a kindness on the part of the mods, yes, but also (to me) a recognition of the reality that knowledge is fuzzy; clear boundaries between certain topics can sometimes obscure rather than enhance. In my head this relates to a [quite possibly nostalgic] affection for browsing the stacks in libraries and book stores as opposed to buying titles online, but I digress...

jbviau wrote: ... knowledge is fuzzy; clear boundaries between certain topics can sometimes obscure rather than enhance. In my head this relates to a [quite possibly nostalgic] affection for browsing the stacks in libraries and book stores as opposed to buying titles online, but I digress...

I like this idea, which points out another dimension to "off-topic" discussion as something more than water cooler gossip.