The trouble with the Internet is that most of the content is so dull, that the moment two people don't absolutely agree with each other, it ends up getting built up into something like mortal combat. Comments that would pass between you and I in a bar as normal conversation end up being lit up like some kind of reality TV dispute between celebs, the difference being that the celebs get paid for doing it and you and I don't, fortunately!Mike62 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2020 1:44 pm This is a fascinating discussion. I was a little taken aback at first by what I thought was an unnecessary broadside toward Mr. Smith, but Rob seems to have an arsenal worthy of rebutting Mr. Herd. I just finished reading McDonald's 'Quill Gordon', again, and the tone of this conversation is wonderfully similar to the way McDonald wrote of the heated discussions of antiquity over certain claims of authenticity.
The painting of the fishing monks has always been a favorite of mine, and now it's become the wallpaper for this computer. It also serves as a reminder of the back and forth between scholars over the authorship of the Book of Saint Albans. Was Julianna really a fishing prioress? Did monks fish? ...and why wouldn't they. I guess when scholars fall all about themselves over the details it can get a little pointed. I'm just glad the gentlemen here are willing to sit down and share a pint after this dust settles.
Carry on, gentlemen. Carry on.
What started this off was a question about what the Romans did for us, and Rob has put his view and I have put mine, and we are both OK with it. As Rob wrote further up this thread, he made a leap of faith that I am not prepared to take, and that is a perfect summing up of the position.
Some guy came up to me at the Fly Fair and said he was looking forward to seeing Rob and I lock horns, and he was hellish disappointed when I said that Rob was the guy I had just been talking to (-: I would imagine that Rob would have said the same of me.
So if anyone wants us to carry on, they are going to have to come up with a question for us to kick around. I am up for the Dame, but I can't speak for Rob.