Re: a comment on =, <>, & . . . by Dovina	zodiac 209.193.14.140	3-Mar-06/1:15 PM
For what it's worth, "That depends only upon who gave the most to my campaign fund or who would make me look better. I am an elected leader, else I would not be making the choice" is full of holes. You are given no assurance that your biggest contributors are the ones saved. If you mean you'd pick the program that gave the most to your campaign, well, either choice stands to be criticized a great deal, and Program D stands to kill everybody, so are you really doing them such a favor? Moreover, there are any number of ways you could be faced with this choice without being elected leader. One that comes immediately to mind is that you're an appointed leader, like the head of FEMA or CDC. Or you could be the head of a pharmaceutical corporation that only has time to produce one of two possible medicines in the time remaining. Or you, Dovina, could find yourself in an abandoned laboratory. You see two separate glass containers. A note taped nearby says: "These containers can only be opened by a gunshot. Opening the container to the right will release Drug C, which will certainly allow 400 of the 600 people affected by the Asian virus to die but save the other 200. Opening the container to the left will release Drug D, after which there is a proven 1/3 chance that nobody affected by the virus will die, but a 2/3 chance that everybody affected will die." There is a gun lying nearby with only one bullet. You have no other gun with you. Nor, according to a separate, attached note, is there enough time to get one or find other people. Therefore, you have to decide to either shoot the container to the right or the container to the left. You must assume all of this is true. Certainly, you will agree that this is at least POSSIBLE, and that your comment above is, therefore, bunk.
Re: Wet Paint (A Blond Point of View) by Miggy	Dovina 69.175.32.104	3-Mar-06/1:08 PM
How do you bring her her hidden lusts. She already has them. Maybe you mean that you reveal them. The last verse is good. The first verse and the chorus have potential, but need work.
Re: a comment on =, <>, & . . . by Dovina	Dovina 69.175.32.104	3-Mar-06/12:59 PM
It can certainly be quibbled with on several fronts.
Re: a comment on =, <>, & . . . by Dovina	Dovina 69.175.32.104	3-Mar-06/12:58 PM
I don't either.
Re: Under the Spoon by MacFrantic	ecargo 167.219.88.140	3-Mar-06/11:14 AM
Funny. I don't mind random rhyming, but it gets awkward here and there--might kill some of the "just to rhyme" rhymes. Good flow and funny, like "under the spoon" as opposed to knife; yeah, alligator not quite it so you need a more punchy ending, IMO. Cool.
Re: =, <>, & . . . by Dovina	ecargo 167.219.88.140	3-Mar-06/11:10 AM
To quibble with your whimsy: A full stop (period) isn't always a real end. As often, something related follows. Ellipses indicate a different type of omission than does etcetera (the latter is "more of the same"; the former just indicates something was taken away). A semicolon is more often used in place of a conjunction than as an interruption; it's a link between two close elements. Dashes don't always indicate answers--sometimes they're interruptions.
Re: Whalecrack by wlshepherd	ecargo 167.219.88.140	3-Mar-06/11:00 AM
Some good soundplay but good nonsense poems make you want to believe they make sense. This just comes off as random garble.
Re: a comment on =, <>, & . . . by Dovina	zodiac 209.193.14.140	3-Mar-06/10:50 AM
And I don't know why I bother posting hypothetical questions (ie, questions which presume that all the information relevant to the answer are included in the question itself), when you're just going to grab all your "hotels" off Mediterranean Avenue and cram them in your mouth, anyway.
Re: a comment on =, <>, & . . . by Dovina	zodiac 209.193.14.140	3-Mar-06/10:48 AM
I believe if you had anything relevant to say about the question, you'd have said it already, so I'll just state the obvious. The two questions are the same, Program A IS Program C, Program B is Program D. The test was meant to - and did - show that presentation affects people's answers to hypothetical (or real) questions, even questions which, by their mathematical, logical nature, would not seem to be affected. Most subjects answered "A" to question 1 but "D" to question 2. However cannily you think you've answered, you did the same thing.
Re: a comment on A Failed Proposition Under The Night Sky by Ranger	Ranger 62.252.32.15	3-Mar-06/10:18 AM
Rather naively I didn't see any of this coming...dammit!
Re: a comment on A Failed Proposition Under The Night Sky by Ranger	Ranger 62.252.32.15	3-Mar-06/10:16 AM
The problem with changing the mist stanza is that I need 'avail' in its intransitive form to keep the wordplay - the mist seems like a veil (in keeping with the marriage theme, you see). It's annoyingly clumsy in that passage, I just don't yet know how to alter it while retaining the meaning. I could get rid of the silent toast, it's quite an awkward phrase...although again it fits the 'dream of wedding' theme. Hmm, help needed, methinks.
Re: a comment on =, <>, & . . . by Dovina	Dovina 69.175.32.104	3-Mar-06/10:15 AM
Interesting, you say, "Don't be silly" rather than, "Don't act silly." It's like saying "Don't be woman." Surgery is available for curing womanhood, but nothing cures sillyness.
Re: a comment on There by Dovina	Dovina 69.175.32.104	3-Mar-06/10:12 AM
Fear not, blood will not surely shoot or run. What surely exudes is prayer, when we least expect.
Re: A Failed Proposition Under The Night Sky by Ranger	ecargo 167.219.88.140	3-Mar-06/9:46 AM
Atlas, dreaming of a burden lifting--nice. do you need the "silent toast"--maybe just go w/ beacon lit? Could the mist. . . this gets a little garbled: could the mist . . . avail him (a flowing turn of white?)(verb form of avail can be transitive or intrasitive, so doesn't necessarily need an object but, nonetheless, this doesn't parse well. I like the idea and the imagery a lot.
Re: Pine Boxes (revised) by Joe-joe	ecargo 167.219.88.140	3-Mar-06/9:34 AM
As noted, "reign" (and, yeah, lose "supreme") For me, the questions are distracting.
Re: The North Wind by Ranger	LilMsLadyPoet 205.188.116.134	3-Mar-06/9:19 AM
First two lines> good! Some good lines sprinkled here and there. It is not the best poem ever written, but you did attempt to say this 'coming of age' type thing in a unique way. I like the title choice...and to compare the north wind with a longing for a realized need for warmth...that's original.
Re: Am I Still Here? by Ranger	LilMsLadyPoet 205.188.116.134	3-Mar-06/9:06 AM
Some good images...made me smile...rather disjointed, but consistantly so! I like alot of the lines, the last 8, particularly, sit well.
Re: Frozen Angel by Ranger	LilMsLadyPoet 205.188.116.134	3-Mar-06/8:55 AM
Favorite places: Whose timeless eyes of long-lost years will watch and wait and show But her day to be praised came centuries ago .... 2nd stanza could be really good with some work. The rythm is just a minute twitch off. ........ stanza 3: I had to giggle at...witty thought. .... stanza 4 the rythm is good...the last line didn't work for me, though. seemed cheesy.
Re: A Short Letter by Ranger	LilMsLadyPoet 205.188.116.134	3-Mar-06/8:46 AM
I liked this right up till "so much coarser"! The rythm is a simplistic one, the rhymes predictable, but it's good, anyway! I would respectfully suggest a fitting ending, that would do this justice.
Re: Mannequin (draft) by Ranger	LilMsLadyPoet 205.188.116.134	3-Mar-06/8:38 AM
I like this! The last stanza is not as well-formed as it might have been, but overall I like this.