Klarinet Archive - Posting 000502.txt from 2000/03

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] "Major" clarinetist: a tangent thread
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 10:00:13 -0500

I think I'd better begin by putting on the asbestos suit....

With no disparagement to the *quality or accomplishments* of the clarinetist,
I will risk making myself look like an ignoramus by saying that I barely
recognized her name when reminded of it, I hadn't remembered her
independently, I don't think she is well-known compared to most of the
clarinetists people guessed about, and I don't think she is nearly as
reknowned a star performer as David Blumberg's first message ("10 out of 10
in major player scale") seemed to promise. Maybe she *should* be, but -- she
isn't. Therefore she made an excellent choice to generate an extremely large
number of responses before someone guessed right. A female clarinetist made
an especially clever choice, since people might hesitate to argue that she
isn't "major" for fear of appearing sexist.

The first message appeared in Digest No. 2104, which I received on March 13,
2000. As of Digest No. 2108 on March 14, 2000, in which David Blumberg
confirmed the identity of the mystery clarinetist, this thread had already
generated a total of 81 messages, if my count is correct. 19 of these
messages came from David Blumberg. A total of 43 messages included "mp3.com"
in the subject header (and when the subject headers began to vary so as not
to include "mp3.com", David Blumberg put the ad back into the header, for
instance, by changing the header to, "MP3 -- Who is it???" yesterday). 39
messages included David Blumberg's tagline with his mp3.com advertisement
either as original content or in the context of quoting his messages. 32
messages included explicit references to mp3.com within the content. Of
course, "mp3.com" was implicit subject matter in all 81 messages, since David
Blumberg offered a recording as a prize for the correct guess.

If someone had sent an unadorned advertisement to this list that many times
in only two days, I believe we would regard that person as a spammer. Up to
a point, the guessing game was fun. In fact, I mentally played the game,
too. (My guess, which I never researched or sent in, was all wrong:
Focussing on the "unbreakable record," I wondered whether a clarinetist might
have played in one of the selections on the diskette that was the first
record NASA fired into outer space.) I don't object to a *reasonable* amount
of commercial traffic on the list, as long as posters use some discretion and
refrain from abusing the goodwill of the list. As commercials go, this
guessing game appeals to me more than bare-nekkid spam. I also appreciate
David Blumberg's many positive contributions to this list and I'm glad he's
here. *But* -- is it unreasonable to ask for a moratorium on advertisements
thinly disguised as "games"?

Lelia
(Pulling down blast-resistant faceplate and ducking behind firewall.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org