I don’t agree that raven alb j is a crackpot.

That’s because you’re not familiar with this brand of crackpottery.  I am, and I assure you it’s perfectly parallel to the guy who thinks the mayonnaise in his refrigerator was curdled by aliens from the Horsehead Nebula.  Turks with their pots cracked in this particular fashion rant about how Turkish is the origin of all languages and Sumerian is really Turkish; Romanians talk like this guy.  But you don’t actually have to know anything about language or linguistics to realize he’s a crackpot; the egomaniacal references to Aristarchus and Copernicus should clue you in, as should “I wrote a book on history, ice ages and linguistics titled ‘Why and How the Ice Age Ended and the True History of the White Race.’” If you want to waste your time trying to have a discussion with him, be my guest, but I promise you you will get nowhere.

I hope it’s clear from my years of participation on this site that I welcome new members and enjoy discussing language with people regardless of their prior level of understanding—hell, I even tried to be nice to graviton—but crackpottery is a different matter and a waste of everyone’s time.

I concur. The theme of I’m the only one to have researched this is another giveaway.

Note that my responses to the likes of Raven, Richard, and Graviton are not really intended for them. They’re intended for the casual reader who may stumble upon the thread.

He ticks all the boxes. My only complaint is that it is a bit [I]too by-the-numbers. I might have cried “Bingo!” when that gem about Aristarchus appeared.

Has it struck anyone else as odd that three verbose posters have all appeared at about the same time, even if they’re from different IP addresses?

ElizaD - 03 January 2013 08:02 AM

Has it struck anyone else as odd that three verbose posters have all appeared at about the same time, even if they’re from different IP addresses?

I blame the failure of the world to come to an end. That always seems to draw them out.

I blame the failure of the world to come to an end. That always seems to draw them out.

You may scoff, sobiest, but their day will come --- much sooner than you think, oh yes, oh yes!!!  I never make appointments further away than next Tuesday at the latest!

(retreats, gibbering silently, to the corner where he keeps the carboy of fusel oil falsely labelled “Auchentoshan” )

Trolls and crackpots tend to follow one another from site to site. It’s not surprising to get a clump all at once.