[NEohioPAL]Tony Brown

[TONY BROWN]

boy-howdy! did that column spark debate. good. that's my job.

anyway, two last (and i mean last, on my part) comments:

1. i don't doubt the health effects of smoking; i smoke on and off (mostly =
on the last couple of years), and i feel the effects when i do. i voted =
for the smoking ban, and the places i frequent that enforce it are more =
pleasant for it. but my point is: the issues raised in this debate are =
best left to playwrights, directors, designers, special effects people, =
and actors to decide, not lawyers and legislators and judges and (god =
forbid) our supremely informed voters. taking that artistic decision away =
from stage artists constitutes censorship, just as with nudity and =
obscenity. we cannot allow that to happen. if stage artists determine that =
the best way to portray a playwright's character is for the actor to smoke =
real cigarettes, then they should be free to do so, with perhaps some =
audience warnings if the space is such that the audience is going to =
breathe the smoke.

2. i mastered the art and science of the shift key a few years back. it's =
a long tradition in newspapers to write in all lowercase when what is =
being written is not intended to show up in the newspaper. we also =
misspell deliberately for the same reason. if you want to know the origin =
of "ok," it was born of newspaper-ese. some editor or other used to mark =
copy that was ready for the typesetters "oll korrect" -- the misspelling =
signaling to the typesetters that it ("oll korrect") was not to be set in =
type as part of the copy. it was eventually shortened to "ok."

anyway. thanks for the debate. it's extremely gratifying.

tony



>>> "D. Budin" <popcycles at sbcglobal.net> 4/16/2007 1:28 AM >>>
Actually, I don't have a strong opinion on the smoking-on-stage issue, but =
just a question for Tony Brown: So, do your editors at the PD put in all =
your upper case letters for you?  (Or are you actually a cockroach, like =
Don Marquis's Archy, jumping from key to key and unable to hold down the =
shift key?)
  =20
  David Budin

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