Not an opinion shared by everyone. I think it is perfectly reasonable and expected that people will come in and ask questions, sometimes often asked before. Why not? What is so compulsive about people that they can't just ignore the thread if they are not personally interested in answering it for the third or twelfth time. Like I just said on another thread, I would answer any question over and over until I got tired of doing so and then I would let others answer it, make clickies to previous threads etc. What could be more stale than a referral to a previous conversation? No one is obliged, except out of their own compulsiveness, to either answer a question or be rude to a newcomer with interest in the various topics.

So any answers I know I will keep on saying. To this one, I have heard Sir Patrick Spens is a pretty old one, in the English language, which is what most of us here share. Also I once loved a lass is fairly old I have heard...but we are just talking in the hundreds of years. I am sure the Persians, Finns, etc. can come up with much older ones.

mg