".....a mind is a terrible thing to baste." (oops, sorry, that belongs in a cooking thread somewhere).

Had a discussion once about the appeal of this medium (Internet chat/discussion/forum/bulletin board/etc) as a communications tool and my opponent said he didn't like it because there was no body language or facial expressions to put with the words. I countered that the absence of those nuances was exactly what attracted me because then some inane subtlety like the fact they had dribble running down the side of their mouth didn't detract from a salient point they were making. You had to evaluate a person's message based solely on the weight of the words they chose, and not be swayed to lend more or less credence to their meaning because of the visual appearance of the originator. To me that's a strength, communicatively speaking, not a weakness. Sort of like reviving the dead art of letter writing. Besides, when you are plunking these thoughts out with arthritic index fingers keystroke by excruciating keystroke, you want to make damned sure you say what you mean and mean what you say, i.e., more organized, sincere, meaningful. Which brings me back full circle to the beginning of this misbegotten discourse: Whoever said the mind was the sexiest organ was dead-on, because when one opens their mind and looses creative ideas and artful expression for the rest of the world to admire, it can't be but that various forms of endearment follow.