Sadly, I think my sparring partner Sorefingers is directing this mostly at me. On the Uilleann pipes thread, he contradicted me several times and then claimed that "my credentials lay in shreds" or something of the sort. I then mentioned that my credentials were not in question, as they included a PhD and a lot of published writings on the subject. He continued to contradict me, claiming firsthand accounts of his grandparents which contradicted the evidence I was presenting, although manty of my comments were about events before the thirteenth century. Even those comments about nineteenth century events would be hard to support with truly firsthand evidence; it would require his grandparent to be in the room when the first Irish bellows-blown pipe was adapted from a larger pipe, and to know definitively that this adaptation had never occurred before. I repeatedly asked him for whatever evidence he had, and he refused to give it. I therefore suspect it is not as "firsthand" as he claims.

Sorefingers then criticized my spelling, and I demonstrated that his spelling errors were more frequent than mine. An ally of his called "Guest, Hoss" then criticized my grammar, which I showed to have been correct in the first place.

So now, unable to impugn my grammar and spelling despite having tried, and having been all but laughed off that thread, Sorefingers weighs in with "Have Academic standards fallen to such new depths that the only requirement is good gramar and spelling but no care for truth and reason?"

Really, Sorefingers. You seem an intelligent chap, and this is surely beneath you.