Hi Brian ..... sorry, on re-reading all that, I think the tone of what I said earlier may have been wrong. "Pronouncements" is a somewhat more portentous term than that which I intended, and the phrase wasn't intended to apply specifically to anything you personaly had had to say (certainly not the "grand" bit!), although I obviously then went on to comment on something that you individually had said.Memo to self, never start something like that while sitting on box office desk, in a quiet moment. The quiet moments don't last forever, and then thought processes get disturbed when people are desperately trying to book tickets for something that Little Shelly, offspring of the family, is about to perform in ... :-)

Hmm, superior knowledge - I wouldn't want to claim that.... my comments were prompted by one or two instances which came to mind in comparison with what you had to say (having mugged some of that up to give a talk earlier in the week, it came readily to mind!). I found your other comments re the various singers really interesting reading - thanks for the time and trouble of looking that all up! And your points are well taken, as is your comment regarding relevance. On the whole I think I probably do tend to agree with you regarding that point up to a degree, but I must admit that I achieved a well needed laugh regarding your "occasionally descending into dry, angels-on-a-pinhead arguments" .

I recall as a geographer being told that there were the Heinz 57 varieties of definitions of what geography was. No doubt there still are.I never felt able to authoritatively tell somebody who asked the question exactly what my academic subject of choice was about, since, again, the definition depended to a large degree on the interests and pursuits of the person making it (Marxist Geography, Women's Geography, Behavioural Geography .... they all had their own little cliques and ideas - even the Alice in Wonderland definition of geography, as a list of place names!!!). At the end of the day, I think most of us accepted that there was no overall "right" one.This even more rareified academic alcove of ours is obviously in much the same position?

I'm still watching with interest to see where this all goes to !! Looking forward to bumping into you again before too long. Regards, Irene