This thread will settle nothing, but it sure feels satisfying to have the priviledge of telling the emperor he's naked. If 10,000,000... people do a wrongheaded thing and one person doesen't do it, it's still wrong-headed. I realize that isn't very democratic, but it is accurate. Hitler needed to be confronted! It did, finally, get the mule's attention.

S/S do write some fine things. That said, it only muddies the already murky waters to add everything to the term folk. It removes the luster from a real and honestly academic discipline. It waters down something I've cared mightily for for a long time---it allows treasure hunters to use the springboard into our small pond so they can get "big" and then deny they were ever folksingers and, in so doing, turn some pretty clear waters to sludge so that some very nice people are still very nice, but totally miseducated. And that IS quite sad.

I mean no offense--it's just the way it looks from here.

Art