Hrothgar, yes, that's it. I think I read the novel 30 years ago at least, so I was doing pretty well to remember any of it. The guy was a tinkerer with minature engines.

Fred, forming opinions is what we all do, and we form opinions about things we like and from there figure out what we dislike. How we refer to what we dislike is the question here--whether we see the like/dislike comparisons as total opposites (binary) or by degree. I think the binaries exclude and/or include too much, so I prefer the sliding scale for comparison. I don't want to try to extend this out any further--I have certainly expressed my likes and dislikes over the years via Mudcat--and it's easy enough to contradict yourself in regular conversation, let alone in a site where it is all archived!

SRS