oh now I'm more awake, I can see you weren't calling me a fascist Still no time to read at the moment.

Mr Shockwaffle confuses me.

How?

Very long sentences.

You seem to know a lot but I find it difficult to follow what you are saying.

ok, I'll dial it down a bit. where did you have a problem?

Despite having been a school teacher I have never been a great reader. I can work out what you mean but it takes me a while to do it. Some of your sentences are pretty long.

e.g.

"I'm not saying it's a major world-ending point, it's just an example when at some point, society has to be quite prescriptive in terms of what it judges to be rational/irrational, and here's my example where the boundaries need to be tweaked a little."

46 words in that one.

If you could shorten them a little it would certainly enhance my enjoyment of your writing.

That was my sentence.

That one wasn't me

LOL!

In that case can the two of you help me out a little.

One of my favourite sentences:

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

They don't make them like that any more. More's the pity.

+1. If it were simple stuff you were talking about, I wouldn't have an issue with long sentences. But because the content is pretty complex for the likes of me, I struggle to cope. I'm sure there's a thumb of rule that states when writing, use the fewest number of words to get your point across (ie KISS).

Is this a bad time to admit that I talk exactly as I write?

No, I'd say that would be if this was a mobile phone call rather than a bulletin board

Iain M banks produces some long winded but well worded prose.