TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
The flap about Scott Adams began with his March 12th strip, which propmted
someone to write (in part):
>In a nut shell, a lady writer blows up at an engineer for not reviewing
>her stuff. The engineer relents, reads the stuff, and then says,
>"These pages are blank! You've been bluffing for months!" To which the
>humiliated writer replies, "I think I'll go have a yummy compost
>salad with delicious fetid cheese."
>It wasn't even mildly funny. It maligns women. It maligns tech writers.
>I paid good money to get insulted.
I don't remember the strip very well now, but at the time I wrote:
>I didn't see it as necessarily any more insulting to women or tech writers
>than anyone else.
>I remember puzzling over it for a while after reading it, but in the end
>I decided that it had a lot of conflicting messages. I still don't
>understand it, and it may just be stupid, but I don't find it offensive.
>By the way, the famous Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse (which once took
>a phone call from Air Force 1 reserving a table for two hours later)
>serves compost.
I copied Adams on this message. He may have received others as well. Shortly
afterward he sent his message to the list. I don't have a copy of it, but it
would have been around 3/16/95. ...RM
