Sending seeds to the BX

Adam Fikso adam14113@ameritech.net
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:55:08 PST
Good points, Jim.  It needs emphasis every so often.  And if one buys plants 
on eBay from another country it can be very tricky, even if and even 
especially --if your foreign correspondent has a modicum of English.  The 
issue of clarifying to a foreigner the reasons for the "changes" in 
USDA/Postal procedures, which from a VERY limited point of view may not be 
considered changes at all, but really are-- in terms of their effects

For the last 6 hours, I've been wondering if I should try to respond to Bill 
Aley (WDA), and if so, how.  I think that I need to think about it some 
more.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com>
To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: [pbs] Sending seeds to the BX


>
>
> Uli wrote: What on earth is going on in the US? I try to follow the
> discussions
> (more or less) but reading the e-mails so full of abbreviations I do not
> know nor understand (what is a MOU for example)"
>
>
> Don't feel bad, Uli, this native speaker of English, who read this thread
> backwards (i.e. newest posts first then working backwards) was also
> confused.
>
> Because this forum is read by an international following, we need to be
> careful about using abbreviations which are not likely to be recognized
> outside of certain fields of endeavor.
>
> It is standard practice in using such abbreviations to introduce the
> abbreviation and define it before using it. For instance, one might write
> "If the memo of understanding (hereafter MOU) had been signed by all 
> parties
> involved..." or "The Plant Inspection Station (hereafter PIS) is
> responsible..."
>
> One of us should have spoken up sooner.
>
> I'll bet those contributing to this rich vein of advice were so focused on
> the ideas they were trying to convey that it never occurred to them that 
> it
> might be confusing to some readers.
>
> My mom tells the story of meeting one of her brothers in law shortly after
> she and my dad were married. This particular brother in law had spent his
> life in the military. My mom didn't understand a thing he said because
> everything he said was expressed in the sort of acronyms he was used to
> using in the military. He himself probably didn't know exactly what some 
> of
> those acronyms stood for; in the world he lived in that was just the way
> everyone spoke.
>
> Jim McKenney
>
>
>
>
>
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