Hofstadter rocks!

[politas]

I really must get around to reading Metamagical Themas. This is a wonderful piece of writing.

I generally try to keep my writing gender-neutral, but now I'm not sure if I'm careful enough.

Comments

[curufea]

I prefer the old terms - werman and wyfman.

[curufea]

In old English, a 'wer' (pronounced where) was a male, and a 'wyf' (pronouced wife) was a female. The word man meant nothing more than human, or a person.

So a werman or wæpman was a Male human, and wyfman or wifman was a Female human. In middle english, for whatever reason, wæpman was shortened to just man, while wyfman evolved into woman.

This is also why a wolf is called a werewolf, meaning "Man wolf"

[arthwollipot]

You can borrow it from me.

[politas]

Oh, I own a copy. Just never gotten around to reading it.