[TheForge] TheForge Digest, Vol 99, Issue 17

[xlch58 at swbell.net]

On 4/12/2012 2:55 PM, Fred Zickrick wrote:
> The exception proves the rule.  And I'd say that Bob was not
> bold.  Every part of his act was very carefully thought-out and practised.
Bold is a separate issue from skill and planning.   Bold is how close 
you are willing to cut your margins.   Skill and planning puts some 
margin back in, but doing power off loops in a twin engine business 
plane a hundred feet off the deck at seventy years of age is bold.

BTW, on a completely unrelated note, and not picking on you, but I have 
to say, the phrase "The exception that proves the rule"  drives me 
bananas the way it is commonly used.  Finding data that refutes your 
hypothesis does not prove your hypothesis correct, but just the 
opposite.   The phrase "The exception that proves the rule" has a legal 
not scientific origin.   What it means is that an explicitly stated 
exception proves the existing of an implicit or unstated rule.  For 
example if you post a sign on your door that says "No salesmen between 
the hours of 6pm and 6am"  it is taken as an exception to and proves the 
existence of an unstated rule to the effect that "Salesmen are welcome 
between the hours of 6am and 6pm"   Anyway, sorry to be pendantic, but 
this group tends to enjoy words and phrases more than most so I figure I 
might get a pass.

Charles