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In the wake of recent postings about PD/nonPD topics, and the emotions that have been aroused, I am reminded of the old Star Trek episode in which the crew of the Enterprise encounters a race of humanoid beings whose distinguishing feature is that one half of each individual's face is black, one half white. Captain Kirk, Bones, even Spock are all mystified as to the vehement antagonism that exists between two representatives of subgroups of the species when they come to the Enterprise to attempt negotiations. The punch line comes at the end of the episode. Asked why the two groups can't seem to coexist when to all appearances they have no physical or psychological differences, one of the aliens responds, "Why, we're not the same! Can't you see? His face is black on the left side, mine is black on the right." As long as we choose to pigeonhole each other, e.g., as "serious," or "bores," as opposed to "silly," or whatever, we can engage in this kind of weird, essentially groundless stereotyping. We're all just people. Actually, I think these heated discussions are great from time to time. As Ram Dass has said, we get sucked in to emotionalism because that's where the action is. Rick Hermann