"John Yamamoto-Wilson" <johndeletethis@rarebooksinjapan.com> wrote in message news:<2trbpjF23d5pdU1@uni-berlin.de>...
> John W. wrote:
> 
> > I assume my sarcasm wasn't obvious?
> 
> It so rarely is on Usenet, John! People put those yucky little smiley things
> in sometimes, but even they don't get the tone/intention across very well.
> 
> BTW, in Britain, we would probably call that irony, since it has a
> potentially positive side to it, i.e., it could be taken as a gentle hint to
> the OP that his terms of reference were - um - inadequate. We'd normally
> reserve the term sarcasm for irony that was purely designed to wound.

See, I thought it was irony. I first wrote in the word irony (and I
remember THAT little fact, but not where I put my keys). But I'm a
Sepponian, after all.

:)

John W.