On Wed, 2 Dec 1998, Ken Follett wrote:

> > What's the frequency Kenneth?
>
> Reference to those leaving BP.

I'm not sure what the original commentator intended, but (for those who
may be less acquainted with the dark recesses of popular culture), it also
refers to the October 4, 1986 incident where a well-dressed man confronted
CBS News anchorman Dan Rather on a NYC street with that question, repeated
again and again, and beat him up. (At the time, he thought it was a group
of men.)

Later, "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" became a song by the rock group
R.E.M.

Still later, the perpetrator of the attack was identified as William
Tager, who was already in prison for killing an NBC cameraman in 1994.

> Of  89 subscribers, 2 recently requested to leave. In the twinkling of an eye
> they were relatively silently gone. The 89 signifies that despite a no-lurker
> policy it is not enforced.

Not necessarily.  When I looked over the list of subscribers, a lot of the
names were familiar.  We could probably run statistics, but I suspect that
the majority have posted *something* to the list.

> I think there are 12 + list owners, four of them
> are active, which means they receive the administrative news, the remainder
> are silent owners which means they have powers, but get no news.

I see that I have been switched from the first category to the second.
Given the volume of mail I get, that is probably good, although the sudden
absence of news took me by surprise -- I thought at first I had been
ousted altogether.

> We have an interesting mix of design professionals, conservators, architects,
> engineers, administrators, masons, carpenters, contractors, students,
> suppliers, educators, geographers, timber framers, and computer programmers
> etc. Geographic range is from US to Canada to Germany to Australia. I don't
> think any of us have any reason to agree over anything in particular other
> than to have overcome our fear of making fun of ourselves. I've made a point
> of inviting and conscripting interesting people that show quick minds and an
> open spirit.

That paragraph makes about as good an introduction to the list as
anything.

                             Larry Kestenbaum