tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Mar 30 17:42:28 1997

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RE: Rules for LaserQuest

jatlh Banzai:

> I would argue that Klinons can be a lot of things, but polite would not be
> one of them. :)

Polite, for a Klingon, is to get straight to the point.

> >I think the controversy here is that we're not quite sure exactly how you
> are 
> >using this sentence. 
> 
> Sorry I didn't make it clear.  At the beginning of each LaserQuest
> "mission", they make the participants recite the previously mentioned rules
> of the game.  It's a way of the management of covering their behinds if
> someone gets hurt or damages one of the (very expensive) lasers.  The
> player can not say that he was unaware of any of the rules because he
> actually recited them back to the game's marshall before competition
> started.  (For example, if "Stan" gets a little to rambunctious and runs
> smack dab into a wall breaking his arm, his laser, and his chances of ever
> playing again, he can't say that he was unaware that he could not run, and
> therefore (theoretically) cannot sue LaserQuest.)

It would never hold up in court.  Stan could sue, and even win, claiming that 
LaserQuest built the wall in the wrong place.  It's not a joke.  Once, while I 
was at college, a student had run into a tree and broke his arm while playing 
co-rec football.  The parents of that student tried to sue the school for 
placing the tree in a dangerous place!  (I don't think the suit made it, but 
co-rec football was banned for a while.)

> Therefore, "I will not
> run" is a simple statement (or a promise if you will) that we will not run
> during the game.  The same goes for the other rules.  They are not
> refusals, because we have not been instructed to run.  I still believe that
> "-be'" best suits the situation.

Now I disagree.  You don't have to be directed or commanded to say you refuse 
to do something.  You are not predicting that you will not run, you are saying 
that you choose not to, that you refuse to do so.  {-Qo'} is best here.

-- 
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97245.9

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