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[edit] Gnōthi seauton (ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ)

My Boxes This user is a citizen of the United States of America. This user lives in or may hail from New England. This user lives in or is from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. en This user is a native speaker of English. la-3 Hic usor callidissima latinitate contribuere potest. fr-2 Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français. grc-3 Ὅδε ὁ χρήστης δύναται συνεισφέρειν ἀνωτέρᾳ γνώσει τῆς ἀρχαίας ἑλληνικῆς. BA This user has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics . MA This user has a Master of Arts degree in Classics . This user is interested in ancient civilizations. This user is a professional writer or journalist. Q This user is a rationalist.

I'm a technical writer with an MA in classics. I see Wikipedia as an intermediary between the trained experts and the general public. Its advantages are its changeability and its links; also, the pool of concepts that it might tap is vast.

For myself, you will find me interested in good and well-organized English, especially when the author of an article is not a native English speaker (it is obvious, you know, except for skilled polyglots). Such a role appeals to the technical writer in me. I do not claim perfection. For academic credentials, I know ancient Greek and Latin, some philosophy, some history, some archaeology and some linguistics. I've taken courses with quite a number of scholars, most of them deceased now. I don't expect to last forever myself.

Other aspects of my identity are that I am a Christian and a Protestant, but I am not currently Messianic by habit. I'm a family man with a large family, most on their own. I live in New England, which has not been raked by war since the Revolutionary War. I do not have the intense predispositions carried by some ethnic or nationalist partisans, especially anywhere east of the Elbe. The only weapon in my closet is my great-grandfather's antique deer rifle, for which no permit is currently required. I do tend to be rationalist in my thinking, as are most New Englanders, and I am patriotic, though not actively so beyond civic duty. My heros are George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and the like. I also admire Robert Graves and Charles II of England.

I am likely to pop up anywhere on Wikipedia, but mainly in fields related to my background. I do look forward to working with you. "I'm OK, you're OK" seems good to me.

This identity sketch I hope will satisfy those who might be wondering who the dickens botteville is (that's not my usual name), but, you know, something about the human mind transcends all identity, and you should be thinking in those terms (I think). Wikipedia is like a common off-line mind, though not, I hope, like that of the Borg.

PS Any comments placed here I moved to the discussion page.