Ambrose Bierce was a Civil War Union soldier who became a writer. Ever hear of him?

Thank you for your reply SZ and Happy Sunday to thee!  I love a mystery! :)

" I've referred to "definitions" from The Cynic's Word Book on this site before, in response to some of your questions, in fact. You should pay better attention." - Oh my how do I put this? I am afraid we must remember that on this site not everyone reads everyone's posts.. tis the way the site works - people exercise free will and personal choice and read what they want to. We all pick and choose.. so to assume anyone, let alone everyone has read your posts...well... it's illogical. 
Is there a reason you think everyone reads your posts? Is there a reason you act as though you believe yourself superior to others on this site?  THose were rhetorical questions really as I don't really have time to follow the answer. 

" I've referred to "definitions" from The Cynic's Word Book on this site before, in response to some of your questions, in fact. You should pay better attention." - Oh my how do I put this? I am afraid we must remember that on this site not everyone reads everyone's posts.. tis the way the site works - people exercise free will and personal choice and read what they want to. We all pick and choose.. so to assume anyone, let alone everyone has read your posts...well... it's illogical. 
Is there a reason you think everyone reads your posts? Is there a reason you act as though you believe yourself superior to others on this site?  THose were rhetorical questions really as I don't really have time to follow the answer. 

And yet, here you are hanging on every word I post . . . even responding to this post, TWICE!

I do have to wonder as to why someone posting a question would ignore all the possible answers? If they're seriously in search of an answer then ignoring answers speaks a lot about the character of the person asking the questions . . . 

As to your comment about over-simplistic thinking (perhaps you relate to that somehow?) . . . I believe that there was a gentleman born in a small village in England who espoused the the Law of Parsimony. Perhaps you've heard of either that law and of that particular Franciscan friar? No? A corollary to that law is that someone who is overly complicating a topic is either ignorant of the subject and trying to pretend that they have knowledge or they're trying to cause confusion to perpetrate a crime . . .  hmmmm . . . 

Quote, 'And yet, here you are hanging on every word I post . . . even responding to this post, TWICE!' and yet again you are incorrect.  Hardly a surprise you got this wrong when you think so simplistically and cannot see truth and fact.. I came to this thread to answer ROSIE's question.. Your comment was part of that..It was, as usual unbelievably inaccurate so I commented on it. Hardly hanging on your every word but I can see you need that boost of believing that.. I then answered Rosie's question on my own behalf.. Simple really but narrow thinking causes you to misunderstand..

Quote;;' I do have to wonder as to why someone posting a question would ignore all the possible answers..' Again you have got it wrong.. You said Rosie should have read your post, some time way back when, when you mentioned the same author.. Factually, (remember facts???) there was no reason why she would have read any of your posts, let alone pay them any attention.

FACT - just because you read something somewhere about someone who said something derogatory about making things complicated - doesn't mean that in the vast majority of cases that it's not better to know ALL of the facts and to consider all of the variable and circumstances as well as the motivations of those involved..  Sorry if you prefer to believe some slur but telling yourself that people who see when things ARE complicated is probably just an act of keeping yourself in the dark about the complexity of most things.

For some reason when I read your posts I "see" a poisoned rat running in tighter and tighter circles . . . . too, too funny! (Although I don't think that's your intention.)

We call works like The Devil's Dictionary satire, mostly political in nature in that case. The remark about geography is to highlight the fact that Mr. Bierce thought that the only benefit attained from war  was to add a small tid-bit to the very lacking geographic knowledge of the average person of the day. In other words he had no use for it at all.

You seem to like WEB links so here's one to that particular book: complhttps://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/bierce/bierce.html#F There are a number of WEB sites that host versions of The Devil's Dictionary but I'm partial to that particular one for some reason.

If you enjoy humorous, satirical writings you might also enjoy the works of Mr's Bierce's contemporary, Samuel Clemens. And check out the writings of Will Rogers too (a VERY humorous political satirist that managed to remain a very nice, well-respected, well-loved columnist and entertainer up until his tragic and very untimely death in an airplane crash in Alaska back in 1935). This post was edited by Salt and Red Pepper at August 26, 2017 4:17 PM MDT

I had never heard it before Addb. I had heard of Ambrose Bierce but he was brought up on the History Channel having to do with the Civil War and his after-military life and I thought I'd look him up. I shall be spending more time on him because my favorite literary genre is science fiction and I think he was before his time in that what he wrote about was often mystical, mysterious, haunting. Nothing educates Americans about geography. Most of them don't give a rat's a** about anyplace else but good old where they live. Very few of them speak additional languages. Their view is (these certain few or many) that everyone everywhere should speak English! AARRGGHH! Talk about MYOPIC and INSULAR! Thank you for your reply! :)