Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 From: "N. David Mermin" To: Predrag Cvitanovic Subject: Ambiguity Dear Predrag. Chapter 1, page 2: "If the style is not Bourbaki it is not so by accident." There is no way to tell whether "so" refers to "Bourbaki" or "not Bourbaki". The reader is free to conclude either that you are deliberately immitating Bourbaki or deliberately being un-Bourbaki. From what I know of you and Bourbaki I suspect the latter, but if I didn't have some acquaintance with both of you I wouldn't have any way to guess. And the resonance between the two "not"s actually favors the former reading. Don't know how much further I'll get, but thanks for the notification. David