[Taxacom] Lumping and Splitting

[Susan Farmer]

Quoting Barry Roth <barry_roth at yahoo.com>:

> This may be related to what David Mamet pointed out about writers   
> (in "Bambi vs. Godzilla"):  "At twenty [the writer] is interested   
> only in sex, at thirty in sex and money, at forty in money and sex,   
> at sixty in money and validation."  Granting taxonomic importance to  
>  observed differences, even ones first observed early in one's  
> career  -- that is, splitting -- may be a way of validating the  
> enterprise.   Scratching "I was here!" on the cave wall.
>

Or perhaps it's the seasoned realization that those "trivial  
differences" weren't trivial after all!

susan
-----
Susan Farmer
sfarmer at goldsword.com
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
Division of Science and Math
http://www.goldsword.com/sfarmer/Trillium/