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I didn't need to grow old to watch relatives and friends fighting cancer. I know how serious it is, and I really admire that you're working in that particular field. That said, I used the metaphor on purpose, because of its power, because I think it's a perfectly valid analogy.

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I still think you lack perspective -- maybe standing "back from the fire" a bit. I would never, ever use that word to express anything about a lousy programming topic.

Agreed, but more importantly: I would never use that word unless I was trying to start a fight. And trying to use the word to stop a fight is just backwards.

(Like all rules for writing, this one has exceptions: For example, if it's in the service of a great pun, like:

Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon

well, that's different.)

Oh, I don't work in cancer research anymore. You may cease to respect or admire me! ;)

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