Responding to me, Helen Krummenacker wrote:
And seems to get *far* less than his share of the blame, IMO...
"Him"? I thought ORAC was generally called "it". I assume ORAC was the one being referred to as coming out of it the same.
Yes, I was referring to Orac there... And, actually, the crew are pretty inconsistent about which pronoun they use with Orac. Avon always sticks to "it" for all of the computers (although it's possible that even he slips at some point or other), but the others often use "he," particularly Vila. I have a vague memory of *somebody* actually using two different pronouns for Orac in the same sentence, but I may have invented that in my head. (Hmm, obviously this is a question which merits considerable research. Which I am, I must admit, far too lazy to do.)
Personally, I generally use "he" or "she" to refer to anything sentient/sapient (which Orac, IMO, certainly is). So it'd annoy Avon. What do I care? :)
And I think ORAC is always accredited with a fair amount of blame.
Avon seems to get the bulk of it, though. "How could he do such a thing!" and so on. It often seems to me (in fanfics and so forth, anyway) that people tend to overlook the fact that it was all *Orac's* idea...