I think asking if he knows of any implies that I don't know and would like
to.

It can also come off as a challenge, which is offputting.

I do try to take all you say solely at face value. But much of verbal
communication occurs outside the words. This is how misunderstandings
happen, and is the driving force of statesmanship and politics, sales
and advertising, puns and humor, love and poetry, frustrates good
language translation, and is also the font of endless riches for lawyers.

You would probably appreciate Doug Hofstadter's book "Metamagical
Themas: questing for the essecnce of mind and pattern", which has quite
a few chapters that deal with the duality of pattern and ground in
language. I highly reccomend it (and all of Hofstadter's books
actually), and think you especially will enjoy his musings.

Some people just have a harder time with this than others. If you don't
see it, I can't show it to you, but I assure you it's there.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain."
(chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.