carlo said:
>   No mathematician can doubt that a straight line is a curve.

of course, if you're talking about a curve that _is_ a straight line,
and you want to be absolutely clear, you won't _call_ it a curve,
you'll call it a straight line, because that is much less ambiguous.
(perhaps even infinitely less ambiguous.)

and that is true whether you are a mathematician or not...

-bowerbird

p.s.  and if you asked for "a number of cookies", and i gave you
_zero_, would you be inclined to think i had granted your plea?