Feel like a smatterer? Its a good thing!

Feel you know a little bit here and there? Familiar with the ideas of a few big names, in two or three disciplines which intersect with your interests in some ways? Nervous you'll be hauled up for not knowing enough? Feel like a smatterer? Smatter away then! It may not be a bad thing, says this crusty old scholar-critic [see last paragraph, if you're not inclined to read the whole thing!].