Something that happened to me...
On the first night of Shavuot (the holiday that just ended), there's a custom to stay up all night studying. The synagogue hosts an all-night learn-in, with pizza at midnight and stuff. Naturally, I usually have other important things to do, most of which involve lying in bed and sleeping, so as usual I missed it this year. In the morning, at humanely scheduled services, I found some of the source-packets left around from some of the lessons given overnight. And what would the second page of one contain? The Phoenician alphabet!! And various sources discussing the distinctions, etc etc... It follows me wherever I go. Next day (when he was awake) I talked to the assistant Rabbi, who'd given the talk. I told him we'd been disputing this for weeks, etc... As usual, I didn't tell him which side of the argument I was on. :) But he said "well, isn't it obvious they're different? They don't look the same." I even argued against that, pointing out font differences... "but these are *really* different." Then I told him that was my opinion too...
(I really do try not to give away my position when first showing the situation to people. Granted, this is still the "legibility" argument--but not completely, since it's more that he doesn't see them as the same letters.)
~mark
