At DejaNews they have the ability to bring up a past article in raw text.
Then one can send someone directly to that article without any extra
bullshit. On Listserv one can find the article, either under author or date
or topic sort, and can retrieve a URL, but it is different for each. Is
there a format we can edit down the URL to, so it simply retrieves the
article? The main advantage is to shorten the URL, so that it fits on a
line without wrapping.

For example how would I edit down this one:

http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9903&L=paleofood&O=A&P=17754
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9903&L=paleofood&O=D&P=17754
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9903&L=paleofood&P=17754

Though looking at the three variations I do see that the last (by topic) is
the shortest, and I'd use that if it isn't possible to shorten further.

Don.