Comments on: Post intentionally left empty

By: Tom Doyle

Tom Doyle — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 03:02:26 +0000

I left this blank unintentionally.

By: Jamesg

Jamesg — Sun, 27 Jun 2004 16:55:18 +0000

Any accounting report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will have a few of such pages. They are required by law. Although superficially silly, the reason for “This page intentionally blank” is to distinguish such pages from any which were unintentionally blank … the result of printer’s errors. A completely blank page would alert the reader to the fact that he is reading a mechanically flawed report.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 00:01:48 +0000

Hedley, Deixis is picking something out by pointing at it or by using a word like ‘this’, as my friend was doing when he said ‘this bottle’. I see, having googled to check this, that me and my friends may have been using the word incorrectly—’deixis’ may mean what I call ‘indexicality’ (referring by a term whose referent varies with context, including “I” or “Here” as well as “this”). Hm.

By: Decnavda

Decnavda — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 00:00:53 +0000

“Alas, my children and my chidren’s children will take such tests on computer, and never know the joys of thouroughly sincere postmodernism.” Is the irony of expressing nostalgia for something called “postmodernism” too retro for the kids these days?

By: Hedley Lamarr

Hedley Lamarr — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 23:35:58 +0000

I still don’t understand deixis.

By: novalis

novalis — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 23:21:13 +0000

Ritual comment that apologizing for double-posting only creates more unnecessary postage (and ritual comment that why doesn’t mt detect that, anyway?)

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 22:06:23 +0000

Ritual apology for double-posting.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 22:04:32 +0000

After some sort of atrocity or tragedy occurs, you occasionally see someone on one side of a bitter political dispute saying “At least people on our side have only expressed regret and sorrow over this, rather than trying to score political points.” If you don’t understand what “deixis” (in amardeep’s comment) means, the following true story may help—I was sitting in a bar with fellow grad students who were discussing the sentence “Deixis presupposes anaphora.” “What’s deixis?” I asked. One of them pointed to a bottle on the table and said “That bottle.” (Well I suppose he said “’That bottle’” but proper punctuation undermines the joke.) Of course “TPILB” does make sense as Barry points out—what’s really going on here is akin to restriction of quantifier domains; it’s like saying “It is intentional that there is nothing on this page” where “nothing” means “nothing useful.”

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 22:04:22 +0000

By: dan

dan — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 21:41:05 +0000

“Do not write in this space. Okay .” with the result that Lisa lost her beauty queen crown. And then there’s the lovely phrase, “not to mention…”

By: novalis

novalis — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 20:24:35 +0000

The ultimate in silly self-reference games: "This Is The Title Of This Story, Which Is Also Found Several Times In The Story Itself", by David Moser

By: Richter

Richter — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 19:43:45 +0000

I think it would be even more disconcerting to read “Page unintentionally left blank”

By: double-plus-ungood

double-plus-ungood — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 19:05:43 +0000

When I was producing manuals at a software development company, the software development director insisted on “This Page Intentionally Left Blank” on pages that would otherwise be blank, over the strenuous objections from the technical writers that paradoxes of this sort were dangerous. We eventually retaliated by insisting that the cardboard boxes used as filler inside the product box contain a slip of paper reading “This Box Intentionally Left Empty.” My favourite along these lines was an old BC cartoon (when Johnny Hart was still funny) that had a sign saying “Please do not read this sign.”

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 18:03:20 +0000

I always marveled at smilar pages on the SAT that said, “No Test Material on this Page.” This was back when the test was administered on actual paper. Alas, my children and my chidren’s children will take such tests on computer, and never know the joys of thouroughly sincere postmodernism.

By: q

Fri, 25 Jun 2004 17:30:39 +0000

“I don’t think.” “I don’t say.” “I don’t exist.”