Comments on: Spitting Images

By: Bill McNeill

Bill McNeill — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 01:12:30 +0000

Wouldn’t philosophistry be the love of sophistry?

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:42:33 +0000

Those wacky comp sci folk. They made Spam not just a meat-like substance but an evil unto itself and now have revived Grok. Bless ‘em.

Answer to a question upthread: The difference between regular old Sophistry and Philosophistrty is a difference of degrees. It’s used in regards to someone who is blissfully unaware or uncarring of their pretension. The sort of person who read the back cover of Beyond Good and Evil and offers lectures on the contents to philosophy grad Students.

By: lemuel pitkin

lemuel pitkin — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:36:28 +0000

Oh, and:

“Chinese field trip”: A group of people walking slowly and taking up the whole sidewalk, making it impossible to get around them. Courtesy of the lads at New York Press; it’s not quite as racist as it sounds since the etymology is via “Chinese fire drill”.

By: lemuel pitkin

lemuel pitkin — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:33:43 +0000

Edge City is originally from the semi-cult movie Repo Man—it’s the name of the underpopulated, vaguely dystopian Los Angeles where the movie is set.

I’m fascinated by the notion that kipple “has done somewhat better, but not as well.” Scans nicely, but what does it mean?

By: Bill McNeill

Bill McNeill — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:51:06 +0000

Response to kieth #2...Grok may have fallen out of use after the 60s (between the time of the original Heinlein novel and the 80s, almost all the O.E.D. citations come from Tom Wolfe), but it came back with a vengence among computer geeks who now commonly use it to mean understand profoundly. In fact, to me the word means "understand a concept in computer science profoundly" with an application to non-computer subjects as a kind of metaphoric extension.

By: Kenny Easwaran

Kenny Easwaran — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:49:23 +0000

Speaking of seminars, I notice that there’s no sidebar link to the Susanna Clarke seminar – is that going to change?

By: Bill Gardner

Bill Gardner — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:29:26 +0000

Re: KSR —just a thought. I like the current series, although not quite as much as Red Mars or Green Mars. He’s exceptional, however, at capturing what it’s like to be a scientist in a policy-relevant discipline. The scene where Frank chairs the study section meeting is amazing.

By: Henry

Henry — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 17:49:55 +0000

Bill – it sounds like fun although I’ve no personal contact with the man. But maybe when the third book in his current series comes out …

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:14:05 +0000

My favorite (from the Simpsons):

Cheese-eating-surrender-monkies = the French

Steve

By: Arthur Davidson Ficke

Arthur Davidson Ficke — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 14:07:30 +0000

Ones that I’ve always liked:

1. blivet: A fat person that you can’t get around for some reason (like they’re blocking the aisle at the market, or ordering too much food at the counter, etc.)

2. framis: A generic term for a small contraption that serves some clever purpose

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 09:01:03 +0000

Similarly, ‘rutz’ ought to pass into the language, although it still seems to be waiting for its Garreau. Rutz, as in rural-to-urban transition zone. Outer exurbia, where suburban and rural values are coming into conflict, where, for instance, water mains meet septic tanks. It’s been one of the most important corners of America since at least the mid-90s, but I don’t think there’s a good mainstream book on it yet. Rutz.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 08:57:40 +0000

Edge city, as I remember it from the book of the same name, had a useful and specific definition. It sprang from the observation that many of the clusters in American cities supported as many jobs as the traditional downtown. By any reasonable definition, they had become cities in their own right and should be recognized as such. Before Garreau’s book, there was a tendency to dismiss such clusters, or to think of them as aberrations or mere extensions of historic downtowns. If the meaning of edge city has wandered since then, that’s too bad, because it was a useful encapsulation of an important development.

By: Alex Gregory

Alex Gregory — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 08:26:59 +0000

I thought it was more like “to understand completely”, in quite a strong sense. Wikipedia confirms with this quote from SIASL:
“Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because we are from Earth) as color means to a blind man”

Alex

By: dale

dale — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 07:54:12 +0000

comment 2: keith –
the way I remember it ‘grok’ meant to mull over something, or brood on it deeply, in an unstructured fashion, and without expectation or preconception. or something.

in my memory of Stranger in a Strange Land, VMS is always claiming he has to ‘grok’ (on) something before venturing a judgement. or was i that far off?

(relurks)

By: JR

JR — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 04:17:58 +0000

It is a shame that Norman Mailer’s wonderful coinage, “factoid,” has been debased from Mailer’s intended meaning – a falsehood planted in the press and generally accepted as fact.