Things that make you go "Hmm...."

[dubhlinn]

On the Bothy Bands live album, Kevin Burke - I think it's him - informs the audience "We're goin' to play six reels now.We're goin' to play them all at the same time..."

Mmmm..
D.

[anniemcu]

When people talk like that man I'm often reminded of one of the funnier threats you can make in the English language: be careful, I just might name names.

Can you visualise it? 'Marty', I'm going to call you 'Cedric.' And on the name 'Cedric' I bestow the name 'Martha.' Can't leave the name 'Martha' unnamed; I'm going to call you 'Svetlana.' No wonder he never gets past the symbol to the thing symbolised.

Oh yes, Wombat, who shall be called Harold, who shall be named Whiskers, who shall be known as .....

I'm not sure why, but I've read this several times now and for some reason can't stop thinking about Monty Python.

What do you think ...., nee Whiskers, nee Harold, nee Wombat? I say we take it as a compliment.

[Jack]

My name is Whiskers, I mean Harold.

[dfernandez77]

Ahhh ... but, he was right (at least in theory) in saying that the *image in the eye* was not the object... of course, he failed to point out that the image is however, *of* the actual object, which was, actually, really, existant in his hot little hand.

I have yet to see proof to support the theory that actual objects exist.

[NicoMoreno]

I find his hypothesis ... ummm... interesting, but quite uninspiring. If he was trying to get his students to "think", he may just have succeeded... in getting them to think he was pretty obutse.

When people talk like that man I'm often reminded of one of the funnier threats you can make in the English language: be careful, I just might name names.

Can you visualise it? 'Marty', I'm going to call you 'Cedric.' And on the name 'Cedric' I bestow the name 'Martha.' Can't leave the name 'Martha' unnamed; I'm going to call you 'Svetlana.' No wonder he never gets past the symbol to the thing symbolised.

Thanks Wombat!!

To be honest, I probably got it all wrong... after all, I'm in Electrical Engineering, not Philosophy, or English!

The point (I think) of his example was to talk about knowledge, and how we don't really "know" anything... or something like that...

He gave an example about a car being in the parking lot, but because we couldn't see it, there was no way to really know it was there...

And he also talked about how the last two or three decades are pretty much defined by existentialism (or at least heavily influenced by).

This is interesting to me, especially after reading Planet Simpson (a great book, by the way, not so much a book about the Simpsons, as a book about how the Simpsons reflects American culture). The author seems to be describing the influence of existentialism, without actually saying "American culture had been influenced by existentialism."

But (referring to above excuse) I don't really understand existentialism, so I could be all wrong about that.



I do think, however, that I should get a prize for spelling existentialism correctly so many times.

[dfernandez77]

I do think, however, that I should get a prize for spelling existentialism correctly so many times.

Well that's easy. You're existentialist and want to believe something that's not really true? Just believe with your whole being that you won - and viola!

[Darwin]

Well, Waldski, the family saying around here is: "Wal-mart, where Satan goes to shop!"

Seriously (and that's hard when it comes to Walmart), it does not have the home-grown flavor here as it might nearer to Arkansas and Texas etc.

Don't make any assumptions about Texas. A nearby town, Highland Village, just had elections in which the mayor and two city council members were replaced, largely because they had okayed the building of a new Wal-Mart within the town. The local freebie "news"papers have been full of letters to the editors with one side claiming that Wal-Mart would bring poor people into their high-class neighborhoods, and the other side accusing the first group of being a bunch of snobs.

I was hoping that the Wal-Mart thing would go through because (1) I don't live in Highland Village and (2) there was talk that it would be accompanied by a major bookstore, like Borders or Barnes and Noble, which would save me some driving. Anyhow, we already have a Target in Flower Mound.

When a Target store first appeared in Salinas, I avoided it after seeing that virtually every item in the store was made in China. This was pretty soon after a big hoohaw over prison labor in China being used for export items.

Now it seems that every store that I have access to is full of Chinese-made goods, so I see no reason to discriminate against Target. Maybe if I could get down to Nieman-Marcus I'd find something different, but I might not be able to afford it.

The tension between the "free market" concept being applied to labor and the desire to protect homeland jobs is interesting. I still think the answer is to gradually bring every other nation in as one or more US states--just as soon as they can pass the English requirement. (Most of Canada already qualifies, as well as parts of England. And Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand aren't far behind Hong Kong.)

[Flyingcursor]

Me dear departed Dad had a term for this type of philosophizing: mental masturbation!

Like the majority of philosophical, religious posts on this board. :roll:

[dfernandez77]

Me dear departed Dad had a term for this type of philosophizing: mental masturbation!

Like the majority of philosophical, religious posts on this board. :roll:

haha - especially mine! I figure if I'm going to masturbate, I might as well do it with wild abandon.

My dad used the same term.

[SteveK]

When people talk like that man I'm often reminded of one of the funnier threats you can make in the English language: be careful, I just might name names.

Can you visualise it? 'Marty', I'm going to call you 'Cedric.' And on the name 'Cedric' I bestow the name 'Martha.' Can't leave the name 'Martha' unnamed; I'm going to call you 'Svetlana.' No wonder he never gets past the symbol to the thing symbolised.

'It's long,' said the Knight, 'but very, VERY beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it--either it brings the TEARS into their eyes, or else--'

'Or else what?' said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.

'Or else it doesn't, you know. The name of the song is called "HADDOCKS' EYES."'

'Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?' Alice said, trying to feel interested.

'No, you don't understand,' the Knight said, looking a little vexed. 'That's what the name is CALLED. The name really IS "THE AGED AGED MAN."'

'Then I ought to have said "That's what the SONG is called"?' Alice corrected herself.

'No, you oughtn't: that's quite another thing! The SONG is called "WAYS AND MEANS": but that's only what it's CALLED, you know!'

'Well, what IS the song, then?' said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.

'I was coming to that,' the Knight said. 'The song really IS "A-SITTING ON A GATE": and the tune's my own invention.'

From Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.


'

[Wombat]

Thanks for the reminder Steve. Lewis Carroll was brilliant at that stuff.

It's really frustrating trying to do grounded sensible philosophy knowing there are jerks around foisting off complete nonsense as though it were intellectually deep.

[dfernandez77]

...grounded sensible philosophy

?!?!
I don't mean to be contentious, but isn't "grounded sensible philosophy" an oxymoron? :roll:

I mean, to whose reality is "grounded" and "sensible" indexed?

[Wombat]

...grounded sensible philosophy

?!?!
I don't mean to be contentious, but isn't "grounded sensible philosophy" an oxymoron? :roll:

I mean, to whose reality is "grounded" and "sensible" indexed?

I frankly don't understand the question. You talk about 'realities' as though they can be acquired and discarded like cheap suits. That's not a picture I share.

[Denny]

It's really frustrating trying to do grounded sensible philosophy knowing there are jerks around foisting off complete nonsense as though it were intellectually deep.

[haughty tone]
Depth is relative.

To us pond scum a few microns can make a lot of difference.

Just 'cause you have to go multiple parsecs to notice movement does not make you superior.
[/haughty]

Perhaps not cheap, but reasonably priced.

[Nanohedron]

Okay, back to "Things that make you go 'Hmmmm'".

There's a sign in the entry of a local administrative building that reads, "Such-and-such prohibits dangerous weapons on these premises".

Can someone let me in on what a nondangerous weapon is?