One David Mortensen observes:
. . . language is a code employed only by code-breakers: that none of us knows the language we speak as a fully explicit system. Instead, we bluff our way through, filling in the gaps in our knowledge of the code with an inference here and a leap of logic there. This capacity to extrapolate from the known to the unknown is, in essense, grammar. . . .
(Cited by languagehat)
Jim Henley on Spider-Man 2:
We are fortunate that genuine equality is impossible because it would be the social analog of entropy [ . . . ] ‘heat death’ of the social universe.
LanguageHat tells of seeing Kurosawa’s 生きる Ikiru (1952) for the first time, and provides the words of the song “Life is Short”.
I’ve just seen An American in Paris, whose supporting cast includes the pianist Oscar Levant, who also said:
My psychiatrist once said to me, “Maybe life isn’t for everyone.”
Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember.
I envy people who drink. At least they have something to blame everything on.
The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too.
Last night I watched (for the second time ever) The Man in the White Suit, one of the famous Ealing comedies – though perhaps it’s called that only by association. Like the crime farces Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers, it was made by Ealing Studios and stars Alec Guinness, who here plays Sidney Stratton, the crank chemist whose indestructible polymer threatens to ruin the textile industry.
A super-fiber has uses beyond clothing and thus would in all likelihood increase the demand for fiber rather than ending it. (Never mind that no single fiber can replace all existing fibers, even if it does last forever.) This never occurs to any of the characters in TMitWS, and much unhappiness results. I call that a tragedy.
am I subtle? am I a Machiavel?
20 Questions to a Better Personality (cited by Travis)
Wackiness: 30/100
Rationality: 46/100
Constructiveness: 46/100
Leadership: 36/100You are an SEDF–Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.
Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well–even those you have known a long time–because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.
You are not to be messed with. You may explode.
Changing one of the marginal scores, I get this, somewhat more comfortable:
You are an SECF–Sober Emotional Constructive Follower. This makes you a hippie. You are passionate about your causes and steadfast in your commitments. Once you’ve made up your mind, no one can convince you otherwise. Your politics are left-leaning, and your lifestyle choices decidedly temperate and chaste.
You do tremendous work when focused, but usually you operate somewhat distracted. You blow hot and cold, and while you normally endeavor on the side of goodness and truth, you have a massive mean streak which is not to be taken lightly. You don’t get mad, you get even.