I am running around like crazy (well, right this second I am sitting on the couch, bleary, drinking ice tea and playing mental Crap Tetris with the living room furniture, but you get the idea) getting ready for the party tonight. I have made a cake that you all want to marry and for which I should get some sort of medal. But what I really wanted to do was present you with today's thing to make fun of:
Oh ha ha ha ha ha. I love it when people decide to Improve The Language. It is so futile and so great! Like deciding to improve the continental plates with a hammer!
I know what they're getting at, and they make some good points about the way we perceive the world, but those suggested replacements for "to be," ouch. I can't stand for it. Plus: "Looking at our next pair, 'John is lethargic and unhappy' vs. 'John is bright and cheerful,' we see again how medieval software creates metaphysical puzzles and totally imaginary contradictions."
He says that like it's a bad thing. In my opinion, metaphysical puzzles and imaginary contradictions are some of the best things language has given us. That and the word "ganache" and the ability to transfer the information that allows one to make the beautiful deadly cake topping it represents.
Posted by hilatron at July 16, 2005 09:43 AM | TrackBackThe thing these idjits always forget is that, in order to USE language, we first have to LEARN it -- something we do as very small children.
One of the first multi-word phrases a toddler utters is some version of "What is that?"
Can you imagine a bunch of earnest middle-class parents cooing over the jogging stroller saying, "Now, Keaton, dear, you know you should ask, 'What noun classification does that object seem to fall into?'"
Poor little bugger would never learn to talk.
Posted by: Doombot at July 21, 2005 07:50 PM