Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Pre-Homosexuality? The Prescription Homocil Controversy -- Popcorn by The Colonel # 90 April 1, 2014

Epigraph: “The meandering road to destruction grows marvelously straight and downhill at its end, with an irresistibly strong following wind. ‘Come to Papa’ cries the waiting Moloch, his fiery maw wide open.” --from “Bedtime Stories for Naughty Children” by Parson Weems


☻ We are selfish. We don’t want our cartoon characters’ speech impediments cured. We don’t want Porky Pig to blithely announce “That’s all, folks!” or Elmer Fudd to trill “Here I am hunting rabbits in the rural reaches of Ruritania.”

☻ “Never send to know for whom the Taco Bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” Now at breakfast, too.

☻ From the wizards’ restroom wall: “For a good time, ensorcell Rhonda.”

☻ Belated full disclosure: The headline was clickbait. The pressure around here to generate traffic is unconscionable. Mack Yone walks around with a whip he made by braiding rose canes -- he's tough, but artistic -- barking at us ink-stained content providers to "Generate traffic! Now! Now! Now!" How are we supposed to do that without using lots of the blue language that K-Swa censors right out? Help!

“Chitterlings” is a formal name for the pig intestines better known as “chitlins.” They are a Southern family holiday tradition, but deep freezing can make them available all year long.

An ancient Latin maxim holds, “Quot homines, tot sententiae” (literally, “however many persons, that many opinions”). A surviving modern variant is: “Two Jews, three opinions.”

☻ Speaking of ancient Latin maxims, “a word to the wise” is a truncated translation of “verbum sapienti satis [est]” (“a word, to the wise person, [is] enough”). When someone gives you “a word to the wise,” you are being complimented as a wise one for whom the point need not be made in long form. The compliment is not always large: “Word to the wise, Mac: zipper.”

☻ How did “Mac” come to be used informally to address a man whose name is unknown? Did the expression start in Scotland as a good guess at a man's name?

☻ Robert “Thor” Thorson, geology professor and columnist in the-publication-whose-name-we-dare-not-speak spoke recently before a Rockfall Foundation audience at deKoven House. He said he agreed with Thoreau that “nature” was “everything other than myself,” which Thorson refined to “everything other than my mind,” allowing that his own body is part of nature. He admitted to occasional confusion on the point, but reasoned that just as he would insist that molten Mercury abounds with “nature,” so a broken-tanker oil spill on the shores of Alaska is an entirely “natural” phenomenon. By the way, this coverage, such as it is, is exclusive to the Eye, Mr. Yone.

☻ Bad news for rational moralists: “There is no such thing as a scientific ought.” --Ludwig von Mises

☻  Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) lamented “the leakage of reality from American life.”

☻ “Life is mostly a lie, just the way we want it. The first step toward a real life is to stop wanting lies. If that doesn’t kill you, you’re on your way.” --Anonyzen

☻ “I don’t have a microwave oven, but I have a clock that occasionally cooks stuff.” --Mitch Hedberg

☻ A blog on contract drafting has contributors mostly from the U.S. and the U.K. The issue arose whether the word “limitation” is ever necessary in a contract, or whether the shorter word “limit” will always do. A Yank opined that “limit” would always do. A Brit gave “limitation of liability,” a common contract provision (aka "liability cap"), as an example of a phrase that he felt required the word “limitation.” The Yank insisted otherwise, analyzing the definitions of the two words. The Brit replied as follows:

☻ “That isn't quite the point. There is a ‘limit’ between allowed damages and non-allowed damages, but the clause itself is still a 'limitation.' Indeed, a liability cap is a limitation as well as a limit. One can pick apart the definitions of words endlessly, and go insane in doing so, but ultimately there is usually a more natural way of expressing the idea. In this case I think it is ‘limitation of/on liability’, because that refers to the rule rather than the boundary itself, and that is usually how people think of the clause.” (Emphasis added.)

☻ Here’s the quiz question for Popcorn readers, among whom number several notorious Ankylophiles: Did the Brit slyly call the Yank a head case?

☻ If you think Canadian alt-country music promoters known as "Lefty McRighty" should be able to defame music industry figures in blogs with impunity, Google the phrase "Lefty McRighty" and learn how to contribute to one such Lefty's legal defense fund. They don't have a First Amendment in Canada.

☻ “Love’s unworldly nature makes it the most powerful of all antipolitical human forces.” --Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) Was that her way of saying she was married to a Republican?

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