(Untitled)

[inverted_man]

Henry Potter
And the Prisoner's StoneI'm in a funk. What do I need to make a comeback? What needs to happen? Perhaps I need to stop spending the entire - and I mean the ENTIRE - weekend in nothing but a towel. If it's exercise alone that I'm worried about, it's admittedly become very intensive work keeping the towel from falling off in transit

Comments

Mistakes that become official

[anonymous]

My least favorite of these would be "begging the question". Now, it means "raises (with some urgency) the question" rather than its original meaning "uses circular logic".

Re: Mistakes that become official

[inverted_man]

Yea! That's been a source of confusion for me for a long time. I walked away with a lot when I took an "informal logic" class, and "begging the question" was one of my favorite argumentative mistakes to point out. But on every BBC news spot, or NPR show, or article in which the phrase turned up it was being used as you described.

And I've used it (the old way) and everytime I'm interpreted the "new" way.

Re: Mistakes that become official

[mshonle]

You might like this.

The way I use it is a restricted form of "raises the question": Sometimes you see something advertized as a "solution" to a problem, but itself just brings up an equally important question/problem that would also need to be addressed. E.g.: "there's lots of green house gases from our cars," "let's go electric!", "but that just begs the question: what about the pollution from generating the electricity for the electric cars?"

It's probably this middle ground (a logical flaw that isn't quite the same as assuming the conclusion, but close in flavor) that read to the modern use today.

[lovelymissjess]

I used to think my suitemate was launching rockets out of her room at three in the morning. She'd crank that shit so loud, glasses fell from my shelves and shattered on my dorm floor.

(giggling, by the way, at the image of you in your towel and crown and megaphone haranguing the neighbors.)

Because it always makes me think of you,

[anagramatica]

I just started reading Dune. There is only ONE thing I remember from the movie. I couldn't have been any older than 10 when my mom rented it and we watched it because it had Sting in it. When he unplugged that guy.

I guess living with someone who has a whole collection of sci-fi is turning me into a sci-fi curious kind of person. I just read Hyperion, and though it started off really strongly, I was less than impressed by the second half. Anyway, Dune is already about 20 times better and I'm only in the first 30 pages.

Re: Because it always makes me think of you,

[mshonle]

I think I've seen that ad in the back of the San Diego Reader: Sci? Fi? Curious?

[myra_musing]

I find, when I am in a funk, that sitting around in a towel bemoaning all the pettiness and pretension of my fellow humans does nothing to improve my mood.

PBJ, however, always helps. It's the salt, you know ;)

[inverted_man]

All points noted!

[inverted_man]

HOLY CRAP.

I do the same thing with sports fans too. My favorite response:

"Catch the Padres game?"
"Eh...not really into hockey. I like a real men's sports."

[mshonle]

I inadvertently do that with sports! "Did you catch the game!?" "What game?" At any moment, I have no idea if they are talking about a local game or something national. And I have no idea what game is "in season" at the moment.

I only know the super bowl is coming about a week before it happens. I always kick myself for being that in touch with it. In my head I know that it's football season around thanksgiving, and I wish I could eject that fact from my brain. Then, it could be like the cool trick I have where I can never get it straight what day Christmas is on and when I have to know I always convert 31 from octal. (The joke is Halloween=Christmas, because OCT 31=DEC 25, and I remember the joke and what day Halloween is on.)