The Very Reverend Giraffe wrote:kid p has finally just fucked off home after nine days in my company. i declare this jolly up officially over.
He's going to need some serious therapy.
The Moddie Experience! wrote:The meanings of words adapt and develop all the time as they have to. "most unique" might sound like a tautology but it isn't. If all the cities are similar but there's one which is quite different to the rest then of course it can be described as "most unique".
To argue otherwise is to misunderstand the way language works. So there!
goldwax wrote:toomanyhatz wrote:Baron wrote:kath wrote:toomanyhatz wrote:Pedantic, I know, but I think his point was that the definition of "unique" is that there's only one- therefore something can't be "most" unique- it's either unique or it isn't.
yer kidding me, right? what bullcrap. i was sitting here about to explain how uniqueness is indeed a relative concept, when i realized i'd rather make a cheesecake.
I blame Goldwax.
No way I'd ever be so neurotic and petty.
Although he's right. And it's always been a pet peeve of mine. Uniqueness is technically not a relative concept, though it's often used that way.
But I have many things I'd rather be neurotic and petty about, personally.
And I'd like a slice of that cheesecake when you're done, too.
I have a feeling that Kath makes the most unique cheesecake ever, so sign me up for a slice next time she makes one! (Unless this is the onliest time she makes one. )
goldwax wrote:It doesn't matter how many variables there are in cheesecakery: A cheesecake can be more delicious, more original, more adventurous, even, at a stretch, more special, but it cannot be more unique than another. Why? Because a cheesecake is either unique (actually ALL cheesecakes are technically unique, but even I'm not that anal) or it is not. A thing cannot be more "one of a kind" than another thing. To say that it can be is to distort and even destroy the very meaning of the phrase "one of a kind." We may be sloppy when making cheesecake and still get a wonderful result, but we should take more care with our language. After all, words do have meaning. If not, there's no sense in having words all. Now, I'm all in favor of words shifting in meaning (or more accurately, I accept it), but I think we should hold the line when that shifting of meaning renders the true and original meaning null and void.
If we decide that we do want to avoid sloppiness in our language--and by extension, our thinking--then we should do the extra work and use words that truly mean what we want to say. New Orleans isn't the most unique city in the world, but it might very well be the most exciting, the most intoxicating, the most varied, or the most culturally important. One of those words--or perhaps another, because I truly don't know what you do mean to say when you call New Orleans the most unique city in the world---will convey a more accurate sense of what you want to say, in a way that the fuzzy "most unique" fails to do.
Footy wrote:
The Who / Jimi Hendrix Experience Saville Theatre, London Jan '67
. Got Jimi's autograph after the show and went on to see him several times that year
goldwax wrote:kath wrote:goldwax wrote:You don't have to get nasty about it, you know.
um, help me out here. which is the nasty part? pointing out that yer own logic is sloppy and fuzzy, or threatening to hire you as my editor?
See above. I added to my post.
toomanyhatz wrote:But let's move continued discussions about it next door, shall we?
kath wrote:toomanyhatz wrote:But let's move continued discussions about it next door, shall we?
oops. a thousand pardons. i was just trying to respond to goldwax's post prior. hadn't seen yers.
i will :::zip::: it then. and if anything i said to goldwax turns folk off of choosing to jolly in new orleans, then i will not only beat myself repeatedly with cherry licorice, i'll go out of the country next memorial day for shame.
Sambient wrote:sidhe wrote:Cosmic American Girl wrote:I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. Reality sucks.
Perhaps we should move to Utah and form a commune.
Wait, can we vote on where we're forming a commune?