Comments on: Weekend Word Wrap: word hall-of-mirrors

By: mike

mike — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 03:53:36 +0000

metacognition being mindful of what one’s mind is full of–thinking about what one is thinking about–there’s the cure to the headache-free head :^)

it’s kinda like when my friend said after eating ice cream–”man I have a serious ice cream headache” to which I responded, quit eating your ice cream so fast” to which he quipped “what, and miss this great headache”

it’s really about what you’re chasing

By: Justin WIck

Justin WIck — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:04:13 +0000

I believe the term that describes this best (the “meta”-something others were looking for) is “homological”. See the discussion here:
atheism.about.com/library/glossary/general/bldef_homological.htm

Basically homological words are words that can describe themselves, and heterological words cannot describe themselves. That then leads to the paradox that if the word doesn’t describe itself (which is what the word means) then it accurately describes itself, and vice versa. Thinking about this is an excellent cure for a headache-free head :)

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:47:24 +0000

“I’m against picketing, I just don’t know how to show it.”

-Mitch Hedberg

By: Size

Size — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:44:58 +0000

Not sure if this counts, but it makes me think of Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass: “My name means the shape I am.”

By: Jenn

Jenn — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 05:08:41 +0000

This is related to Kathy’s too. It reminds me of my favorite episode of Taxi, when Jim takes his driver’s test. “What’s a yellow light mean?” “Slow down!” “What’s…a…yellow…light…mean?” That was great!

By: Amy

Amy — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:11:35 +0000

Going along with what Kathy said, I worked at a summer camp where we used camp names (EX: Hummingbird, Sunflower). I wanted my camp name to be Guess. That way when people asked me what my name was I’d just tell them “Guess!”…

At another camp I worked at, we had a girl named Secret. That led to some confusion the first few days.

By: Anad

Anad — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 03:00:26 +0000

There is a philosophy of everything–philosophy of mind, philosophy of language…what about the philosophy of philosophy?

By: kathy

kathy — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 22:16:52 +0000

although the use of pronouns can be unclear at best and utterly confusing out of the mouth of some people. they may start recounting an incident and identify all the participants briefly, in the beginning but by the third or fourth sentence the participants are all he or she and just which he did or said what to which other he or she?

By: kathy

kathy — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 22:03:08 +0000

just off the top of my head an incident from my early grammer school days comes to mind. we were well on our way to being able to read. at this time, we received ‘word lists’ to assist the expansion of our vocabulary. most were words we were, perhaps familiar with hearing but now had to recognize their spelling. one list contained the word ‘where’. i had given up trying to sound it out and asked my brother ‘what’s this word?’ he said ‘where’. i said ‘here’, pointing to it. he said ‘where’ and i felt the need to consult another source. i had another brother and sister and was quite frustrated before i realized i was not being ignored but their answer sounded like a question to me. finally, i suppose, i had made such a pest of myself that a sentence explained to me ‘that word w-h-e-r-e is where.’

By: om

om — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 19:32:31 +0000

similar to the Kings category, i want to have a themed party, where the theme is you come as your favorite themed party. It would be fun to guess what other peoples themes are supposed to be