Plenty of Nothing

Toss It Up!

Good Pun Bad Pun

A pun is a verbal construction that simultaneously conveys two distinct meanings.  A good, well-turned pun contains two senses that co-operate and reinforce one another, inculcating delight.

Figure 1 is an example of a good pun, specifically the Home Depot ad at the Braves' home field.  "Drill one here."  Yes!

Figure 2 is an example of a stupid pun.  The Ottawa CBC station has an arts program called "Creative Block", because, you see, it's about creative people, and also, it occupies a block of time.  You'll recall that Ottawa seriously considered adopting the slogan "Ottawa: Technically Beautiful", because, you know, the city is beautiful and has a lot of high tech industry. "Creative Block" and "Ottawa: Technically Beautiful" are akin to the driver who has turned the wrong way onto a one-way street, and is honking at the other cars.  (I've seen this.)  (In Ottawa.)  Dumb, and broadcasting the fact.

Check here for the Atlanta picture.

Bluestockings

Puns are structured into the universe on a subatomic level.  If you think of a pun, like, "Bluestockings would be the perfect name for a 19th-century women's baseball team," chances are in the 95 to 100 percent range that someone else has already thought it, done it, and posed for the picture.

Table of Content

1.  Puns, Happiness Caused by

I don't know why some people hate puns.  Puns make me happy.

2.  Puns as Happy Accidents

Chinese-speakers sometimes have difficulty with number in English grammar, i.e., when to make a noun singular or plural.  Long ago when I was trying to scratch a living by typing for students, I got a handwritten manuscript from a group of Chinese students who had designed a business plan for a Chinese bakery.  At the top of the contents page they had written TABLE OF CONTENT.  That would have made a nice name for their bakery, but they didn't go for it.

3.  Puns in Art

The words for "bat" and "happiness" are the same in Chinese, and a bat is often used to represent happiness in art.

Douglas

Set Your Clocks, Anne Auerbach!

Eastern Daylight Savings Time ends tonight.

Elemenopy

Elemenopy  n.  (ling.)   The tendency to run words together into one long compound noun.  (E.g. "We're all going to the HockeyHallOfFame!")  [Derived from the letters L M N O P as recited by children.]

[Huh. I thought I made this up, but a quick google reveals this book and this garage band.]

Douglas

Shi

Whenever I'm watching a Chinese movie and the dialogue reaches a point where someone is answering in the affirmative -- "Shi" -- I'm struck by how much it sounds like "Sure."  This coincidence must be a godsend for anyone dubbing Chinese films into English.  "Sure" is pretty much synonymous with "Yes," though it has the added sense of "If you say so," which is often the way "Yes" is meant in movie dialogue anyway.   But it makes me wonder where the word "Sure" came from.  I know it's American, and is obviously a short form of "Surely," but wouldn't it be neat if it first appeared in 19th-century San Francisco with its Chinese population?  I guess I'd better look it up.

Douglas

Proofs of the Existence of God

Mount Allison University is hosting a conference on the traditional proofs for the existence of God.  But I'll bet they don't have this one:

Have you ever looked at a large building site and wondered, How did they set up that huge crane?  Well, they used another crane.  Okay, but how did they set up that one?  They must have used another crane.  Which they must have set up with a crane.  And on and on and on into infinity.  Unless you posit God.  The primum mobile crane!

Douglas