Re: Terminology Question - groups of paragraphs

On 23 Apr 2006 20:19:00 +0200, kaih=9sQQ6rlmw-B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kai
Henningsen) wrote:

anghara@xxxxxxxxx (Alma Hromic Deckert) wrote on 22.04.06 in <gt4l42lhbd3keekmqda0gc81drv0pcu7sc@xxxxxxx>:

My whimsy, therefore, has these huge diaphanous wings and it floats in
the shadows between the candle and the star - and arguing with it in
terms of "you know A is true if B can be assumed to be true" hangs
enough weight on it to pull it to the ground and never let it fly
again.

That sounds a lot like the old argument that flowers no longer look so
wonderful when you study the biology involved - to which I answer with an
uncomprehending look: surely they look *more* wonderful if you understand
them?!

The sense of pure enchantment as you look at an opening flowerbud and
the sense of wonder as to how the whole thing is put together are two
verry different feelings for me. Fairies live in that opening bud; a
scientific wonder lives in the second question.

But let me offer a really old joke here:

Two people are flying in a balloon. There's a complete cloud cover below
them, so they're completely lost. (This was pre-GPS.) They come to a
mountain - just the top is visible. As luck would have it, someone's just
climbed up.

"Where are we?" they shout. No answer. As the mountain recedes in the
distance, suddenly they hear, very faint, the answer: "In - a - balloon!"
Says one of them to the other, "This must be a mathematician. The answer
is typical: he took a long time arriving at it, it is perfectly correct,
and it is completely useless."

I have the updated version.

Two people are in a microlight, and they are lost - it's a grey and
foggy day, visibility near zero, and they have no clue where they are.
At one point an office building surfaces right next to them, and one
of the people in the aircraft says that at least THOSE people ought to
know where they are. So they holler out,

"Where arewe?"

to which a guy in the office building replies from a window, "In a
microlight!"

and the guy in the plane turns to his friend and says, "I now know
exactly where we are."

"How could you, from that?" asks the friend.

"The answer to my question was perfectly accurate and completely
useless. We must be at the headquarters of M*cro$oft."
.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Terminology Question - groups of paragraphs
    ... to which a guy in the office building replies from a window, ... and the guy in the plane turns to his friend and says, ...
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