wh5

Logo of Zorro

2012-02-14T00:41:00.001+09:00

The Mask of Zorro (1998)

(1) Montero: I'm sorry that Ihave to leave you without a husband. [to his guards] Arrest him.

(2) de la Vega (indicating the sword): Do you know howto use that thing?

Murrieta: Yes. The pointyend goes into the other man.

de la Vega: [sighs] This isgoing to take a lot of work.

(3) Murrieta: The great warrior known asZorro was gone. The people gave him a hero's funeral, but your grandfather willlive on. For there will always be a Zorro. We will see him again... riding likethe wind, his sword blazing in the sun... leaping, jumping, swinging throughthe air... Fighting like a tiger.

_________

Voice-over

Zorro’s logo, the letter “Z” (tilted 65 degrees) is also a metaphor for Zorro’s reincarnation. He rises, he falls, he risesagain. Montero's “Arrest him!” triggers the fall, the exchange “pointy end goesin the other man,” marks the rise, and the storytelling, “There will always be aZorro,” signals the climax where de la Vega passes Zorro’s mask to Murrieta.

He'd kill us if he got the chance

2012-02-03T23:46:00.000+09:00

He'd kill us if he got the chance.

Take 3 …

Ann: This film we’re in, it’sa metaphor. Those six microphones they’re pointing at us.

Mark: Yeah. Metaphors forguns.

Ann: They’re having a hardjob recording us.

Mark: Don’t be too sure. It’shi-tech gear. Shotgun mikes, super-super cardioid.

Ann: Shotguns? See, I toldyou. He’d kill us if he got the chance.

Mark: You’re obsessing abouthim killing us. We’re just actors.

CUT!

________

Voice-over

Harry Caul is a surveillanceexpert, who contracts to record people’s conversations. He’s good at his job; hetakes the craft of deciphering incomprehensible speech to the level of art.

Significantly, The Conversation, (1974), a FrancisFord Coppola film, owes much of its acclaim to the editing of Walter Murch, the sound designer. Harry collects sounds, filters out the distractions, andconstructs his eavesdroppings. A sound editor like Walter Murch works like thistoo. Harry, in the way he works, is a metaphor for a sound editor.

But Harry’s job takes himinto other people’s private spaces. Then Harry becomes obsessed that his ownprivacy has been compromised, in his apartment.

And so it has. Just as oursis by the internet, by Google, by FaceBook. We are never alone now.

White Wabbit

2012-02-01T23:25:00.003+09:00

The Puppet Rabbit tells why…

Pinocchio: "White Rabbit,White Rabbit, White Rabbit." Where did that come from?

Rabbit B: It came from aPuppet Wabbit. Long time ago. He told kids, you say “White Wabbit” three timessoon as you wake up on the first day of a new month, you get good luck for thewest of the month.

Pinocchio: My family hadnatural good fortune. We bent the truth a little at times, it is true, but wewere all lucky. Our master Gepetto told us.

Rabbit B: An ancestor puppet wabbitwas told by his master you have to make your luck happen. Saying “WhiteWabbit” every first day of the month is an affirmation.

Pinocchio: If you don’t myasking, why do you puppet rabbits call yourselves “wabbits”?

Rabbit B: That was my UncleBugs. He started it. He was a glider.

______

Voice-over

We might add that it was UncleBugs’ puppeteer Elmer’s voice-over that began this. Gliding the “r” into a “w”may be a little condescending to kids, but if it were a genuine disorder, perhaps a palatologist couldhave sorted him out.

Cartesian Duck

2012-01-29T23:54:00.001+09:00

A Discussion broughtto you by the Letter “D”.

Donald: I think I am a duck. Therefore I must be a duck.
Douglas: You mean, you walk like a duck, quack like a duck, so you must be aduck?
Donald: Is there a difference?
Douglas: There is. You look like a duck. You quack like a duck. Therefore, it ispossible you belong to the Anatidae family. But it doesn’t mean you can think.
__________
Voice-over
Donald’s identity problem can be explained by…
(a) Cartesian logic.
(b) Cartesian linguistics.
(c) Cartesian diving.
(d) Cartesian coordinates.
…

Reductionist definitionism

2012-01-23T22:00:00.000+09:00

Zhi questions Jiang on his character over mah jong.

Zhi:You must read Malcolm Gladwell.
Jiang: Tipping point? I have. I liked it.
Zhi: So which are you: a connector, a maven or a salesman?
Jiang: Meaning?
Zhi: Connector, meaning people who carefully keep up even casual socialconnections. Maven, meaning someone who has lots of information about productsand deals. Or salesmen, who persuade people of something they are doubtfulabout.
Jiang: I’m an extreme form of none of them. I know a few people, I knowsomething about my job, when needed I can persuade someone to do something.
Zhi: You’re a generalist?
Jiang: I’m a reductive definitionist. I can explain things simply.
__________
Voice-over
Jiang has a talent for summarizing in afew everyday words. The skill might be called reductionist definitionism. Hecalls himself a reductive definitionist.
But Jiang is not only this. His whole is more than the sum of his parts. Heis also a professional mah jong player.

...

On FaceBook everyone knows you're a cat

2012-01-17T19:50:00.003+09:00

Sketch of a General Cat

Jerry: You Photoshopped your photo into a sketch?
Tom: What do you think?
Jerry: You’ve gone from being You The Cat to being merely a Generic Cat.
Tom: I needed a new avatar. I stuck with being a cat because, in the end, on FaceBook,everyone knows you are a cat.
Jerry: You got that from somewhere.
Tom: Maybe. Who cares? Everything these days is a derivative. A mixture. Amashup. OK, so the structure came from somewhere but the words are mine.

____________
Voice-over
The deep structure generates a variety of sentences:

Location + Entity + Verb + Personalreference + Copula + Entity

On the internet + nobody + knows + you + are + a dog

On FaceBook + everyone + knows + you + are + a cat

Look forward to more quotations like this sheep in wolf’s clothing!

Chomsky might agree the surface structure is creative. A little.

...

Cabinet reshuffle backstory

2012-01-15T22:21:00.003+09:00

The politics behind thepolitics
Reshuffle already? After onlyfour months in office?
Officially, he’s doing it because two ministers messed up. Opposition says he’sdoing it to cause a diversion to push through the tax increase.
And the word on the street?
Word on the street is this: One: He’s made his rival Okada deputy PM. Two: Then he announced that Okada will oversee the tax increase. Three: This tax reform will causean outcry and is sure to fail. Four: The public will crucify Okada. Five: Nodastays as PM. That’s the back story.Set up a rival to fall on his sword.

__________
Voice-over
Political analysis is never simple, but here there are at least three versions:
(1) The official announcement: cabinet reshuffle.
(2) Opposition takes the opportunity to shine a light on the hidden agenda: tax increase.
(3) Back story: conspiracy theory.
...

Rhyming as a signal of verbal intelligence

2012-01-11T21:49:00.000+09:00

GM likes to rhymeresponses.
wh5: Robert only had 40 friends on Facebook a couple of months ago. Now he’sgot over 200.
GM: Friends? What means friends? Isaw George’s profile. He claims 500 PLUS “friends.”
wh5: Well, maybe such people just collect people. Like stamps. Or insects. Grabthem. Pin them. Display them. Label them “friends.”
GM: So is all this connecting to “friends” becoming a competition?
wh5: Seems so. And what is a “friend”?
GM: Someone you spend time with, send messages to, lend things to.
wh5: And an acquaintance?
GM: Someone who you glance at, meet by chance, then exist in an expanse.
wh5: And is this “competition,” you allude to, coming from people competing, orcompanies wanting growth?
GM: It’s froth. It’s growth. Both.

____________
Voice-over
In structure, this is a cooperative conversation of question and counter-question to reach consensus.

Stylists sometimes caution against peppering our prose with alliteration, punsor rhymes. But there can be fun in it. Some like Geoffrey Miller go so far asto say rhyming is difficult to do, that a speaker has to try harder to make arhyme, and likens it to a peacock display, or in a human context, a signaling of verbal intelligence.

A win-win retribution: Wall Street II

2012-01-04T19:59:00.000+09:00

Narrative Profile: Wall Street I (blue) & Wall Street II (red)

Wall II follows Wall I’snarrative… with a twist…
Saturday night was a good night to stay in and watch a movie. Except Iwatched two.
Two?
Two the same. Well a prequel followed by a sequel. Wall Street the original and…
Money Never Sleeps?
The very pair. And they are so similar.
Because of Michael Douglas?
That but more than that. It’s the narratives. They have an identical narrative profile.But with a twist in II.
Ah. Bad old guy vs innocent newbie?
Bad old guy corrupts innocent idealistic newbie who then outwits bad old guy.Bud in Wall I gets a confession on tape of Gordon Gekko and Jake in Wall IIderails Gordon with a movie of his grandson on CD. Media denouement, bothtimes.
You’d think Gordo would have learned not to trust media.

___________
Voice-over
Media. You can imagine Oliver Stone thinking, “Bud wore a wire and taped Gordonto get him put away for twenty years. But in Wall II, I’ll have Jake give Gordona film of his grandson’s ultrasonic scan (a representation of a representation)to reel him back into the family and give back the 100 million.

Wall I: Young idealistic newbie (Bud) uses medium of sound recording tape toattack Gordon. Destructive retribution.
Wall II: Young idealistic newbie (Jake) uses meta-media to subdue Gordon,defeat him, win the money back, and bring him into the family. A win-winretribution.

White Rabbitism

2012-01-01T20:01:00.001+09:00

A DOUBLEgreeting for a new month! And a new year!

It's thefirst of a new month so ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce, our newreligion:

WHITERABBITISM!

And areligion needs a leader.

What betterleader for the WHITE RABBIT religion than ...

The CulturalRabbit.

None otherthan BUGS myself.

HAPPY NEWYEAR for 2012

And, since it is the firstof a new month, shout …

“WHITE RABBIT WHITERABBIT WHITE RABBIT!”
as soon as you get up in the morning and good luck will follow you for themonth.

_______________
Voice-over

You can worship the head of a sardine if you wish. But a white rabbit has more class. And a white rabbit offering a month's worth of good luck in exchange for saying "White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit" as soon as you wake up on the first day of a new month sounds a good deal and more economical than attending church on four Sundays a month. It isn't flaky, it has has some culture, some tradition, some history. Ifit gets enough worshippers, White Rabbitism could be very BIG!

...

Can the Invisible Web find the Invisible Expanding Collective?

2011-12-25T20:06:00.000+09:00

Discussion on the invisibility of people and data.

Frank: I was watching a TV program about a photographer who took some photos ofa group in London. And I thought, “They look interesting. I’ll google them.” Didn’t find them.
Jill: So famous as to be on BBC but Google couldn’t find them? Who was thegroup?
Frank: The Invisible Expanding Collective. A group of squatters. Or “sitesitters” as they called themselves.
Jill: Ha! Of course you couldn’t find them. They’re invisible.
Frank: Well, not so invisible. There was one article in the Guardian from tenyears ago. But nothing else.
Jill: There’d be something else about them. On the invisible web. The iceberg-like90% of the internet that google can’t find.
Frank: Maybe. Like the underworld. People used to believe in ghosts. Then itwas the invisible man: Wells, H.G. A mention of invisible literature: BallardJ.G. Now it’s the invisible web. Bergman, M.K.

____________
Voice-over
Invisible, you can do a lot of stunts, entertainingand evil.

Entertaining, as China’s Invisible man shows.

Or evil, as Invisible Darien beats up a mime.

Quizzical, as in a movie quiz with the faces taken out.

There are many reasons why things are invisible on the internet.
One of the more interesting explanations is that of Eli Paiser who claims searchengine algorithms invisibly filter what they think we want to see. What Googleserves you may not be the same as what Google dishes up for me. He talks about“invisible internet information bubbles” on TED.
...

Coco Chanel and Pierre

2011-12-20T23:35:00.005+09:00

CoCo and Pierre differ in their approach to branding.

CoCo: Looking at green isgood for the eyes.

Pierre: Nonsense.

CoCo: Because you only see in black and white. Youonly read numbers, like “five,” not letters. So you cannot understand colorsand words.
Pierre: You simplify too much. You think that people will buy your brand just becauseit is your brand.
CoCo: Why wouldn’t they? I invented my life. I am different. People buy my brand,they buy something different.
Pierre: But it must be practical. Your little gold dress, you cannot go to workin that.
CoCo: It is always better to be slightly underdressed.

_________
Voice-over
Pierre is doomed. CoCo does not employ logic. She deploys associationism. Shedistracts by taking the conversation in another (albeit similar) direction. Debate isfutile.

...

Marx Test

2011-12-14T23:36:00.002+09:00

Test writing time for teachers comes around.
Mark: What’s your method?
Joseph: Go to Wikipedia, choose a topic, read the outline, get the gist, frame 6 or 8 questions beginning with the classic wh5.
Mark: The classic wh5?
Joseph: What happened? Who did it? Where did it occur? When? And Why? Then reread the article. After that, write one paragraph for each question. Piece of cake.
Mark: So I have to write a passage. What’s a good topic?
Joseph: They’re business students. An economist.
Mark: Keynes?
Joseph: Done. Two years ago.
Mark: Soros?
Joseph: Three years ago.
Mark: Drucker?
Joseph: Last year. How about Marx? He’s due for an airing.
Mark: Marx. You suggest I write about Marx?
Joseph: You’re a Marxist. Said so yourself. Your own admission.
Mark: Something from Das Kapital?
Joseph: Perhaps CliffsNotes, the manga edition?
______________
Voice-over
Restating ideas, recycling essays, regurgitating answers. No wonder educationhas problems with plagiarism. Not only are students getting answers from theinternet. Teachers are grabbing tests from the internet. But if you’re a longdead economist whose theories have been a little tarnished, you may not be toochoosy who dusts you off. Going along with Marx's thoughts on "private property," a Marx test may be borrowed from here.

...

Hedonistic dissonance

2011-12-09T22:23:00.001+09:00

TinTin analyzes Haddock asa hedonistic dissonant…
TinTin: Let me get this straight. You were at Stabas at three, checking emails.Your flight was at nine. How could anyone –
Haddock: Miss the flight? It happens.
TinTin: But this is the third time in as many years.
Haddock: Well. There have been - um - mitigating circumstances.
TinTin: Is it something to do with not wanting to waste a minute? Catching thelatest possible train to the airport?
Haddock: I - I don’t have a gold card to get into a lounge.
TinTin: Because you always take cheap flights. False economies. And anotherthing. This being the last one to board before the doors close. Hedonisticdissonance, wouldn't you say?
Haddock: Excuse me?
TinTin: The risk taker who deliberately acts to bring about a negative result.
Haddock: Not deliberate. Anyway, I can catch tomorrow’s flight.
TinTin: You’re too old to be always sailing so close to the wind.

______________
Voice-over
TinTin is trying to make a point, but isn't quite able to throwHaddock out of the ring who is in vehement denial. However, the jury awards TinTin the bout.
...

Ukuleles as disruptive technology

2011-12-06T23:19:00.001+09:00

Bill and George talk about unemployment in times of disruption.
George: Turbulent times.
Bill: Chaotic, even random. I mean, I’ve been to 16 job interviews and nothing,but Jack, you know, Jack?
George: The guitarist?
Bill: The same, he goes to a club week or two back, and he plays there and getstalking to a boss kind who says, “I saw you on YouTube, you want a job?”
George: A job? As a guitarist?
Bill: Teaching ukulele. To the unemployed.
George: Wha - ? That’s a jump.
Bill: Disruptive. Ukuleles are disruptive. Like Skype disrupted telephonecompanies. Jack says ukuleles are the disrupting technology that are going tochallenge guitars.
George: Ukuleles? A disruptive technology?
Bill: Why not? They fit the pattern. They’re cheap, they’re small. Even Warren Buffet plays one. And he says they are disruptive. Here.
George: But Warren Buffet isn’t exactly unemployed.

___________
Voice-over
Disruptive technology, or disruptive innovations, as Clayton Christensenrenamed his concept, offer many examples. Desktop printers disrupted the copyshop industry, or online news and blogs disrupted the newspaper industry, ordigital cameras disrupted the film industry. So by extending the Christensen logicto a conclusion, you can argue that something small and cheap (ukulele) comingalong disrupts something bigger and more expensive (guitar). And Warren is doing a great job of buffing up the image of the ukulele.
...

Hope

2011-12-01T22:20:00.001+09:00

A bag of heads are chattering on the sidewalk...

Studs: Don’t despair! HOPE! If youdespair you may as well put your head in an oven.
Malthus: Isn’t that where they are taking us? Isn’t that where we are going?
Studs: I think it’s realistic to have hope.
Malthus: You overuse “hope”.
Studs: Sure I do. Hope it’s a nice day. Hope things will get better.
Malthus: We’re heads in a bag. That’s our reality.
Studs: We don’t have to accept that. Look at it this way. If we protest, we’llfeel healthy. Something may even happen to us, biologically.
Malthus: It’s too late.Studs: Why are we born? We're born eventually to die, of course. Butwhat happens between the time we're born and we die? We're born to live. One isa realist if one hopes.

________
Voice-over
As I walked past the bag of heads on the sidewalk, I swear I heard adisembodied voice speaking Studs Terkel’s lines. About hope.
And hearing the word “hope” so often, changed my outlook on the day.
Repeating a word becomes a mantra. It can change our thought. It can change ourwords. It can change what we do.

This is a pragmatic approach. A pessimistic outlook can lead to depression. Anoptimistic outlook and belief in hope is helpful to keep us going, right to the end.

...

Laughing at Murphy

2011-11-28T12:53:00.001+09:00

Two approaches to Murphy…

I’m too strong for Murphy. He nevercomes near me.
Hmmm. You were checking your phone while driving and then ran into the back ofa truck? And then the next day your phone stopped working? And then because yourphone wasn’t working you missed a job interview? That’s not Murphy? I would have just said Murphy jumped out onto the road.
Not Murphy. Coincidence!
That’s what Murphy is. Coincidental cluster of bad luck. A series ofunfortunate events.
Anyway, I’m stronger than Murphy.
You don’t fight Murphy by trying to be stronger than him. You LAUGH at him.That’s why there are Murphy’s Laws. ”Whatever CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong.” Youlaugh out loud. Murphy HATES that. He runs away and hides. As long as you keep laughinghe stays away.
He comes back?
He comes back when you get stressed and stop laughing at life. He loves playingaround with serious and stressed-out people. Easy meat for him. Laughing people aren’t.

_______________
Voice-over
Expressions signifying being in denial:
Superlatives. “I’m too strong…”
A counter explanation: “Not Murphy! Coincidence!”

But laughing at Murphy may also be another kind of denial. He’sunpredictable. “If you predict a Murphy event will happen, it will not.”
...

Form and function in motorcycles

2011-11-23T22:37:00.001+09:00

Two riders, KTM and BMW, at a café…
KTM: Just saw Tron Legacy. Loved thoselight cycles. Seen it?
BMW: Saw it. Motorcycle as art?
KTM: Art but fiction.
BMW: How about a nonfiction motorcycle? As art that is.
KTM: Form or function?
BMW: Form.
KTM: Ferrari V4 concept.
BMW: If looks could kill it would. A design like that won’t even turn a corner.
KTM: OK, how about function?
BMW: The Britten? Won some races.
KTM: But, oooh, so lurid. The curves, I don’t know. And it often broke down.
BMW: Guess it only leaves… the Honda Cub. Pure function becomes art. 50 millionriders can’t be wrong. But are they… missing … something…?

____________
Voice-over
The objects are not in the café but inthe shared experience of the speakers. The expressions “light cycle”, “Ferrari motorcycle”,“Britten” and "Honda 50" ignite the images.
The conversation mimics the decision trajectory of a shopper torn betweenbuying something for its form and finally succumbing to a decision based onfunction.

…

Aung San Suu Kyi and basket carriers

2011-11-19T13:02:00.001+09:00

On an everyday Burma street.

“This street, I walk it every day. Past unpainted doorsand over the broken pavement. To the market. For just a handful of kyat a day. Theaverage person just gets by, somehow or other. The average person can live to a bit past 60. The averageperson can read and write a bit. Life could be better, I’m sure. I’ve seenscenes on TV. There are other places in the world. But where would I go? Howwould I get there? So I’m just getting by day by day. But I don’t want to carrybaskets forever.”

_____________
Voice-over
The expressions of resignation: "just gets by", "somehow or other", and the questions with no answers: "Where?" and "How?" Aung San Suu Kyi also said it: “I don't want Burma to be a basket case forever.”

...

Play it Again Sam

2011-11-15T21:14:00.001+09:00

Two teachers on contract discuss their pedagogical approaches.

Pedagogist:Why don’t you teach more classes?
Iconoclast: Can’t. I already have six a week. Can’t do eighteen a week likeyou.

Pedagogist: You’d make threetimes as much. All you got to do is walk in, open the text to the right placeand tell them to get on with it. Piece of cake.
Iconoclast: Can’t do textbooks. Have to do something edgy and new each week.Something I’ve never taught before.
Pedagogist: Stressful!
Iconoclast: Stimulating. I get input from preparing, and I get output fromteaching what I just learned. You teach a lot, make a lot of money. Yes, butwhere’s your input time?
Pedagogist: A day a week. I relax, I read.
Iconoclast: So my reading does double duty. I read it, I teach it. ImprovizedJazz vs Play it Again Sam. Louis vs. Sam.

____________
Voice-over
Comparing Sam to Louis Armstrong is a little misleading, yes. The misquote notwithstanding,did Sam really play the same songs every night the same way? And did Louisalways play freestyle? The pedagogist has a point; there is somethingto be said for having a script to depart from.

…

Monchichis play Hesiod and Perses!

2011-11-03T16:02:00.000+09:00

Hesiod and Perses lean onthe back fence looking at the vege garden.

Hesiod: Been away on the boat?
Perses: Practicing navigation by the stars. Followed Orion.
Hesiod: Ah. You followed Orion, while he was chasing the Pleiades.
Perses: The Seven Sisters? They’re low in the westnow.
Hesiod: So you will know it’s now time to stop summervoyaging, bring the boat ashore, and plough and sow the fields.
Perses: I can do both. Plant and peregrinate. See, I’ve got lettuce and cabbageand broccoli all ready for harvesting. And I’ve brought fish.

______________
Voice-over
Casting MONCHICHIs as Hesiod and Perses?Soft toys speaking Greek? Does it work? Did TheTen Commandments work better than ThePrince of Egypt? Horses for courses? In Hollywood, aka “smart casting.”

“And if longing seizes youfor sailing the stormy seas,
when the Pleiades flee the mighty Orion
and plunge into the misty deep
and all the gusty winds are raging,
then do not keep your ship on the wine-dark sea
but, as I bid you, remember to work the land.”
Hesiod.
...

Too Many Books

2011-10-31T13:25:00.000+09:00

We all have books. Gabriel Zaid wrote a book about therebeing too many books.

Don: Now you’re retired, what are you going to do with your books?
Carlo: My books, yes. Bit tricky that. Have to clear out my office. Don’t wantto throw them away. Don’t want to carry them with me. Dilemma.
Don: There are too many books in the world. Take up space. So said Zaid.
Carlo: Yes I even have his book. Bought it as a warning to myself. But mybooks, they’re a map of what I’ve read, what I’ve thought.
Don: Why don’t do you something digital? Scan the ones you want keep, toss therest, and buy an e-book reader for books you buy from now on?
Carlo: I could do that. I might even do that. (burps)
__________
Voiceover

Carlo sounds willing but there is a concern about whether he is committed to Don's suggestion.Carlo is 65 and likes to sit in the piazza drinking coffee with friends and passers-by.A quiz to determine his commitment.

1. Are all your books worth reading?
A. None.   B. A few.   C. Many.   D. Most.   E. All.

2. Do you have books on your shelves you have bought but never opened?
A.   All.   B. Most. C. Many.   D. A few.  E. None.

3. Do you judge people by the books they read?
A. Never.   B. Occasionally.   C. Sometimes.   D. Frequently.   E. Always.

4. What will you do with your books when you retire?
A. Throw all of them away.
B. Throw half, Keep half.
C. Dither.
D. Decide in principle but procrastinate.
E. Scan ones I want to keep, get an e-book reader.

Scoring for all questions:
A = 0;   B = 1;   C = 2;   D = 3;   E = 4

Scores:
0-5 A non-book, information person.
6-10 A bookish, information person.
11-15 A bookish, couldn’t care less about the delivery-medium, information-orientedperson.
16-20 A truly information-oriented person.

An extra question:

Do you turn off computer and TV and read A BOOK an hour before sleeping?
A. Never   (Serious digitaldependency)
B. Occasionally   (Sign ofdigital dependency)
C. Sometimes   (Avoidableoccasions are negotiated)
D. Frequently   (Signs of amature skepticism about digital media)
E. Always   (Congratulations!)
...

Easter Island Moai

2011-10-29T10:50:00.001+09:00

Two stone statues discuss what happened to the humans who createdthem.

Big Moai: There were trees here at one time.Then people came. They cut down trees to grow vegetables. They cut down treesto make fishing boats. They cut down trees to make rollers to carry us stonestatues here.
Little Moai: No more trees?
Big Moai: No more trees. Wind blows the soil into the sea. No more vegetables. Nomore trees to make fishing boats.

Little Moai: No more people?

Big Moai: No more people. Just us. Gods don’t need vegetables, don’tneed fish.

Little Moai: They created us, they believed in us, we destroyed them.Funny old world.

___________

Voiceover
A resource parable. Easter Islandersused their resources for food and for erecting their religious statues. Hadthey restricted their tree cutting to clearing just enough land for food andfishing boats, left trees for shelter, and not cut trees for rolling thestatues, they might have survived. Perhaps the religion they created helpeddestroy their society.*

This may be germane to modern progress. The world’s population just hit 7billion. Resources did not run out according to Malthusian predictions at 2 or4 or 6 billion. It’s not to say that the ingenuity of our species will continueto find new resources or new ways of solving conflicts. Any of our activitiescould tip us into the extinct bucket: shopping, traveling, religion.

*Of course there are many other possible reasons why the Easter Islandpopulation declined. However, there’s the bones of good parable here.
...

Reading tastes

2011-10-20T10:24:00.001+09:00

There is an informal interfaculty meeting to be held in theSocial Science Faculty. Dean of Science and Dean of Humanities arrive early andare told to wait in the Soc Sci dean’s office. They are drawn to the stack ofbooks on a side table.

Science: He appears curious about many things, but seems to lean towardsthe humanities.
Humanities: But the ship?
Science: The ship is not a book.
Humanities: But it’s an artifact, it accompanies the books, it reflects aninterest in vessel-building, in navigation, those are sciences.
Science: Show me the software manuals, astronomy books, show me the books onpolitics, economics, global affairs. Show me the hard stuff. This stuff is forwimp-readers.
Humanities: Maybe you haven’t seen all his books. Maybe these are just hisbedside reading. Who reads software manuals before sleeping?
Science: You can’t assume anything from what you can’t see.

________________
Voiceover
What do your reading tastes say about you? It can compromise you. The absentSoc Sci dean has an adversary in Science and an ally in Humanities. Theirjousting exposes Science's hard nose approach and casts Humanities inthe role of Wimp Defender.

Never apologize for your reading tastes (Betty Rosenberg), but you may need todefend them.

Mercedes 170

2011-10-16T13:02:00.001+09:00

Someoneis interested in buying an elderly restored car.

Buyer: It’s a good restoration.
But the color?

Restorer: Aquamarine. Yes.

Buyer: A shade between blue and green. Did they originally come out in aquamarine?

Restorer: They do now. But yes, you’re right, they didn’t then. In 1953.

Buyer: A lot were black. And there were creams and maroons.
Restorer: So yes, it’s not exactly a faithful restoration. More like an adaptation.
Buyer: The dashboard is interesting. The clock is on the right. Originally, it was on the left.
Restorer: You’ve a good eye for these things.

_________

Voice-over
Selling a car may not be easy. Vintage car buyers are often knowledgable and picky. The color and the clock. The restorer got these wrong and has to admit these shortcomings. And smooth things over. Using affirmatives (Yes, you’re right…) even for negatives. And end up praising the buyer’s discernment. We can't always say what we want to say.

Beauty (and performance) is in the eye of the beholder.
A Mercedes, yes.

But times have changed. A 170d took 58.3 seconds (nearly a MINUTE) to go from 0 to 60 mph compared with a 2012 Mercedes C180K taking 10.3 seconds to go from 0 to 60.
...

Multimodal Metaphor Exchange

2011-05-31T22:36:00.005+09:00

Two participants in a multimodal metaphor exchange. 

Violet: The length of the stem shows how long we’ve been talking.
Rose: And the flower?
Violet: Flower shows how many messages a person posts.
Rose: More petals, more messages?
Violet: And the more recent ones are brighter on the right.
Rose: Sweet metaphor! 3D!
Violet: 3D indeed. But on a flat screen.

________________________________________________
Voice-over 
Two participants in a multimodal metaphor exchange. Multimodal because the exchanges are text message, depicted visually. This is an idea for depicting duration, activity, and recency in message exchanges suggested by Rebecca Xiong and Judith Donath way back in 1999.

...

Frank Lloyd Wright plate

2010-11-26T18:11:00.008+09:00

...

Two mallards chat after finishing a plate of duck weed.

Mallard 1: Nice plate.
Mallard 2: Nice plate. Who do you think?
Mallard 1: Designed it?
Mallard 2: Frank Lloyd Wright. Everyone knows that.
Mallard 1: Everyone? I didn’t. How come you knew it?
Mallard 2: Oh, I just knew it. From somewhere.

_______________
Voice-over
The airy way that that Mallard 1 says he knew it is (a) self-aggrandizing (“I know more than you ha ha,”), (b) a way of putting down Mallard 2, and (c) reinforcing his top of the roost position yet NOT admitting he learned it from Wikipedia.
We’re all a little guilty of this sometimes.

Comment on the plate: A little over designed perhaps? Unlike FLW's organic architecture!

...

Pitching a Story

2010-11-07T14:54:00.011+09:00

...

Joel, the writer, gives a pitch for a scene to Robert, the direct-

or.

Joel: Picture this. Two guys in an office.

Robert: Names. I visualize imaginary people better when they have names.

Joel: OK. Jonno and Zenno. And Jonno's got this bandage on his hand, a big fat elastic bandage. And Zenno looks on the computer and downloads an X-ray of a mangled monkey's hand.

[Close-up of iPhone screen showing X-ray of all the bones broken in a hand.]

Now the boss comes in the room.

Robert: Boss have a name?

Joel: Steve. In jeans like Steve Jobs. Boss says, “How’d the weekend go?”

And Jonno answers, “Had a party. Fireworks.”

[Boss looks at Jonno’s bandaged hand.] “What happened? Not fireworks?”

Jonno says, “Just been up the hospital. Had an X-ray. Got it back on the iPhone.”

[Hands iPhone to boss.]

Boss says, “TOLD you to watch out for fireworks.” [Boss looks at the iPhone.] “Bloody hell! WHAT!”

[Jonno peels off the bandage and reveals unharmed hand.]

Robert: Go on. I'm listening.

Joel: Zenno and Jonno dissolve in laughter watching boss’ face go from shock and horror to exasperation.

Robert: OK. Run this by Serena. If she says OK, we'll shoot it.

__________________
Voice-over

Pitching. Running a story by a director. Or a scene.

Characteristics: Present tense. Choppy sentences. Mix of dialogue and stage directions.

Listener pulls the pitch into focus, for example with requests for names.

By the way, Serena did say OK, they actually shot it and it’s here, (click to see) on YouTube!

...

Expressions of depression

2010-10-31T10:25:00.011+09:00

....

Vith walks in; George is lying on the sofa. With the light on.

Vith: Why aren't you at work?

George: Just so much to be done.

Vith: [observing stack of unopened magazines and letters on floor] Some of these look like they could do with a lookover.

George: Weather. Can't face them. Need to sleep.

Vith: So it's a dull day. The toast burned. Get over it.

George: You go. I'll just...

Vith: Tell you what. Let me put the letters into piles. Urgent, non-urgent, throw.

George: That'd be nice.

________
Voice-over

Much of the sense of resignation is in body language. Some of it is in falling intonations at the end of declarations. An air of giving up pervades the conversational atmosphere. Negative comments prevail. There is no sense of what can be done, only what can't be done.

How to answer? Remonstrations or coercive comments like "Get over it" produce no effect. So subtly suggest something positive. Don't offer to help with comments like "Shall I...?". Take control of something needing attention. Gentle management. "Tell you what. Let me..."

...

Reinterpreting Luke (5.1-11)

2010-10-24T20:33:00.006+09:00

...

Two fishermen come in from wading the waters.

Simon: Catch anything?

Andrew: Nothing. A big fat nothing. There isn’t anything out there.

Voice from the shore: Go back out, cast your nets deeper.

Simon: You know him?

Andrew: Saw him here the other day. He’s the one who fed everyone with two fish and five loaves.

Voice from the shore: In the deep water, beyond the rock.

Simon: Funny look in his eye.

Andrew: Go back out? Give it a try?

Simon: Give it a try.

____________
Voice-over

And the rest is history.

Telling a fisherman to go out again is like preaching to the converted.

Good persuasion is a set of confident directions.

It will convert the despairing, empty-handed into true believers.

...

Color blind

2010-10-23T00:10:00.011+09:00

…

Agnetha explains her condition.........

Agnetha: I’m colorblind.

Bertha: How did you find out?

Agnetha: They test you when you retake your driving licence. It showed up.

Bertha: Which colors?

Agnetha: Red and green. They look the same to me.

Bertha: But you’ve been driving for years. Do you see red, see green, as different?

Agnetha: To me I do. Not to them. They took my licence away. But I managed.

Bertha: You never had an accident.

Agnetha: When the traffic stops I stop. When the traffic goes, I go. I flow.

__________

Voice-over

Agnetha copes. The red light is (usually) at the top of the signal cluster.

The test of identifying a number in a matrix of colored dots identified her red/green problem. People with normal vision see "8". Red/green colorblind people see "3". But how often do we run across such a picture in daily life?

…

Passion and Patience

2010-10-09T11:50:00.005+09:00

...
Rodriguez takes his nephew Emilio to the football.

Emilio: Can we go by car?
Uncle Rodriguez: Sorry, still haven’t got it running.
Emilio: When will that be?
Uncle Rodriguez: Sometime. I’m waiting for a distributor cap.
Emilio: You always say that.
Uncle Rodriguez: I know. It’s not easy to fix these old things. Got to be patient. Things can happen without pushing.
Emilio: Like winning a football game? Like we’ll be rich one day? That car will turn into a tree before it gets fixed.
Uncle Rodriguez: Hmmm.

_________
Voice-over
There are some who are passionate about football. Like Emilio who believes passion is headlong flight towards a goal. His questions thrust and drive.

There are some who are passionate about old cars. Like Rodriguez who believes patience is simply passion on slow burn. His answers are imperturbable and easy-going. An archetypal uncle.

…

Present continuous and trending

2010-09-02T18:17:00.003+09:00

...

Joey and Gaynor drive Orchard Road.

Joey: Auction. Saturday.

Gaynor: Bet it’ll go.

Joey: Bet it doesn’t, too.

Gaynor: Mainlanders. Some mainlander will grab it. Just like that bank building in Hong Kong last month.

Joey: Hmm. They aren’t snapping up everything.

Gaynor: They’re everywhere. They’re buying properties in Hong Kong and I hear they’re buying properties here in Singapore.

Joey: You’re using the present continuous again. You’re always doing that. Makes it look like a trend.

Gaynor: What should I say?

Joey: You should say, “Some mainlander bought the bank building last month.” Leave it at that. Simple past. One case doesn’t prove a trend.

Gaynor: But it is a trend.

Joey: Got another example?

Gaynor: Well, there’s… umm.

Joey: No trend? Only one case? Rest is hearsay? Simple past is what you use.

Gaynor: Pedant.

______________

Voice-over

Joey has a point. Unattributed source + Verb-ing = unsubstantiated rumor.

But Gaynor also has a point. The unfelt earthquake far away under the sea can arrive suddenly as a tsunami.

...

T-shirt message as conversational starter

2010-08-13T15:00:00.004+09:00

...

Lunch on Keong Saik Road:

Henri: Amateur photographer.
Horst: Why?

Henri: The message on the back of her T-shirt.

“THESE ARE SOME

REALLY NICE

PICTURES YOU’VE

T A K E N

WHERE DID YOU

LEARN TO BE

SUCH A GOOD

PHOTOGRAPHER ?”

Just got to be one. I have to get a picture of her T-shirt.

Horst: Going to ask?

Henri: I’ll just pretend to be taking a general interior shot of the food court. Blow up the detail later.

______________

Voice-over

iPhones are discreet to use but not so easy for capturing far-off subjects. They require a steady hand in low-light conditions.

The message on the T-shirt engages attention. Did the wearer commission the T shirt design? Was it a question which was actually asked of the wearer sometime? Was it a question the wearer asks of us to engage her in conversation?

...

Local to Global

2010-06-18T22:29:00.004+09:00

An encounter with a bamboo flute player.

...

wh5: Can I record a minute of your playing?

Flute Player: Sure.

wh5: Nice. Noh?

Flute Player: Local festival.

wh5: Local?

Flute Player: Johore actually.

wh5: You from up that way?

Flute Player: Around here. I just happened to like local festival music.

wh5: How long have you been playing?

Flute Player: 12 or 13 years.

wh5: Can I take your picture?

Flute Player: Sure.

wh5: There. Good one. I already sent the recording.

Flute Player: Sent? Already?

wh5: By iPhone to a friend. They sent me a text back. They like it.

Flute Player: I play it here. They hear it there. Enough to make me feel famous.

_________________
Voice-over

Capturing pictures, capturing sound, sending them on. The local event becomes global through a handheld device.

Venting

2010-03-10T19:34:00.006+09:00

Angela is upset that Robert cannot give her a bigger part in the television episode. She vents.

...

Angela: WHY can’t I wear the red dress?

Robert: Your part is the bad girl. Black is symbolic.

Angela: I don’t always want to play the bad girl. Sometimes I want to play the good girl.

Robert: The character becomes you.

Angela: What?

Robert: You know…

Angela: You think I can’t do GOOD? THAT ticks me off.

Robert: No need to get angry.

Angela: I’m not ANGRY! I’m just a little CROSS, PEEVED, IRKED. All right so, I’m LIVID.

____________________
Voiceover

There’s a lot of words for angry. Ranging from "indignant" to "wrathful," from "fly off the handle" to "go ballistic." Colorful.

...

Cooperation and combat

2010-02-28T15:24:00.003+09:00

Geoffrey and Viqidis discuss comparative communicative output across genders.

...

Geoffrey: Why do females talk three times as much as males? In all species.

Viqidis: Because men don't listen, that's why.

Geoffrey: Maybe women are talking so much men switch off, they are filtering, they are sampling.

Viqidis: Hmm. You chicken and egging me?

Geoffrey: Wouldn't dream of it. Just engaging in conversation with you.

Viqidis: Engaging? Sounds militaristic.

Geoffrey: On your terms. if you're cooperative, I will be too. If you're combative...

Viqidis: You'll what?

Geoffrey: I'll still be cooperative. I'm not combative. That's just the way I am. Verbally and physically.

_________
Voice-over

Word Count Results:

Geoffrey: 67
Viqidis: 17
Viqidis has a word count here of only 25% of the word count of Geoffrey.

Unproven hypothesis? Biased sampling? Mistaken premise?
Or is it just that soothing words often outnumber aggressive ones?

...

Quantitative Research

2010-02-26T14:17:00.003+09:00

Student needs an explanation of what is needed for a thesis.

...

Professor: You read some books and papers, you raise research questions, you do an experiment, you collect data, you analyze the data, discuss the results, make recommendations in the conclusion.
Student: Piece of cake. But how many books and papers I gotta read?
Professor: 40. Plus or minus.
Student: OK. Thesis is how many pages?
Professor: 80 some. Plus or minus.
Student: How many research questions?
Professor: One or two big ones. Ten or fifteen smaller ones.
Student: Smaller ones.
Professor: Call them hypotheses if you like. What you want to test.
Student: Why so many hypotheses?
Professor: It’ll direct your discussion.
Student: Why can’t I just answer one or two research questions? If I have so many hypotheses, I’ll get lost, they’ll ask me a whole bunch of questions in the defence I can’t answer.
Professor: You have to have something to talk about. You have to have something to write about about. You can’t just answer one or two questions Yes or No. That’s not a thesis. That’s not academic. You have to learn to say, But and On the other hand and…
Student: OK, OK. I got it. 40 books plus or minus. 80 pages plus or minus, 15 hypotheses plus or minus.

________
Voice-over
Professor: A new definition for quantitative research.

...

A sense of place

2010-02-22T11:28:00.006+09:00

Madalena has lived in this town all her life.

...

wh5: Where were you born?
Madalena: Here.
wh5: Where did you grow up?
Madalena: Here.
wh5: Where did you go to high school?
Madalena: Here.
wh5: Where did you first work?
Madalena: Here.
wh5: Where did you get married?
Madalena: Here.
wh5: Where did you live after that?
Madalena: Here.
wh5: Where do you live now?
Madalena: Here.
wh5: Where do you want to live in the future?
Madalena: Here.

_____________
Voice-over

A conversation that could have occurred with Martha Stalios who lived 98 years in the same neighborhood (see story)

Some interviews don’t start up or go anywhere. This one is notable for having the same answer to every question. There again, each question is notable for probing the same parameter (where) and ranging over time (when). More variety could have been elicited by focusing on one question and exploring that. For example:

Where did you first work?
What did you do there?
Who was your first boss?
Why did you choose that work?
When did you leave?
How long did you work there?
How much was your salary?
Why did you leave?

...

Reading and Traveling

2010-01-31T20:09:00.007+09:00

Frederich, who travels infrequently, is keen on reading books.

...

Frederich: A good book can be filled with well-crafted utterances and analyses, from fun to opinion to declaration.

It makes me want to concur, demur and comment. Nod my forehead, shake my ears, and speak my piece.

Woman in the River: An outer oral interaction becomes an inner literary lip-reading.

Frederich: Going into a book is like going on a trip. The linearity and stuttering of listening and speaking is replaced by the random access to rooms of finely sculpted ideas of reading and writing.

In speech we watch the idea being chiseled. In reading we see the idea on display in a gallery.

Woman in the River: You hear me but I wonder if you are listening to me. You make my ideas your own.

Frederich: Possibly. Maybe. I might be.

Woman in the River: You are serially rephrasing again.

______________
Voice-over

Reading and traveling are parallel ideas occurring in two dimensions. Reading, an activity of the mind, sparks new thoughts. Traveling, a physical activity, sparks new thoughts. Two roads, both leading to Rome.

...

If you will

2010-01-25T21:53:00.006+09:00

Rolf, intellectually inclined, edits as he speaks.

...

Rolf: Every day (I like to, I aim to) I have to (engage in an interesting conversation, have a stimulating conversation) to have an interesting conversation. (This stuttering as I speak, These rephrasings in my speech), This editing (if you like) if you will, is my habit.

wh: But you can’t always find someone interesting to talk to. Not every single day.

Rolf: So then I will (go into) retreat to my study and take a book from the shelf. I engage in a silent dialogue, I read, I (think about it) reflect on it, then want to write. It is (a talk, a dialogue) a conversation between (the author and me) writer and reader.

______________
Voice-over

A serial rephraser: one who habitually edits as he or she speaks, trying for a more accurate meaning, a finer phrase.

...

Listen up

2010-01-19T17:42:00.006+09:00

Outside the movie theater. Wilson and friend are waiting on a friend who has the tickets. Wilson makes a call.

...

He has the tickets, he should be here already. Hang on. Wilson! Which is it? Sherlock Holmes or Avatar?

You plumped for Sherlock? Action-psychological suspense? Ha! Hoo! Crash! Sorry, I’m depressed.

Yeah. No tix for Avatar Avatar then? Ha! Hoo! Crash! Whoosh! Pure action. Pity. Listen up. Be here in ten minutes or the show will be half over.

_____________
Voice-over

Interesting how some film reviews can go on for pages. Others can be summarized in a clutch of exuberant expletives.

Like “Listen!” its slightly more sedate sibling, "Listen up!" is a member of the Urging family.

...

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank

2010-01-07T12:27:00.007+09:00

Leopold and Franz discuss a book that has crossed their paths.
...

Leopold: I’m reading a book, about a piano, it reminded me of you.
Franz: A piano?
Leopold: Sorry, pianos. A shop of pianos.
Franz: The title?
Leopold: The… something…the Left Bank…
Franz: The Piano Shop on the Left Bank?
Leopold: You’ve read it?
Franz: I have. A year or two ago.
Leopold: How come you can recall the title and I can’t?
Franz: You want me to come out and say it?
Leopold: No. So I don’t have to give you this one?
Franz: I have it. I read it. I liked it.
Leopold: What was its appeal? For you?
Franz: It was a collection of piano stories. It was a history of pianos. It was held together by this narrative about a man who visited a piano atelier.

_______________
Voice-over
Forgetting the exact name of a book you are reading is not something you confess to; you try to cover, unless your friend knows the book’s name. Either you try to divert attention from your lapse (“You’ve read it?”) or you come right out and admit to amnesia (“How come you can recall it and I can’t?”). Leopold tries both, suggesting that he and Franz are close acquaintances. Even if they may not be exact contemporaries.

Franz demonstrates a predilection for the triadic declaration: “I have it. I read it. I liked it.” And “It was this… it was that… it was the other.” A man with oratorical leanings.

...

A hundred thousand swifts

2010-01-04T19:30:00.006+09:00

Outside a disused shophouse, Aerial is intrigued by swooping swifts.

...

Aerial: Is it a swallow?
Azmera: It’s a swift. Every morning at 6 they fly out, and every evening at 6 they return. A hundred thousand of them.
Aerial: A hundred thousand. They go in and out where?
Azmera: See that window? A hundred thousand of them squeeze through that twice a day.
Aerial: Don’t they bump each other?
Azmera: They have radar. Like bats.
Aerial: Why do you keep them?
Azmera: I harvest their nests. The nests are made of swift saliva. Sell them to Hong Kong for bird’s nest soup.
Aerial: Don’t the swifts mind you taking their nests?
Azmera: I take the disused nests. They only live for a year.
Aerial: They die in their nests?
Azmera: Never seen a dead swift. Nobody knows where swifts die.

__________
Voice-over
Like the cleaning of a swift nest to prepare for sale, Aerial reveals the surprises of swifts asking a what, a where, a how, a why and then a moral probe followed by Azmera’s justification.

...

New year resolutions

2010-01-01T23:59:00.006+09:00

Out with the old, in with the new.

...

VVVV: We should do something auspicious.
VV:      Yes. Aus – Australian?
VVVV: Of course not. Something fireworksy. In keeping with the occasion. It is, after all…
VV:      Yes.  You said.
VVVV: How about we write down all the habits we want to leave behind in 2009?
VV:      Like?
VVVV: Like not procrastinating. What you do, is you write down on paper all the things you’re NOT going to do this year.
VV:      A sort of reverse resolution?
VVVV: Clear the decks. No more sleeping all weekend. No more tantrums. No more useless boyfriends.
VV:      And then?
VVVV: You burn the paper. Bingo, all the old habits have gone and you start the new year with a fresh set of good ones.
VV:      That easy?
VVVV: Piece of cake Believe me.

________________
Voice-over

New year resolutions are as old as new years. We make them, we break them. And often, it is those who are most gung-ho about making them who end up breaking them as the year unfolds. Vocal and vociferous Valerie Va Va Voom is adamant about ousting the old while the vapid Violet Vichy needs a little leading.

...

Getting up early

2009-12-28T22:57:00.003+09:00

9:45 AM in the classroom.

...

Teacher: You’re late.
Student: I know.
Teacher: Get up late?
Student: Not late. Five AM actually.
Teacher: FIVE! You’re kidding me. FIVE! What WERE you doing?
Student: Stuff. Just stuff. Like choosing what clothes to wear today.
Teacher: Five hours to choose clothes and get to school! You’re, what 50 minutes…?
Student: Forty, actually. But I went home once.
Teacher: Huh, Forgetting…?
Student: Didn’t forget. Got halfway here and then realized my T shirt color wasn’t right so I went back to change.
Teacher: You’re joking me.
Student: Not really. It’s true. Sorry.
Teacher: Sorry’s not in my dictionary. Not for this sort of excuse.
Student: Hmm, guess not. Well, sorry anyway.

______________
Voice-over

I am NOT making this up. Male students are crossing gender behavior lines. The teacher can do no more than express incredulity in two protestations that this is all just a put-on: “You’re kidding me!” “You’re joking me.”

...

Mulling

2009-11-03T12:47:00.002+09:00

…

Two newly over-60s, who have registered to receive retirement benefits, mull.

Tom: You ever, mmm?

Willis: Ever what?

Tom: Ever think about starting a second life?

Willis: Second life as in Second Life? The game?

Tom: Second life as in start a new job. Now that retirement looms.

Willis: I should. If I don’t prepare, then I’ll be stuck with only these skills and this way of thinking and then have to beg them to keep me on as a part-timer.

Tom: On a severely reduced income.

Willis: And be like those who keep coming to work because they’ve got no new places to go.

Tom: They say that upskilling makes you feel younger.

Willis: Yeah, cut the fat and delay dementia.

Tom: So what do you like to do?

Willis: (long pause) Hmm. Kind of like what I’m already doing.

Tom: What do you do?

Willis: Teach a bit, take care of those around me.

__________

Voice-over

Two features of an unstructured mulling session.

Clarification of “second life”. Product names sometimes usurp everyday expressions.

One speaker builds on the other’s ideas: “On a reduced income” … “And be like…”

Despite Tom and Willis’ views of second lifing, Willis’ “take care of those around me” is a nice reminder of a fundamental human value.

…

Shared adversity

2009-10-07T22:37:00.006+09:00

A Maru Department Store customer approaches the clock and watch counter.

...

Maru Customer: Those clocks, the ones which keep time by a radio beam.

Technician: Yes?

Maru Customer: Well, I actually have one already, but it’s a got a problem, see, the radio beam function is showing an error message.

Technician: Oh? What brand?

Maru Customer: Seiko, same as those ones. Is there a battery controlling the auto adjustment?

Technician: No. How old is your clock?

Maru Customer: 4, 5, 6 years old. It was a present.

Technician: Cheaper to buy a new one than fix your one.

Maru Customer: Yeah, at 3000 yen, that’d be right. Doesn’t worry me, I just wondered if there was a separate battery for the auto-adjustment. I mean, I changed the main battery and it still showed an error.

Technician: No building going on nearby? To cause interference?

Maru Customer: Nope.

Technician: Interesting. I have the same clock. Same problem. 6 years old and the auto adjustment starts showing an error.

Maru Customer: Ah. That’s good to know. Something inside gives up the ghost then.

Technician: Must be.

_____________________
Voice-over

The technician goes through the questions before she divulges that she too has the same problem.

Once the Maru customer shows no antagonism about what is likely a common defect in the product, a shared experience settles into a comfortable conversation.

“That happened to you? Same thing happened to me. Ha.”

The comfort of shared adversity!

...

Man in the Moon

2009-10-03T22:58:00.004+09:00

It’s moon cake time in China and Man in the Moon is challenged:

...

Where’ve you been?

MM: What do you mean? “Where’ve I been?”

Well, you haven’t posted anything for a month.

MM: Who’d notice?

Some of us thought you’d DIED!

MM: Things were difficult. For one thing, China.

China?

MM: The site is blocked in China. I couldn’t log on.

But you weren’t in China for a MONTH! You exaggerate.

MM: No, but I was in other places that made me feel like I was.

That difficult?

MM: That difficult.

________________
Voice-over

A conversation with a LOT of questions. Even questions posing as responses to questions:

Where’ve you been?
What do you mean? “Where’ve I been?”

And a quaint ending:

That difficult?
That difficult.

The falling intonation on the imitated utterance turns the question into a statement.

...

Handshaking protocols

2009-08-25T07:47:00.004+09:00

The visitor arrives at the Virtual Center.

...

Supervisor: Find your way all right?

Visitor: Something of a journey of uncertainty. But I’m here. Nice office.

Supervisor: I feel lucky to have it. It’s a new building. I thought we’d begin by going upstairs and you can meet Carl. His unit handles the machine translation coding.

Visitor: Sounds fine.

Supervisor: In here. This is Virtual Carl, he handles the translation side of things. He’s working on a modification to Unicode. He can tell more about what this unit does.

Visitor: Virtual Carl. Nice to meet you.

_____________

Voice-over

Getting to the point when introducing people who share an interest but have never met can follow a simple protocol to establish a connection. Something like fax machines or computer modems beeping at each other to establish connection speed, coding, interrupting procedures, etc.

In this case, the supervisor uses a location, identity, task, wh3 approach:

Where (“In here”),

Who (“This is…”),

What (“he handles…” and “he’s working on…”).

“He can tell you…” is the handover for the drill-down phase into the detail substrata.

Interesting that stories of the future (eg scifi) generally still have humans using present-day lexis, grammar and pragmatics. For an example, read the script of 2001 A Space Odyssey.

...

Tango and culture

2009-08-11T01:43:00.009+09:00

Norman and Brian, aged 50-something Aussies, during a scene change, exchange impressions of the tango performance at Al Tortoni, Buenos Aires.

...

Norman: Spectacular innit.

Brian: Awesome.

Norman: Don’t say that, mate. You sound like your daughter.

Brian: OK. Well, it’s OK.

Norman: Now you’re speaking our language again.

Brian: We didn’t have music like that growing up in Oz, did we?

Norman: Yeah, we never danced, did we? Culture like that we never had.

________________
Voice-over

Adopting the jargon of a different generation happens, but for a while it doesn’t ring true. But at least Brian used “awesome” appropriately, whatever we may think about its origins referring only to god-like epiphanies.

Beyond quibbles about lexical change, Brian and Norman are engaged in a serious debate on why Australians (and New Zealanders) leave their countries on culture-seeking OE missions. 150 years of European settlement in Australia and New Zealand isn’t very long to build a culture (Latin America has had 500 years). And the British, despite having a great literature, didn’t cook or dance that well.

...

Being Jewish

2009-08-03T07:24:00.007+09:00

A chance evening meeting in the Plaza de Armas in Santiago.

...

Ephraim: We come from Israel.

Angela: I lived for five years in Israel.

Ephraim: So you are Jewish?

Angela: No, my father was a diplomat in Tel Aviv. I went to school there.

Ephraim: You learned Hebrew?

Angela: I had to. The other kids teased me, so I had to find out what they were saying.

Ephraim: Unusual. Israel is generally a tolerant culture.

Angela: Children can be unkind. But it was a good experience. They say that which doesn’t kill you makes you strong.

Ephraim: And eventually you prevailed over your tormentors?

Angela: I really like Israel. I’ve lived in many places, I can understand the sense of Diaspora. Of adapting to the place you live in, taking the best of it and keeping your core identity. I feel I could be Jewish.

_____________
Voice-over

Angela shows ability is being able to relate personal experiences and to generalize from them. “Children can be unkind.” When she doesn’t recall the exact wording and source of the aphorism “That which doesn’t kill you makes you strong,” (Friedrich Nietzsche) she paraphrases and falls back on the standby of “They say.”

...

Cycling from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego

2009-07-31T06:51:00.007+09:00

In the Plaza de Armas, Cusco, late in the afternoon.

...

wh5: Is that your bicycle? Could I ask you why it has two chains?

Goat: The wheels are too wide for a standard crank so I had to figure a way to transfer the drive to the rear wheels.

wh5: And you’re heading for?

Goat: We started in Alaska about 3 years ago, we're hoping to reach the bottom of South America by next spring.

Wh5: You travel with friends?

Goat: There are three of us.

wh5: And do you blog about this?

Goat: Sure, you can follow the progress at ridingthespine.com.

______________
Voice-over

A crowd gathers, questions are asked in Spanish. Goat (his real name) fields them deftly. His sister arrives having just flown in. Jacob says the crowds gather whenever they stop in a town square, and the usual questions come up. You can imagine they are mostly the usual what, when, where, who, why types, even if they sometimes lack an interrogative.

If you read Goat’s bio on the website here, you can’t but help admire his independence, inventiveness, curiosity. If more of us traveled this way, tourism might not have such a dark side.

...

Advising on the Andes and alpaca

2009-07-25T00:15:00.006+09:00

Francisco advises Tbn Tbn on what to take up the Andes.

...

Francisco: You wish to base yourself at Cusco.

Tbn Tbn: For a week.

Francisco: A week is good. You will have soroche, altitude sickness, when you arrive. But not for a week.

Tbn Tbn: It is cold?

Francisco: Señor, this is winter. Cusco is 3400 meters in the Andes. Could I suggest an alpaca?

Tbn Tbn: I have very little. I can carry my own bag.

Francisco: Señor, I suggest alpaca WOOL. A sweater, a scarf perhaps? And layers. You do not go to the Andes with little undies. You can get them in the market. Now, when you arrive, you will go light in the head. Your heart will beat the faster. You will breathe sometimes with difficulty. Take it easy and you will not suffer so much. Drink the coca tea there, it will help.

Tbn Tbn: I’ll rest the first day.

Francisco: What wisdom in one so young!

Tbn Tbn: I’m older than I look.

Francisco: No, Señor. You are not old. You will learn a lot from meeting the Uros on their totora floating islands on Titicaca. You will enjoy the hike to Machu Piccu. Trust me, you will.

__________________
Voice-over

“You will…” functions as part imperative, part prediction and part suggestion marker. It is a blended functional marker. Perhaps a portmanteau expression?

And the exchange on age follows a long tradition. One person admits to being old, it is polite for the listener to vigorously deny it…

Double entendre

2009-07-20T11:30:00.008+09:00

...

Paul remarks on a stairway detail in a new Chinese Museum.

wh5: Striking piece of architectural detail, the way the stairs project unevenly.

Paul: What’s striking about it is that this one's likely to hit you on the head as you exit the restroom. Sticks out fair and square into the passageway.

wh5: Hmm. Not so clever.

Paul: I mean, these modern architects, they have often have a great artistic sense but they sometimes don’t think about how people’s behavior will impact on their design.

wh5: Come back in a year’s time, you’ll probably find the stairs are sawn off to a uniform length.

Paul: Only after someone lays themselves out.

________________
Voice-over

Consciously or unconsciously, we sometimes use words which emphasize our message. In talking about a hazardous protrusion which passersby could collide with, Paul turns “striking” into a double entendre and follows up with another, possibly subconsciously generated, in “impact.”

...

Twittering Liberty

2009-07-19T21:05:00.007+09:00

...

Carla visits Liberty Island and receives a tweet.

Liberty: Are you ready for your climb to the crown? It’s 354 steps up.

Carla: I can do it.

Liberty: And it’s 20 degrees hotter inside than out.

Carla: I have two bottles of water.

Liberty: Like your crown.

Carla: Excuse me, you aren’t Miss Liberty.

Liberty: How could I text holding a book and a torch?

Carla: Who are you, then?

____________

Voice-over

There is actually a Liberty Twitter site. It’s run by Liberty Island park rangers. Some liberty may have been taken with the synchronicity of what they actually twitter here.

...

New York talk

2009-07-16T00:37:00.008+09:00

…

Two New Yorkers bump into each other on the street.

How you bin?

Well, not so good you know, the economy…

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, you want a coaffee?

Naw, got no time. Gotta go woikout.

_________________
Voice-over

The sociolinguistics of New York English is fascinating.

The accent is colorful. Like “o” as in “coffee” becomes “oa”. Or the “er” as in “firm” becoming “oi”, or “r” in “park” being dropped, or "or" in "talk" becoming "tawk."

There aren’t many vocab items, maybe “standing on line” instead of “standing in line.”

Mainly it is the speed at which New Yorkers talk, the aggression with which they approach a conversation, which leaves non-New Yorkers wondering just when to break in and say their piece.

...

Starting a NGO

2009-07-13T09:25:00.016+09:00

...

S. talks about founding a NGO in Northern Thailand.

S: I went there originally as a pastor. I wanted to start a church.

wh5: And people came?

S: Oh, they came. Many were refugees. They came with traumatic life problems.

wh5: Like?

S: In Burma….loggers and the army come to a Karen village, they find the village headman, grab his daughter, beat and rape her, throw her into a burning house, the village cannot fight back, the villagers become the slaves of the loggers and environmental exploiters. If they can, the Karen escape across the border, into Thailand.

wh5: A terrible story.

S: I realized I couldn’t just pray or preach parables. It was more helpful for me to listen and take them in. Soon the church was full of refugees camping out in my house, which was also my church. I did what I could, we didn’t have a lot of money, but it didn’t take long for me to realize (1) I didn’t have the resources to carry on this permanently, and (2) God was telling me to find a way to recognize Him by helping these people.

wh5: Did you find a way?

S: So I started an NGO.

wh5: Political?

S: Basically an aid organization. Just my family at first, but now we have a staff, we can help with their needs. Essentials like clothing, medicines, food and cooking pots, plastic sheets, mosquito repellent.

wh5: How do you get funding for it?

S: Donations from churches. Foundations.

wh5: The U.S.?

S: A dozen different countries.

wh5: I think it was Bill Clinton who said that “people are inherently generous, that giving makes you feel good, and that the only thing most of us are looking for is an opportunity to make a difference.”

S: And Mother Teresa who said, “The poor are wonderful. The poor give us so much more than we give them.”

wh5: Are all your helpers Christian?

S: By no means, no. Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, they all work alongside each other.

________________

Voice-over

Getting the message across about atrocities can be done in several ways.

We can present pictures of terrible scenes.

We can breathe fire and say loudly that something is unthinkable or shocking, we can urge that something must or should be done or it's essential, crucial, imperative, that something be done.

We can appeal to the listener’s sense of morals, “We can’t allow this to continue, we can’t just stand by and watch, we can’t just close our eyes to this.”

Or we can take a low-key, pragmatic, non-ideological, religio-tolerant approach such as S. does and set out the situation plainly and let the facts speak for themselves. Something stirs inside us and we feel we need to help. This low-key approach makes us think we initiated the assistance by ourselves.

...

Migration and alternative identity

2009-07-07T15:07:00.008+09:00

The stories of two non-traditional Norwegians:

...

My name is Rachel. I’m 30. My father was from Morocco and my mother was Norwegian. I was born in Norway but when I was two, my parents split up, and my father took me back to Morocco. He kidnapped me actually, because my mother chased after him and tried to get me back. She had two attempts, the second time with help from the Norwegian embassy and her brother, and finally she managed to grab me while everyone was napping and escaped back to Norway. She had to change her name and her address and I grew up with her. But recently I found my family in Morocco. They are Muslim. They treated me very kindly, especially my foster mother. I stayed for three months and although it would be difficult for me to be a Muslim, I wonder now what my life would have been like growing up in that big extended Moroccan family.

My name is Nguyen. I’m 52 now. I was born in South Vietnam but my parents were killed when the North Vietnamese took over Saigon. My brother and I wanted to escape but it cost more money than we had to become boat people. Anyway, we heard there was a good chance we would drown because the boats often sank. So we learned how to build our own boat. We learned about sea-worthy design and engine repair. Finally we could escape to Hong Kong and a refugee camp and enter Norway. I work here as boat builder now, it’s good, but I sometimes like to go back to Vietnam.

__________
Voice-over

You might think that Norway is populated exclusively by Thor Heyerdahl type men and Liv Ullman type women. But Norway seems receptive to migrants. There is an intercultural museum including artifacts from immigrant groups, in fact at present, there is an exhibition of six world religions: Sikhism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, brought to Norway by migrants. Rachel feels lucky she did not grow up in Morocco but is learning Arabic and dreams of having another life. Nguyen created for himself another life and speaks Norwegian but sometimes thinks of where he came from.

...

Defining culture

2009-07-05T01:34:00.010+09:00

...

A boy asks his uncle a question.

Boy: Culture?

Uncle: Culture, yes. The beliefs and behaviors of a society.

Boy: What are beliefs and behaviors and societies?

Uncle: Oh, well. Yes. Let’s turn it around. Society is people. Beliefs are what they think. Behaviors are what they do.

Boy: People thinking and doing.

Uncle: Like a man who thinks about God so he goes to church on Sundays.

_____________________
Voice-over

Grownups can handle abstract definitions. For children, until their cognitive apparatus is in place, definitions need to be phrased in simple concrete words, preferably accompanied by examples.

And better if the main noun comes first.

...

Doctor Patient Conversations

2009-06-28T23:08:00.009+09:00

...

First adventure on the road was at the B--Hospital. A patient asks for some shots to get him through Peru. The doctor glances at a rough spot on the back of the patient’s hand.

“How long have you had this?"
“Two, maybe three months.”
“Not sure if that’s precancerous or cancerous, I’d like a biopsy.”
“What will the biopsy tell you?”
“The architecture of the cells. The structure and the depth of penetration of the growth. Whether it’s just precancerous, so we can just freeze it off with CO2, or if cancerous, determine if it’s aggressive or not. If it’s more aggressive, we must cut deeply, cut out a wider surrounding margin. Lab results will be back next week.”
“I’ll be in New York by then. You can email?”
“Sure. I’ll let you know how quickly you need to act. Different cancers require different treatments. They can’t all be frozen off with dry ice.”
______________
Voice-over
Doctor-patient consultations start off with the doctor observing and then asking quiet questions. When possible diagnoses are proposed, along with treatments, accompanied by any mention of c--- any patient gets a little apprehensive. Then, roles reverse: it is the patient asking most of the questions.

...

Why Dazai?

2009-06-25T22:47:00.015+09:00

Shizuko finds out that Osamu is reading No Longer Human, Dazai’s last work.

...

Shizuko: Dazai? Why Dazai?

Osamu: Everyone’s reading him.

Shizuko: For what? He was so negative. All he talked about was dying. He’s dead.

Osamu: I can relate to his ideas. When he writes something like “The cold half pint of milk I drank each morning was the only thing that gave me a certain peculiar sense of the joy in life.” Dark, yes, but funny too.

Shizuko: Are you sure you’re not just identifying with him because you live only a hundred meters from where he drowned?

Osamu: Geography’s a factor, mm. But mainly I feel my life has no depth, no direction.

______________

Voice-over

Young people identifying with Dazai Osamu? That one so driven to self-destruction could write so clearly and powerfully. And influence a generation fifty years later.

Have Japanese young people lost their sense of mission? Where has their sense of purpose in life gone? Can a limping economy and rising unemployment cripple the national identity?

Ironical that the Tamagawa Josui is scarcely a foot deep much of the time.

...

Green flowers mean...

2009-06-21T22:04:00.007+09:00

Ludovic suggests a new signaling system.

...

Ludovic: The telephones are bugged and email is too dangerous. Cameras are everywhere. If I have a message I’ll leave a sign.

Marcus: A sign.

Ludovic: Yes. I’ll leave a plant on the stairs. If there is no message, there is no plant.

Marcus: What kind of a plant?

Ludovic: A discreet one. I am thinking of a small pot plant with green flowers.

Marcus: And where will the message be?

Ludovic: The usual place. Under the bridge.

Marcus: So I go to the staircase, and if there is a small plant with green flowers, then I go to the bridge?

Ludovic: Exactly.

______________
Voice-over

Just as spies need a protocol to pass information, so do we when we call a friend at the office.

“Can you talk?”

“Important?”

“Life and death.”

“Urgent?”

“Level orange.”

“Bit busy. Got someone with me. 10 minutes.”

Such signals are helpful, but not foolproof, they can interpreted or intercepted.

...

Artifacts

2009-06-20T00:01:00.005+09:00

Laurence wonders if Dean is seeking another lost ark.

...

Laurence: You’ll be away?

Dean: Three months: July, August, September. Asia, South America and Oceania.

Laurence: And you have a grant?

Dean: To study ethnic minorities. Ones whose culture and language are in danger of disappearing.

Laurence: Culture’s a big word.

Dean: Not a big word. But a big field. I collect artifacts that represent a society.

Laurence: Artifacts.

Dean: Utensils. Pieces of art.

Laurence: If valuable then so much the better?

Dean: Not really. Flies start swarming, vampires seek blood. Seeking the commonplace, there is no competition from gold-diggers. I can do my work without getting into fights.

_____________________

Voice-over

The rain forest is disappearing, species are becoming extinct. Is the disappearance of minority cultures and their languages as big a threat?

Possibly not. Human beings are plentiful enough. But the common theme is diminishing variety.

What monocultures of agriculture, and lack of species differentiation, has in common with disappearing human cultures and languages is a concern that the world faces a decreased ability to cope with adversity.

...

Only see you once a year

2009-06-02T23:07:00.004+09:00

Maurice and Ben meet at a conference

...

Maurice: Every year we meet, like this.

Ben: A long time, old friend. I often think about what you do for the rest of the year.

Maurice: I prepare. Then every year in June, I come to this conference and present my research.

Ben: And at the reception, we run around the room like it was a chariot race.

Maurice: An existential question. Are our once-a-year hyped-up conference selves the same as our everyday selves?

__________

Voice-over

When you take the podium, mind you don’t let slip a loose roof tile.

When Douglas Adams gave the answer to the meaning of life as “41” had he been watching the less than benign galley scenes in Ben Hur where Judah Ben Hur is given that number? Quintus Arias: “Your eyes are full of hate, 41. That’s good. Hate keeps a man alive.”

...

Air France AF 447 announcement

2009-05-30T23:40:00.006+09:00

Announcement of a missing plane.

...

Official: It’s missing. We are very worried. The plane disappeared from the screens several hours ago. It could be a transponder problem, but this kind of fault is very rare and the plane didn't land when expected.

_________

Voiceover

Stages in handling news of a disaster: (1) introduce anxiety first, to pave the way towards the probably inevitable awful denouement, (2) cushion the impending tragedy by noting the rarity of the event (3) highlight steps being taken to cope with the problem (4) extend support to relatives waiting for news (5) finally to soften a very hard landing by acknowledging acceptance.

With expressions like these:

“AF 447 drops from radar…”

“We are very worried.”

“…this kind of fault is very rare…”

“Air traffic control lost contact with the Airbus A330 at 0600 GMT as it crossed the ocean.”

“Airport authorities have set up a crisis cell at Charles de Gaulle.”

“Brazil air force searching for missing aircraft…”

"Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned."

"We have lost hope for the missing jet.”
“There is a real pessimism at this hour about the fate of the aircraft.”
"We can fear the worst."

Twitterings

2009-05-25T20:18:00.006+09:00

Two birds on a wire engaged in metalanguage.

...

Robin: I don’t see any point.

Raven: In?

Robin: Twittering. Tweeting. Call it what you will.

Raven: Tweet and get noticed. Show people where you are and what you’re doing.

Robin: Who would follow my trite tweets?

Raven: The first tweets have already come from space. Fly up there and you’d have an audience.

_____________________

Voice-over

If you twitter about your daily doings, the medium (twittering) is more powerful than the message.

If you twitter about unique and unusual activities, the message (e.g space) will be more powerful than the medium.

...

What does Eee stand for?

2009-05-11T22:52:00.005+09:00

Greg is accessing email with his Eee while a skeptical Jennifer looks on.

...

Greg: It’s an e, e, e.

Jennifer: Triple e? And stands for what?

Greg: Good question.

Jennifer: An obvious question. Hang a string of letters on a product and people will ask. They’ll want to know if the product measures up to their identity.

Greg: I believe the Eee means Easy to to learn, easy to work, easy to play. ASUS advertising slogan…

Jennifer: And does it work for you? I’ve heard they’re a bit underpowered and cramped in the keyboard and still way heavier than an iPhone.

Greg: Yes to all those, but heck, it’ll check email, post a blog, store photos from the camera, and I can fling it in my bag and not even notice I’m carrying it. Well almost.

___________

Voice-over

Product names. There is levity in some, brevity in others. Marketing the same product in different cultures? Change the name to suit the customer base.

The Canon EOS Kiss as it is called in Japan. Sold in the U.S. as the Rebel 450D. Is the targeted Japanese buyer a young female and in the U.S. a budding male photojourno?

...

Security cameras compromised

2009-05-07T10:09:00.006+09:00

Another stentorian Skype exchange in an airport lounge…

...

Hi Toby, it’s Vince.

I’m in the airport lounge, waiting for a flight.

Couple of months in Laos.

Yeah. Good there. Anyway, what I’m calling about is, well, those new cameras are a little, a little bit, ah, a little bit, BAD…

First, those two cameras in Unit 5, they’re somewhere mounted on an RSJ. There’s a power issue there.

Yeah, that’s a good point.

And then all the new cameras have software problems, for example, the camera on top of the chimney can’t be steered.

Yeah, that’s a good point. Could be an option. So, one thing we could do is use the new cameras but using the old software protocols. Can you see to that?

No, I’m, I’m away. George’ll show you.

Yeah, OK, well, I’ll have to do this a little bit by remote control, might have to do it remotely.

Good luck, have a drink for me, wont be down that way for 6 weeks. Thank you. Cheers. Goodbye.

_________________

Voice-over

If I could get Vince’s name card, his would be a factory that could be an easy target with its defences down for a few days. Especially useful knowing the camera on the chimney can’t be steered!

Exchange opens and closes with where Vince is, and where he is going. He stumbles over how to describe the faulty new equipment… but in the end, blurts it out “a little bit, ah, BAD.”

Fairly clear directives, but marked by typical phone conversation repetitious rephrasings like “…by remote control, might have to do it remotely…”

...

Paradox of thrift

2009-05-02T19:25:00.010+09:00

...

JM cautions Usall not to be recklessly conservative.

JM: In a recession, everyone becomes more cautious and starts saving more money.

Usall: But surely saving money is a Good Thing?

JM: In moderation. But carried to excess, it can be counterproductive. If everyone stashes their money away, stops spending, demand will fall, consumption will fall, economic growth will fall, banks can fail. That's what I call the paradox of thrift.

Usall: But if I keep my my money under my mattress?

JM: Then you are keeping money out of circulation, and banks will have no loanable funds and they will be out of business. You are not saving money, you are frantically hoarding currency. That's not the same as saving.
___________

Voice-over

Whether you are an anti- or pro-Keynesian, you have to admire JM's persuasive logic in torpedoing a worthy quality like "thrift" with "paradox". Or turning the laudable act of "saving money" into the socially irresponsible and selfish pursuit of "frantically hoarding".
...