Monday, October 25, 2010

Overheard in the Office:

RX: (In a silent room, appropos of absolutely nothing) "I think the 'twee' and 'faux' axes are perpendicular, because..."

Me: "Wait, what?"

RX: "Well, I mean, you can have something that is twee, but very authentic, and something that is fake, but..."

Me: "Oh! I thought you said 'twee' and 'FOE'."

RX: "I suppose you could have an enemy that was twee, like..."

Me: "Hang on, this is going on the internet."

13 comments:

Roberta X said...

Classic faux twee foe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Loveless

I rest my case.

Steve Skubinna said...

Harry Reid. At least now, after stewing for a week at being told to "man up" and only now coming out sulkily swinging.

Anonymous said...

You know what the really dorky alternative to "perpendicular" is in that observation?

Orthogonal.

Seriously, that is a priceless word for some types of conceptually exacting nerd conversations.

Thank me later.

Kip Condor said...

Yeah, A mathematician would say "orthogonal" - that works even when you've got more than three axes. "Perpendicular" is a sure sign you're talking to an engineer (NTTAWWT).

staghounds said...

Fo sho.

PS, why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?



Fo' drizzle!

Jason said...

A twee axe? Is that for a wumberjack?

WV: putpoo. I can only reply from every text adventure: "I don't know what that command means."

Joanna said...

A twee axe? Is that for a wumberjack?

Go to your ROOM.

Remember, never trust the nice ones.

LabRat said...

The first conversation plus the comments go straight to my happy place.

(Particularly because I really do love Dr. Loveless and will even confessing to liking the movie version featuring Kenneth Branagh devouring scenery at a yards-per-minute pace...)

Anonymous said...

Doh ray mi faux so la twee ...

Kristophr said...

Non sequitur theatre ...

Buzz said...

Kip Condor said...
Yeah, A mathematician would say "orthogonal" - that works even when you've got more than three axes. "Perpendicular" is a sure sign you're talking to an engineer (NTTAWWT).

Easy, there.
I would say the opposite, especially regarding aeronautical/astronautical engineers. Without thinking in 3D space, our craft would have an nasty habit of encountering terrestrial objects at high velocity.

Roberta X said...

Whereas a lot of classic EE space is 2-dimensional even when it shouldn't be -- we'll go to great, even imaginary lengths.... ;)

Roberta X said...

LabRat, there was only one Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless, the wonderful and much-missed Michael Dunn. (I didn't realize how young he was -- died in 1973 at the age of 38) I had a huge crush or Robert Conrad -- especially the (rerun) Wild Wild West years. They just don't make 'em like that any more!