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:

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

    I rest my case.

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

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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).

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  5. Fo sho.

    PS, why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?



    Fo' drizzle!

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  6. 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."

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  7. A twee axe? Is that for a wumberjack?

    Go to your ROOM.

    Remember, never trust the nice ones.

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  8. 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...)

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  9. Doh ray mi faux so la twee ...

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  10. 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.

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

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  12. 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!

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