Three questions

From ABC News, an item confirming Neil Postman's point that the question shapes the answer:

Three new poll questions on the government's response to the financial crisis underscore the power of words — not only in how we understand polls, but in how we choose to describe the events of our day. . . .

The first, from the Pew Research Center, asks about the government "potentially investing" (note: not "spending") billions "to try and keep financial institutions and markets secure." Fifty-seven percent like the idea.

Pew: "As you may know, the government is potentially investing billions to try and keep financial institutions and markets secure. Do you think this is the right thing or the wrong thing for the government to be doing?"

Result: Right 57 percent, Wrong 30 percent.

The second, from the new LA Times/Bloomberg poll, asks if the government should "bail out private companies with taxpayers' dollars." Fifty-five percent don't like the idea — almost the exact opposite of the Pew result.

LAT/Bloomberg: "Do you think the government should use taxpayers' dollars to rescue ailing private financial firms whose collapse could have adverse effects on the economy and market, or is it not the government’s responsibility to bail out private companies with taxpayers’ dollars?"

Result: Should do 31 percent, Should not 55 percent.

The last, our own ABC/Post question, asks what people think of the steps the Fed and Treasury have taken to try to deal with the situation. Answer: Even split

ABC/Post: "Do you approve or disapprove of the steps the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have taken to try to deal with the current situation involving the stock market and major financial institutions?"

Result: Approve 44 percent, Disapprove 42 percent.

Read it all: Views on the Bailout . . . um, Investment (ABC News)

Plethora

Elaine and I had a nice moment of laughter a few days ago about the word plethora. Why does anyone use it seriously? Because it adds a thin, cheap gloss to the plainest of statements:

Our students can choose from five concentrations in the major.

Our students have a plethora of options for concentration within the major.

[These sample sentences are not drawn from life.]

For those who aim to impress via pomposity, plethora will do.

One might seek a cure though in looking at what the word means. The Oxford English Dictionary spills it:

1. Med. Originally: overabundance of one or more humours, esp. blood; an instance of this. In later use: excessive volume of blood (hypervolaemia or, now rarely, polycythaemia) or excessive fullness of blood vessels (now esp. as seen on X-rays); an instance of this.

2. fig. An unhealthy or damaging plenitude or excess of something; a state of surfeit or glut. Obs.

3. Usu. with of. Originally in pejorative sense: an excessive supply, an overabundance; an undesirably large quantity. Subsequently, and more usually, in neutral or favourable sense: a very large amount, quantity, or variety.

Thinking of bodily humors and bulging vessels might be enough to stop anyone's inclination toward plethora. Another reason to avoid this word: it's reputed to be, along with myriad, a favorite of those who score SAT essays. Reasonable to assume that it's a favorite too of those test-takers who likewise believe that one secret of good writing is farcical, pompous diction. A plethora of test-takers, if you will. (I hope you won't.)

National Punctuation Day

Yes, it's — not its — National Punctuation Day.

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How to punctuate a sentence
How to punctuate more sentences

Brian Wilson: Black Cab Session

"One song. One take. One cab": Brian Wilson, Scott Bennett, Nelson Bragg, Jeffrey Foskett, and Darian Sahanaja perform "That Lucky Old Sun" (Haven Gillespie–Beasley Smith) and a quick encore (Wilson–Mike Love) while riding in a London cab.

Stop, look, and listen: it's Chapter Fifty-Nine from the Black Cab Sessions.

Rules for computing happiness

Software developer Alex Payne offers twenty-five rules for happiness in Computerland. I wish I'd read such rules years ago. I especially like these two:

Use as little software as possible.

Use a Mac for personal computing.

(Found via Paper Bits)

ETATSE LAER

Yes, it would be funny to walk down the street and see that window. [Hi and Lois, September 23, 2008.]

Related reading
All Hi and Lois posts

Against knowingness

Mark Edmundson, in the 2008 College Issue of the New York Times Magazine:

Good teachers know that now, in what's called the civilized world, the great enemy of knowledge isn't ignorance, though ignorance will do in a pinch. The great enemy of knowledge is knowingness. It's the feeling encouraged by TV and movies and the Internet that you’re on top of things and in charge. You're hip and always know what's up. Cool — James Dean-style cool — was once the sign of the rebel. But the tables have turned: conformity and cool have merged. The cool character now is the knowing one; even when he's unconventional, he's never surprising — and most of all, he's never surprised. Good teachers, by contrast, are constantly fighting against knowingness by asking questions, creating difficulties, raising perplexities.

Read it all: Geek Lessons (New York Times Magazine)

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Mark Edmundson tells it like it is
Words, mere words

Proust in the news

From an article in the London Sunday paper The Observer, "Bread sells like hot cakes":

Psychologists are putting it down to nostalgia, while pragmatists say it's the credit crunch. But whatever the reason, sales of part-baked bread have doubled in the past year.

Tesco says its part-baked bread sales have risen 47 per cent, while Asda has seen a 60 per increase. Asda attributes the rise to the increased trend for staying in to save money. 'People are cooking for themselves more and cooking for friends. Part-baked is a cheat's way to serve piping hot, fresh bread,' said a spokesman.

Tesco believes there is a deeper reason and drafted in a scientist to explain it. During a time of insecurity and uncertainty, it's all apparently down to the 'Proust effect', named after the 19th-century French author who suggested that the rich, heady smell of baking bread created feelings of nostalgia for mum's kitchen and an instant sense of homeliness.

Sigh.

"[T]he 19th-century French author": Yes, Proust did write and publish in the late 19th century. But he's a 20th-century writer. The first volume of À la recherche du temps perdu appeared in 1913.

"[T]he rich, heady smell of baking bread": No, it's the taste of a madeleine, or more precisely, a madeleine dipped in lime-blossom tea, that brings back the narrator's past.

"[M]um's kitchen": No, the narrator's aunt Léonie would give him a bit of a madeleine in her room.

"[M]um's kitchen": No, the taste of the madeleine brings back "the flowers in our garden and in M. Swann's park, and the water lilies of the Vivonne, and the good people of the village and their little dwellings and the church and all of Combray and its surroundings": a world.

It's difficult to decide whether the mistakes here are the work of Tesco's scientist or the newspaper reporter. Did the scientist mention only the "Proust effect"? Did the reporter assume that it concerned bread? Was someone getting confused by a recollection of Anton Ego and Ratatouille?

[Passage from Swann's Way translated by Lydia Davis (New York: Viking, 2002), 48.]

Related reading
All Proust posts (Pinboard)

Domestic comedy

"That bathroom has a dearth of toilet paper. That's the opposite of a plethora — a dearth."

Related reading
All "domestic comedy" posts

Blogger "recent posts" feed

The community-college-based server hosting the service that has provided my "recent posts" feed seems to have gone kerflooey. So I found a better way to set up a "recent posts" feed: Feed2JS.

Feed2JS allows any number of posts in its display (Blogger's widget has a maximum of five). Feed2JS is a free service, coded by Alan Levine, hosted by Modevia Web Services. (Thanks!)