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THE WORD PUZZLE

In issue 137 I posed a word puzzle, trying to describe an object using mostly geometric terms. Fred produced an excellent diagram of it by following the written description, upon which I realized I'd made a mistake in using the word "circle" to mean both a plane surface of a circle and the perimeter of a circle. I didn't know what the thing was, but I intended to return to the Cracker Barrel restaurant where I saw it and take a photo. Strangely enough, a couple of weeks ago I saw it on Decorating Cents, where they made useful objects from antique game boards, and used my unknown object to make a hat rack. They didn't know what it was either. I found a photo online, although it's hard to see the detail. The board on TV looks like a more finished version of the one I saw: it has holes or pockets cut out of the corners, and has some ornamental painting on it, but otherwise is much the same. Web research suggests that this was a crokinole board or possibly a carom (or carrom) board. The one on TV seems to have elements of each, and the one in Cracker Barrel was unfinished.

And why does it matter, aside from a mild interest in antiques and a greater interest in mysteries?

Because the exercise of translating a purely verbal description into understanding of the reality it refers to is not as easy as it seems. This is why more than one person thought that my remarks last week about what to do in a hurricane meant I'm a Bush supporter and that I absolve the governments, plural, local and federal, of blame and responsibility. That is not what I meant, and not what I said. Allow me to rephrase my thought:

The most superficial knowledge of history, recent and ancient, should tell us that it is not advisable to trust in any government or agency to take care of us in an emergency. Moreover, individuals, especially American individuals, ought to draw on their pioneer and slave history, which made Americans tough and self-reliant but also cooperative, as inspiration for how to deal with tough circumstances. We have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people ~ not by a certain person.

But certain words trigger automatic associations in readers and listeners.

Dave DaBee suggested that what happened is an example of a meme. Somehow I thought I'd written about memes, but I guess I just used the word once or twice. A definition from www.yourdictionary.com is: "A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another." I refer you also to the lengthier definition at www.dict.org. This word was coined by analogy to the word "gene" by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, about "memetics". I haven't read the book. A meme can be a word or phrase or even an image that carries a whole slew of associations, connotations, history, etc. Even the logo for Coca-Cola represents a meme; it's more than just a soft drink. What is it?

What this means is that when the word government comes up, or the name of the president, people attach many ideas and associations and values to those words, but it's a mistake to assume that everyone has exactly the same understanding, experience, and assumptions with those words. Of course there is more than one "government" or "George W. Bush" meme. I've always thought that if you can stick to physical facts, or the most basic principles or universally shared principles of human ethics, then the sticky web of memes and politics could be sidestepped. I was wrong, but that's the point of the game board exercise.

I've heard complaint on TV about those afflicted by Hurricane Katrina being called "refugees", claiming this is an insult to them as Americans, because a "refugee" is a foreign person who seeks asylum in another country. That is not the primary definition of the word, which is simply and obviously a person who seeks refuge, and in no way is a slur, except to people who are offended by the hurricane itself, and also want to believe that people who use the word "refugee" think of all those poor (and not incidentally, black) people are not fellow Americans, and so on. The supposedly preferable term, "evacuees", emphasizes their leaving the area, while "refugees" makes us think of them finding safety somewhere. So, do they want to evacuate but not find refuge? I think not.

There were even people who compared the plight of the hurricane survivors to that of the slaves who were transported in the holds of slave ships. This is a false analogy, as the people's physical and political situation and future were so different in those cases. But the purpose of this analogy was not accuracy and truth.

And now a few Buddhist words on the subject:

Above, across or back again,

wherever he goes in the world

let him carefully scrutinize

the rise and fall of compounded things.

~ Itivuttaka 120

I'm on a daily Buddhist reading e-mail list, and this one rotated to my mailbox on September 11, 2001.

THE CONSTANT PROOFREADER

Parvum Opus probably should have been named The Constant Proofreader, after Constant Reader, the traditional imaginary reader who is constant in the sense of faithful as well as unceasing. Her cousin is the Gentle Reader, analogous to gentleman and gentlewoman. Here are a few items I've proofread recently.

# The Vermont Country Store catalog advertises Woodbury soap for "smooth, caressive skin". The copywriter meant "caressable", which is also not in the dictionary but which is a possible word. Skin is able to be caressed. I guess caressive skin would be more active, but soap can't make it that way.

# A lady who knits bandages for the poor says they're for Third World Countries (capitalized) and she sends them to South Dakota. First, "third world countries" does not require capitalization; this is not an official name of a specific place. Second, South Dakota isn't a country so far, and although poor people may live there, it's still part of a first world country, and I doubt if it's a distribution point for hand-knit bandages going abroad, though I could be wrong. But you may be more curious about the knitted bandages. She said that's how bandages used to be made before cheap manufactured bandages were available. She is soliciting knitters to make them with small knitting needles and fine white crochet thread of the kind used for doilies. These bandages are durable and can be bleached and sterilized by boiling for reuse. Good idea, but they are hard to make. They also used to make bandages by tearing up old sheets and making sort of padded or quilted strips stuffed with lint.

# A local independent vitamin store is owned by a terrifically well organized man who labels all his storage in the back with neat signs, two of which are "Shelve Hooks" and "Shelve Dividers". The singular of shelves is, of course, shelf. "Shelve" is a verb. Maybe these labels are commands, unlike the other labels. Remember the imperative mood in grammar?

JOB TITLES

How come a bag man is a runner for criminals, who carries money, but a bag lady is a homeless woman who carries all her stuff in a bag? How come a streetwalker is a prostitute but a floor walker is a store detective? And how come an adventurer is a man who leads a life of daring, but an adventuress is a woman who makes a living off of rich men, in other words, her field of adventure is much narrower? Harrumph.

DIY BROCHURE

Here's a handy little web site I ran across that allows you to construct your own brochure online using an automated brochure maker. You insert your text into one of ten templates, and you can replace their stock photos with your own. Then you just print it out with a color printer. Go to My Brochure Maker.

Bernadette Roberts Workshop

I am organizing a workshop with Bernadette Roberts, a remarkable Christian contemplative and author of three books:

What is Self? : A Study of the Spiritual Journey in Terms of Consciousness

The Path to No-Self: Life at the Center

The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey

This workshop, called The Essence of Christian Mysticism, will be held on the weekend of May 5-7, 2006, in Loveland, Ohio. For more information, go to Bernadette Roberts Workshop. The site may be updated from time to time.

Link here to look for books on Amazon.com!

NEED A SIMPLE WEB PAGE? WOULD A NEWSLETTER, ELECTRONIC OR PRINT, HELP YOUR BUSINESS? TALK TO ME ABOUT PROFESSIONAL EDITING AND WEB WORK.

Go to Babelfish to translate this page into Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish!

Parvum Opus is a publication of KeithOps / Opus Publishing Services. Back issues may be found at http://www.keithops.us/. Feel free to e-mail me with comments or queries.

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Copyright Rhonda Keith 2005. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but it is permissible to forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.