Strictly Speaking

Culinary automata

susan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:38:40 +0000

My kitchen is relatively large by Parisian standards (which really only means that two people can stand in it (but not really work simultaneously in it)), but it is typical in that it doesn’t have a built-in oven, or much counter space. I don’t even have a microwave. I do think, however, that I would be able to find room for this vital cuisine enhancement:

sometimes

susan — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 23:08:54 +0000

Sometimes, I do
3 2 1 ... !
and think of you.

Moving Métro

susan — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:01:39 +0000

One difference between the Paris Métro and the subway in New York City is that the doors of the métro do not automatically open. On the older cars, there is a little latch that you have to flip to get the door to open, and on the newer cars there is a button you press. This probably saves some energy, and certainly when it’s colder out this means the cars can stay warmer, because if no one needs to get off a stop, then the doors remain closed. Another difference is that the release to allow the doors to be opened is triggered at some point well before the train actually comes to a complete stop. This means that if you flip the handle early, you can jump off a train that is still-moving (although not very quickly). I like to think I can pick out real Parisians as they are the ones that open the door with an insouciant flick of the wrist, and then spring off the slowing car, landing neatly on the platform with nary a feather ruffled.

Plus fast!

susan — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:41:17 +0000

I noticed an ad in the métro claiming that some… product (I don’t recall what it was) was in fact “faster!” (than other competing products, I assume). What interested me was the fact that the phrase in French, “plus vite” (literally more fast), could be iconically abbreviated by swapping in the + sign for the word “plus”. Commenting on this fact sparked a long discussion about the words for mathematical operations in French and English. We think of ‘addition’ as a symmetrical function, but adding (as in, say, milk to cereal) does not appear to be symmetrical. Is this a semantic or pragmatic feature of ‘add’? Those who know me will not be surprised that I typically would vote for pragmatic, but it’s rather difficult to see how to work that out in this case. More as I think about it.

Updates coming soon…

susan — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:58:12 +0000

I’m changing things around behind the scenes, so hopefully I’ll start providing more “content” here soon, and hopefully the impending visual alterations will be welcome.

Test of the iphone

susan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:57:05 +0000

Test

Please be advised:

susan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:02:58 +0000

Please be advised: I am the friend of the stomach!

New Look

susan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:23:17 +0000

I’ve spent a bit of time changing around how things look, to reflect the fact that I’m now in Paris. I have so much to write about, but for now, I leave you with CHEESE. That is all.

bahhh… oui!

susan — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 03:12:05 +0000

I will be moving to Paris this summer, and my excitement about this move can be explained by my belief that my life there will be something along the lines of this:

(hat tip to res.cogitans)

Are names rigid designators?

susan — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:50:24 +0000

On Mount Desert Island in Maine, people refer to roads with the definite article. So what the street sign says is “Crooked Road” might be mentioned in a sentence as “He lives on the Crooked Road.” This is likely to be how many roads originally got their names, so Birmingham Road in Coventry used to be the primary road to take to get to Birmingham, etc. At some point the reference became the “official” (under whichever authority) name for the road, and this status could remain even if a different road became the preferred thoroughfare (cf., e.g., Kripke on Dartmouth). But does the use of the definite article just reflect a quirky regionalism in the statement of the name? Or is it indicative of a different conception on the part of the locals w.r.t. names and descriptions? I only wish I could get a grant and stay here longer to do more research. Perhaps I could combine this with my planned game-theoretic analysis of the soft-shell/hard-shell demarcation equilibrium…