I was reminded of this by a recent post over at Crooked Timber. Cosma Shalazi's review of Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science [amz] is titled "A Rare Blend of Monster Raving Egomania and Utter Batshit Insanity" - I'd love to be able to stick that on a review!
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John M. Lynch is an Honors Faculty Fellow at Barrett the Honors College at Arizona State University. He's also affiliated with ASU's Center for Biology & Society. When he's not an historian of anti-evolutionism, he's an evolutionary morphologist. Much to his surprise, in 2007 he was named the Arizona Professor of the Year. No doubt his students were surprised as well.
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« *Does a double take* | Main | Possible hiatus »
Titles I wish I had used
Category: Math and Physics
Posted on: July 25, 2006 10:59 PM, by John Lynch
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Comments
I can certainly identify with this. In my line of work I help the general public get issues resolved. Though some of the issues may be squirrelly and some of the people raising them are bullying at times, diplomacy and tact must be maintained. Consequently, when I'm drafting responses to people about their issues, sometimes there is a big difference between what I want to write and what I can write.
Posted by: Sean | July 26, 2006 2:42 AM
Diplomacy is nice, but sometimes as effective as using a wet hankie to take down a sequoia. I remember how my "you bald-assed baboons" letter got instant results, whereas my tactful letters on the same issue were ignored. (I also recall seeing an older review of Wolfram's book making the same point.)
Posted by: mark | July 26, 2006 9:22 AM
What a line! I'd loved to have even thought of it much less use it. Thanks for finding this gem.
Posted by: edward hessler | July 26, 2006 5:39 PM