h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: "The glass is half full" - Good or bad? - A795648
Author: Lucinda (et al) - U129960

Rescued from Flea Market...

Warning: this entry contains a gratuitous DNA reference...
-MyRedDice

According to a wonderful Gary Larson 'Far Side' cartoon, there are actually four types of people...

1. "The glass is half full"
2. "The glass is half empty"
3. "It's half full. No, half empty. No... what was the question again?"
4. "Hey! I ordered a cheeseburger!"

I like this entry a lot because I have always had a deep mistrust of people who use this question to judge others. When they ask me if it's half full or half empty I use one of three responses...

1) Is the glass in the process of being filled or emptied?

2) If the glass was originally full, well I must have already drunk the first half and am looking forward to enjoying the rest. If it was originally empty why don't you hurry up and fill it?

or

3) Are you buying?

Lateral thinking - good
Literal thinking - bad

It's bad. See http://www.despair.com/pessimistmug.html.

BTW: what's all this 'sie' and 'hir' business? Have I touched down in Bremen by mistake?

you mean http://www.despair.com/demotivators/pessimistmug.html ?

sie=she/he
hir=his/her

-myre

from an engineer's point of view, a half-filled/emptied glass indicates that the glass is twice as big as required, so there

I do.

Mightn't it be a good idea to stick to the pronouns that the rest of us understand?

May I ask what the 'Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy' is?

Caper Plip

Caper Plip, you'd better now!

I was just wondering if someone had ripped off the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with a malicious, bootlegged, black-market copycat text... naming it the 'Hithchiker's' Guide to the Galaxy

Caper Plip

Oh, well spotted Eagle Eye

> "Mightn't it be a good idea to stick to the pronouns that the rest of us understand?"

No, it mightn't. As the first darwin fish said to the second darwin fish, "adapt".

And I've fixed the typo. Any more?

Well, don't expect the rest of us to pick it then, until this is fixed. I don't se why the *rest* of the community should have to adapt to accomodate *one* author's idiosyncrasies.

Oh, be fair. There are footnotes clearly explaining what they mean. They're never going to get recognised if no-one ever uses them.

Why should they be recognised? This isn't a site for geek-speak or indulging in in-jokes. The *point* about this site is that is about *reality*, and accessible to as many people as possible, not a hardcore coterie of enthusiasts. And this sort of stuff will give exactly the opposite impression to newbies who will think us semi-detached from the real world at best.

Felonious Monk
Non-thingite, Keeper of nothing in particular

PS: the rest of the article is fine, though, and should be picked.

Whatever the views of the assembled researchers, the entry has to abide by the House Rules. If 'Sie' and 'Hir' are considered British English, they'll get in. If not, they won't.

Quite - and the reason why this rule is enforced is for the very arguments I put forward in my last post.