Sturgeon's Law

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Tsk Tsk. What if we called your Hondas JUNK?


dInIs

>Please stop e-mailing this address, it is a business address
>and no one has requested to join your American Dialect Society
>please refrain from sending this JUNK!!!
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Baker, John <JBaker at STRADLEY.COM>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Date: 16 January 2001 15:06
>Subject: Sturgeon's Law
>
>
>>         Sturgeon's Law in its original form stated stated "90% of
>everything
>>is crud," but the last word is usually altered to "crap."  I had always
>>heard that it came up in a casual conversation between the science fiction
>>writer Theodore Sturgeon and some fans.  While that may be the case,
>>Sturgeon apparently made it available to the broader world in a talk to the
>>World Science Fiction Convention in 1953.  That's according to an account
>by
>>James Gunn in The New York Review of Science Fiction #85, September 1995.
>>According to the Theodore Sturgeon FAQ, Sturgeon then wrote about
>>"Sturgeon's Revelation" (as he then called it) in the March 1958 issue of
>>Venture Science Fiction.  The FAQ, with a link to the relevant portion of
>>the Gunn account, is available at
>  >
>  >http://glinda.lrsm.upenn.edu/~weeks/misc/faq.html#slaw
>  >
>  >
>  >John Baker <jbaker at stradley.com>
>  >

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736