"crash blossoms" redux

[Mark Mandel]

To the tune of "Good King Wenceslas":

"Post hoc ergo propter hoc", the fallacy is famous.
>  Of the ways we fool ourselves, this may be the lamest.
> Thinking A's the cause of B just 'cause B comes after
> Is a fruitful way to fail and earn the Fates' loud laughter.
>

m a m

On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 12:00 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> At 9:10 AM -0700 1/31/10, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> >Far be it from me to steal from ADS-L's glory! I don't believe I
> >"assigned credit" to Language Log -- I only said that many examples
> >(including Steve Anderson's) appeared after I first posted about crash
> >blossoms on Language Log (following John McIntyre).  But I should have
> >phrased that more carefully -- post hoc ergo propter hoc and all
> >that...
> >
> >
> >--Ben Zimmer
>
> No, you're right.  I almost put in a reference acknowledging my
> assumption of PHEPH but I figured it would weaken my plaintiff's
> brief.  Should have known it would come in the defendant's
> presentation!
>
> LH
>

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