"infamous" = celebrated

sagehen sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM
Tue Mar 14 16:30:50 UTC 2006


>How, ye of little faith, explain ye this ?:
>
>  "To mark National Science Week, past winners of the most infamous prize
>in academia are touring the country to explain, among other things, the
>logic of making locusts watch repeated highlights of Star Wars and how
>ostriches fancy humans."
>
>  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4801670.stm  (Today's BBC News.)
>
>  No, not the bugs and birds; I mean how do you explain "infamous" if not
>as a synonym for the now soooooo-boring "famous" ?  (Earlier discussion
>addressed the possibility that this "infamous" might only apply to
>celebrities or media things.)
>
>  The transformation appears to be complete. Let the Kaos begin !
>
>  JL
>

I take it back. The article pokes fun at the "Ig Nobel Prize." So the
meaning of "infamous" here seems to be "well-known for being amusing."

  Still noteworthy, I hope.

  JL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aw, heck.  I was just trying to fit this in with the development fifty-some
years ago when the possible misunderstanding of "inflammable" (did it mean
"combustible" or "incombustible") seems to have struck the consumer product
safety people and they  ordered labels changed to "flammable" or
"non-flammable" to avoid ambiguity.  Let's see, does "infamous" intensify
or..........?
AM


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