on the other hand

Thu Mar 5 19:14:20 UTC 2009

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 12:38 PM, Victor <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I did not ask because I was too lazy to do a Google search.

And I'll now add one more Gnum:

about 10,400 for "on the gripping hand"

See some details at end.

> In fact, the
> original source that I cited used "on the one side", which sounds
> radically bad to my ear. To be honest, I cringe when I hear "on the one
> side" as well, but it doesn't bother me quite as much as "on the one
> side".

Which of those "side"s is supposed to be "hand"?

I think my acceptance of "on the one/other hand" may be related to
constructions and forms like
 - the first... the second... the third...
 - Pliny the Elder  /  Pliny the Younger
 - (made-up example) The building has two residential wings, of
differing heights. They were originally meant to be equal, but money
ran out. The taller has five stories, the shorter only three.

> Somewhere in that neighborhood is the Bushism, "September the
> eleventh", which, to me, seems to be a blend. The former two are likely
> unrelated to the latter. Also, with respect to the latter expression, I
> most commonly hear it from non-native-English European speakers with
> rather good command of the language. You mileage clearly may vary on all
> fronts.

Oh, yes, I accept "MONTH the ORDINAL" with no qualms, though I rarely use it.

GOOGITS:
Many of the first couple pages of googits are raw quotes of others'
definitions.

Some are literal human uses: "Chalk (magnesium oxide) may be used on
the gripping hand, but rosin, tacky, etc. are specifically
disallowed."

Some are synonym hits that make the whole damn procedure suspect:
"This is Google's cache of
http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/fusion/VisualFeedbackGrasping/index-e.html.
It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Mar 2, 2009 03:26:03
GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. ... These
terms only appear in links pointing to this page: on the gripping hand
 "

But most of the hits, especially when you go beyond the first few
pages (though just looking at the snippets), seem to be real uses in
context, often with no explanation, implying that the writer expects
the reader to understand. Here are a few, in order but not in unbroken
sequence,

about 10,400 for "on the gripping hand"

definition:
http://catb.org/jargon/html/O/on-the-gripping-hand.html
on the gripping hand
    In the progression that starts “On the one hand...” and continues
“On the other hand...” mainstream English may add “on the third
hand...” even though most people don't have three hands. Among
hackers, it is just as likely to be “on the gripping hand”. This
metaphor supplied the title of Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's 1993 SF
novel “The Gripping Hand” which involved a species of hostile aliens
with three arms (the same species, in fact, referenced in juggling
eggs). As with TANSTAAFL and con, this usage became one of the
naturalized imports from SF fandom frequently observed among hackers.

blog title (explanation in user profile):
http://grippinghand.wordpress.com/
On the Gripping Hand
Life from a different perspective
http://grippinghand.wordpress.com/about/
Although no one has [asked], for the uninitiated, I thought I might
define what “the gripping hand” is. [followed by quotation of WP
article]

mix title (no explanation on webpage):
http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=487642&song=On+The+Gripping+Hand+(Paul%27s+Losing+His+Grip+Mix)
Dennis DeSantis - On The Gripping Hand (Paul's Losing His Grip Mix) .mp3

blog entry title (no explanation):
http://totaldrek.blogspot.com/2006/01/and-on-gripping-hand.html
Friday, January 13, 2006
And on the gripping hand...
   There's a dirty rumor going around that my name might be attached
to an article that might be coming out in a journal in the next year
or so. Is it single author? Is it co-authored? Who knows? Who cares?
It's an article.
   So, with recent events it's been a rollercoaster of a twenty-four
hours. Yeesh.
   If you want to know what the hell the title of this post refers to,
see here. Three guesses which community I got the expression from.
[link to the catb.org jargon dictionary def above -- m a m]

blog comment title (w "apologies to Niven"):
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070806/160811.shtml
Is There Any Need For The Concept Of A TV Channel Any More?
from the might-be-time-to-rethink dept
[comment #3]
But on the gripping hand,
by OKVol - Aug 13th, 2007 @ 6:24am
   /* apologies to Niven */
   There is a very serious technical consideration here. Allow for
this technical view:

blog entry title (no explanation):
http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/?p=3343
Merry Christmas: On the Gripping Hand
So many reports this year of a “Merry Christmas War” between the
factions of traditionalism on one hand and secularism on the other. On
the gripping hand… Three years ago on another blog, I wrote the
following.

use in column (with footnote referring to the books and the WP article):
http://www.analog.com/en/content/rarely-asked-questions/raq_capacitors/fca.html
Rarely Asked Questions...
A monthly column, "Rarely Asked Questions: Strange but true stories
from the call logs of Analog Devices,"
is published monthly in EDN and Design News.
Half Full or Half Empty? Thoughts on Capacity.
Q. Are all components with just two wires as complicated as the
resistors we discussed recently?
A.  Capacitors certainly are.
   If you put a pint of liquid into a quart pot, the optimist will
declare it half full, but on the other hand the pessimist will
complain that it's half empty.
   Engineers, on the gripping hand*, know that the glass is too large.

use in blog post (no explanation):
http://www.allyngibson.net/?p=1750
On Warrior Nuns
29 March 2008 in Comic Books
I picked up a comic this week. The cover was intriguing — a nun, in
her habit, with a big-ass sword, and a demon or somesuch behind her.
...
   On the one hand, there’s something obviously incongruous about a
nun in a habit wielding a sword that someone like Conan would bear
into battle.
   On the other hand, there’s something obviously wrong about seeing
nuns held up as T&A objects.
   On the gripping hand, it’s probably about messing around with
societal assumptions. Nuns are supposed to be pious and unglamorous.
They’re not normally held up as sexually alluring, shitkicking
warriors.

use in blog comment (no explanation):
http://www.usefulwork.com/shark/archives/000082.html
I'm not sure. On the one hand, someone newly widowed is entitled to a
certain amount of denial. On the other hand, the remarks here
attributed to her go beyond mere "denial", I think (and also bring to
mind the question why she wants citizenship for herself and her
children, if indeed those horrible Americans all hate Muslims and
Arabs).
   On the gripping hand, I'm not completely sure I place credence in
the reports of her remarks. She's in Cairo; she's being interviewed by
an AP stringer who is probably a reporter for the Egyptian press I
would guess; did she feel she could speak completely freely, and were
her remarks reported accurately?

m a m

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