grue and bleen

[Jonathan Lighter]

Ulysses S. Grant was once seen
Drinking grog with an appetite keen.
Then he tipsily said,
With a nod of his head,
"It's a war of the grue and the bleen."

JL
On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 10:47 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: grue and bleen
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10/19/2010 10:25 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >At 9:49 AM -0400 10/19/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >>In my personal experience, something is grue if I call it "green" and
> >>a particular acquaintance, no names being used, calls it "blue"; and
> >>is bleen if I call it "blue" and that same unnamed acquaintance calls
> >>it "green".
> >>
> >>Joel
> >
> >OK, sounds good; now you just need someone to write a poem on your
> >practice and publish (or at least web-post) it.  The rest of us will
> >be grue with envy--or bleen, depending on the time of day.
> >
> >LH
>
> Thinking back to his limerick on "dog", I'll ask Jon.
>
> P.S.  I later thought, my experience too can be described in terms of
> times: T1, T2, T3, ... .  I say one color at T1.  My acquaintance
> contradicts me at T2.  I insist on my color at T3. ... .
>
> Joel
>
>
>
> >>At 10/18/2010 09:57 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >>>Well, there's a "grue" I'm familiar with, but it's not the one hiding
> >>>in "gruesome".  In a classic paper or book (I forget which, since I
> >>>didn't read it, but just recall the cite) on induction, the mid-20th
> >>>century philosopher of Nelson Goodman proposes "grue" as the label
> >>>for a color of objects that are green when seen before noon (or
> >>>whenever) and blue when seen after it.  (As opposed to "bleen", which
> >>>has the opposite property but didn't catch on to the same extent.)
> >>>The puzzle had to do with why we assume objects that look green are
> >>>green rather than grue.
> >>>
> >>>Let's see if I can google it up...  Yup, and even with a somewhat
> >>>less than immortal ode to the color "grue":
> >>>
> >>>Nelson Goodman seems quite keen
> >>>Induction yet to show anew
> >>>Is somewhat sick as will be seen
> >>>And may not be completely true.
> >>>
> >>>Is this leaf a lovely green?
> >>>Or is it rather colored grue?
> >>>Is the sky above quite bleen?
> >>>Or am I right in seeing blue?
> >>>
> >>>I really don't care to be mean
> >>>And have no wish to Goodman skew;
> >>>But childish puzzles can demean;
> >>>Has he nothing else to do??
> >>>-JSH, "On 'The New Riddle of Induction'"
> >>>http://www.massline.org/philosdog/G/Goodman.htm
> >>
> >>------------------------------------------------------------
> >>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org