grue and bleen

[Laurence Horn]

...and here I never even knew that ADS-L *had* a poet laureate
position, much less that it's been filled by general acclamation.

LH

At 7:59 PM -0400 10/19/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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
>>  >>
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>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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