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Square Theory

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Re: Square Theory

#81

Post by AStonesThrow »

akoboldfrying wrote: post #78

GrubHub is certainly a good name, but if I came across an app actually named "Food Central-Place" I would have no choice but to install it on the spot. It just has a certain anti-ring to it.

Next time you're in NYC, try searching the web for "Thai Food Near Me"!

https://www.thaifoodnearmenyc.com/

There was a local food-truck operator named "Phở King" and eventually they established a storefront ... well, I see one closed, and another opened up. Formerly known as "Phở King Kitchen" and now there's the "Phở King Eggroll" place.

Fred Armisen did an SNL bit about this, too.

Not far from me, there is a ghost kitchen cluster. It's tucked away in a commercially-zoned neigborhood, and it serves all the food delivery services. Apparently, you can walk in too. I only accidentally patronized them once, when they had some great larb on offer. I think the report says there's 15 different menus and "virtual kitchens" in the building, just turning out food-to-go.

Re: Square Theory

#82

Post by akoboldfrying »

simianparrot wrote: post #41
joshhug wrote: post #16

The part about dad joke square theory got me thinking about this classic scarecrow joke, which feels like an example from some higher order version of square theory: "Why was the scarecrow given an award?" "He was out standing in his field." The fact that a scarecrow's job is to be "out standing in his field", and that excelling at one's job can be phrased as being "outstanding in his field" is an incredible linguist…

For some reason this old saying popped into my head reading that. I know it's not related but: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

"Fruit flies like a banana" is arguably the quintessential example of ambiguity in English grammar. It shows that the grammatical structure of a sentence (which words are nouns, which are verbs, etc.) cannot be reliably recovered even if we know the meaning and possible grammatical categories of every word.

Both ways to parse it are grammatically sound:

(Fruit) (flies) (like a banana)

(Fruit flies) (like) (a banana)

To decide which meaning was likely intended, the listener needs to make a value judgement about the speaker, based on detailed knowledge of the everyday world.

Re: Square Theory

#83

Post by staffordrj »

jacobolus wrote: post #48
finnh wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My family calls that game "pink mink"!

As far as I know the most common name is "hink pink", if anyone wants to look this up (or sometimes "hinky pinky"). Here's a 1981 book, https://archive.org/details/hinkpinkbookorwh00burn/ and here's a short description from the 50s, https://archive.org/details/realbookofgames0000unse/page/134... Searching further, apparently Hink Pink was the name of an 18th century pirate ship; I'm not sure if there's a relation to…

I made a daily game version of this https://rystaf.github.io/hinklepinkle/

Re: Square Theory

#84

Post by jagged-chisel »

gwd wrote: post #54
j2kun wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The classic, "why did the chicken cross the road" also fits into this genre, but nobody seems to understand that "get to the other side" means "to cross over from life to death." Every time I explain this to someone they are shocked that they never knew this meaning.

That's a failure of the joke not to set it up -- one of the "top corners" of the square is missing. Chickens normally don't make an effort to get to the "other side" (as far as we're aware anyway). To make the square you'd have to do something where the context of "the other side" means past life into death. e.g., "Why did the spiritualist put his ear towards the road? To hear from the other side."

If you cross the wrong person, they just might send you to the other side.

I don’t know how to make the chicken crossing the road use this meaning, but … well, there it is.

Re: Square Theory

#85

Post by jamiek88 »

Someone wrote: post #25
kelseyfrog wrote: post #15

I'm a big fan of killing time on long drives with friendly word games. One of my favorites is a mix between rhyming and square theory. Here's how it works: one player picks two words that rhyme perfectly. Then, for each of those words, they choose a clue word, usually a synonym, but any kind of related word is fair game. They say those two clue words out loud, and the other players have to guess the original rhyming…

Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang : “The construction of rhyming slang involves replacing a common word with a phrase of two or more words, the last of which rhymes with the original word; then, in almost all cases, omitting, from the end of the phrase, the secondary rhyming word (which is thereafter implied)”

Yep, ‘that’s pony’ means ‘that’s crap’. From pony and trap. You omit the actual word that rhymes.

Nice whistle mate! (I like your suit, from whistle and flute).

It’s fun to figure them out.

Re: Square Theory

#86

Post by abhpro »

akoboldfrying wrote: post #82
simianparrot wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason this old saying popped into my head reading that. I know it's not related but: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

"Fruit flies like a banana" is arguably the quintessential example of ambiguity in English grammar. It shows that the grammatical structure of a sentence (which words are nouns, which are verbs, etc.) cannot be reliably recovered even if we know the meaning and possible grammatical categories of every word. Both ways to parse it are grammatically sound: (Fruit) (flies) (like a banana) (Fruit flies) (like) (a banana)…

I assume stuff like this is why some languages or script can never be deciphered

Re: Square Theory

#87

Post by thejohnconway »

joshhug wrote: post #16

The part about dad joke square theory got me thinking about this classic scarecrow joke, which feels like an example from some higher order version of square theory: "Why was the scarecrow given an award?" "He was out standing in his field." The fact that a scarecrow's job is to be "out standing in his field", and that excelling at one's job can be phrased as being "outstanding in his field" is an incredible linguist…

I think the meanings are pretty close though? Not coincidental: to be prominent in an area.

Re: Square Theory

#88

Post by ehonsey33 »

A matrix is a matrix, namely two triangles reflected about a diagonal. No wonder they are frequently used in computer science and general problem-solving ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Square Theory

#89

Post by keepamovin »

cshimmin wrote: post #28

My favorite example, which was an honest translation error from a non-native speaker friend: Hand job (he meant to say manual labor)

I think in Chinese this is literal for hand made (手工) - the gong 2nd character can also mean work or job I think - but the sex term of art I guess is different there. Haha

Re: Square Theory

#90

Post by noirchen »

This reminds me of the so-called "heartless couplet" (无情对) in Chinese. Every pair of words in the couplets are synonymous or anonymous, and yet the meanings of the couplets are completely unrelated, often in a humorous way.
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