The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[RealAlHazred]

Revechol was, I believe, originally the setting for the developer’s home RPG (possibly even D&D). DE is a tremendously funny, deeply sad and cathartic experience - vast and oceanic, like my soul. I would buy the tabletop setting in a heartbeat.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] -- It's decent, a well-developed world of strange histories and even stranger events, peopled by characters ranging from the actively indifferent to the passively malign.

INLAND EMPIRE [Trivial: Success] -- It tugs at my heartstrings. Memories well up, dusty books piled on a creaking wooden table, stained with the sweat of beverages and brows, alternately yellow or gray in the light of a single incandescent bulb which sways tantalizingly in the dim recesses of the ceiling.

HORRIFIC NECKTIE -- It doesn't suck! Time to fire up the radiocomputer and dive in!

EDIT: I'm seeing the Horrific Necktie is actually available, in an official form! I may have to pick that up. Now I just need to find a Disco-Ass Blazer, a White Satin Shirt, Flare-Cut Trousers, and Green Snakeskin Shoes. It's an outfit to be caught dead in!

 

[billd91]

 

[trappedslider]

 

[Cadence]

That would be a nice change... but I'm pretty sure it will still be used mostly to say "No, your pizza place doesn't even make pizza, let alone good pizza."

 

[overgeeked]

That would be a nice change... but I'm pretty sure it will still be used mostly to say "No, your pizza place doesn't even make pizza, let alone good pizza."

If the definition of pizza is so broad it includes hot dogs, burritos, and lasagna there’s a problem with the definition. You can’t even begin to talk about pizza in any meaningful way until you can say what is or is not a pizza. You have to be able to point to both what is and is not pizza. People being sad that their favorite food is no longer being called pizza shouldn’t be part of the conversation. “I like it, therefore it’s pizza” is a terrible way to find out what’s pizza or not.

 

[Cadence]

If the definition of pizza is so broad it includes hot dogs, burritos, and lasagna there’s a problem with the definition. You can’t even begin to talk about pizza in any meaningful way until you can say what is or is not a pizza. You have to be able to point to both what is and is not pizza. People being sad that their favorite food is no longer being called pizza shouldn’t be part of the conversation. “I like it, therefore it’s pizza” is a terrible way to find out what’s pizza or not.

On the other hand, if one's definition of Pizza excludes things widely accepted as pizza for decades - NY Style, Detroit Style, Chicago Tavern, Chicago Stuffed, pan pizza, or thin crust pizza... maybe they're just trying to be an <expletive body part>, especially when they go into a thread trying to discuss one of those styles for no other purpose than to say it isn't really pizza (every single time, in every single thread).

 

[Scribe]

Theres a middle ground in there...

 

[overgeeked]

On the other hand, if one's definition of Pizza excludes things widely accepted as pizza for decades - NY Style, Detroit Style, Chicago Tavern, Chicago Stuffed, pan pizza, or thin crust pizza... maybe they're just trying to be an <expletive body part>, especially when they go into a thread trying to discuss one of those styles for no other purpose than to say it isn't really pizza (every single time, in every single thread).

Deep-dish pizza. Adjective noun. “Deep-dish” modifies pizza. You’re saying something is a kind of pizza when you label it “deep-dish pizza”.

For centuries the Romanian people were convinced their language was descended from Slavic languages. To the point where they used the Cyrillic alphabet for a few hundred years. Turns out, not so much. It was all the loanwords that threw people off. But it makes sense given their proximity to Slavic peoples. Romanian is a romance language; it’s descended from Latin. So at times it’s easier to think of it as a hybrid.

Heliocentrism. The humors. Etc. Just because a lot of people think something doesn’t make it true. Just because thinking something makes people warm and fuzzy doesn’t make it true. No matter how much you smile when you say “car” while pointing to a fish…doesn’t make it a car. It’s still a fish and not a car. Just because something is widely accepted for decades (or centuries) does not make it true.

This is also the trouble with trying to have an expert-level discussion about food taxonomy on the internet. Every rando with a connection thinks they get a vote. And that their opinion is just as relevant as other people’s facts. Harlan Ellison has a quote about opinions that comes to mind.

 

[Cadence]

Deep-dish pizza. Adjective noun. “Deep-dish” modifies pizza. You’re saying something is a kind of pizza when you label it “deep-dish pizza”.

For centuries the Romanian people were convinced their language was descended from Slavic languages. To the point where they used the Cyrillic alphabet for a few hundred years. Turns out, not so much. It was all the loanwords that threw people off. But it makes sense given their proximity to Slavic peoples. Romanian is a romance language; it’s descended from Latin. So at times it’s easier to think of it as a hybrid.

Heliocentrism. The humors. Etc. Just because a lot of people think something doesn’t make it true. Just because thinking something makes people warm and fuzzy doesn’t make it true. No matter how much you smile when you say “car” while pointing to a fish…doesn’t make it a car. It’s still a fish and not a car. Just because something is widely accepted for decades (or centuries) does not make it true.

This is also the trouble with trying to have an expert-level discussion about food taxonomy on the internet. Every rando with a connection thinks they get a vote. And that their opinion is just as relevant as other people’s facts. Harlan Ellison has a quote about opinions that comes to mind.

The time I had lunch with Harlan Ellison he seemed like the type of person who would have biting comments ready for just about anything and anyone.

Anyway, it kind of feels like if the pizza vocabulary is actually useful for public discourse on chat boards about pizza that, say, someone who regularly eats pizza, has tried many kinds of pizza in many parts of the country over the decades, who makes it at home from time to time, and who spent a few years shift-managing a pizza place part time, should probably be able to make a reasonable guess as to whether something is pizza or not.

And it really feels like if pizza already exists with NY style and Chicago tavern style having been recognized things for decades as pizza, that someone now making up a formal pizza lexicon that excludes one of those as pizza is a doofus.

Finally, it feels like pizza as an analogy breaks down when everyone thinks it means something different.

 

[overgeeked]

The time I had lunch with Harlan Ellison he seemed like the type of person who would have biting comments ready for just about anything and anyone.

Yeah. Man had a MOUTH (and could scream). You hear the news about the Lost Aztec Temple of Mars?

Anyway, it kind of feels like if the pizza vocabulary is actually useful for public discourse on chat boards about pizza that, say, someone who regularly eats pizza, has tried many kinds of pizza in many parts of the country over the decades, who makes it at home from time to time, and who spent a few years shift-managing a pizza place part time, should probably be able to make a reasonable guess as to whether something is pizza or not.

Not really. Being a reader doesn’t make someone a writer. Being a writer doesn’t make someone an editor. Being an editor doesn’t make someone a reader. Etc. They are all related, of course, but they’re not the same thing.

And it really feels like if pizza already exists with NY style and Chicago tavern style having been recognized things for decades as pizza, that someone now making up a formal pizza lexicon that excludes one of those as pizza is a doofus.

Again, having an opinion and being able to spew it on the net doesn’t make the person right or knowledgable.

Finally, it feels like pizza as an analogy breaks down when everyone thinks it means something different.

Again, not everyone that can spew an opinion is worth listening to.