Post by firefly on May 28, 2009 9:20:27 GMT -5
This is primarily for Beth.
I think it is fairly common that a person will hear a word, as an adult, and think, "I've never heard that word before in my life. How odd. I'll have to look it up."
They look it up, discover its meaning, and feel somewhat empowered by an improved vocabulary.
Then, within a week, the person will read, or hear the spoken word, three or four times, and wonder why it is that so many other people in the world are using the word casually, while they had never heard of it.
It's got to be some trick of the memory, or a mental glitch, or something weird, because it happens so often.
You posted a response to the thread "In our defence..." containing the name of Conrad Black.
So help me, up until YESTERDAY, I had never heard of Conrad Black in my life.
Yesterday, I received my newsletter from Alternet in the email, and there was an article on Israel's reaction to Iran's possible possession of nuclear weapons, as compared to the South Korean's reaction to North Korea actually having nuclear weapons.
I thought the comparison was a bit harsh, and while possibly valid, not the best analysis to be had.
The writer of the Alternet article was Gwynne Dyer--which is the same last name as the guy who does the motivational hype--and I had never heard his name, that I can recall, before, and decided to look him up to see what his credentials were.
In my search, I stumbled upon the name CONRAD BLACK, who apparently loathes Mr. Dyer, the article writer. Hmmm. I had never heard of Conrad Black, either, but discovered he is a very wealthy, very powerful man, who doesn't mind using his power to curtail the publication of a syndicated columnist from his newspapers, even if that means almost blacking out that writer from an entire country. (Mr. Black seems to own most of the newspapers.)
In your post on the thread, "In our defence...," you tell me more about Mr. Black.
So, it just struck me as similar to the peculiarity of words you never heard before, then hear for the first time, then hear everyone using the word. What a strange coincidence.
I knew, as of yesterday, that Mr. Black was rich and powerful, but I hadn't read enough to be aware that he was also not such a nice guy on the economic scene as well..
Just an oddity, Beth. I didn't post this little observation on the "...defence..." thread because it is off the topic of racism in Australia and it might have derailed the thread.
Much ado about nothing, I know, but it's just a peculiar thing about seeing or hearing about a word or a thing that had absolutely no meaning or use to you for the first time, and thinking how unnecessary it is to know about it, and then, within a few days, it seems you will hear it again and again. It makes one wonder if one has been somehow deaf, dumb and blind to that particular word or name in the past for some reason.
I list below the path I took which led me from Gwynne Dyer to Conrad Black, and then, of course, I encounter your post today containing the name of Conrad Black.
Okay, so I need to get a life. Hmmmm. I think I've already had it.
Only so much to be done in one lifetime.
(If this was communicated verbally, over the back fence, so to speak, it would all have been over with in about thirty seconds. Writing really takes a lot longer than speaking, darn it. Sorry.)
www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10574679
*******
www.gwynnedyer.com/
*******
Dyer's column was discontinued in the Jerusalem Post in 1997 by its owner at the time, Conrad Black. Black subsequently pulled the column from numerous Canadian publications he owned. When the Asper family, owners of Canwest Global, took over ownership of the papers in 2002, they maintained the ban. This had the result that Dyer's column has recently been unavailable in the more mainstream Canadian newspapers, and consequently completely unavailable in large parts of the country.[3] Smaller media companies continue to publish the column, including alternatively owned newspapers such as Torstar's Hamilton Spectator, Edmonton's Vue Weekly , Vancouver's Georgia Straight and a few local publications of the regional Osprey Media and Black Press[4] (not affiliated with Conrad Black), such as Kamloops This Week and the Red Deer Advocate.
Dyer speculates that this is due to his opinions on Israel and both Black's and the Asper family's Likud Party sympathies. In 2005, Dyer released a book of his columns, titled With Every Mistake. He explained part of his reason for publishing the collection: "For readers in Montreal, Ottawa, Windsor, Edmonton or Victoria, it's this book or nothing, as far as my columns are concerned."[3]
[edit] Works
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwynne_Dyer
*******
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black
I think it is fairly common that a person will hear a word, as an adult, and think, "I've never heard that word before in my life. How odd. I'll have to look it up."
They look it up, discover its meaning, and feel somewhat empowered by an improved vocabulary.
Then, within a week, the person will read, or hear the spoken word, three or four times, and wonder why it is that so many other people in the world are using the word casually, while they had never heard of it.
It's got to be some trick of the memory, or a mental glitch, or something weird, because it happens so often.
You posted a response to the thread "In our defence..." containing the name of Conrad Black.
So help me, up until YESTERDAY, I had never heard of Conrad Black in my life.
Yesterday, I received my newsletter from Alternet in the email, and there was an article on Israel's reaction to Iran's possible possession of nuclear weapons, as compared to the South Korean's reaction to North Korea actually having nuclear weapons.
I thought the comparison was a bit harsh, and while possibly valid, not the best analysis to be had.
The writer of the Alternet article was Gwynne Dyer--which is the same last name as the guy who does the motivational hype--and I had never heard his name, that I can recall, before, and decided to look him up to see what his credentials were.
In my search, I stumbled upon the name CONRAD BLACK, who apparently loathes Mr. Dyer, the article writer. Hmmm. I had never heard of Conrad Black, either, but discovered he is a very wealthy, very powerful man, who doesn't mind using his power to curtail the publication of a syndicated columnist from his newspapers, even if that means almost blacking out that writer from an entire country. (Mr. Black seems to own most of the newspapers.)
In your post on the thread, "In our defence...," you tell me more about Mr. Black.
So, it just struck me as similar to the peculiarity of words you never heard before, then hear for the first time, then hear everyone using the word. What a strange coincidence.
I knew, as of yesterday, that Mr. Black was rich and powerful, but I hadn't read enough to be aware that he was also not such a nice guy on the economic scene as well..
Just an oddity, Beth. I didn't post this little observation on the "...defence..." thread because it is off the topic of racism in Australia and it might have derailed the thread.
Much ado about nothing, I know, but it's just a peculiar thing about seeing or hearing about a word or a thing that had absolutely no meaning or use to you for the first time, and thinking how unnecessary it is to know about it, and then, within a few days, it seems you will hear it again and again. It makes one wonder if one has been somehow deaf, dumb and blind to that particular word or name in the past for some reason.
I list below the path I took which led me from Gwynne Dyer to Conrad Black, and then, of course, I encounter your post today containing the name of Conrad Black.
Okay, so I need to get a life. Hmmmm. I think I've already had it.
Only so much to be done in one lifetime.
(If this was communicated verbally, over the back fence, so to speak, it would all have been over with in about thirty seconds. Writing really takes a lot longer than speaking, darn it. Sorry.)
www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10574679
*******
www.gwynnedyer.com/
*******
Dyer's column was discontinued in the Jerusalem Post in 1997 by its owner at the time, Conrad Black. Black subsequently pulled the column from numerous Canadian publications he owned. When the Asper family, owners of Canwest Global, took over ownership of the papers in 2002, they maintained the ban. This had the result that Dyer's column has recently been unavailable in the more mainstream Canadian newspapers, and consequently completely unavailable in large parts of the country.[3] Smaller media companies continue to publish the column, including alternatively owned newspapers such as Torstar's Hamilton Spectator, Edmonton's Vue Weekly , Vancouver's Georgia Straight and a few local publications of the regional Osprey Media and Black Press[4] (not affiliated with Conrad Black), such as Kamloops This Week and the Red Deer Advocate.
Dyer speculates that this is due to his opinions on Israel and both Black's and the Asper family's Likud Party sympathies. In 2005, Dyer released a book of his columns, titled With Every Mistake. He explained part of his reason for publishing the collection: "For readers in Montreal, Ottawa, Windsor, Edmonton or Victoria, it's this book or nothing, as far as my columns are concerned."[3]
[edit] Works
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwynne_Dyer
*******
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black
