>From Karl Kluge *************************************************************************** "...The lunatic, on the other hand doesn't concern himself with logic; he works by short circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all idee fixe, and whatever he come across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars." "Invariably?" "There are lunatics who don't bring up the Templars, but those who do are the most insidious. At first they seem normal, then all of a sudden..." (from FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM by Umberto Eco) *************************************************************************** From: Simon Peter Davies To: cogbrow@uk.ac.ucl.cs Subject: The name of the rose Some nice insights from Umberto Eco: "I had arrived at Belbo's at about eleven: it was now one. I would have to write a program for anagrams of six letters, and the best way to do that was to modify the program I had already written for four" Foucault's pendulum p. 37 On debugging - "This was all wrong. I was clinging stubbornly to an elegant but false hypothesis. It happens to the best scientists" op cit p. 40 Eco describes some programs as cabalistic, should we be thinking in these terms? And another: "I came back, left the sandwiches in a corner, and started on the whiskey as I inserted the Basic disk and went to work" Well, the say it damages the brain! And finally, List No. 5 6 undershirts 6 shorts 6 handkerchiefs has always puzzled scholars, principally because of the total absence of socks. Nice one Woody Allen. Have Fun Simon "...semiotics is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie."--Umberto Eco, _A Theory of Semiotics_ Alan Pope La superstizione porta sfortuna -- Umberto Eco From: Donald Fisk ----- Begin Included Message ----- >La superstizione porta sfortuna -- Umberto Eco >Mike Oliver A Romanian friend writes: I think it is: 'The superstition carries lack of luck' or something close to that. Regards Marius ----- End Included Message ----- Return-Path: Received: from zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk by bells.cs.ucl.ac.uk with Internet SMTP id ; Wed, 7 Jul 1993 12:33:22 +0100 Received: from olympus.imst.bt.co.uk (actually 132.146.59.25) by zaphod.axion.bt.co.uk with SMTP (PP); Wed, 7 Jul 1993 12:33:02 +0100 Received: from matterhorn.imst.bt.co.uk by olympus.imst.bt.co.uk; Wed, 7 Jul 93 12:32:57 BST From: Donald Fisk Date: Wed, 7 Jul 93 12:32:58 BST Message-Id: <2322.9307071132@matterhorn.imst.bt.co.uk> To: G.Joly@uk.ac.ucl.cs Subject: Re: Traduisez s.v.p. Mark writes: ----- Begin Included Message ----- Mia moglie mi detta (sp?) Superstition carries bad luck - Umberto Eco the "s" in front reverses the meaning Mark e moglie ----- End Included Message -----