The small things that delay us
Jul. 31st, 2013 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceHeh. I am sitting here - in Borderlands cafe in SF, yay! I love this place - virtuously at work, typing, describing, discovering: and suddenly stalling, because words. Words are difficult, people.
Consider the dragonfly. Consider the dragonfly trying to fit into a tube too narrow. It can't do that; its wingspan is too wide. Type "its wingspan was too wide."
But wait! Its wingspan makes the creature too wide, yes. But is width a measurement of wingspan? Is wingspan a measurement of width? The width of a wing is the shorter measurement, front to back; from tip to root is its length. Is that the span? "Its wingspan was too long" - oh lawks, that just sounds wrong. And now everything sounds wrong.
*flees to the internet for succour*
Consider the dragonfly. Consider the dragonfly trying to fit into a tube too narrow. It can't do that; its wingspan is too wide. Type "its wingspan was too wide."
But wait! Its wingspan makes the creature too wide, yes. But is width a measurement of wingspan? Is wingspan a measurement of width? The width of a wing is the shorter measurement, front to back; from tip to root is its length. Is that the span? "Its wingspan was too long" - oh lawks, that just sounds wrong. And now everything sounds wrong.
*flees to the internet for succour*