The other day I told a friend of mine about the cool name of this blog. Now my friend is a very smart guy, but I found it necessary to explain the joke, which by definition means it’s not a good joke, a classic case of what my friend Mike would call Searlian humor, which is a nice way of saying “attempt at humor.” Mike also knows my (much older) brother Sheldon. The true test of Searlian humor is this: Sheldon and I are laughing, and everyone else is not.
The reason this happens, of course, is that Searles are a rare class of genius (ask anyone), so our jokes are super-sophisticated. Anyway, I’m pretty sure Sheldon would get this joke.
Here’s a picture of Ockham…
…now you’re laughing. No, “Shaving with Ockham” is not a reference to his hairstyle.
May 17, 2005 at 10:44 pm
The next time I need to define “positive spin” I’ll send them to your blog and your description of Searlian humor. If that’s not positive spin then I’ve never seen it.
Stephanie Searle (by marriage – without an ounce of Searlian humor but all too familiar with it)
May 21, 2005 at 11:28 am
we all thank God for the gift of stephanie–leader and, usually, lone voice of the no-spin zone in the searlian home.–>
November 22, 2006 at 12:27 am
if you are puzzled by this post…
wow! you read this?…
sorry. if you are puzzled by this post, you might need to know that this blog used to be called “shaving with ockham,” a bad joke based on a thing called Ockham’s Razor. Ockham’s Razor is the rule of reason that says something like don’t keep coming up with more reasons if you have enough already.