h a l f b a k e r yGood ideas at the time.
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With the aid of one of these cheery
critters, you need never again clog
up your brain cells with petty
trivia. Simply say something
approximate to what you mean and you
can be sure it'll chip in with all
the missing relevant data (and
probably lots more besides!)
[link]
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I'm not sure that it's a feature
that the pet would have to
automatically remember all these
things. Just that it would be
concerned enough to run off to a
library or search engine to look
them up. Probably some kind of a
genetipet, maybe a cross between a
retriever and a spider monkey. |
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>:P If you consider it 'useless trivia' in the first place, why would you care enough to own one? Isn't pedantism all about elitism, after all? ;) (props ta ma Pd's in da hizouse!) |
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1. a person who relies too much on
academic learning or who is
concerned chiefly with
insignificant detail. |
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2. (archaic) a schoolmaster or
teacher. |
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Now wouldn't that make you feel
better? particularly if it fetched
your slippers at the same time? |
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Adjusted, thanks! Have you ever
thought of becomming a gene donor? |
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Mephista: Like a spouse: "What my husband meant to say was, 'The marriage counsellor with whom he and I spoke--'" [cut short as Dog Ed bites wife's ankle] |
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Will they be bred for specific areas of expertise or just have general knowledge? I could defintely do with one that knows every single football score and goalscorer since the 1960's so that I have a hope of remaining in a conversation with one of my housemates. |
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I think as long as you keep
repeating vague, half facts about
football, it should eventually
learn everything you need to know.
I'd suggest ranting on about the
godlike qualities of the mid 70's
Leeds squad as an opening gambit. |
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Of course, that said, If you do
achieve it, the thing'll probably
leave you for a job on Baddiel and
Skinner. |
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[absterge]: By "pedantism", I take it you mean "pedantry"? |
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[key-aero]: Perhaps "petty" would be a better term than "useless" for the trivial details cared for by the pet pedant, since such details - CoolerKing's football knowledge requirements being a case in point - obviously serve a social function. </pointless pedantry> |
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I would say that owners must be held responsible for the behaviour of their pet pedant, who may well have to be kept on the leash to prevent them from bothering innocent strangers. (I have an image of my pet pedant running up to someone in the park and saying "'Onto' is not a word. 'Onto' is not a word. 'Onto' is not a word.") |
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I think you might be confusing
perfectionism with pedantry, but I
take your point and have adjusted
the description. |
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Perhaps you're right. At what point does a pedantic concern with insignificant detail become a pointless obsession with lexical precision? Are these discrete states or is there, in fact, an overlap between the definitions of pedantry and perfectionism? |
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Damn, where's my pet pedant when he's needed? |
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Also when does simple pedantry (which always sounds like it should have something to do with being a peasant to me, bizarrely enough) become the horrors of OCD? |
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I have a vision of these critters looking like monkeys with a head like a Mekon's to fit in all that trivia. |
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Actually I would say that it's an obsession with pointless precision. |
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I thought it was pointlessly precise myself. |
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I imagine them to be a smaller (although slightly more annoying looking and sounding) version of its owner, that way you may heed its pedanticism (is that a word or not?) with more caution. |
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Ooh, I like Kaz's description best, a smaller and more annoying version of its owner. That way I could flaunt (or vent?) my useless knowledge while maintaining the pretense of being above such pedantry . . . . I want one, and one for my husband as well. |
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