[Dragaera] OT reference to the number 17

Mark A. Mandel thnidu at yahoo.com
Tue May 1 19:16:04 PDT 2007


Yes, I do work with them. Well, I work for Mark Liberman. Arnold Zwicky is entirely out of area. ("Language Log Plaza" exists only in imagination.) I occasionally mention Brust and other good things, but not routinely.


m a m, not really getting caught up.

----- Original Message ----
From: Casey Rousseau <casey at the-bat.net>
To: dragaera at dragaera.info
Cc: Mark A. Mandel <thnidu at yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 9, 2006 11:17:24 AM
Subject: OT reference to the number 17

Found on Language Log at:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003754.html

Only 17 words for snow

I'm not sure what the current record is for Eskimo N, the number of
words the Eskimos are claimed to have for snow, but this Sunday's New
York Times Book Review yielded an unusually modest Eskimo N, 17. ...

Buckley has obviously pulled the number 17 out of his, um, hat.  This
number is what you're likely to come up with when you're asked to pick a
random number: it's the smallest prime number without any special
cultural significance.  ...

Mr. Zwicky, whom I generally admire, must not be familiar with our happy
band.  So sad for him.  MAM, don't you work with (or near?) these guys?
Share with them the goodness that is Brust!








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