Scrape. Scrape. Crunch.
Scrape. Scrape. Rumble. Scrape.
Martin staggers in. He’s in pajamas. He looks frazzled.
“Jane,” he says. “It’s 3am. What are you doing?”
“I’m moving pieces of paper labeled ‘table’, ‘chair’, ‘washing machine’, and ‘industrial elephant!’”
Martin hesitates. He looks at the floor. Jane shuffles the pieces of paper around. They’re square. They have labels. They have pictures, too. The pictures are crude. One could easily mistake the industrial elephant for a retail buffalo. But Jane’s lack of perspective drawing skills is not what surprises him.
“Why is it making so much noise?” he finally says.
She looks down. She tries not to giggle.
“Symbol-referent confusion.”
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
So dragging a reference to table makes noise. Is the table in the same house? If not, what is the scope?
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Y’know, this is the best joke about symbol-referent confusion I’ve ever heard.
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
If the table is deleted, does the symbol still make noise or is it linked to the existence of the table ? Can multiple symbol refered to the same table ? What kind of noise does this make ?
November 30th, -0001 at 12:00 am
Just so long as she doesn’t drop a Flying Squirrel one into our attic!!
August 14th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
This one is really cute.