For instance, there was a post on metafilter today about odd confluences of jargon. You know that Far Side strip about the collision of herpetology and boating, in which the panel is divided into two, diagonally, and each sub-panel has a dude saying something like "she's a beaut, Norm. What is she, a 24-footer?"? Well, it was like that, except in real life.
One of the most interesting, because it had to do with the same phenomenon observed from two different perspectives which nevertheless came up with the same term to describe the relevant aspect for that perspective concerned inbreeding. Y'see, in the first place, it makes the family tree, if it's carried out along multiple generations, a mess of crisscrossing lines, such that you can practically turn it sideways and read it as legibly as when it's rightside up (and that can even help you get a perspective on relations that would otherwise be obscured). It also makes it harder for geneticists to track emergence of traits and ancestry using DNA, because of the limited pool of contributors. (I didn't understand that part as well, I have to confess, and metafilter's timing out for me AOTW.) Here's the thing: both genealogists and geneticists refer to what's produced—the tree in the former and the DNA record in the latter case—as a "palimpcest". Neat, huh?
actually they refer to it as a "palimpsest"
Posted by: tammy | June 16, 2005 at 04:38 PM
ARRRG.
Posted by: ben wolfson | June 16, 2005 at 04:39 PM
sorry, i'm not a careful reader. this is why you did so much better in school.
Posted by: tammy | June 16, 2005 at 04:44 PM
My "joke" is a failure.
Posted by: ben wolfson | June 16, 2005 at 04:49 PM
It is The Unknown Masterpiece, Ben.
Posted by: ac | June 16, 2005 at 04:52 PM
Yes, but not how I imagined it.
Posted by: ben wolfson | June 16, 2005 at 04:54 PM
It seems experience has made everyone more eager to correct your spelling than get your jokes.
Posted by: tammy | June 16, 2005 at 04:54 PM
When really, if they were all deductive and Sherlock Holmesian about it, they would realize your spelling is likely to be correct, and seek explanation elsewhere.
Posted by: ac | June 16, 2005 at 04:56 PM
Well, my jokes typically aren't good (by the criteria that one normally uses to evaluate jokes, which I reject as bourgeois), and my spelling is, at least, better. So.
Posted by: ben wolfson | June 16, 2005 at 05:59 PM
I've thought more about this, and the problem (insofar as so many people not getting your "joke" is a problem) is that "palimpsest" and "palimpcest" sound exactly alike so there's no "squaw that broke the camel's back"-like cue; moreover, "-cest" isn't very strongly or uniquely associated with "incest" in same way that, for example, anything ending with the sound "rbate" makes one think of "masturbate."
Posted by: ogged | June 16, 2005 at 07:32 PM
As for the first: yes, it's a strictly visual thing. But it's not just -cest, "impcest" isn't that far off from "incest". Plus, you know, the nominal topic is incest.
But four people we can reasonably assume to be intelligent missed it, so...
Posted by: ben wolfson | June 16, 2005 at 07:36 PM
Counterexample! Potassium sorbate.
Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | June 16, 2005 at 07:48 PM
And if I'm wrong, remind me not to touch the cereal boxes at your house.
Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | June 16, 2005 at 07:49 PM
That's a cheat, SB. Here: "Let me get my sorbate out of the cabinet."
See? Perv.
Posted by: ogged | June 16, 2005 at 09:46 PM
Sorbate is when you do it too vigorously.
Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | June 16, 2005 at 10:43 PM
But it's not just -cest, "impcest" isn't that far off from "incest".
I think the primary difficulty is that palimpsest is just too distracting a word for the context. It raises a "big word!" flag that obscures its possible punnic applications. You might have more success incorporating impcest into a joke about little devils, or something.
Posted by: tammy | June 16, 2005 at 11:23 PM
Or wimpcest. Or limpcest. Endless, the possibilities are.
Posted by: tammy | June 16, 2005 at 11:25 PM
I think you're giving in to peer pressure here. Stand by your joke. I got it.
Posted by: ac | June 17, 2005 at 03:55 AM
Thanks for your support, ac.
You might have more success incorporating impcest into a joke about little devils, or something.
There was an incredibly long alt.possessive.its.has.no.apostrophe thread based around "imp"-puns. A scar in my memory to this day.
Posted by: ben wolfson | June 17, 2005 at 06:20 AM
Ligeti split was funnier.
Posted by: Joe Drymala | June 17, 2005 at 07:12 AM
Conurbation?
Posted by: Matt Weiner | June 18, 2005 at 04:03 PM
What you do with Connor is your own business.
Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | June 18, 2005 at 05:02 PM
Which reminds me of something I thought of (and said) during last night's meetup: "Conor Oberst" is an anagram of "Corn Booster."
Posted by: Matt Weiner | June 18, 2005 at 05:08 PM
Also "boron corset", the secret to his girlish figure, and the world's shapeliest source of welding flux.
Posted by: Standpipe Bridgeplate | June 18, 2005 at 05:24 PM
"Ronco strobe," the power behind his band's psychedelic light shows, purchased when watching late-night TV drunk (and a reflection of his otherwise well-concealed Weird Al Yankovic fixation.
Posted by: Matt Weiner | June 18, 2005 at 05:27 PM
And "grebey shit" (closely related to loony shit) is an anagram of "Bright Eyes".
Posted by: ben wolfson | June 18, 2005 at 05:29 PM
)!
Posted by: Matt Weiner | June 18, 2005 at 05:32 PM
I immediately associated 'palimpcest' with 'incest'. However, it could be argued that i'm a pervert.
Posted by: rone | June 18, 2005 at 09:27 PM
"Conor Oberst" is an anagram of "Corn Booster."
And Conor O'Burst (stage name: Bright Eye) is the name of ogged's massive emo schlong.
Posted by: Mitch Mills | June 19, 2005 at 06:24 PM
I got the joke as well, but I filed it mentally in the (voluminous) ideal cabinet marked Ben's Puns.
Posted by: dave zacuto | June 19, 2005 at 09:58 PM