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June 16, 2005

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actually they refer to it as a "palimpsest"

ARRRG.

sorry, i'm not a careful reader. this is why you did so much better in school.

My "joke" is a failure.

It is The Unknown Masterpiece, Ben.

Yes, but not how I imagined it.

It seems experience has made everyone more eager to correct your spelling than get your jokes.

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.

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.

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."

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...

Counterexample! Potassium sorbate.

And if I'm wrong, remind me not to touch the cereal boxes at your house.

That's a cheat, SB. Here: "Let me get my sorbate out of the cabinet."

See? Perv.

Sorbate is when you do it too vigorously.

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.

Or wimpcest. Or limpcest. Endless, the possibilities are.

I think you're giving in to peer pressure here. Stand by your joke. I got it.

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.

Ligeti split was funnier.

Conurbation?

What you do with Connor is your own business.

Which reminds me of something I thought of (and said) during last night's meetup: "Conor Oberst" is an anagram of "Corn Booster."

Also "boron corset", the secret to his girlish figure, and the world's shapeliest source of welding flux.

"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.

And "grebey shit" (closely related to loony shit) is an anagram of "Bright Eyes".

)!

I immediately associated 'palimpcest' with 'incest'. However, it could be argued that i'm a pervert.

"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.

I got the joke as well, but I filed it mentally in the (voluminous) ideal cabinet marked Ben's Puns.

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