ooohhhh,

If not for the alphabetic details, I might say you were bored and reading the dictionary, but the 3 page detail discounts that. My bad for not looking the words up and trying to zero in on the topic....

Can' wait to hear.

Scrabble for Dummies?

but why would you be reading that?

I just looked "them" words up...I think you need a subscription to Reader's Digest...Or maybe you should go back and reread Robinson Crusoe, something with no new words. A couple of the words were not on dictionary.com...a bad sign. Reading something with words like that is almost like playing a fretless instrument (it has "all" the notes) as opposed to playing a fretted instrument like the guitar (that has a subset of the notes). You can make all the sounds you need on a fretless, but will anyone understand????

Dang, you can't swing a dead cat on this comment thread without hitting a guitarist. Anyway, Mark, I think you've just written the perfect review of the essay -- if not the whole book -- I'm reading.

It's an age-old question: who comprises the author's audience?

Sometimes, it appears that it's just him.

Well, euthyphrotically speaking, I would only say that the casuistries of the dysphemism only seem to create a sedulous synecdoche of hear say evidence. The sad thing is some folks will try to understand this...

You gonna tell us what your readin'?

Nope. Not until I finish it.

Word.

I watched 8 Mile yesterday, so dont get me started.

If only they still made Big Chief tablets and those big number 2 pencils, I could really explain myself. Enjoy the read. Thanks for the ex, playa.

Never would have figured you for a William F. Buckley Jr. fan.

Never would have figured you for a William F. Buckley Jr. fan.

I think my feelings are hurt.

I'll have you know that I'm a Popular Prescriptivist from way back.

I just never knew what that meant until I started reading this book.

Oh, and Mark...a Bic pen coupled with a Moleskine ruled notebook is a separate but equal answer.

Hmmmm, I'm going to have a talk with my folks. I thought I had it pretty good growing up...always a new tablet and big pencil and the 128 Crayola with a sharpener...sometimes Venus Map colors if things were really good. Now you bring up Moleskin notebooks. I am feeling inadequate now.

Mommy....

Since I like big words...I went and looked up all of them but I couldn't find out what Euthyphrotically meant - I'll be interested to hear what you are reading about although I have a few theories on that hehe.

"casuistry (n.) the use of clever but unsound reasoning"

There's gotta be a similar word meaning "the use of clever but unknown words."

I love the Mac OS X dictionary: find a word you want defined? double-click, right-click, 'look up in Dictionary'. (It, too, choked on Euthyphrotically, but everyone knows that one is just an adolescent's fascination with fire.)

And, Eric - a Bic pen in a Moleskine? I thought the regulations required a Pilot G2 for those things, even if the ink does skip at the slightest hint of a fingerprint on the paper... Don't let the other kids discover your iconoclastic ways! :-)

Rachel, I'll be amazed if you've guessed correctly...but I've been amazed before.

Brian, I assume that the dictionary is a part of Tiger, which I haven't installed. Some apps have their own version of that feature (including all the MS Office components), but their dictionaries are generally not impressive.

...a Bic pen in a Moleskine?

If it was good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for me!

Ooo, oooh, I know this one! Euthyphro was a character in Plato's tales of Socrates' last days, a man who believed he was under sacred obligation to prosecute a murderer, even if the murderer was his own father...so Euthyphrotically means, what exactly? Doing the right thing? Acting justly? So I'm guessing that you are reading a philosophical study of country style dancing (see the link to "swivet"). ;-)

http://www.expage.com/page/JMJCDCCB26

An accountant who knows Plato...I am impressed!

I still don't know what the word means, however.

As for "swivet," that's a somewhat different usage of the word than I had in mind, but as I am fond of saying, it's a separate but equal answer.

Don't be overly impressed. My trek through Plato last summer led to a separate but equal befuddlement over such words...and an increased awareness of the fact that I know NOTHING.

So, whachu readin anyway? Inquiring readers want to know!

and an increased awareness of the fact that I know NOTHING.

I think Plato would approve. And I'm still impressed.

I'm not going to reveal what I'm reading until I finish and can do a review. I think it's a book you'd find interesting, though. ;-)

Oh man, you are makin me crazy. Hurry up and finish the thing so we can find out what it is!!!

Looking back at the book Euthyphro, I'm thinking Euthyphrotically means acting piously, literally complying with divine law, the opposite of moral relativism. A quick googling exercise reveals that Plato used all of those words you listed...so is Plato the author of your book? I think it's time for a cover contest. :-)

Gwynne, you may be onto something (as opposed to being on something, which the author perhaps was, if you know what I mean). Here's the context:

...it really doesn't matter that their argument is almost Euthyphrotically circular – "It's the truth because we say so, and we say so because it's the truth."

This seems to describe some kind of dogmatism; well, in fact, that's how the author describes the attitude alluded to in the quoted phrase. I suppose such dogmatism jives pretty well with the Platonic interpretation you just put forth.

And, Jim, given that the author uses words like "Euthyphrotically," don't look for me to be finished anytime soon. This is the first book I've read outside of a formal educational assignment where I've resorted to having a dictionary next to me while I'm reading.

But, I can assure you all that it's not Plato. ;-)

Ah, yes, I think that fits. Euthyphro wasn't known or respected for his skill at elenchus (another fun word). His defense of divine law was about as intelligent as the above quote and was, of course, no match for Socrates.

My teenagers got a real kick out of the fact that I also had a dictionary by my side as I read Plato.

[cough] cover contest [cough]

those words are from the essay "Authority and American Usage" by David Foster Wallace as presented in the collection "Consider the Lobster".

Show off. ;-)

Hi, congrats on being the only google hit (so far) for "Euthyphrotically." I *think* the reference is to the line in The Euthyphro wherein Socrates wants to know "whether the holy is loved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is loved by the gods." As for how "Euthyphrotically circular" differs from just plain old circular, I have no idea.

Jay, I'm now reading "A Reader's Manifesto: An attack on the growing pretentiousness in American literary prose."

I'm not sure why I felt it important to mention that. ;-)