Ear-opening concepts...

Last night I accompanied dawnd to a lecture by George Lakoff ... I owe her. Not just for her lovely company, conversation afterwards or choice of Ethiopian restaurants, but for pointing me at a set of ideas that radically changes my understanding of politics, both local and large. One of those "a-ha! that's how that part of the world works!" moments... I think that conceptual frameworks and language choices are critical in business and politics.

Words don't have meanings in isolation. Words are defined relative to a conceptual system. If liberals are to understand how conservatives use their words, they will have to understand the conservative conceptual system. -- from an overview to Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, Second Edition

I think I now have a second-favorite linguist, after therealjae... this is very worth reading, IMO. I bought a copy of Lakoff's book after the lecture, but it is in libraries as well.

Tonight... a mystery

For tonight, I'd told patgreene that I'd be completely at her disposal... even if that means feeding her peeled grapes, dressed in a tux while listening to the Beatles while she watches "Murder, She Wrote" reruns... or anything similar from which I'd normally cringe. Whatever she decides, given her introversion and crowd-avoidance preferences I expect that I won't be making it to the Observatory tonight... but I wish princeofwands a happy birthday and lovely party nonetheless. :-)

[Update: actually, Pat suggested that we stop by briefly to wish Bryan a happy birthday in person, so we did. Lubricated on her part by most of a pitcher of sangria with tapas at dinner beforehand... ;^) I felt at-home and comfortable.]