Factoids

[orlok]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

So, which version are we working to on this thread ?

Interesting tidbits, or facts that are not really facts ....

Well as you'll see from a much earlier post, they are supposed to be "true" facts, though some of the stuff posted already has to be questioned. I mean, is it really illegal to cross a border in Illinois with a duck on your head...????

Oh yeah, that was one of mine

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

My one pet peeve is people misusing the subjective and objective pronouns. I yell at the TV quite often, shouting "It is 'him and me' not 'he and I'"!

or "us".

Originally Posted by orlok

Well as you'll see from a much earlier post, they are supposed to be "true" facts, though some of the stuff posted already has to be questioned. I mean, is it really illegal to cross a border in Illinois with a duck on your head...????

Oh yeah, that was one of mine

Probably ....

[BenG]

Originally Posted by orlok

BenG, meet ApK. ApK, meet BenG.

Oops. I must have missed a page.

[WT Sharpe]

How did the old OMNI magazine use the word? I seem to recall that they had a regular column of "Factoids".

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

How did the old OMNI magazine use the word? I seem to recall that they had a regular column of "Factoids".

OH! Gawd - that takes me back ....

[GeoffC]

http://www.omnimagonline.com/

[ApK]

BenG and orlok, by virtue of your posts, you guys are charter members of the Crusade!
Welcome, brother Crusaders!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

http://www.omnimagonline.com/

I may be confusing a "Factoid" section with that magazine's "Continuum" and "Antimatter" sections.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I may be confusing a "Factoid" section with that magazine's "Continuum" and "Antimatter" sections.

There are several quality publications today that regularly (mis)use the word to mean 'little fact'. That's why it's a peeve. It's been done enough to make it into the dictionary as a second definition. I hate that. If I only rarely saw it done, it wouldn't bug me. As much.

[GeoffC]

Dear Word Detective: Help! I thought I knew perfectly well what "factoid" means: a trivial or insignificant fact. But now I find that a lot of dictionaries consider that it means an unverified, untrue, or invented fact! I think all of this would be news to a lot of people. For example, various TV shows and newsmagazines often promote "factoids" about the subject of their program. I'm sure they have no idea that one meaning of "factoid" is a statement that isn't true. -- Melanie Nickel, via the internet.

Blame it on CNN -- they started the whole ruckus by taking a perfectly good word and twisting it.

"Factoid" is one of those rare words that were undeniably invented by an identifiable individual, in this case Norman Mailer, in his book "Marilyn," published in 1973. The Oxford Dictionary of New Words defines "factoid" thus: "A spurious or questionable fact; especially something that is supposed to be true because it has been reported (and often repeated) in the media, but is actually based on speculation or even fabrication." Norman Mailer himself defined "factoids" as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority."

Mailer invented the word by combining "fact" with "oid," a scientific suffix meaning "resembling or having the form of, but not identical to." Needless to say, "factoids" in Mailer's sense are the antithesis of serious reporting, and to accuse a journalist of trafficking in "factoids" was a grave insult, at least until CNN came along.

Unfortunately, the repetition of "factoid" in this "trivial fact" sense has taken its toll, and almost no one remembers the original meaning. Hence the secondary "trivia" definition found in most current dictionaries almost certainly will, at some point in the near future, become the primary one.

Mailer's original negative definition of "factoid" was a valuable contribution to the language on a par with George Orwell's "Newspeak," and, in this age of spin doctors, "factoid" still fills a conspicuous need. Perhaps we should petition CNN to give us our word back.

.....

[ApK]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

.....

Word Detective is now a brother (or is it a sister) Crusader.

Our ranks grow!

[EDIT] OK, I guess I'm done with the crusade bit now.
Unless anyone wants to donate to the cause....

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

On Friday the 13th of April, 2029, the asteroid Apophis, a rock big enough in the words of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to "fill the Rose Bowl as though it were an egg cup," will approach so close to Earth that it's path will dip below the altitude of our communication satellites.

The good news is that on its return trip in 2036, it might not hit us.

Let's see should I live that long....it should be interesting times I'm living in.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Let's see should I live that long....it should be interesting times I'm living in.

but don't forget the end of the World is scheduled for this October !

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Let's see should I live that long....it should be interesting times I'm living in.

The truly frightening part of that is that in 2036 (when it may hit, depending upon the exact path it follows in 2029), Bruce Willis will be 81. I think the government should be training a back-up pilot just in case.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

The truly frightening part of that is that in 2036 (when it may hit, depending upon the exact path it follows in 2029), Bruce Willis will be 81. I think the government should be training a back-up pilot just in case.

He IS the backup. Robert Duvall will be 105...