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My daughter and I just had this conversation: Her: "They just declared a global health emergency over Coronavirus." Me: "Who did." Her: "The World Health Organ

My daughter and I just had this conversation: Her: "They just declared a global health emergency over Coronavirus." Me: "Who did." Her: "The World Health Organization." Me: "That's what I said."

serf 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_on_First%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_on_First%3F >The premise of the sketch is that Abbott is identifying the players on a baseball team for Costello, but their names and nicknames can be interpreted as non-responsive answers to Costello's questions. For example, the first baseman is named "Who"; thus, the utterance "Who's on first" is ambiguous between the question ("Which person is the first baseman?") and the answer ("The name of the first baseman is 'Who'"). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M I imagine that kind of ambiguity has been 'played' with for forever, though.
- linsomniac 7y ago
  It was only after typing this up that I realized the parallel with Who's on first. Brilliant bit.
topmonk 7y ago
You were incorrect. Your daughter said “The W.H.O.” where as you only said “Who”
- linsomniac 7y ago
  Sooo... You're asserting initialism vs acronym and I'm asserting comedy? Sorry if I took you away from fact checking open mic night. :-D
  - topmonk 7y ago
    I'm not asserting initialism vs acronyms. I'm talking about the grammar of "Who did". If you actually meant the World Health Organization, you'd have to interpret that as "World Health Organization did". This is obvious incorrect, and rather should be "The World Health Organization did". So there is no way for your daughter to have interpreted what you said as talking about the World Health Organization, whether initialism or acronym. > Sorry if I took you away from fact checking open mic night. :-D No, I wasn't distracted at all. Thanks for the concern, though.

My daughter and I just had this conversation: Her: "They just declared a global health emergency over Coronavirus." Me: "Who did." Her: "The World Health Organization." Me: "That's what I said."

serf 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_on_First%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_on_First%3F >The premise of the sketch is that Abbott is identifying the players on a baseball team for Costello, but their names and nicknames can be interpreted as non-responsive answers to Costello's questions. For example, the first baseman is named "Who"; thus, the utterance "Who's on first" is ambiguous between the question ("Which person is the first baseman?") and the answer ("The name of the first baseman is 'Who'"). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M I imagine that kind of ambiguity has been 'played' with for forever, though.

linsomniac 7y ago
It was only after typing this up that I realized the parallel with Who's on first. Brilliant bit.

topmonk 7y ago

You were incorrect. Your daughter said “The W.H.O.” where as you only said “Who”

linsomniac 7y ago
Sooo... You're asserting initialism vs acronym and I'm asserting comedy? Sorry if I took you away from fact checking open mic night. :-D
- topmonk 7y ago
  I'm not asserting initialism vs acronyms. I'm talking about the grammar of "Who did". If you actually meant the World Health Organization, you'd have to interpret that as "World Health Organization did". This is obvious incorrect, and rather should be "The World Health Organization did". So there is no way for your daughter to have interpreted what you said as talking about the World Health Organization, whether initialism or acronym. > Sorry if I took you away from fact checking open mic night. :-D No, I wasn't distracted at all. Thanks for the concern, though.