Consider the lyrics to this well-known song:

In Dublin's fair city / where girls are so pretty / there lived a young maiden named Molly Malone... / She wheeled her wheelbarrow / through streets broad and narrow / crying 'cockles and mussels, alive alive-o'

Now consider the following statements about this song:

1) Molly Malone lived in Dublin

2) Molly was young and pretty

3) Molly wheeled a wheelbarrow through the streets of Dublin

4) The wheelbarrow contained cockles and mussels

5) Molly was selling them - she was a street vendor.

All of these statements seem 'obvious' based on the song lyrics, but only the first one is actually a 'fact' within the context of the song.

Statement (2) is at least half true -- we're told Molly was young. Whether she was pretty depends on an interpretation of the phrase 'girls are so pretty'. It says neither that ALL nor only SOME girls are pretty. Certainly these lyrics never directly SAY that Molly herself was pretty.

Statement (3) is another half truth. The song says she in fact did wheel her wheelbarrow, but does NOT state explicitly where she did so. We only know for sure where Molly lived, not where she wheeled.

Statement (4) is speculation. We are not told what's in the wheelbarrow.

Statement (5) is extrapolation and interpretation based on the speculation of statement (4). We're wandering far afield here.

The TRUE story of Molly Malone is this -- she was a plain girl who lived in Dublin but made her living commuting to a nearby town, where she scraped garbage off the street (it was thrown out the window in those days) and carted it off. To escape the tedium of this menial job, she fantasized that she was a Dublin street seller of cockles and mussels, and that her wheelbarrow was actually one of the pushcarts the street sellers used for the purpose.

A poet, intrigued by her calls, befriended her and learned of her fantasies. He decided to create a song wherein Molly's dreams gave every indication of having come true, but without ONCE directly telling a falsehood.

And while Molly Malone is long gone, this SAME POET is alive and well and writing all the y2k press releases and news stories for optimist and pessimist alike. He will never die.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), October 06, 1999

Answers

Flint, you've got WAY too much time on your hands.

-- (very@frickin.weird), October 06, 1999.

CIRCUMLOCUTIONISTS ANONYMOUS newbie?

-- Jay Urban (JAYHO99@AOL.COM), October 06, 1999.

Here's another song Flint, you may have heard it, called "Y2K is coming":

The remediation failed / Beans and rice are really cheap right now / Experts predict a depression next year / The stock market is going to crash soon / Riots over football games and jury verdicts are tame compared to NYC without water / See you on the other side

-- a (a@a.a), October 06, 1999.

Flint:

Sigh. Yes, that is *funny* on the surface. What is really funny, yet sad is the number of assumptions that you are willing to string together to make a point.

Yes, "doomers" make assumptions. I assume that a lot of problems hitting in a fairly short period of time is significantly worse than the same number of problems hitting over a longer period of time.

I assume that, when I hear self reported progress deadlines slipping further along every month, that the rate of slippage will continue at the current rate or get worse.

I assume that when a company tells me they are compliant, tested, finished and back into production (I've run across some, both in public announcements and private conversations), that they are going to be in pretty good shape.

I do NOT assume, just because an organization or company who's deadlines have been slipping steadily says that they will be ready in the fourth quarter, that they are doing anything besides "whistling past the graveyard".

Let's use Occam's Razor a bit more, couldn't we? It is still sharp, and it really will "cut to the quick", don't you agree?

Why muddy the water with strings of unproven assumptions?

-- mushroom (mushroom_bs_too_long@yahoo.com), October 06, 1999.

Aw c'mon! The guy shows a flash of a great sense of humor and y'all wanna land on him. SHEESH!!

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 06, 1999.

A GREAT post Flint, one of the best I have read. I read doomer stuff that makes me laugh, I read press releases that make me cringe, spin is spin is spin.... A very insightful post, except for the last sentence, which I find a bit incredulous: 1. If Molly is LONG gone, how can the SAME poet be alive? 2. Why would a poet be writing PRESS RELEASES? Wait, maybe he needed to eat, ...ok, this ones ok.... 3. How could the SAME poet be writing ALL the press releases and news stories? Gary North's site alone contains half the writings ever done by mankind. 4. "He will never die". How can this be (see 1 above)? Everyone dies, the only thing that looks like it may not EVER die is the Y2K hysteria....but hopefully, it will at least fade... 5. How can one poet write both optimistic AND pessimistic Y2K press/stories??? This is far beyond the ability of the human mind - the neural paths would short out....also, one would have to take half one's brain out to write the doomer stuff, then reinstall it for the poly stories....

Other than that, I count it as a real eye opening post, ;)

Regards

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), October 06, 1999.

Factfinder:

That poet is the human ability to see what our imaginations conjure up, regardless of what's in front of our eyes. An incredible strength and a powerful weakness, opposite sides of the human coin.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), October 06, 1999.

Not bad Flint. Now we know that you at least have the ability to recognize spin. <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), October 06, 1999.