Sunday, January 03, 2010

If economists economize, what do chemists do?

A couple of links.

  1. First, this WSJ article calling economists 'cheapskates' [via Paul Krugman].

    Children of economists recall how tightfisted their parents were. Lauren Weber, author of a recent book titled, "In Cheap We Trust," says her economist father kept the thermostat so low that her mother threatened at one point to take the family to a motel. "My father gave in because it would have been more expensive," she says.

  2. Next up, we have Professional Verbs by Mark Liberman at Language Log, who cites this great slogan for a beer::

    "Brewed by brewers, not chemistered by chemists".

    Liberman uses this to launch a nice discussion of verbs to describe what different professionals profess ....

3 comments:

  1. If economists economize, chemists should chemize.
    Though it sounds like a piece of lingerie, it's apparently a game.
    http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Emerald+Dream&n=Chemize

    ReplyDelete
  2. Makes sense, economics is bookkeeping. Gone wild.

    I think of chemistry as fancy cooking. Really, really careful cooking.

    Stem cells is kinda like gardening, Operations Research is Travelling Salesmen's problems, Anthropology is sociology of non-white people....

    ReplyDelete

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