The phrase is not the only barrier to understanding that exchange. To figure
everything that was said out, you also need to know who Mike O'Dell ([1]) is,
who Lakoff and Johnson are, and what they said about metaphors.
All that is readily available through Google and Wikipedia, but requires a lot
of reading.
I also seem to be falling behind a bit, as Dr. Who references become more
common than Star Trek references. Idioms like "home stretch", "batting this out
of the ballpark", or "at the 90th minute" might harm understanding, but they're
just one kind of disruptive cultural reference.
Yoav
[1] http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-odell-code-of-conduct-00
-----Original Message-----
From: ietf [mailto:ietf-bounces(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of t.p.
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2013 11:13 AM
To: Andrew Sullivan; S Moonesamy
Cc: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: Concerns about draft-moonesamy-ietf-conduct-3184bis-05 becoming a
Best Current Practice
----- Original Message -----
From: "S Moonesamy" <sm+ietf(_at_)elandsys(_dot_)com>
To: "Andrew Sullivan" <ajs(_at_)anvilwalrusden(_dot_)com>
Cc: <ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2013 8:34 AM <snip>
I agree that the metaphors are part of the expressive power of
language and I agree with what is written above.
The origin of the phrase is from Mike O'Dell and it was written as
follows:
"Increase the light and reduce the heat."
Mike O'Dell changed that to:
"Reduce the heat and increase the light."
I did a quick search of the phrase as used in the IETF. There were
241 results. 11 of those results were from messages posted to IETF
mailing lists. Four persons commented about that text (I am ignoring
my comments). My reading of the opinions expressed is that they
leaned towards having that text in the document.
I'll leave this open until 7 January, 2014 so that other persons have
the opportunity to express their opinions.
I have not a clue what that expression means; I have never seen it before
anywhere that I can recall (speaking my one and only language, English). Is it
Quebecois, Canadian, American, IETFian... ? I do not know and cannot imagine
it conveying anything to someone who is new to the IETF and is not a native
English speaker!
Tom Petch
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
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