PHO'N WITH PUNS

PHO'N WITH PUNS
by pam ashlund

Writing about meta phenomena is perilously close to recursion. Okay, here I go: I was reading an article about blogs the other day (oy, I make myself laugh). The point of the article was basically that blogs are becoming increasingly specialized to target audiences in order to achieve readership. From there, they went on to list some “foodie” websites—among them a site devoted to my favorite Vietnamese chicken soup: Pho. The problem with Pho, is that it is pronounced “Fuh” and the LA Times probably didn’t notice the bad pun when the recommended readers visit the website: Pho-King (ouch)!

I don’t think a Wikipedia definition of recursion is helpful because you have to dig for the part that relates to my usage. I’ll just quote this little bit: “A more humorous illustration goes: "In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion." Or perhaps more accurate is the following due to Andrew Plotkin: "If you already know what recursion is, just remember the answer. Otherwise, find someone who is standing closer to Douglas Hofstadter than you are; then ask him or her what recursion is."

I can’t even say “meta” without mentioning Douglas Hofstader’s 1979 Pulitzer Prize winning book: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. The whole idea of the self-referential idea (it's everywhere) completely re-shaped my thinking.