Davdi Silverrock wrote: > On 6/1/06, Jon Lincicum <lincicum at comcast.net> wrote: >> Davdi Silverrock wrote: >> > For some reason I thought that "Klyburr" was yet another variant, but >> > I appear to be mistaken. Although thanks to the Dramatis Personae, I >> > see that there is a Kliburr (who lead the Carriage House Uprising), >> > and a Kl'burra, who was a Dzur. I strongly suspect that Clybur or >> > Clybru was/is an Athyra. >> > >> Since he was apparently Head of Mathematics in the first year of >> Tortaalik's reign (I'm assuming here that Pel was referring to the >> *current* head of mathematics, of course) > > My own notion, which might well be mistaken, was that Clyb{ur|ru} was > some famous mathematician of antiquity. This as a result of reading > this page, > > http://speakeasy.org/~mamandel/Cracks-and-Shards/Paarfi_Dumas.html > > wherein the "Clybur" reference is juxtaposed with a similar reference > to "Pythagoras of old". > > But, really, who can say? That really is how it strikes me when Sethra says it in /FHYA/, but the phasing that Pel uses in his example seemed, well, different. "You reason like Clybru, the chief of the Mathemeticians." I guess I've been making the mistaken assumption that "chief of Mathemeticians" is a job title, like "Minister of the Houses" or "Secretary of the Interior". If Pel is just saying that Clybru is the "chief" in the sense that he is the "greatest of all the people who have ever been Mathemeticians", then it makes more sense for it to be a historical figure in this case as well. Yes, this really does seem more likely. I guess it's just example of how a subtle change in interpretation of the same phrase can significantly alter its meaning. Majikjon