A: Read more Pistorius. G: You mean, _re-read_. I've read him all. In a message dated 6/21/2009 1:05:49 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: God contemplated Joan Rivers and brought her to fleshly fruition as a gambit of history to play her role in his great drama of existence. Exactly. R. Paul says that J. Rivers is 72. Surely if she is 72, regardless of common uses, we can say she is 71, 71 70 69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 20 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ----- Surely we wouldn't say that she is ~4 years old. I wouldn't -- for me she starts existing the moment his father fertilised his mother. Now, to deny that Joan Rivers is, ontologically, in her twenties, is to deny "personal identity" to the chain of mnemonic states that comprise "Joan Rivers" -- (Grice, "Personal Identity"). She is a continuum, and years (artifices of the digital calendar and the gyrations of the earth) leave her cold. She countergyrates them. Why don't you quote another passage of Pistorius? He can be _fun_. Cheers, JLS Bordighera **************Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your fingertips. (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolclassifieds/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000004) ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html