Flipping Out
I forgot until the other day how much I used to enjoy the little ditties of Danish poet and scientist Piet Hein. I especially his grook called "A Psychological Tip" about how to make decisions by flipping a coin. It's a surprisingly helpful strategy.
posted by Martha at 10:50 AM
5 Comments:
Same here! Alas, my Grooks books are in storage far away. But here's a website that has a large collection of them: http://snipurl.com/qyht
P.S. Here's a word question: Until about a year ago, I'd always thought a "ditty" is a small, light poem.
But according to the Eleventh Collegiate, it's a song.
I'm glad to see Martha also uses ditty to mean poem. But . . . what's the story here?
Huh. Lookd likr you're right, Daz - acc to American Heritage it's from Middle English dite, "a literary composition." But somewhere along the way when the rest of us weren't looking, they added music!
Ooo, and tx for the Grooks link. I've never met anyone else who knew what I was talking about!
Oh, fun! I didn't know grook OR that he was the original "just flip a coin" guy. I use the just-flip method all the time.
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