Let’s play the popular TV game Jeopardy. You win by giving the question. The first category is “It grows on a non-woody plant.”
Here’s the answer: “An elongated usually tapering tropical fruit with soft pulpy flesh enclosed in a soft usually yellow rind belonging to genus Musa of the family Musaceae.”
That’s an example of an extended definition that bears some intellectual weight. It could be extended further with examples of its use either alone or paired with other foods, specific places of growth, average height and fruit-bearing age of the plant, and its typical length and diameter as a cylindrical object (since it is “elongate”). Or, it might be further extended by including its popularity as a flavor-enhancing substance.
But the extended definition of the answer should provide even the weakest of Jeopardy players with enough information to say, “What is a banana?” Of course, it’s possible for someone to mistake that definition for the plantain, that hybrid of Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana that is known as Musa x paradisiaca, the so-called “cooking banana” that is a popular food in many Central and South American countries and tropical islands.
Why should I draw your attention to an extended definition of an object you know so well? Because such a definition seems to be beyond the intellectual capacity of the current White House. Although there are many examples of this dearth of intellectual prowess on YouTube and in media reports, one example stands out. The current Vice President recently addressed the conference of mayors in Reno, where she said that mayors are up to the challenge of their jobs because they are “the mayor.” That’s akin to saying, “A banana is a banana,” a circularity that English teachers advise against when they teach composition and definitely one that debate team captains and philosophers say “goes nowhere.” But, yes, the Vice President of the United States, arguably the second most powerful person, said essentially that “a mayor is a mayor.” That recent example of circularity comes on the heel of her statement that “Ukraine is a country in Europe.” Thank you. We would never have associated Ukraine with the word “country.” And thanks for the extended definition, that Ukraine is a smaller country than the one that it is “next to,” you know, the bigger one that invaded it—and that’s bad, really naughty.
Put that public definition of mayor on the list that includes the baby talk of the Vice President in the staged interview with child actors put out for public consumption. In that episode of Sesame Street government, she told the children that with regard to advances by the Space Force and NASA, “You’re going to see the craters on the moon with your own eyes, with your own eyes [pointing to her eyes].” I understand that all of us have a tendency to use sign language. I’ll grant that I’m as guilty as the next person is by pointing when I say, “The store is over there.” But “with your own eyes, your own eyes” is very much like opening a letter by writing “This is a letter to inform you that…,” as though the recipient does not know what the object in hand is.
How far down the ladder of mentality have we slid? How foolish we must seem to be when the country’s leader speaks as though we are all children. Addressing the professionals of the Space Force at Vandenberg, VP Harris said that “space is exiting…it connects us all.” She even mentioned telescopes, just as she mentioned them to the child actors. Whoa! Telescopes. My “own” eyes just got big as I thought about looking through a telescope with my own eyes. Will I be able to see things that are far away, even things in space?
Every country goes through tough times. I think we are going through especially dumb times. But given that we now have learned that a mayor is a mayor and that we can see with “our own eyes” (instead of “we can see”), we simply need to point to the elongate yellow fruit (and maybe grunt) without saying “I’d like a banana.”
Here’s the answer: “An elongated usually tapering tropical fruit with soft pulpy flesh enclosed in a soft usually yellow rind belonging to genus Musa of the family Musaceae.”
That’s an example of an extended definition that bears some intellectual weight. It could be extended further with examples of its use either alone or paired with other foods, specific places of growth, average height and fruit-bearing age of the plant, and its typical length and diameter as a cylindrical object (since it is “elongate”). Or, it might be further extended by including its popularity as a flavor-enhancing substance.
But the extended definition of the answer should provide even the weakest of Jeopardy players with enough information to say, “What is a banana?” Of course, it’s possible for someone to mistake that definition for the plantain, that hybrid of Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana that is known as Musa x paradisiaca, the so-called “cooking banana” that is a popular food in many Central and South American countries and tropical islands.
Why should I draw your attention to an extended definition of an object you know so well? Because such a definition seems to be beyond the intellectual capacity of the current White House. Although there are many examples of this dearth of intellectual prowess on YouTube and in media reports, one example stands out. The current Vice President recently addressed the conference of mayors in Reno, where she said that mayors are up to the challenge of their jobs because they are “the mayor.” That’s akin to saying, “A banana is a banana,” a circularity that English teachers advise against when they teach composition and definitely one that debate team captains and philosophers say “goes nowhere.” But, yes, the Vice President of the United States, arguably the second most powerful person, said essentially that “a mayor is a mayor.” That recent example of circularity comes on the heel of her statement that “Ukraine is a country in Europe.” Thank you. We would never have associated Ukraine with the word “country.” And thanks for the extended definition, that Ukraine is a smaller country than the one that it is “next to,” you know, the bigger one that invaded it—and that’s bad, really naughty.
Put that public definition of mayor on the list that includes the baby talk of the Vice President in the staged interview with child actors put out for public consumption. In that episode of Sesame Street government, she told the children that with regard to advances by the Space Force and NASA, “You’re going to see the craters on the moon with your own eyes, with your own eyes [pointing to her eyes].” I understand that all of us have a tendency to use sign language. I’ll grant that I’m as guilty as the next person is by pointing when I say, “The store is over there.” But “with your own eyes, your own eyes” is very much like opening a letter by writing “This is a letter to inform you that…,” as though the recipient does not know what the object in hand is.
How far down the ladder of mentality have we slid? How foolish we must seem to be when the country’s leader speaks as though we are all children. Addressing the professionals of the Space Force at Vandenberg, VP Harris said that “space is exiting…it connects us all.” She even mentioned telescopes, just as she mentioned them to the child actors. Whoa! Telescopes. My “own” eyes just got big as I thought about looking through a telescope with my own eyes. Will I be able to see things that are far away, even things in space?
Every country goes through tough times. I think we are going through especially dumb times. But given that we now have learned that a mayor is a mayor and that we can see with “our own eyes” (instead of “we can see”), we simply need to point to the elongate yellow fruit (and maybe grunt) without saying “I’d like a banana.”
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