*R* Help: millihelens and pulchritude
G K Tsigounis
Does anyone know which book the following quote is from:
"The millihelen is the unit of pulchritude required to launch one ship"
Obviously since the face of Helen of Tsort [1] (Troy) launched 1000 ships.
I know this quote is probably not word for word, but its the rough
words and meaning I remember.
A friend of mine called Helen [2] wants to know
George
--
[1] in fact Helen was from Sparta, not Troy
[2] no, not *the* Helen
----------------------------------------------------------------------
George K Tsigounis *g...@students.cs.mu.oz.au _/_/_ _/ _/ _/_/_/
4th Yr BSc/BEng(Elec) g...@ecr.mu.oz.au _/ _ _/_/ _/
University of Melbourne g...@ee.mu.oz.au /_/_/ _/ _/ _/
--------- World Wide Web URL: http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~gkt/ ---------
David Geelan
G K Tsigounis wrote:
>
> Does anyone know which book the following quote is from:
>
> "The millihelen is the unit of pulchritude required to launch one ship"
> Obviously since the face of Helen of Tsort [1] (Troy) launched 1000 ships.
>
> I know this quote is probably not word for word, but its the rough
> words and meaning I remember.
I think you've gone into polysyllabic mode - the quote as I recall it
says 'beauty', not 'pulchritude'. Can't quite recall which book though.
Since this has no doubt been annotated, a word search of the apf with
'millihelen' should find it for you.
David
_______________
David R Geelan, Science & Maths Ed Centre,Curtin Uni of Tech
GPO U1987, Perth 6001, ph +619 351 3594, fax +619 351 2503.
Home page: http://student.curtin.edu.au/~pgeelandr/bravus.htm
"the boundaries of reality are in fact movable" - Jurgen Habermas
John Fouhy
In article <32592A...@alpha1.curtin.edu.au>,
David Geelan <pgee...@alpha1.curtin.edu.au> wrote:
> > "The millihelen is the unit of pulchritude required to launch one ship"
> says 'beauty', not 'pulchritude'. Can't quite recall which book though.
> Since this has no doubt been annotated, a word search of the apf with
> 'millihelen' should find it for you.
Ya, I recognise the quote too, but I don't recall it as being in a
Pterrybook, and a search of the APF (7a.0) would seem to confirm this.
Couldn't place where I did see it though..
--
\\\\\ John Fouhy, Wellington, New Zealand _o_ jfo...@actrix.gen.nz \,
\\\\\\\__o Student of Wellington College ($) Fido: 3:771/160.43 <>
\\\\\\\\'/ 58% afpure | De Chelonian Mobile.. " " '73 | NHPure: 82 ./,/`
These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others. - GM /_/`
Andrew Raphael
My dad told me about the millihelen decades ago as Australia went metric.
I think it's an engineering joke of the period.
--
Andrew Raphael <rap...@research.canon.com.au>
"Oh! I see, it's your birthday. It's your big day, and I forgot."
G K Tsigounis
John Fouhy <jfo...@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz> wrote in article
<53a5tt$b...@asgard.actrix.gen.nz>...
> In article <32592A...@alpha1.curtin.edu.au>,
> David Geelan <pgee...@alpha1.curtin.edu.au> wrote:
> > > "The millihelen is the unit of pulchritude required to launch one
ship"
> > I think you've gone into polysyllabic mode - the quote as I recall it
> > says 'beauty', not 'pulchritude'. Can't quite recall which book though.
> > Since this has no doubt been annotated, a word search of the apf with
> > 'millihelen' should find it for you.
>
> Ya, I recognise the quote too, but I don't recall it as being in a
> Pterrybook, and a search of the APF (7a.0) would seem to confirm this.
>
> Couldn't place where I did see it though..
Thanks for trying guys... I did try the APF, then I thought of trying the
PQF too.. but still no luck... the thing that puzzles me is that
I distincly remember the pulchritude line (who else besides PTerry uses
Latin derivations so widely?) but it may be correct that the actual quote
has 'beauty' in it... so I'm stuck.. unless it was in Good Omens (that
was the most recent PTerry book I've read).
And I'm fairly sure its not in COM, LF, ER or Mort.. I flipped thru them
checking the footnotes...
Stig M. Valstad
jfo...@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (John Fouhy) wrote:
>In article <32592A...@alpha1.curtin.edu.au>,
>David Geelan <pgee...@alpha1.curtin.edu.au> wrote:
>> > "The millihelen is the unit of pulchritude required to launch one ship"
>> I think you've gone into polysyllabic mode - the quote as I recall it
>> says 'beauty', not 'pulchritude'. Can't quite recall which book though.
>> Since this has no doubt been annotated, a word search of the apf with
>> 'millihelen' should find it for you.
>
>Ya, I recognise the quote too, but I don't recall it as being in a
>Pterrybook, and a search of the APF (7a.0) would seem to confirm this.
>
>Couldn't place where I did see it though..
It's mentioned in the jargon file under quantifiers:
"The prefix milli-, denoting multiplication by 1000^(-1), has always
been rare in jargon (there is, however, a standard joke about the
`millihelen' -- notionally, the amount of beauty required to
launch one ship"
--
Stig M. Valstad - sval...@sn.no - http://www.sn.no/~svalstad
Beware! The Paranoids are watching you.
Rob Cotterill
John Fouhy wrote:
>
> In article <32592A...@alpha1.curtin.edu.au>,
> David Geelan <pgee...@alpha1.curtin.edu.au> wrote:
> > > "The millihelen is the unit of pulchritude required to launch one ship"
> > I think you've gone into polysyllabic mode - the quote as I recall it
> > says 'beauty', not 'pulchritude'. Can't quite recall which book though.
> > Since this has no doubt been annotated, a word search of the apf with
> > 'millihelen' should find it for you.
>
> Ya, I recognise the quote too, but I don't recall it as being in a
> Pterrybook, and a search of the APF (7a.0) would seem to confirm this.
>
> Couldn't place where I did see it though..
That definition (using "beauty" BTW) is used by the Guinness Book of
Records in its definition of "the most beautiful woman in the world".
A very subjective measure really, as not many people have the
opportunity to launch as many ships as they would wish for those that
they consder beautiful.
Or something.
Rob (the logicaldeductionofundergroundspirits-ist).
Thomas Down
A while ago, James Gater wrote:
>
>
> > It's mentioned in the jargon file under quantifiers:
> > "The prefix milli-, denoting multiplication by 1000^(-1), has always
> > been rare in jargon (there is, however, a standard joke about the
> > launch one ship"
>
> Here's a thought for all you pedants[1] out there - especially those
> who tell people that the year 2001 is the one we OUGHT to be celebrating.
>
> Shouldn't a millenium actually be 0.365256 days? 1000 years ought to
> be a kilenium....
>
No... both milli- and millenium are derrived from the Latin
mille (==1000). When prefixing units, it's conventional to
use latin to indicate fractions, and greek for multiples, But
there's no reason why you can't have millenium==1000years,
we're not talking about milliyears (which would be wrong).
-- Thomas (hoping he's got his Latin and Greek the right way round...)
Pages changed sometimes second to second, reporting the status of
world-gates in the area, what spells were working where, and the
cost of powdered newt at you local advisory.
- Deep Wizardry
James Gater
> It's mentioned in the jargon file under quantifiers:
> "The prefix milli-, denoting multiplication by 1000^(-1), has always
> been rare in jargon (there is, however, a standard joke about the
> `millihelen' -- notionally, the amount of beauty required to
> launch one ship"
Here's a thought for all you pedants[1] out there - especially those
who tell people that the year 2001 is the one we OUGHT to be celebrating.
Shouldn't a millenium actually be 0.365256 days? 1000 years ought to
be a kilenium....
[1] pedants on afp? ohhh no missus, got none of them here...</sarcasm>
--
'Ah drat dear, I'm just grave.'
e-mail: j.g...@zetnet.co.uk
www: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~ee95jjg
The Red Salamander Zaruga
James Gater wrote:
> Here's a thought for all you pedants[1] out there - especially those
> who tell people that the year 2001 is the one we OUGHT to be celebrating.
I'm not a pedant, but out of respect for those that think that joy and
merriment must be done properly, I propose that in order to solve the
2000/2001 dilemma, we simply begin the party on New Years eve 1999 and
finish up New Years Day 2001. Simple eh? I'm sure the work problems
can be got around if enough of us can convince our bosses to join in...
> Shouldn't a millenium actually be 0.365256 days? 1000 years ought to
> be a kilenium....
Hey! You're right! Good grief, there ought to be a law about misusing
prefixes that way!:)
> [1] pedants on afp? ohhh no missus, got none of them here...</sarcasm>
Well you better get some soon! I've got fifty lbs. worth on back order,
and the man at the counter told me it'd be here Friday!
-TRSZ
Berry Kercheval
>>>>> "Thomas" == Thomas Down <kee...@arilinn.trinity.ox.ac.uk> writes:
But there's no reason why you can't have
Thomas> (which would be wrong).
FYI, a milliyear is almost exactly 8 hours and 45 minutes.
--
Berry Kercheval :: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center :: Palo Alto, California
"Having major planets disappear is always a bad sign." - Jim Blinn