From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: cowan@mercury.ccil.org (John Cowan) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2015 21:59:21 -0500 Subject: [TUHS] etymology of cron In-Reply-To: References: <201512230027.tBN0RK7A009917@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> <20151223004044.GG14449@eureka.lemis.com> <20151223011154.GA9303@mercury.ccil.org> <20151223015908.GH14449@eureka.lemis.com> <20151223021408.GI14449@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: <20151223025921.GB9303@mercury.ccil.org> jason-tuhs at shalott.net scripsit: > See, for example, this story about an author who was told he "was > not a credible source" regarding the basis of his own writings -- Indeed. John "Lisp" McCarthy definitely couldn't remember the order and timing of his work on Lisp without reference to his documents. Or rather he did remember, but his memories were wrong. Primary sources have to be used with care and caution, and while they are not outright forbidden on Wikipedia, they are not trivial to use. Wikipedia is by nature a *summary of the published literature*. If you want to get some folklore, like what "cron" stands for, into Wikipedia, then publish a folklore article in a journal, book, or similar reputable publication. Random uncontrolled mailing lists simply do not count. > http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/an-open-letter-to-wikipedia The poet may of course have some critical ability of his own, and so be able to talk about his own work. But the Dante who writes a commentary on the first canto of the Paradiso is merely one more of Dante's critics. What he says has a peculiar interest, but not a peculiar authority. It is generally accepted that a critic is a better judge of the value of a poem than its creator, but there is still a lingering notion that it is somehow ridiculous to regard the critic as the final judge of its meaning, even though in practice it is clear that he must be. The reason for this is an inability to distinguish literature from the descriptive or assertive writing which derives from the active will and the conscious mind, and which is primarily concerned to "say" something. --Northrop Frye, _Anatomy of Criticism_ -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan at ccil.org If I read "upcoming" in [the newspaper] once more, I will be downcoming and somebody will be outgoing.