non sequiters
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Every now and then you run across a little nugget, a story that helps put the complexities and contradictions of this modern world into a helpful perspective. Maybe we can accumulate some here...
Abraham Lincoln was presiding over a stormy Cabinet meeting. At one point the arguments became so heated that Lincoln decided it was time to get his advisers back on a logical course again."Gentlemen," he said, "let us see if we can agree on a few facts. How many legs has a cow?"
They all said a cow has four legs. "Good," the president said. "We have agreed on something. Now if we call the cow's tail a leg, how many legs would she have?"
"Five," the Cabinet said in unison, and Abe looked pained.
"No, no," he said sadly. "That's where we've been getting off the track. Calling the cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. She'd still have four."
New impressive names are not going to change a situation.
This first story was taken from the Architecture - Postmodern/ TIB from the CRS Center at Texas A&M
TIB stands for This I Believe. TIBs were written by Bill Caudill, FAIA, 1985 AIA Gold Medal recipient. For more information on TIBs and Caudill, visit
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