Men of Few Words

13 June 2009 at 12:05 am Peter G. Klein 3 comments

| Peter Klein |

Those of you into Flesch-Kincaid scores and similar metrics probably appreciate men who can say a lot with a few words. The Bud Light “Dude” guy — whose Fog index, if my calculations are correct, is 1 — may be the best-known modern example:

He’s good, but before him there was Donnie Brasco:

Can your favorite academic writers be that parsimonious?

Fughetaboudit.

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Ephemera.

Mises and Hayek in Progress in Human Geography Peter L. Bernstein (1919-2009)

3 Comments Add your own

1. David Gerard | 13 June 2009 at 8:10 am

transaction costs
2. Michael E. Marotta | 13 June 2009 at 5:13 pm

Do you mean that “transaction costs” is Fughetaboudit. or Dude for economists? Or are transaction costs the reason for minimal expression? And is that self-referential?

There was always “fiuck” to fit seemingly any need, even being placed within a word: in _My Fair Lady_, Eliza Doolittle’s “abso-bloomin-lutely.”

Feynman suggested “It’s trivial.” for mathematicians.

I believe that in _Patriot Games_ Tom Clancy has a riff about how much the British say with different intonations of “Really.”
3. Pozycjonowanie Poznan | 15 June 2009 at 6:19 am

I completely forgot that Donnie Brasco piece. Thanks for reminding me of it – it’s awesome! So funny yet so true!