Harry Houdini was an Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, besides other aspects of his professional life.
He is best remembered precisely for his escapologist tricks . That was his magic: To escape from any sort of super-complicated wrapping with ropes, handcuffs or even chains, and amazing his audience with his demonstrations.
Today Hewlett-Packard has reported sort of magic results, exceeding analysts expectations.
Given the recent “escapologist” experiences demonstrated by Herr Apotheker, as Oracle has unsuccessfully claimed his attendance as a witness to the current trial it is waging against SAP, it looks like we have a new Houdini at Hewlett-Packard, as he delivers magic results when he disappears!
"...delivers magic results when he disappears" - Like the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Caroll's book? The cat posed a dilemma to the Queen of Hearts when it's body disappeared but the head didn't. Can you "technically" behead someone with no body?
ReplyDeleteOops! Bad English again. Replace "it's body" with "its body". I really, really should start revising what I write.
ReplyDeleteWe'd say the impossibility to behead the cat refers to the actual uselessness of beheading it.
ReplyDeleteSo the queen would be screwed... maybe not as uch, however, as the Pontifex Maximus at the oracle for his unability to catch the missing guy. Like the Death Eaters when trying to catch Harry Potter when he was under the invisibility cloak.
You don't understand. Someone like the QoH would not do a cost/benefit analysis of beheading someone - she would insist on doing it because her ego would be invested in it! The Cheshire Cat could potentially drive her insane with frustration, only she was already a bit mad, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I once read a great book called "Spycatcher" written by Peter Wright, the first scientist employed by MI5 (the British Secret Service). It was all about espionage and counter-espionage in the backdrop of the Cold War. The author was convinced that someone really high up in the MI5 (Sir Roger Hollis) was a Soviet double agent, which was why Russian spies were repeatedly slipping through the net, and several British doubles agents operating behind the Iron Curtain were compromised. Thought I'd mention it to you, but I don't know if you'll find the book of much interest, since you assert that you are not British...
Precisely. She would insist, and that's when her frustration comes: It is useless. We were saying the very same thing.
ReplyDeleteWe have not read Spycatcher, though not unfamiliar to the story. And, yes, none of us is British... what does not mean we have not read English literature, nor that we dislike it.
Any specific reason for referring to that book precisely that we are not catching?
Well, I was reminded of Spycatcher because of the way LA always seemed to stay a step ahead of Oracle's private detectives. Unlike Houdini, he was never really shackled or manacled; it was just that he was a little too quick for the Pontifex Maximus as you call LE. Maybe someone like Dan Brown (The da Vinci Code) will come up with an expose (real or imagined) of this affair when all this will cease to matter at any rate.
ReplyDeleteHerr Apotheker was not really fleeing. He really did not need to. Just by being 100 miles away from court he could not be touched.
ReplyDeleteAlways one step ahead? You'd just need a marauder's map, if you get what we mean.
Just as a single step for someone may be a giant leap for someone else, 100 miles on the map may be actually a single step in a different context. Given the progress physicists have made since the days of Newtonian mechanics; space and time are both considered "relative" and not "absolute" parameters. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe're afraid law is not mechanical physics. However, time and space are relative, but for different reasons than Einstein's relativity.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather the law was mechanical physics and not metaphysics, because that would be frightfully confusing. I also agree that space and time are relative for reasons other than Einstein's theory; for example, when someone tells you something will happen "soon", it could mean tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or the next lifetime (if you believe in the cycle of birth, death and nirvana)...anytime between now and eternity, depending on who you are talking to.
ReplyDelete