Re: [math-fun] Isn't "The lesser of two evils"

On 10/03/2016 23:55, Michael Kleber wrote:

I think "X is less evil than Y" is unambiguous.

Which is too bad, because I like ambiguity more than most people.

Nicely done. This reminds me a little of something my daughter came up with at age five. Out of the blue she said to me "Daddy, better than nothing would be the worst thing in the world". Meaning: if X is "better than nothing" then there is nothing it's better than, hence it's the worst thing there is (I don't think she had the concept of partial order at that point.) This is of course the same idea as the old joke about the ham sandwich, but I don't think she'd ever heard that. -- g