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Usenet Posted 21 years ago
Usage
Dancing on a pin?
According to Bartleby's, the expression "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" is a "scornful description of a tedious concern with irrelevant details; an allusion to religious controversies in the middle ages" which I have looked into and it makes enough sense as far as it goes: having such a tedious concern is is equivalent to speculating "how many angels.."
But is anyone familiar with the variation "YOU'RE dancing on the head of a pin"?
Is it just a different way of saying "You're being tediously concerned with irrelevant details"
or something different?
A friend of mine uses it when he hears someone basically going verbally overboard (dancing) to justify or rationalize or make an excuse for something, whether a course of action, a conclusion, a decision, etc., when ultimately that person has very little basis or "ground to stand on" (head of a pin).
Any insight here?
But is anyone familiar with the variation "YOU'RE dancing on the head of a pin"?
Is it just a different way of saying "You're being tediously concerned with irrelevant details"
or something different?
A friend of mine uses it when he hears someone basically going verbally overboard (dancing) to justify or rationalize or make an excuse for something, whether a course of action, a conclusion, a decision, etc., when ultimately that person has very little basis or "ground to stand on" (head of a pin).
Any insight here?
Top answer
" is a "scornful description of ... "[/nq] Not the point on which you were enquiring, but this should be point , not head , of a pin. I don't understand where the "head" version came from, as the question isn't interesting at all, since any given pin may have a head of any finite size the pinsmith chooses.
- " is a "scornful description of ...
- "[/nq] Not the point on which you were enquiring, but this should be point , not head , of a pin.
- I don't understand where the "head" version came from, as the question isn't interesting at all, since any given pin may have a head of any finite size the pinsmith chooses.
- The point of a well-made pin, on the other hand, may be seen as infinitely small: so the number of infinitely reducible objects such as angels it might accommodate provides quite enthralling matter for debate.
- Modern physicists and mathematicians get paid decent salaries for worrying about it.
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23 Answers
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[nq:1]According to Bartleby's, the expression "How many angels can danceon the head of a pin?" is a "scornful description of ... makes enough sense as far as it goes: having such a tedious concern is is equivalentto speculating "how many angels.."[/nq]
Not the point on which you were enquiring, but this should be point , not head , of a pin.
I don't understand where the "head" version came
Not the point on which you were enquiring, but this should be point , not head , of a pin.
I don't understand where the "head" version came
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[nq:2]According to Bartleby's, the expression "How many angels can dance ... tedious concern is is equivalent to speculating "how many angels.."[/nq]
[nq:1] Not the point on which you were enquiring, but this should be point , not head , ... might accommodate provides quite enthralling matter for debate. Modern physicists and mathematicians get paid decent salaries for worrying about it.[/nq]
[nq:1] Not the point on which you were enquiring, but this should be point , not head , ... might accommodate provides quite enthralling matter for debate. Modern physicists and mathematicians get paid decent salaries for worrying about it.[/nq]
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[nq:2] Not the point on which you were enquiring, but ... and mathematicians get paid decent salaries for worrying about it.[/nq]
[nq:1](angels "head of a pin") gets 39,000 Donnas (angels "point of a pin") gets 1,100[/nq]
39 KDonnas shirley?
dg (domain=ccwebster)
[nq:1](angels "head of a pin") gets 39,000 Donnas (angels "point of a pin") gets 1,100[/nq]
39 KDonnas shirley?
dg (domain=ccwebster)
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[nq:1]Fact is, Aquinas did debate whether an angel moving from A to B passes through the points in between, and ... be in the same place at once, which of course is the dancing-on-a-pin question less comically stated. (Tom's answer: no.)"[/nq]
Well, you can't be expected to get everything right. There's enough inter-atomic space in the body of the average angel for plenty of them to be in the
Well, you can't be expected to get everything right. There's enough inter-atomic space in the body of the average angel for plenty of them to be in the
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[nq:2]Fact is, Aquinas did debate whether an angel moving from ... is the dancing-on-a-pin question less comically stated. (Tom's answer: no.)"[/nq]
[nq:1]Well, you can't be expected to get everything right. There's enough inter-atomic space in the body of the average angel ... least on the gross scale by which humans measure such things. If only someone had taught Aquinas quantum physics ...[
[nq:1]Well, you can't be expected to get everything right. There's enough inter-atomic space in the body of the average angel ... least on the gross scale by which humans measure such things. If only someone had taught Aquinas quantum physics ...[
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[nq:2] Well, you can't be expected to get ... things. If only someone had taught Aquinas quantum physics ...[/nq]
[nq:1]Did the medieval debaters really take that question seriously or was it just an intellectual game? I do think that Thomas would have liked quantum mechanics and, if he had ever learned mathematics, might have been pretty good at it (g).[/nq]
It was really a question about
[nq:1]Did the medieval debaters really take that question seriously or was it just an intellectual game? I do think that Thomas would have liked quantum mechanics and, if he had ever learned mathematics, might have been pretty good at it (g).[/nq]
It was really a question about
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[nq:2] Not the point on which you were enquiring, but this should be point , not head , of a pin.[/nq]
To my knowledge, no-one has made a name for himself by asking this question. Give it a go.
[nq:2]I don't understand where the "head" version came from, as ... have a head of any finite size the pinsmith chooses.[/nq]
Sure, but we can make angels any size we wish, so I don't think size
To my knowledge, no-one has made a name for himself by asking this question. Give it a go.
[nq:2]I don't understand where the "head" version came from, as ... have a head of any finite size the pinsmith chooses.[/nq]
Sure, but we can make angels any size we wish, so I don't think size
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[nq:2](angels "head of a pin") gets 39,000 Donnas (angels "point of a pin") gets 1,100[/nq]
[nq:1]39 KDonnas shirley?[/nq]
.0371 Megadonnas (Md)
3.71933e-005 Gigadonnas (Gd)"scornful description of a tedious concern with irrelevant details" = 1 Primadonna (Pd)
John Dean
Oxford
[nq:1]39 KDonnas shirley?[/nq]
.0371 Megadonnas (Md)
3.71933e-005 Gigadonnas (Gd)"scornful description of a tedious concern with irrelevant details" = 1 Primadonna (Pd)
John Dean
Oxford
00
[nq:1].0371 Megadonnas (Md) 3.71933e-005 Gigadonnas (Gd) "scornful description of a tedious concern with irrelevant details" = 1 Primadonna (Pd).[/nq]
Donna with child = one Madonna?
dg (domain=ccwebster)
Donna with child = one Madonna?
dg (domain=ccwebster)
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[nq:2].0371 Megadonnas (Md) 3.71933e-005 Gigadonnas (Gd) "scornful description of a tedious concern with irrelevant details" = 1 Primadonna (Pd).[/nq]
[nq:1]Donna with child = one Madonna?[/nq]
Donna with child = 1 x 1 matrix.
[nq:1]Donna with child = one Madonna?[/nq]
Donna with child = 1 x 1 matrix.
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