Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Solipsistic
Thursday
September 29, 2005
It can be fun to learn new words sometimes, if for nothing else because it expands my vocabulary. For today, I ran across the word solipsistic in a column by the brilliant writer Bill Simmons of ESPN.com's Page 2. I looked it up (just do a Google search for the word and you can save yourself the trouble of going to a dictionary site), and it turns out that it means "The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified."
It can be great at times to have a wide vocabulary. Often times I'll keep it in check for the purposes of conversation, but it can come in handy. It was great to use it against the Executive Meddler for the purpose of confusing her. "What does that mean?" she'd ask. I loved doing that. It can also be a good way to gauge the intelligence/education of people with which I interact. It's by no means full-proof, and someone could counter with a Stewie from Family Guy retort that could leave me puzzled, but in general it works out quite well. Plus there's a great quote from the movie The Last Boy Scout: "It's called a vocabulary. You got one of those?" Always fun to break that out when someone tries to insult you for being intelligent (using the insult to mask their embarrassment of not being able to keep up).
In my NFL picks this week, I've gone with almost all home teams: the Colts and the rest home. I've been hedging my bets to this point, but this week I'm going with the same ones across the board. I'm in three pick 'em pools: one at work, one with my buddy Mark from Channel 10, and one in my Fantasy Football League that is used to get an extra draft pick in the following year's draft for the winner. Yeah, I like the NFL...
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