Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Give Me A Place To Stand And I Can Pump All The Gas In The World

I usually get gas at my local ARCO station since it's cheapest there. Last time I was at the pump I noticed a sign that read "I Save, Therefore I ARCO - ARCOmedes, Famous Greek Mathematician."

There's a lot going on here.  First, the pun on "I think, therefore I am." Weird to see it at a gas station.  But then the pun on Archimedes, which is even better.  Then noting ARCOmedes is a famous Greek mathematician.  First, it's a made-up name.  Second, either people have heard of Archimedes or not--if they haven't, you can say he's a famous anything, who cares?  Finally, for an ad trying so hard, anyone who might be impressed with its erudition would have to know that the original quotation is from Descartes.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Impressive, young Skywalker.

1:46 AM, April 25, 2012  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did ARCOmedes die while focussing on calculatimg his gas mileage while an angry motorist fed up with waiting in line at the pump slew him?

3:34 AM, April 25, 2012  
Anonymous Lawrence King said...

I agree that any time you call someone "famous", you very words belie your claim.

In 1980, the Police's "Don't Stand So Close To Me" contained the line, "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov." In 1986, they re-recorded it at a slower tempo, with the same lyrics, except that now Sting referred to "that famous book by Nabokov." I always figured that he had gotten tired of explaining that line to everyone for six years.

9:18 PM, April 25, 2012  
Blogger LAGuy said...

"Famous book"?! It doesn't even scan.

12:06 AM, April 26, 2012  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you are referring to a fake Greek philospher named after a Gas Station (ARCO?- the brand disappeared back east over 20 years ago), I think the use of "famous" can fairly be characterized as an attempt at irony (which attempt is perhaps no more successful than the underlying joke)

2:32 AM, April 26, 2012  

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