I’d like to formally apologize to the blog for having abandoned it for over a month, but its not like we haven’t been busy:

I haven’t the faintest idea how I stumbled across this word, but I’m glad I did.

The pataphor (Spanish: patáfora, French: pataphore), is a term coined by writer and musician Pablo Lopez, for an unusually extended metaphor based on Alfred Jarry’s “science” of ‘pataphysics. As Jarry claimed that ‘pataphysics existed “as far from metaphysics as metaphysics extends from regular reality,” a pataphor attempts to create a figure of speech that exists as far from metaphor as metaphor exists from non-figurative language. Whereas a metaphor is the comparison of a real object or event with a seemingly unrelated subject in order to emphasize the similarities between the two, the pataphor uses the newly created metaphorical similarity as a reality with which to base itself. In going beyond mere ornamentation of the original idea, the pataphor seeks to describe a new and separate world, in which an idea or aspect has taken on a life of its own.

Like ‘pataphysics itself, pataphors essentially describe two degrees of separation from reality (rather than merely one degree of separation, which is the world of metaphors and metaphysics). The pataphor may also be said to function as a critical tool, describing the world of “assumptions based on assumptions,” such as belief systems or rhetoric run amok. The following is an example:

Non-figurative
Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line.

Metaphor
Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line, two pieces on a chessboard.

Pataphor
Tom took a step closer to Alice and made a date for Friday night, checkmating. Rudy was furious at losing to Margaret so easily and dumped the board on the rose-colored quilt, stomping downstairs.

Thus, the pataphor has created a world where the chessboard exists, including the characters who live in that world, entirely abandoning the original context.

Lifted directly from the Wikipedia, of course.

While I’m being productive on the blog I thought I’d share with you, dear reader, a special video.

Never before has the internet seen such a wonderful commercial for an iPhone application.

Okay, so I’m laying the hyperbole pretty thick on these last two posts but you’ve got to admit, its a pretty great video.

That is all.

So my new favorite website is Kid Casting, a site exploring the innate, unmitigated awesomeness of adult and child actors who portray the same character in a film. Mark my words, ladies and gentlemen, Kid Casting will one day rival the likes of IMDB. Your children will cite it in their school papers.

Kid Casting is what the internet was intended for.

To date, I’ve submitted National Treasure and Watchmen (pictured) — but Becca and I have a few more to contribute before the week is over.

Kid Casting is curated by Dave Shumka of the podcast Stop Podcasting Yourself, an upstanding Canadian gentleman.