transport for the next generation

reesetee You'll have to ask the man himself, gangerh. He simply insists he is nippleless. Nov 24, 2009

gangerh PalQQka has no nipples, reesetee? In that case what are those tassles hanging on? Nov 22, 2009

reesetee Palooka has no nipples. Jul 21, 2008

pterodactyl Titans reproduce via belly-springing?

*confused* Jul 18, 2008

bilby I'm not an omphaloskeptic *snoutpout* Jul 18, 2008

dontcry That's why the bus was empty.

Maybe it was performance art... Jul 18, 2008

dontcry Actually, sionnach, we all are either from the current generation or a previous generation. The next generation is next. Not now. Not yet. Next. See? Tomorrow and tomorrow and all that. Jul 18, 2008

gangerh So why was the bus empty, sionnach? Here's an open cheque. Jul 18, 2008

sionnach I hate to say this, but I'm afraid you are all mired in the fuzziest of thinking here. Each of us, at the moment of birth, automatically becomes a member of the next generation, as far as our parents are concerned. So, if you were born of woman, and didn't spring straight from the belly of one of the Titans, then you are a member of somebody's "next generation". By the amount of navel-gazing (or omphaloskepsis, if you prefer) that goes on around Wordie, we can be confident that everyone has a navel. So we are all part of the 'next generation', just as it's always cocktail hour somewhere on earth.

From a linguistic perspective, this apparent 'difficulty' is a result of the non-absolute nature of the term 'next', perhaps compounded by the non-specific nature of the word 'generation'.

If you would like an alternate resolution of your paradox, invoking the oddities of time travel and the equivalence of the space-time continuum, it will cost extra. Jul 18, 2008

gangerh BTW, do time-travellers take astrologers along with them? Jul 18, 2008

yarb It's a head-scratcher all right. Jul 18, 2008

Prolagus I think the phrase you're looking for is won't have been. Jul 18, 2008

gangerh Or even won't be. Jul 18, 2008

gangerh That'd be time-travellers from someone's next generation then. And dontcry's already proven that that can't be. Or wasn't. Jul 18, 2008

yarb Perhaps time-travellers from our future went back to our past, got the bus and added the slogan before driving it around our present. Jul 18, 2008

gangerh I should tell you, yarb, that if the bus was a time-machine, it did look as if it was past its use-by date. And that's my best oxymoron so far as I know. Jul 18, 2008

dontcry Ahhhh. That would make sense then. Jul 17, 2008

yarb Perhaps the bus was a time-machine? Jul 17, 2008

dontcry There were no passengers aboard because the next generation isn't here yet...and never will be...'cause they're in the future, which always is ahead of now...? Jul 17, 2008

gangerh Only the next generation can board this bus and only if accompanied by their mother. Jul 17, 2008

gangerh I should tell you that there were no passengers aboard. Jul 17, 2008

kewpid I would definitely like to see that happen. Maybe this is a very cynical bus company? Jul 17, 2008

yarb I see, kewpid. But why not the current generation, too? Jul 17, 2008

kewpid You can transport a lot more people per litre of petrol on a bus than a private car. I guess that's what they mean. Jul 17, 2008

yarb Mysterious! Was the bus hovering six feet off the ground? Jul 17, 2008

gangerh I saw this bus company slogan on the side of a bus today. But what does it mean? Is the conductor a midwife? Or what ....? Jul 17, 2008