I'm wondering whether jinxing, even pickle jinxing, applies to blogging as opposed to talking. Hope not, because Language Log would be a sadder and a quieter space without Mark. But look, if it does apply, surely the jinx can be dissolved by emailing the victim's name to him? Mark! Mark! Mark!
Perhaps you can even stockpile tokens of your name and keep them in files to open later. Or have your name said to you once per second by a shell scripts for permanent immunity:
#!/bin/csh
while ( 1 == 1 )
echo 'Mark!'
sleep 1
end
I don't think jinxing is going to be the same in the Information Age.
Posted by Geoffrey K. Pullum at December 16, 2003 01:24 PM