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Mar 05 2005

LPP 19

Vagaries/Vagueness, suggested by Jason

I have not encountered this myself, but find it damn funny. Evidently someone said something about the vagaries of email--which just doesn't make any sense at all. A vagary is an eccentric notion or behavior: email itself has neither. An email conversation, I suppose, could contain vagaries. Vagueness, obviously, is a lack of clearness. The two should never ever be used in place of eachother, as they are quite distinct in meaning.

Reminds me, though, of the "fictitions" decried by Michael Moore at the 2003 Academy Awards.