A Minimal Pair

Skunky smell of lady bugs late

afternoon delight crawling in my

ear, over my glasses, down my

neck: their attention deficient

zig-zag lawn crossing laissez

faire flight patterns erratic as a

McCain campaign, my friends,

& it won't be long now: fly away,

lady bug, fly away home.

MEANING

Making a Difference

(Minimal Pairing)

For Linguists and Information theorists,

MEANING is clinically defined as “a

difference that makes a difference,” its

tautologic offset by the common sense

realization that there is a real difference

between a difference that makes a

difference and one that doesn't—3

differences in 'ONE': differ-ance, as

Derrida called it, to differentiate & maybe

avoid confusion between & among differences:

1) differences that don't make a difference,

2) differences that do make a difference, and

3) the difference (& relationship) between the 2.

“Information” = news-to-noise ratios

NEWS of difference: another way to talk about

“meaning,” closer perhaps to the information-ist

than the linguist –or the Romantic for whom

“meaning” is luxuriant and personal and probably

wouldn't cast his sense of meaning in these stark

fundamental terms of “difference” and “news.”

As opposed to NOISE: “noise” is literally a

navigational notion (I.E. nau: navy, nausea,

noise) & cybernetic: appropriate to one

navigating a sea of slings and arrows: noisy

un-meaningful varieties of wave and sky,

shifting clouds, coursing seabirds, whale spout

& dolphin dancing off the bow & no constant

fixed star to steer by: no desiderata nothing

but a continuity of differences that don't make

no difference don't make no never mind.

Given this whelm of SAME, matrix of mono-

polychromatic ménage & munch of differences

that don't make any difference it's all the same to

me: any difference that makes a difference will

make a difference to me. Good News. Meaning

full like the difference between

/bit/ and /bet/

say, merely a sonic difference between a high

frontal vowel and slight shift downwards to

mid-frontal but look: it carries all the difference

in the whirl and between

/bitter/ and /better/

say, identical consonantal sandwiches but tucked

in between is not just a difference but one that

makes a difference. Meaning. News, not just

noise: better is better than bitter .

Minimal pairs: reduce a reduction of noise down

to a couple of almost-the-same sounds except for

a difference: one that can make a difference.

Fundamentals. Building blocks of meaningful

relationship.

Reduce IT. Reduce IT all the way down to a

minimal pair—where every thing is identical

accept for the slightest, not-to-be-reduced-any

further difference. .

Now you can see the origin of

DI F F E R A N C E

as opposed to, as differentiated from (not to be

collapsed, conflated or confused with) “difference”

--the difference that makes no difference and the

difference that does & how they get along or not..

This is how you untie double binds and cut through

Gordian Naughts. This, I said. Do I have to spell

THIS out? Playing The Sames & Differences Game.

Siamese Twins: don't let either occlude the other.

Get IT down to a minimal pair.

xxxooo, Sam