Since white is a colour, blank space is minimal design, and “empty” space seems to consist of a constantly fluctuating field of subatomic particles, then even an apparent lack of information is itself a kind of information. How useful it is depends on what happens to it.
Speaking of which, here is the difference between misinformation and disinformation.
Well said!
Thank you DE! For a moment I considered compiling the information provided by the sign, but I quickly realised that such a project would be of infinite size, and therefore unsuitable for a blog post.
Fascinating! I guess it would be evil, for a woman, not to give the exact year of her birth, when asked. To evaluate the evilness, she would have to explain why she chooses to lie. It could be to misinform or to disinform. Unfortunately, the information might be very visible in her appearance. As you say, an apparent lack of information is itself a kind of information. Often, silence or a blank page means more than many words or numbers. Might as well speak the truth….:)
Claudia: When I said “lesser of these two evils” I was resorting to idiom, and intended no moral judgement! (I’m sure you knew this, but just in case.) When people reveal their age, they can only do as their circumstances and consciences suggest.
For example, when the great lexicographer H.W. Fowler was 57, he lied about his age so that he could take part in World War 1.
Slightly off-topic but… This month ten years ago I was in the middle of nowhere, Australia, working in a tomato cannery. I was 22. My colleague, an Englishman, was 32. One day we were asked our ages by the Lebanese owners of the cannery. Paul told them that one of us was 22 and the other 32 and could they guess which was which? Well, I’m sure you can figure out what happened. Sometimes one’s face belies one’s age. I am 32 now. Presumably my face is well into its 40s…
On the contrary, PK: you have sustained a youthful* mien, and you still have a fine head of hair.
* Near miss with “boyish” there.
As for being off-topic, consider the sign’s conspicuous blankness an invitation to go where the conversation takes you.
Of course, I was laughing, Stan. I always choose ‘fun’ situations to remember rules. The Fowlers were courageous men but a woman, looking younger than her age, will hide it by vanity. Who cares about evilness?
PK wasn’t off-topic as I learned a new expression: ‘sustaining a youthful mien’. I came here to improve and perfect my English. I didn’t know the company would be so agreeable. Thank you! :)))
Claudia: Good points, well made! There is considerable pressure on women in some societies to appear younger than they are. Maybe this pressure is an unfortunate side-product of men’s awe of fertility, or maybe I’m just sleepy and having odd ideas. I’ll return to more solid ground with a cliché: you’re as young as you feel!