Thursday, August 8, 2019

Logos: Solving Your Trilemma


"The Adoration of the Trinity" by Albrecht Durer
Trilemma is a word lo and behold and it opens a Pandora’s box of possibilities. Why not have a tripartisan or tripartite commission looking into oh say the Mueller report? On the other hand you have the Trifecta in horseracing, but no one ever talks about the Bifecta. The Urban Dictionary says that a Bifecta occurs when you expect three good things to happen and only two occur. You have the Holy Trinity, but is there any expression which would describe filial or even connubial relationships with God, such as those supposedly experienced by nuns, who become the holy of holy’s wives. You can bifurcate just about anything, but what about trifurcating. This last is a real word, but it’s rarely used and in the case of Switzerland you would have to talk about quadfurcation, since there are four languages spoken French, German, Italian and Romansh. Of course you have bilateral and trilateral agreements. These are just an example of business as usual. In science you come upon a double bind and there are binary stars and relationships, but what about the trinary or ternary--for instance,those who replay oedipal dramas where they triangulate? And there are people who suffered from having only bicuspid aortic valves when the tricuspids are the norm. Now the old Triborough Bridge in in New York is called the JFK, though the Willis Avenue is what might be called Biborough since it connects Manhattan with just the Bronx. And let’s not forget binary numbers with their practical application in computer science though diadems are deceiving since the word may seem like a twosome when it really refers to a band.

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