Poor, Edmund W wrote:
Ray mentioned "Twelve Angry Men", and Geoff
mentioned "Calvinball".
Twelve Angry Men is an old movie about a jury trying to come to a
verdict after a murder trial. The first vote is 11-1 and boy is everyone
mad at Henry Fonda for being the lone hold out! He says that it is
morally wrong (and illegal to, boot) to condemn a man to death while
EVEN ONE juror has a "reasonable doubt". (The more recent remake, with
George C. Scott, has the same plot.)
Calvinball is a game whose rules frequently and spontaneously change as
Calvin and Hobbes (two cartoon characters) play it. No accusation of
cheating can ever stick, because each act is judged according to the
update rules - and either player can change any rule any time. It would
be an understatement to describe the result as chaotic.
This only proves proves the the Wikipedia membership at large is a
treasure trove of allusions. :-)
Oh, and Ray's mention of "cannon" was a
typo; I guess he meant "canon",
i.e., the body of accepted scripture. (The Wikipedia article discusses
WHO does the accepting and WHY.)
Guilty! Despite taking pride in an extensive vocabulary I do have some
items that I never remember correctly. If I'm working on an actual
article I would look it up every time. Cannon law turns out to be quite
a blast. :-)
Ec