ThePhysopher's definitions

zen-alcoholic

when you like drinking alcohol per se but regard a teaspoon of whisky as the right dose to draw the pleasure of drinking. The tablespoon is then at the boundary to alcoholism. You stay within the field of Zen combining the pleasures of body and mind.

My wife and me, we are zen-alcoholics. It is our zen philosophy to enjoy whisky etc. but because alcohol with wine at lunch and at dinner is accumulating through the day, we restrict to the enjoyable minimum. This gives the pleasure of nice drinks plus the good feeling of self-mastery, it is just zen.

by ThePhysopher February 18, 2019

Willy-nilly believer

A careless believer. Someone who hears a statement or story and takes it for granted without considering the implications of that story. In religion, this is the belief in miracles as the multiplication of bread or the belief in an afterlife of a human after having seen the macabre decay of body (and brain). The opposite is an illuminated person who considers the plausibility and the side effects of a story.

There is no sense to discuss this with her. She just believes that she hears the spirits of the deceased talking, just willy-nilly. She is a willy-nilly believer in many things. Maybe she should take a course in physics. Or in psychology.

by ThePhysopher October 6, 2019

Double Penis Relationship (DPR)

A male homosexual couple.
Cp. to a Zero Penis Relationship (ZPR) and a Single Penis Relationship (SPR)

Did you know, Johnnie and James just started a proper Double Penis Relationship (DPR) together!

by ThePhysopher October 2, 2016

TMPC

Too Much Political Correctness

means political correctness exaggerated to a pont where it becomes intolerant, humorless and irrational.

Please call me Black, I am proud of my genes. To call me a Afro-Caribean is for me TMPC.

To pretend that women are in general betterin programming than men is slightly TMPC, isn't it?

by ThePhysopher August 10, 2017

Fosca effect

In the novel of Simone de Beauvoir, Fosca is a man who is the only one who cannot die. However, he becomes unhappy because all his friends die and leave him. The Fosca effect is therefore the feeling of an old person when he or she outlives their friends and the other people around them also disappear. It is a mixture of melancholy, pride and the guilt of still being alive.

Why is your father so sad? It's the Fosca effect, another one of his school friends has died.

I really must write my memoirs. It's probably the Fosca effect: if I don't do it, who else will?
The Fosca effect is quite natural when you get very old.

by ThePhysopher June 16, 2025

Hypercapitalism

Hypercapitalism is the brusque and blunt way in which today's super billionaires exercise their power. Examples include Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

The purchase of Twitter through Elon Musk was a typical act of hypercapitalism. This is power through a gigantic amount of money.

by ThePhysopher November 21, 2022

Lateral Copy

Sharing an article from the Internet while bypassing a paywall.
If you are a member and receive an interesting article, but your friend cannot read it because they are not a member, what do you do? You copy the article “by hand”, put it back together nicely and send it to the friend. This is a lateral copy.

Another great article that J. will be interested in. But the link is useless to him: he's not a member. I'll have to make him a lateral copy again.

by ThePhysopher September 25, 2025