It does not mean what they think it means.
Photo taken at Towne Centre (South Shore), Alameda, California, Jan. 3, 2010.
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January 07, 2010
That Word
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I'm puzzled as to what on earth they thought it meant.
Posted by: James D | January 07, 2010 at 10:15 AM
@James: A cooler, briefer way to say "sophistication"?
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | January 07, 2010 at 10:28 AM
1976-77, 10th grade Honors English with Mr. Sexauer: "Sophistry - an unsound series of clever-sounding reasoning." And yes, may he rest in peace, his name WAS pronounced "sex hour."
Posted by: Jessica | January 07, 2010 at 10:52 AM
Do you have a Sexhaurer here?
Sex hour? We barely get a coffee break.
I know it's ancient.
Posted by: Barry Nordin | January 07, 2010 at 11:44 AM
Maybe they're selling beauty that's only facially persuasive.
Posted by: Carroll Lachnit | January 07, 2010 at 12:17 PM
This says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2y8Sx4B2Sk
Posted by: Tim H | January 07, 2010 at 04:06 PM
@Tim H: Have we run into each another at the movies?
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | January 07, 2010 at 08:58 PM
Oh but it DOES.... one of the meanings of sophistry is "lack of imagination"!!!!!!
Keep well
Tanja
Posted by: Tanja Cilia | January 08, 2010 at 01:12 AM
I'd call this misstep a triumph for a different brand: Sephora. Surely they're aiming for an echo of that company's image?
(Gratuitous baby name note -- Sephora is a form of Zipporah.)
Posted by: Laura Wattenberg | January 08, 2010 at 07:58 AM
Good point, Laura. I was so caught up in the inappropriate meaning that I didn't think about the sound of the word!
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | January 08, 2010 at 08:02 AM
Yeah, the Sephora quasi-homonym occurred to me too.
Posted by: Diana Landau | January 08, 2010 at 08:36 AM
For some reason my mind raced to the scene in Princess Bride where the giant says something like, "I don't think it means what you think it means."
Thanks for sharing what you think and see along the way.
Keep creating...a zig and a zag,
Mike
Posted by: Mike Wagner | January 08, 2010 at 11:31 AM
Mike W: Yep, I'm a Princess Bride fan, too. (For the clip in question, see the link in Tim H's comment, above.)
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | January 08, 2010 at 11:33 AM
Laura, if the Sophistry folks were thinking "Sephora," then another movie quote comes to mind, one I rely on all the time from "Blazing Saddles": "The common clay of the New West - you know, morons."
(Do I get bonus points for Zipporah being my Hebrew name?)
Posted by: Jessica | January 08, 2010 at 01:11 PM