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Comment by ladon86 | Hacker News Reader

"Graham is known for his 'pizza profitable' mantra".

It seems ramen isn't even a conceivable foodstuff for WSJ's readership. 'Pizza profitable' has a nice onomatopoeic quality though.

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onomatopoeic -> alliterative? I don't think anything makes a sound like "pizza profitable" :)

I have a friend who, every time he tell someone what onomatopoeia means, points out that, oddly enough, onomatopoeia is not itself onomatopoeic.

That's because it's Ancient Greek for "to make name for": http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/onomatopoeia

>onomatopoeia is not itself onomatopoeic.

It would be very difficult to do that since onomatopoeia is a concept and concepts don't make sounds.

which is ironic, given that a cucumber is saying it.

Hint please

Well, my thinking was: Euroclydon's friend likes to be technically correct about the term onomatopoeia, and jimmyk chimes in with the same level of technical correctness on the matter. So for levity, I point out how it is 'ironic' in a nonsensical way - hoping to hit their OCD nerve a bit. As it is clearly not an ironic statement, and we only have anecdotal evidence of cucumbers being able to mutter a sound.

Run for office.

I've always liked the idea of "conceptual onomatopoeias": - the word "word" - the sound of the word "sound" - the thought of a thought

...etc.

Some argue that "cliche" is onomatopoeic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliche#Origin

A world like onomatopoeia being onomatopoeic isn't that far-fetched. Perhaps the word could be named after a very common onomatopoeia, perhaps one that has gone out of use. A word with that sort of etymology is "shibboleth" - its current meaning is derived from what was a common shibboleth.

Which means that onomatopoeic is a heterological adjective - an adjective which does not describe itself.

Is "heterological" a heterological adjective?

- Grelling and Nelson, 1908.

I would gladly swap 50% of the typical HN front page material for more stuff like this.

i didnt understand anything except the word pizza, which i go and order right now

Ah, crap. :)

A model steam engine? That's almost appropriate.

"Model steam engine profitable?"

That would be like, you sell 6 items a year, but you make $90 on each one.

This sounds like the work of an editor. Some editor probably saw "ramen profitable" and decided that the august WSJ reader would have no idea what ramen was, so they changed it to pizza, not knowing that pizza is a huge luxury for many ramen profitable companies.

One of the things that surprised us about the Valley is that good pizza is more expensive here than on the East Coast. I'm still not sure why. But there is a noticeable difference when you have to order pizza 30 at a time.

I have noticed the same thing! I guess it is not that easy to make good pizza. In los angeles there are places that specifically advertise new york style pizza, and they are more expensive.

One of those more expensive places in my neighborhood in LA says that they import their dough directly from Brooklyn by plane. I highly doubt it. Another one has a sign that reads "We only use authentic New York tap water. (Suckers)"

The only way to get good pizza in the Valley is to fly it in from the East Coast, so that makes sense. :-)

Brian Chesky (AirBNB), once when asked if they were Ramen profitable, and responded "even better, we are pizza profitable". Maybe it was the same reporter?

This appears to have been changed, with an explanatory note of "this low-cost noodle dish".

Have they changed the article? I'm seeing "ramen profitable" now...

Good ramen is more expensive than good pizza.

And bad pizza is more expensive than bad ramen.

Explaining a $15 bowl of soup to people who don't know anything about Asian food can be tricky.

Solidly decent ramen is still fairly cheap in some countries.

I much prefer ramen profitable, I think it will be a shame if Pizza profitable becomes wide spread. I'd never heard it before the article, and I stopped reading to come and comment. It's obviously something we all relate to considering it's already the top comment.

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