Subject: fungible

Date: Wed Jun 10 17:39:02 2009
User: malr
Message:
Hands up who doesn't know what this means? I thought of it about a fortnight ago when I was reading a newspaper article about a divorcee who'd decided to give up commitment and be a serial mistress of married men. Her rational was that: if she didn't sleep with the men she was sleeping with, someone else would. Moreover, if she had to give up one of the men she was sleeping with, she could quickly find an equivalent to replace him. That's fungible. Able to be replaced by any other article of similar description, and of a similar monetary value. Bars of chocolate are fungible with each other - you can ask for a particular bar because you're sure it has the golden ticket in it, but the shopkeeper is entitled to open that one and keep the golden ticket if it's in there, then sell you a different one. Kinda sad that her ambition in life was to be maximally fungible. I went to an exhibition where each human life was represented as a grain of rice. That should have given an impression of maximum fungibility - but somehow, the care with which each pile of rice was measured out and placed made it seem like each life was a unique and sacred thing. Also, they gave you a grain of rice to cup in your hand (this is you!) as you go round. Again, that makes you feel like each life is as important to itself as you are to you. As I looked around, I didn't see one person drop a grain of rice... I also noticed a strong tendency for people to giggle when they got to the sheet of paper that just had 'Condoleezza Rice' on it. Finally, I'm starting to get a true feeling for the scale of the world from visiting the Kiva site. So many people - so many jobs, so many reasons to borrow money. So many reasons to pay it back! And you can lump them into 'borrowers in Africa' or 'borrowers who grow food' or 'borrowers who only want the money for three months'. But each time you rearrange them, there they all are, still each one unique and precious.

Link: to be fungible, or not to be fungible

Date: Wed Jun 10 21:07:39 2009
User: aahbagal
Message:
Lovely thoughts. Thank you. Root of the word fungible appears to be fun, but that does not seem right at all. Is it fungus?

Date: Thu Jun 11 01:09:45 2009
User: malr
Message:
It's from the Latin 'fungibilis' - 'serving in place of'. Good question! I found the answer in the Concise Oxford, but while I was browsing online with the other hand, I found a really interesting paper which I'm now off to read... h.

Link: is aid fungible?

Date: Thu Jun 11 06:00:11 2009
User: firenze
Message:
Would that be why, in baseball, we call it a fungo bat? It takes the place of a regular bat.

Date: Thu Jun 11 07:30:39 2009
User: malr
Message:
wow, yeah, yet another thing I didn't know! Helen

Date: Thu Jun 11 11:53:59 2009
User: TNmountainman
Message:
Somehow, I suspect that "fungo" didn't come from "fungible" or "fungibilis". I have done no research one way or the other - just a gut instinct. Also, Helen, the article you posted is interesting, mostly in it's depth. It makes many assumptions, but when dealing with human nature, that's necessary, as you know..... -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- Ok, since writing the above, I got curious, and *did* look around - briefly. I guess we don't really know, but I'll go with my suspicions as above:

Link: Fun-go?

Date: Thu Jun 11 12:18:24 2009
User: TNmountainman
Message:
Curiously, the above led to an instance of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, involving Todd Rundgren. I won't go deeper, except to say that in his youth he was in a band called "Nazz", whose original title for their second album was to have been "Fungo Bat". (Later released as "Nazz Nazz".)

Date: Thu Jun 11 13:20:53 2009
User: firenze
Message:
Your reference does offer up the fungible theory. So, it could be plausible.

Date: Thu Jun 11 13:35:45 2009
User: TNmountainman
Message:
Yes, plausible. But there were about 5 other theories which I think more likely. But of course, clearly, no one really knows.

Date: Thu Jun 11 13:52:56 2009
User: firenze
Message:
Ah, sweet mystery of life.