Question

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ryan

I need help with this fallacy

"The Varsity News reported that after the Titan's tragic loss the other night, a grief-stricken Amanda was seen wiping her tears on the basketball court. We can only conclude that Amanda left the court with a few splinters in her hands."

Does anyone know what this could be? thanks all!
asked on Friday, Nov 15, 2019 02:17:35 PM by ryan

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Richard Aberdeen writes:

I played basketball in school and, most modern courts are extremely well-sanded, varnished and polished, cleaned and buffed repeatedly and thus, it is highly unlikely Amanda would have gotten splinters from either this or any other modern basketball court.

posted on Friday, Feb 21, 2020 11:41:16 AM

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Answers

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Bryan
2

It's wordplay, a joke. It's assumed real meaning is that Amanda is seen on the court wiping tears from her eyes, but the wording is intentionally ambiguous such that it could also be read to mean that Amanda is wiping her tears literally on the flooring of the court, hence the splinters.

answered on Thursday, Feb 20, 2020 06:10:03 AM by Bryan

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David
1

Despite comments to the contrary, it is a quite well-constructed sentence, whose object is to make the reader squint just a tad bit, until realizing the point is to do exactly that. I am a lover of puns, both audio and video, and maybe me logical tuning fork has gotten out of whack over the years, but I'm a firm (OK, I'm seventy-three, so maybe not so firm) believer in logically constructed but totally irrational sentences.

"English has been very, very good to me."

answered on Friday, Feb 21, 2020 12:26:12 PM by David

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Bo Bennett, PhD
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This sounds more like a metaphor rather than a fallacy. Perhaps jumping to conclusions.
answered on Saturday, Nov 16, 2019 09:30:04 PM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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mchasewalker
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No fallacy, just a poorly constructed sentence. After the Titan's loss, grief-stricken Amanda was seen on the basketball court wiping her tears.
answered on Sunday, Nov 17, 2019 09:45:15 AM by mchasewalker

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mchasewalker
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First, the article assumes that Amanda was grief-stricken. The story say nothing about anyone actually asking her how she felt. Second, Amanda was seen, per the news, but by who? We need details. Third, author claims that "we can only conclude" when the text makes no mention of Amanda specifically wiping her tears on the basketball court with her hands. Perhaps she had a part-time job as custodian and used a mop, or maybe she did a Mary Magdalene and used her hair. Maybe she wanted to impress her girlfriend and used her tongue. Point being, we just don't know!!! All opinion, no facts.

answered on Wednesday, Feb 19, 2020 05:45:39 PM by mchasewalker

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