Greg Ewing <greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz>:
> Andrew Koenig <ark@research.att.com>:
>
> > A one-l lama is a priest,
> > A two-l llama is a beast,
> > But I'll bet you a silk pyjama
> > There isn't any three-l lllama.
> >
> > --Ogden Nash
> >
> > PS: When I first saw this poem, it was accompanied by a claim (in a
> > footnote) that a three-l lllama is a substantial conflagration.
>
> :-) !!!
>
> I have a vision of an obscure corner of Tibet featuring
> an order of special firefighting lamas, ready at a moment's
> notice to jump on their llamas and race off to do battle
> with a lllama...
:-)
By the way, the footnote read as follows:
"The author's attention has been called to a type of conflagration known
as a three-alarmer. Pooh."
> And whenever I see "1/3" now I'm going to want to
> pronouce it "one lama three". What have you done to
> me?
Oh, ghods.
You realize this is turning into a classic Jargon File entry, don't you?
@hd{lama} @g{n.} [Python] The division operator /; thus 1/3 is pronounced
"one lama three". Coined during and October 2002 on the Python-development
mailing list. Someone proposed that /, //, and /// should stand for
integer-, rational-, and float-valued division, and someone else quoted
Ogden Nash's poem @uref{http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1080.html,
The Lama}. Amidst talk of firefighting llamas in Tibet, the analogy stuck.
Of course, I can't actually add this. The last three words aren't true.
Yet.,,
--
<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>
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