Triple Negative

“I would not think there is not a single professor at Harvard who is not ambitious, in the sense of intellectually ambitious,” [says Harvard] Psychology Department Chair Susan Carey.

Margaret Soltan, 5:53AM
Posted in: Little Ick

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5 Responses to “Triple Negative”

  1. theprofessor Says:
    September 16th, 2010 at 7:15AM

    Yowza!

    My brain will hurt for the rest of the day after reading that.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:
    September 16th, 2010 at 7:58AM

    tp: It does have a mesmerizing power, I warn you. I’ve thought about it – tried to make it make sense – for a couple of days now.

  3. Peter Says:
    September 16th, 2010 at 2:45PM

    My best attempt at untangling it so far has been:

    “I would not think any Harvard professor lacks ambition” (or “is unambitious”?)

    I’m assuming there, of course, that “any” can contain the negative connotation of “not a single”. Still, whatever happened to concision and pithiness?

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:
    September 16th, 2010 at 8:21PM

    That’s good, Peter. Better than I was able to do.

  5. University Diaries » A Second Harvard Little Ick Says:
    September 22nd, 2010 at 8:42AM

    [...] Last week it was the Psych department chair’s triple negative. [...]

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