Carte blanche

Hopefully Physics saw the title of this entry and started sweating bullets. I'm not that cruel... yet.

Yesterday he told me the thing that would frustrate him most about studying the social sciences is that few concepts have a clear definition. Right now, trying to pin down the word "power" has been rocking my world and taking all of my academic energy.

"Culture" is another one of those words. It means a different thing to everybody. How can one simultaneously exist within "university culture," "gay culture," "work culture" and "pop culture?" Tie in notions of ethnicity, class and other things, and it just gets too complicated. I gave up trying a long time ago.

Physics informed me of a little tidbit of French culture known as "carte blanche." It's one of those words that English speakers use with little consideration of its origins or true meaning. When I googled the term, I got a list of restaurants with the name and news articles using it to mean "full access."

The way it was used last night was apparently a little closer to the original French version. And much more fun.

I think I'll go and have those business cards printed; I'll leave one side blank.

Flown by mariposa at 09:52 AM on June 29, 2005