I try to post things of substance or that will make you think and act. Today might be more silly. More self-indulgent. I’m posting a pun I stumbled on—that is, someone was saying something and the pun came to mind. I liked it enough to burn a post on it.

Background: Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, one of the best known commercials began, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.” It was jaded, and I suppose many would claim it brilliant. For most viewers, it probably reached the value of a doctor endorsing the product, despite the person not being a doctor. On the contrary, they got someone more photogenic than most doctors.

Someone (sorry, I forgot who) talking to me began with, “I’m not an actor, but…” I thought of the ad from the 1980s and in my head finished their sentence with “… I play one on TV.”

I love it:

I’m not an actor, but I play one on TV.

Think about if and play with it a moment.

That finish gives the sentence a wonderful set of self-reference, possibility within impossibility, and fun with language. Meanwhile, it’s simple and meaningful, referring to something low-brow while also referring to Godel Escher Bach.

Check out my posts on a roughly similar self-reference The most amazing “You Are Here” map you’ve ever seen and More recursion after last week’s recursive map post.

Here’s one of the old commercials, if you haven’t seen it.

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• ← 835: At last! I can access my roof to charge solar for the first time in 18 months.
• My annual bike ride upstate and lunch at the farm providing my CSA, then riding back by the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge →