Douglas Hofstadter wrote a fair bit about self-referential words and sentences. The words that spring to mind from that discussion are "pentasyllabic" and "awkwardnessfully." (Is "self-referential" self-referential? What about "non-self-referential"? Can you tell I recently started re-reading Gödel, Escher, Bach?) See also Raymond Smullyan's What Is the Name of This Book? and This Book Has No Title, and of course the brilliant David Moser story "This Is the Title of This Story, Which Is Also Found Several Times in the Story Itself."

Oh, very nice, all 'round. I had a vague memory that G, E, B referenced self-reference -- I suppose that's the best term for it.

And I forgot, in honor of Rene Magritte: "things that are not pipes."

In other self-reference news, I saw "Dot the I" last weekend, and it was unfortunately an example of uncomplicated self-reference: a movie about the soullessness of movie-making that ends up being soulless itself.

But on the positive side, Benjamin Rosenbaum's " Biographical Notes to

'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-planes' by Benjamin Rosenbaum is utterly delightful and reminds me that I really really need to buy myself a copy of "All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories" (I hear there's some other terrific authors I might know with stories in there, too).

I have to admit to a fondness for "What's the Name of that Song?" a Sesame Street number with lyrics by David Axelrod and music by Sam Pottle. A sample of the lyrics:

It goes la-de-da-de-dum,
La-de-da-de-dum,
Something, something nice.

La-de-da-de-dum,
La-de-da-dee,
I think it repeats itself twice!

La-de-da-de-dum,
La-de-da-de-dum,
What's the name of that song?

La-de-da-de-dum,
La-de-da-dee,
I know the name of that song!

It's called--now wait,
I think I got it!
Oh, no--I must be wrong--

So la-de-da-de-dum,
La-de-da-de-dum,
What's the name of that song?

Thanks,
-V.