Father and son

My son heard the word "aggressiveness" on TV; I think it was in an ad for a prescription drug. He grumbled that the word should be "aggression". I argued that the two words have slightly different meanings. He still maintained that when that kind of thing happens -- a noun derived from an adjective derived from (or at least related to) another noun -- or the other way round -- it means that something went wrong. I said no, it means that something went right. I don't think I can change his mind, but I did come up with a good line: I told him that, while he may think he is being rigorous, he's just being rigid.

Brake FAIL, or Puffett lives

From an article in yesterday's Boston Globe about Toyota's plans to resolve some safety (and PR) issues:

[...] There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the U.S. about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed in cold conditions and on some bumpy roads. The delay doesn't indicate a brake failure. The company says the problem can be fixed in 40 minutes with new software that oversees the controls of the antilock brakes [...] U.S. safety officials are investigating the brake problem. It is suspected in four crashes [...]

I'm not sure why it would not be called a brake failure. A car crashes into something because the brakes don't function properly.

I am reminded of Mr. Puffett, the character in Dorothy L Sayers's Busman's Honeymoon who is employed to get the fireplace working. Every time anyone uses the word "chimney" in mentioning the problem, he gets defensive, saying that there's nothing wrong with this here chimney, the problem is the soot, or words to that effect.