The word of the day

Wed 28 Jan 2004, 01:56 PM

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by Ben Langhinrichs
Long before reality TV sank down to the nadir of poor taste and then pulled out a pneumatic drill and kept going down, before Peewee Herman was caught with more than just his hand in the not so proverbial popcorn, Peewee's Playhouse was one of those guilty pleasures on television.  Nobody would admit to watching it, but everyone knew all the references.  One of the many odd traditions on this show was word of the day (I am sure it had some more specific name, but then, I never watched it, right?).  If anybody happened to say the word of the day, lights would go off, bells would ring, and a great deal of mayhem would ensue.

The word of the day at Lotusphere this year seems to be "coexistence".  When I talk with business partners on the showcase floor and mention that I am working on coexistence these days (along with rich text), you can almost see the lights dim.  "That's great!" they say.  One even indicated he was glad I was not just "wasting my talents" on rich text.  Sheesh!  This is before I tell them what sort of coexistence, or what I mean by the term, but it doesn't seem to matter.  The magic word had been spoken.  This may explain the rather peculiar abundance of people at my Advanced Lotus Notes/Web Coexistence session, which went to two overflow rooms, I am told.  Oh well, I should have known - I wasn't so much loved as buzz-enabled.

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