Obscure Sorrows

Three old Major League umpires were teaching their trainees how to call strikes.

“I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em,” the first umpire said.

“I calls ‘em as they are,” said the second.

“Gentleman,” the third one said: “They ain’t nuthin’ till I call ‘em.”

This old epistemological joke speaks to how words frame our thinking so much that they not only define its boun…