Humor
Denning is an inveterate punster who frequently uses humor to get points across. Examples:
- April Fool special section (when he was editor), ACM Communications (April 1984).
- On Active and Passive Writing, a treatise exhorting students to write in the active voice.
- A Tale of Two Islands. Fable about a controversy in queueing theory over operational analysis. First published in 1991. Contained as an appendix to a 2006 overview of operational analysis
Read more about this topic: Peter J. Denning
Famous quotes containing the word humor:
“When humor can be made to alternate with melancholy, one has a success, but when the same things are funny and melancholic at the same time, it’s just wonderful.”
—François Truffaut (1932–1984)
“To be perfectly, brutally honest, those of us who are still carrying diaper everywhere we go are not at our most scintillating time of life....We need to remember that at one time in our lives, we all had senses of humor and knew things that were going on in the world. And if we just keep our social networks open, there will be people ready to listen when we once again have intelligent things to say.”
—Louise Lague (20th century)
“Every American, to the last man, lays claim to a “sense” of humor and guards it as his most significant spiritual trait, yet rejects humor as a contaminating element wherever found. America is a nation of comics and comedians; nevertheless, humor has no stature and is accepted only after the death of the perpetrator.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)