The Making Of a Slogan

Since the inception of The Macintosh Biblioblog, it has kept a Hellenized version of the slogan that Apple used at the time, "Think different." I have enjoyed the email discussions that others have initiated with me over the years about how best to render the phrase in Greek. Some have raised various possibilities, argued for grammatical changes, or defended what was there at the time. Setting aside lexical changes, the chief candidates have included:

• φρονεῖς ἕτερος

or

• φρονεῖς ἑτέρως

or

• φρόνει ἕτερος

or

• φρόνει ἑτέρως

I have used more than one at different times. Among the ponderances and outright debates were whether the command should be an imperative form or rather simply indicative of the reader, as well as whether the "different" should be adverbial or somewhat substantive. Many have taken some of the above versions to more explicitly read something like: φρόνει: "ἕτερος". Most contacts regarding the issue have enjoyed the intentionality I had put into it, as well. Frankly, there are different ways to interpret "Think different."

It really is amusing the regular emails raising questions and making suggestions. Somewhere in the comments is a discussion between a few B-Greek folks including the venerable Carl Conrad.

I digress.

In the midst of all those discussions, no one has succeeded in pointing out what has recently occurred to me, namely, that the slogan is out of date! And so it is now changed:

εἰμι μακ

(Let the new debates begin.)