re: Pfizer response

"This is what I wanted you to see," said Wonko the Sane when the news

came around again, "an old colleague of mine. He's over in your

country running an investigation. Just watch."

It was a press conference.

"I'm afraid I can't comment on the name Rain God at this present time,

and we are calling him an example of a Spontaneous Para-Causal

Meteorological Phenomenon."

"Can you tell us what that means?"

"I'm not altogether sure. Let's be straight here. If we find something we

can't understand we like to call it something you can't understand, or

indeed pronounce. I mean if we just let you go around calling him a Rain

God, then that suggests that you know something we don't, and I'm

afraid we couldn't have that.

"No, first we have to call it something which says it's ours, not yours,

then we set about finding some way of proving it's not what you said it

is, but something we say it is.

"And if it turns out that you're right, you'll still be wrong, because we will

simply call him a… er 'Supernormal…'-not paranormal or supernatural

because you think you know what those mean now, no, a 'Supernormal

Incremental Precipitation Inducer'. We'll probably want to shove a

'Quasi' in there somewhere to protect ourselves. Rain God! Huh, never

heard such nonsense in my life. Admittedly, you wouldn't catch me

going on holiday with him. Thanks, that'll be all for now, other than to

say 'Hi!' to Wonko if he's watching."

—Douglas Adams Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy