O Tempora!...

[stoutfellow]

Currently, in my calculus class, I'm covering integration techniques. Now, there are techniques that are, so to speak, broad-spectrum, like substitution or integration by parts; they can be brought to bear in a wide variety of situations. But there are other techniques that are more restricted; some, in fact, that work in only one situation, or an extremely restricted set.

I was outlining one such technique today. (If you're curious, it's the one for integrating e^x sin x.) I pointed out that the trick used works only for the one situation. (Well, you can insert constant factors into various points, but it's really just the one.) Then I said, "You might say that it's a one-pony trick."

Pause.

Dead silence.

I turned around and gazed at them for a moment. "Have any of you ever heard the expression, 'one-trick pony'?"

Dead silence. Not one hand rose.

Ne-e-ever mind...

Comments

[rikkios.livejournal.com]

I know I'm going to regret this, but ...

I would not have raised my hand. It must be one of those phrases that never made it across the Michigan border. I found a reference to a movie by Paul Simon, but I assume the title came from the film and not vice versa.
So, where does it come from?

By the way, I asked my daughter about it (17 years old, born and raised in Germany) and she immediately responded: "It's a song by Nelly Furtado." Well, it was close - the song is "One-Trick Pony"

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, it originates in a joke about a performer - perhaps a vaudevillian? - whose act involved a marvellous trick-performing pony, which, as it turned out, could only do one trick. (It's related to the one about the guy with the talking dog: "What do you call the thing on top of a building?" "Roof!"