A sentence from the article "Freaks and Geeks: How Freakonomics is ruining the dismal science" by Noam Scheiber in the April 2, 2007 issue of the New Republic:

"Judging from the dizzying sales of Freakonomics and the thousands of lecture halls across the country now bursting with econ majors, [these economics papers on non-economic topics like sumo wrestling and bagel filching have] also been wildly successful at *ginning up* interest in the discipline." (Emphasis added.)

It is curious that most dictionaries do not list this common transitive verb phrase "to gin up". In most cases, "to gin up" means (1) to devise, to invent, to create, to come up with. This meaning is supported here. But in the above quote, "to gin up" seems to mean (2) to stimulate, to stir up. This meaning is supported here.

Let's try a little Freakonomics-like hypothesis-spinning... Hypothesis: Humans use "to gin up" in sense (1); Vulcans use "to gin up" in sense (2).

As is well known, Vulcans are a humanoid species from the planet Vulcan. Vulcans are recognizable by their pointier-than-human ears, their toupe-like haircut, and their five-letter names that end in the letter "k", e.g., Spock, Surak, Tyvek (audaciously smothering our planet in his so-called "home insulation").

In recent years, Earth has been the target of a stealth campaign of takeover by Vulcans who masquerade as humans, but who are unable to completely conceal their Vulcan traits. The well-eared Barak Obama has been heard to use "gin up" only in sense (2), which is consistent with the hypothesis. Barak's fellow candidate for president, Dennis "DeniK" Kucinich, is also a fellow Vulcan, as proved not only by his nickname but also by this photo of him with his comely human spouse, showing his prominent ears and characteristically Vulcan haircut.

So here is a test of the hypothesis: Does Kucinich use the term "to gin up" in sense (1), or in sense (2? If the latter, the hypothesis is confirmed. But I have thus far been unable to catch DeniK using the term "to gin up".

Mark Spahn@VulcanWatch.org