Chronosynclastic Infundibulum

Having returned from the Bay Area, I had to make time today to go over to my friends Tim & Dallas' house. We sat around and I relayed to them my adventures in San Francisco. Explaining the idea that my friend wanted to experience the acceptance of alternative lifestyles found in the Castro District, the conversation brought forth one of Tim's favorite words:

chronosynclasticinfunvibulum

Fun one, yes? Tim said it was from some book, but he couldn't remember the title or author. He thought it broke-down to basically mean things happening at the same time, and Latin for funnel shape (infunvibulum). Well, I had to google this, not only for the fun of it, but to find out from what book it was.

So, he gave me the above spelling of it and I took it back to my trusty computer. Google first corrected me with a no-results page:

Okay... actually a two word phrase, but trusty Google still provides:

The first result was where I usually get my first source of information, Wikipedia, which provides an entry for Infundibulum. It is defined as Tim said: Latin for a funnel-shape cavity or organ. The seventh item listed provided pay dirt:

From the science fiction novel The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut the phenomenon chronosynclastic infundibulum is defined as "those places ... where all the different kinds of truths fit together".

So Tim's memory is still good. Thank you, Mr. Vonnegut, for such a wonderful concept! Obviously a different way to express acceptance of various perspectives, I can see where this concept is manifesting itself in today's world... President-Elect Barack Obama being the most obvious example.

This was your thing to learn today.