Ghyll:Graphorn
The cherished and timeless image in the Ghyllian imagination of the rustic statistician, alone in his fields with his data sets, is incomplete without his herd of graphorn, that fixture of rural life throughout Ghyll. This little, yellow, different and better relative of the wily wild orn and the even-wilier wild orn are bred for their natural aptitude at data visualization and information design.
Graphorn (and their wild cousins) are members of the graphorn-and-their-wild-cousins family according to Kmuppens' Taxonomy. Graphorn-Herding and selective breeding of Graphorn are a recent innovation; before -6,000 EC, early Ghyllicans likely followed the migrating herds of graphorn, relying on speed and skill for gathering charts and presentation materials left behind by the animals on their travels. This hypothesis is supported not only by archeological and linguistic evidence, but the surprising prominence of "Grass eaten versus manure produced" graphics found in surviving sales presentations over 6,500 years old.
One of the oldest surviving examples of wild graphorn information design
Above, one of the oldest surviving examples of wild graphorn information design, reproduced with the permission of Godfroi Hasawithe from his private collection.
Even the modern, carefully bred "domestic" graphorn is still prone to
occasional bouts of wiliness, and many a country data analyst has woken up in
springtime only to find his morning's bar-charts covered in gratuitous
drop shadows, poorly labeled or misleading scales, and gaudy graphics
without clear semantic value. In fact, some scholars have speculated
that the Modern Standard Ghyllian word "graphorn" has its roots
in the Olkuull words "grphr" (meaning "that's pretty wily") and "rn"
(meaning "but has a great natural aptitude for the visual display of
quantitative information.") Of course, these scholars are both ignoring
the obvious and making stuff up.
Citations: Modern Standard Ghyllian, Kmuppens' Taxonomy, Early Ghyllian Sales and Marketing Practices.
--Joe Bowers 19:49, 27 Jun 2005 (EDT)
