| Print | A more than nominal problem By tempting us to define
our own reality, nominalism can throw a whole culture out of
whack. My father didn’t like to spend money when he didn’t have
to, so when my mother expressed a wish for an automatic
dishwasher, one day he showed up with an old portable unit that
some friends of ours got rid of when they bought a newer model.
It was a big floor-model box on rollers, and you ran one hose to
the kitchen sink and another to the sink drain and plugged it
into a wall outlet. It worked fine for a few weeks. Then one day
it refused to drain. We opened the door and saw all this dirty
dishwater, so we bailed it out and I volunteered to fix it.
Because I was cheaper than calling a repairman, my father agreed
to let me tear into the thing. After a lot of gross and messy
work, I found the problem: a toothpick had lodged between the
drain pump impeller and the housing. That little toothpick had
jammed the pump, and as a result the whole washer couldn’t
drain. I learned several t