[Syzygies]

I've been on various NSF grant panels. One was math / applied math / statistics. Everyone shares their concerns reading proposals, that's how one builds cred. Synthetic data got mentioned.

Late in the decision process, I couldn't resist, I blurted out the joke that had been on my mind for days,

"I can't believe it's not data!"

("Not butter", if you're young for the margarine commercial reference.)

This did not go over well, and probably cost math a grant.