English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@skullpatrol just copied pasted the Limerick above

!!define limerick

@kwak limerick A humorous, often bawdy verse of five anapestic lines, with the rhyme scheme

!!define anapest

@kwak bawdy (obsolete) Soiled, dirty. [from 14th Century]

@kwak anapestic of, or relating to, or composed of an anapest.

@kwak anapest (prosody) A metrical foot consisting of three syllables, two short and one long (e.g the word "velveteen").

off-topic

Q: Accurate meaning of "as" in "as by"

7:12 PM

@Robusto et all: Here are questions from our resident cornswaggling butt munchkin wannabe in need of more close votes and of more delete votes, especially this one.

I am tired of my close votes evaporating due to low viewcounts.

Then there’s today’s turd-blossom:

-1

From http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=paternalism&searchmode=none: paternalism (n.) = ..."government as by a father over his children,..." What part of speech is as here, and then which of the many definitions of as befits? Please explain the steps or thought pr...

meaning-in-context

@skullpatrol I did one limerick:

May 7 at 21:30, by c c

On my ride back tonight
on the road some tiny light
a fireflies crossing this hostile surface right?
sadly it was just some tobacco insight

hmm it should be 5 anapestic lines

On my ride tonight
I see a tiny light
A firefly right?
No, the toxic bite
Of a smoking fight

7:37 PM

Do people really think marijuana can help their brain? (it is not legal in France) Or I read it wrong

it can just help their pain, but surely not their brain and their health

7:53 PM

They’ve changed the close-vote evaporation algorithm. Where are the new rules documented?

8:07 PM

Found the exception.

If something goes through the Close-Vote Review Queue and accumulates enough Leave Open votes to remove it form the review queue, then aging of close-votes begins immediately no matter how many views the question has.

Dang it.

8:23 PM

@Cerb @terdon I have a resource request: I need a French etymological dictionary.

qui soit en français, of course.

Q: Art and Culture are to "Philistine" as Feeling and Compassion are to what?

8:39 PM

0

I'm looking for a noun to personify the adjectives "unfeeling" and "heartless" the same way Philistine personifies "uncivilized" and "crude". I'm looking for something a bit more tactful than say, "a cold-hearted bastard", which is all I've been able to come up with so far. Does such a word exi...

single-word-requests nouns personification

Well!

9:12 PM

!!define tidbit

@JohanLarsson tidbit A tasty morsel (of food, gossip etc.)

Cart, please meet horse:

@nneonneo I’ve been thinking about your question, and I have an idea I would like you to please consider. I believe that finding a sentence where swapping its, yours, theirs for it’s, your’s, their’s doesn’t change its meaning is not what you need to prove that this problem is unsolvable by simple spellchecking software. Rather, I believe what you need is a sentence where that change produces a valid sentence whose meaning is different. After all, if the meaning doesn’t change, then it wouldn’t matter how it is spelled. Only spelling changes that change meaning matter. See? — tchrist 3 mins ago

Does that make sense, or do I need to check my blood sugar?

In other words, he’s asked for the opposite of what he needs for the purpose he intends.

That’s why there are so many answers that are all over the board, and why none seems satisfying.

@nneonneo I’ve been thinking about your question, and I have an idea I would like you to please consider. I believe that finding a sentence where swapping its/yours/theirs for it’s/your’s/their’s does not change its meaning is not what you need to prove that this problem is unsolvable by simple spellchecking software. Rather, I believe what you need is a sentence where that change produces a valid sentence whose meaning is different. After all, if the meaning doesn’t change, then it wouldn’t matter how it is spelled. Only spelling changes that change meaning matter. See? — tchrist 1 min ago

Bat signal at 40. Nobody is around.

The left brain uses sequence and steps to arrive at a "proven" or "logical" conclusion. The right brain comprehends in a more abstract manner. So contemplating a problem, the mind mixes similar "questions" with insights and patterns before it begins to formulate a solution or answer. I am looking for a simple word or phrase to describe the synthesis of problem solving in one's brain where ideas, images, words, patterns and fuzzy thinking all coincide. — Tim Bachman 1 min ago

Well, that sure does clarify things.

Not.

I am concerned that I am developing a popcorn addiction. It is just too yummy!

@JohanLarsson Note that speakers of Insular English tend to prefer titbid over North American tidbit, much as they also prefer Great Tit over our Chickadee. :)

!!define insular

@JohanLarsson insular Of, pertaining to, being, or resembling an island or islands.

@tchrist Googled the second riddle in an other window :)

9:24 PM

The coincidence of tits and chicks in the Poecile or Parus genera is one of those great ironies that nobody ever takes credit for.

Ser ut som en talltita

@JohanLarsson Insular meaning island: I’m trying to avoid insulting the Irish by calling them all British.

yep understood that

oh ok

Apparently the speakers of Antipodean English, insular though they are, have neither tits nor chickadees because that genus and indeed the entire Paridae family itself appears to be entirely absent from those storied isles.

I think you must surely have Paridae in Scandinavia. They’re boreal birdies in my experience.

> Emigrants to New Zealand presumably identified some of the superficially similar birds of the genus Petroica of the family Petroicidae, the Australian robins, as members of the tit family, giving them the title tomtit although, in fact, they are not related.

yep entita and talltita, feels like they are on the top20 list of most common. Oh forgot talgoxen

9:29 PM

I really like the entire family. They are so quick, so social, so chatty.

they are nice

Wikipedia says that the Paridae “have been described as "one of the most conservative avian families in terms of general morphology"”.

I think that is saying that they are much alike.

Tit (bird)

The tits, chickadees, and titmice constitute Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds which occur in the northern hemisphere and Africa. Most were formerly classified in the genus Parus. These birds are called either "chickadees" (onomatopoeic, derived from their distinctive "chick-a dee dee dee" alarm call) or "titmice" in North America, and just "tits" in the rest of the English-speaking world. The name titmouse is recorded from the 14th century, composed of the Old English name for the bird, mase (Proto-Germanic *maison, German Meise) and tit, denoting something small. The spelling was...

@Johan Do yours have cute pointy crests?

looks like they are islanders

That’s very interesting. Just about everywhere but South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Well, and the Sahara, but who can blame them? Notably they are in Indonesia and Japan and South Africa.

@tchrist the ~hair~?

9:34 PM

@JohanLarsson A bird with a crest has a pointy triangular bit of hair on the top of his head.

Not all of them, here goes:

Talgoxe Blåmes Entita Talltita, the most common ones here I think.

Those are nice. I like the blue–orange contrast.

Your third one is indistinguishable from some of ours.

Fourth one, also.

We don’t have any with the blue–orange contrast. Some, however, have a nice chestnut.

@tchrist 3 & 4 are very similar, can't tell them apart.

9:39 PM

This is our most common one:

What is his Latin name?

That one is:

Black-capped chickadee

The black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) is a small, nonmigratory, North American songbird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. It is the state bird of both Maine and Massachusetts in the United States, and the provincial bird of New Brunswick in Canada. It is well known for its capacity to lower its body temperature during cold winter nights as well as its good spatial memory to relocate the caches where it stores food, and its boldness near humans (sometimes feeding from the hand). == Taxonomy == Though often placed in the genus...

@tchrist Read it twice, felt tired. Does not mean anything.

Talltita

Talltita (Parus montanus eller Poecile montana) är en liten fågel som tillhör familjen mesfåglar. == Taxonomi och utbredning == Talltitan beskrevs som en egen art först 1827 av Conrad von Baldenstein och har oftast placerats i det stora messläktet Parus. Dock är detta släktes taxonomi omdiskuterat och bland annat skiljer American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) ut släktet Poecile från släktet Parus och placerar talltitan till Poecile. Talltitan är känd för att hybridisera med en rad närbesläktade arter som lappmes, svartmes och entita. En förmodad hybrid mellan tofsmes och talltita observerades och...

Entita

Entita (Parus palustris) är en liten mesfågel som förekommer i palearktis och som i mycket är en stationär stannfågel. == Utbredning och taxonomi == Entitan placeras traditionellt i det stora messläktet Parus, där den fortfarande placeras av exempelvis Sveriges ornitologiska förening (SOF) och IUCN. Den nordamerikanska ornitologiska föreningen (AOU) har delat upp släktet Parus och placerar därför entitan i det nya släktet Poecile. Entitan är en stannfågel som förekommer över stora delar av Europa, så långt norr ut som södra Skandinavien och österut till Turkiet, Georgien och i Ryssland till området...

There is some question about Parus versus Poecile.

I have two kinds. The Mountain Chickadee differs in that instead of a complete black cap, he has a stripe. He also has a funny accent.

This one is from the Pacific Northwest, all the way up to Alaska:

Lappmes

Lappmes (Parus cinctus) är en fågel som tillhör familjen mesfåglar. Den har tidigare placerats i det stora messläktet Parus men vissa auktoriteter för den idag tillsammans med ett antal andra mesar till släktet Poecile. Lappmesen förekommer i subarktiska områden från Skandinavien och österut genom Asien till Alaska och allra nordvästligaste Kanada och delas vanligtvis upp i fyra underarter. Lappmesen är en rätt långstjärtad och stor mes med mörkbrun hätta, vit kind, mörkbrun trekantig haklapp. Ovansidan är varmbrun, och undersidan ljusgrå. Den föredrar sammanhängande områden med äldre gles barrskog...

9:44 PM

I guess I can see why they say the family has conservative morphology.

I'm in the middle of a tutorial, should continue.

They are very obviously all quite related.

In the middle how?

@tchrist indeed

This the the Boreal Chickadee:

when is your interview?

9:46 PM

Thursday, leave Wednesday.

I think the titmice are unique to North America. They’re the ones with the crests.

peopleofwalmart.com

I think we have one with crest but can't remember the name

A: Origin of the word “bootleg”

@JohanLarsson Um, ew — I think.

0

It came from the days when amputees ruled the underground of smuggling. They would purchase extra long boots and fill them with a variety of assorted liquors in differently shaped bottles, arranged in some novel way to be shaped and function as legs. This period of heavy trafficking of liquor, sp...

Tofsmes

Tofsmes (Parus cristatus, ibland Lophophanes cristatus) är en tätting som tillhör familjen mesfåglar. == Taxonomi och utbredning == Tofsmesen taxonomiska beskrivning härstammar från Linnés tionde upplaga av Systema Naturae från 1758 men tofsmesen hade redan beskrivits och avbildats av exempelvis Olof Rudbeck d.y. i den fågelbok han skapade i slutet av 1600-talet och början av 1700-talet. Denna art placeras traditionellt i det stora messläktet Parus och görs så fortfarande av exempelvis Sveriges Ornitologiska Förening (SOF). På grund av de distinkta karaktärer som gruppen eurasiska tofsmes...

Don't think I have seen it live

@tchrist confirmed ew, a couple of lols in that compilation though

I don’t ever recall seeing him either, but then I never spent much time in the right habitat in Europe where one would find him.

Nice lighting.

Funny genus.

> It is a widespread and common resident breeder in coniferous forests throughout central and northern Europe and in deciduous woodland in France and the Iberian peninsula.

Interesting that in the south of its range, it haunts deciduous forests instead of coniferous ones as in the north.

Insofar as those are distinct. Some conifers are deciduous; not many, but some.

This is not surprising: Russian firing into Ukraine now.

But while unsurprising, it is still unhappy.

10:03 PM

!!define deciduous

Stuff that gets shed, like the leaves of certain trees or one’s baby teeth.

peopleofwalmart.com/category/featured-creature/page/12/…, cookie pic is interesting.

I guess if there’s trailer-trash television, it makes sense that there’re also trailer-trash websites.

yeah /watching that now

Saladin

sexy bird

10:24 PM

@tchrist maybe pull your last comments to quite this down?

I did.

She still things links are examples though, and they are not.

@tchrist She's a bit hair trigger, so gentle prodding may be a better way to get the results we want.

Yes, and she downvoted a pair of my highest voted answers only 9 seconds apart when I complained to her and downvoted that answer.

I say “she” and of course I don’t know, but the coincidence is damning.

A lot of her answers are just unsupported one-liners.

She’s been around long enough she should know better, IM!HO.

@Rob looky what I got!

Am I supposed to be seeing something there?

10:33 PM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Lucky you.

@tchrist You don't?

@tchrist Patience. Pam is making you jumpy.

No, it’s blank.

@bib You’re right.

Pam is the new problem user?

No.

10:36 PM

@tchrist Maybe she's sabotaged your image feed!

Oh, dear.

Jolenealaska

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Safari hung. Had to kill -TERM it.

Now I seed your pickies.

@bib I’ll go ditch my comments to her today.

@tchrist Hooray!

11:20 PM

Hi everyone. Can you advice me? Can I write the following sentence into my motivation letter? "I want to summarize just in a few lines that why I think I worth for XYZFirm" Is it correct this way?

Does not sound right, what about 'This is why you should hire me:'

thanks Johan, that is simpler, but isn't it a bit forced :-s?

perhaps, hang around and wait for more people to have a look.

thanks, maybe I stay with your solution

George Capote

11:37 PM

"I'd like to summarize in a few lines why I believe you should hire me"

now, can someone tell me where I can throw a fit and rant about my answer in a question and its comments?

would a meta be reasonable for this?

(strange wording, I know)