@Monica Yes, I know what you mean. I have a son who is completely different from me in every way. And I am proud of everything he achieves. But some part of me is even prouder if he achieves something that I could have achieved when I was young.
I didn't stick to the new one, because I liked it even less than this one. I hate most photographs of myself.
The light always seems wrong, or something.
It's because I'm tall, I think. So the camera is usually some distance below my face; whereas most photographs of people work better if the camera is higher than their face.
So, Meysam, when will you change your avatar to a REAL photo of yourself?
Oh. When you first described him to me, I assumed that he was a real person. I didn't understand that you are someone who creates fictional disappearing sheikhs. You are indeed a man full of surprises.
Is there a way to indicate that somebody is your girlfriend without using the possessive term my? I think saying She/He is my partner/other half is OK for married people, but it doesn't feel right for girlfriends and boyfriends.
I'm having trouble understanding the rationale behind the meaning of an American English phrase of which I just became aware. That phrase is:
You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar
From what I understand now, this phrase would indicate that You make more friends by being ...
@Reg: I distinctly remember trying to translate this into German when I worked for the German bank. I think I said, Man kann mehr Fliegen mit Honig als mit Essig fangen. They puzzled to understand the point I was making. It was at that point I realized I didn't want to work for the Germans anymore.
Is there an equivalent expression in German? Perhaps they were just putting me on.
@Cerberus The man has a remarkably clear bookhand. But I wonder about his F and f: are those the way they teach you to make those in Dutchland, or is it a personal affectation?
His lowercase f has quite a shepherd’s hook, and a descender.
His uppercase F is symmetric across the stem, with both pieces crossing to the left as well as to the right.
There’s a transcription of Dijkstra’s longhand manuscript referenced above into greppable HTML text here. But you lose his handwriting.
@Monica Well, this chat room is accessible from everywhere in the world, right? I have no reason to think that someone is talking about an American state, when they could be talking about an entire country. I'm not particularly focussed on America; I guess because I live a long way away from there.
@Monica You of course have to say you’re from the country of Georgia, qualifying it appropriately. That is no different from someone in Virginia referring to Washington State, or talking about New York City. Or Mexico City.
If there were a country somewhere in the world that had a state called America, would you go round telling people that you are from "America, the country"? I think not.
Uncommon to whom? I talk about countries far, far more than I talk about American states. If someone says "Georgia" to me, it is natural for me to think of the country.
Excuse me? You were the one who came here and started using the word "normally" to mean "American". How DARE you accuse me of a prejudice! It is you who are being obnoxious.
@Monica Please forgive me for responding to tchrist, rather than ignoring him. You said I wouldn't find the former Soviet Union interesting or educational, and I don't agree. Any country that's different from my own will teach me something about life and about people.
@Monica What you should learn from this is that at least one American (OK almost all Americans, including myself) without any other context, would interpret Georgia to mean the US state rather than the former, and non-Americans would not. So that if talking to an American (if you happen to know that) say 'Georgia the country, not the state' but for pretty much the rest of the world say 'Georgia' (for where you come from). For the US state, do it the other way.
You know, I always hated the soviet union. It destroyed my grandmother's family by sending her father to a Stalin's camp. My great-granfather on my mother's side was sentenced to be shot. He was a priest.
> The term Caucasian Iberia (or Eastern Iberia) is used to distinguish it from the Iberian Peninsula, where the present day countries of Spain, Portugal and Andorra are located.