The Reading Room

1:44 AM

> for that alone it would sure have been an interesting work

My first instinct was "sure" should be "surely", but now I'm not sure (heh). Which one is right? Are both?

From this answer

2:29 AM

Hey, I HNQ'd!

3:08 AM

@bobble Yea! Congratulations! We've had a good run of HNQs over the last 24 hrs or so

3:42 AM

@bobble strictly speaking, in formal writing, "surely" because the syntax requires an adverb. But that sort of usage of adjective for adverb is reasonably common in informal English, it seems. E.g., @Tsundoku always looks at me funny. I asked a question on ELU about this in your honor.

3:56 AM

hey @mods! wanna grab this question from ELU? I don't have enough rep there to suggest the annexation

also, I apparently did repcap yesterday but no mortarboard badge. Is that awarded just once per user, unlike (say) Nice Question?

Or wait, maybe the repcap applies only to upvotes, and so does the Mortarboard? Some of the rep was from accepts, which I believe don't apply toward the cap

4:15 AM

@Tsundoku is that related to caterwaul?

@verbose You can only get Motarboard once, however, repcapping more times can get silver and gold badges.

2 hours later…

Napoleon Wilson

6:46 AM

> Which is better, working hard or working hardly?

@verbose Mortarboard is awarded once. You'll have to collect 50 and 150 days for the silver and gold versions instead.

You don't get 50 bronze badges before these, though.

7:12 AM

thanks @NapoleonWilson and @bobble for 'splainin

1 hour later…

8:31 AM

@bobble "Surely" would be correct, with a meaning something like "I believe, with high probability". "Sure" is more informal, and specific to American English, with a meaning more like "certainly" than "surely".

@verbose The rules around repcap are a bit weird. If you get 205 rep on a day with an acceptance, then (AFAIR) it doesn't count for a Mortarboard badge, because you didn't cap from upvotes alone and you could've earned more that day, but it does count as a day of progress towards the Epic/Legendary badges (50/150 repcaps).

thanks @Randal'Thor for 'splainin

Q: Which element of an amputated virgin breast healing a snakebite is a "Celtic theme"?

9:26 AM

The Breton folk song Gwerz Santes Enori has survived for centuries as an oral tradition combining storytelling with music. Its story, quoting Wikipedia's summary, begins like this: The poem's story concerns the youngest of a king's three daughters (the king of Brest, or Brittany, or Spain, depen...

2 hours later…

Q: How close to actual incantations are the witches' spells in Macbeth?

11:03 AM

Answers to a recent question about the superstition surrounding Macbeth linked to a Royal Shakespeare Company web page that claimed: According to folklore, Macbeth was cursed from the beginning. A coven of witches objected to Shakespeare using real incantations, so they put a curse on the play. ...

william-shakespeare macbeth thomas-middleton

@Bookworm I wonder whether 🧙would be a good tag synonym for Middleton's The Witch

Q: Do contemporary neo-pagan practices such as Wicca regard the portrayal of witchcraft in Shakespeare and Middleton as reliable sources?

11:27 AM

A recent question asks whether the portrayal of witchcraft in Macbeth can be related to actual practices of those professing to be witches during Shakespeare's day. This companion question asks about neo-pagan practice in our own time. Neo-pagan religions such as Wicca rely on reconstructions of ...

william-shakespeare macbeth the-witch thomas-middleton

Tsundoku

11:37 AM

You can use Mock the Week videos as a source of literature questions. For example, I got "Discuss the metaphysical meaning of the following poem: My friend Billy as a ten-foot willy" and "Explain the use of juxtaposition in Macbeth. Alternatively, write down everything you know about Macbeth in a blind panic 'cause you got no idea what the word juxtaposition is." from

Unlikely questions from this year's exams | Mock The Week - BBC

►

Napoleon Wilson

12:03 PM

Q: What's the origin of the rhyme "My friend Billy had a ten foot willy"?

A simple rhyming song which I heard growing up and which still gets stuck in my head every so often: My friend Billy had a ten foot willy. He stuck it through the neighbour's door. OR He showed it to the girl next door. She thought it was a snake, Hit it with a rake, And now it's only...

poetry history-of-literature

12:20 PM

Five figures, bitches! Do I, like, get a tiara or something? 👸

12:40 PM

Congrats @verbose!! :-D

Tsundoku

@NapoleonWilson See? I wasn't the first one who thought of that.

@Tsundoku Someone reasked it on Mythology, after failing to browbeat me into migrating my question there, and self-answered it. Might be some useful information there to help answer the original question here.

12:56 PM

@Randal'Thor thanks!

@Bookworm Interesting question, but might be very hard to answer. How many records exist nowadays of 16th-century witch incantations?

@Bookworm Is this one where you know the answer yourself but didn't have time to write up a fully researched and detailed answer yet?

If not, maybe your late husband's ex-wife would know? :-)

2 hours later…

Q: Is Raymond having an affair with Masson's wife?

3:06 PM

When Raymond, Meursault and Marie went to visit Raymond's friend, Masson, they decide to go to swim after a brief but Masson's wife and Raymond refuse the idea and rather stay at the bungalow. For the first time, perhaps, I seriously considered the possibility of me marrying her. Masson wanted ...

french-literature albert-camus the-stranger

3:22 PM

good morning/afternoon/evening, my dearest verbose

4 hours later…

6:57 PM

@bobble top o’ the morning to you too!

dips into an exaggerated curtsey

@Randal'Thor I do know that Hecate in Wicca isn’t regarded quite as Middleton presents her in Macbeth. But unlike my husband or his wife, I’m not a scholar of Wicca. Yes, Valerie would know the answer and she says she will get around to answering in a few days

@bobble I’ven’t yet been issued that tiara so maybe the curtsying is premature ;-)

I am living in a strange, backwards world where my English class is easier than math or science. Help!

7:53 PM

@bobble welcome to my world!

4 hours later…

11:45 PM

Wow I’m repcapped again