The Reading Room

bobble

12:00 AM

what did it ask to be called?

Tsundoku

"a day" apparently. Don't ask me why.

bobble

Can I ask it why?

Tsundoku

If you can find it.

bobble

Where are you, "a day"?

Tsundoku

Maybe it has been seized, as the Romans recommended.

bobble

12:06 AM

Perhaps it passed with time

Tsundoku

"Carpe diem. Seize the day." - Dead Poets Society

►

Anyway, I'm going to welcome the night. Before it's too late.

bobble

waves

Bookworm

12:22 AM

0

Q: Analyzing Thomas Mcguane's "Balloons"

Recently, The New Yorker came out with Thomas Mcguane's short story Balloons. It is a really a short piece of fiction. However, it wasn't clear to me what the author intends to convey through this short story. All I could make out of it was that it takes the reader through a good relationship gon...

Bookworm

2:05 AM

0

Q: Gagool, Gagoola, or Gagaoola? A gaggle of names, for which Googling leads to goggling, guggling, or giggling

In Chapter One of King Solomon's Mines we have the first reference to one of the main antagonists of the story: Stop, though! there is Gagaoola, if she was a woman, and not a fiend. Throughout the rest of the book in the story, however, her name is Gagool. For example, in Chapter Nine: “White ...

h-rider-haggard king-solomons-mines

verbose

2:39 AM

@Tsundoku I did know that, I was just making a joke. Thanks!

verbose

3:02 AM

@bobble shouldn't that be "emboldening"?

bobble

?

ah, you meant the last line of my latest answer?

I mean if you want to edit, sure, I think it's fine either way

verbose

@Bookworm How interesting, the header as it shows up now does not have "A gaggle of names ... " etc., just the opening question. But I don't see any edit history for the question.

bobble

If a question is edited in the grace period of posting (5min) it won't show up

verbose

@bobble oh, ah. I didn't know that. I wonder why @Alex edited it. It's witty

Alex

@verbose It doesn't really add anything to the question. Once Bookworm recorded it for posterity, I figured it was unnecessary.

verbose

3:17 AM

ah

bobble

in the hypothetical case where a user came in to this chatroom and did something they had been repeatedly and explicitly asked to not do, would flagging their message be appropriate?

verbose

@bobble I think so

bobble

Spam/Offensive or Moderator?

verbose

Unless it really is spam or offensive, I'd say Moderator. At least two mods are pretty active in this room so would probably know the history you reference

Also, I believe anybody above a certain rep can see "spam/offensive" flags?

bobble

10k network-wide ("network" meaning not Meta-meta or SO)

verbose

3:25 AM

Though I suppose any moderator might see the Moderator flag and without knowing the history might not understand why it has been flagged

bobble

I believe you can specify a reason in the flag box, though I have never actually tried

verbose

Right, and for "spam/offensive" you can't. So you would get users all across the network thinking "this isn't spam or offensive" because they don't know the history and can't see a reason

Hypothetically, such a user might also ask me to join a separate chat room just for me and them, I suppose. In such a case I would just turn on the "ignore this user" setting in that user's profile, I think

bobble

I have unfortunately been invited to such a room against my will, and do not know a way to get rid of the notification other than going into the room (which would make me pingable there)

verbose

I used "ignore this user" and that worked for me?

bobble

Ignoring them doesn't make the invite notification go away

verbose

3:32 AM

Huh, interesting.

bobble

Alex

Pretty sure there was a Meta post a couple of years back.

Might have been deleted.

I think the title was something like "How should I have handled this?"

Gareth Rees

3:36 PM

“Poetry seems, by some inner necessity, to be becoming more difficult to read … Poets, on the face of it, have either got to be easier or to write their own notes” — William Empson (1930), ‘Obscurity and Annotation’

Alex

8:10 PM

@Bookworm Not sure if name-significance would be appropriate here?

Rand al'Thor

@Alex I don't think so. It's not really about the significance of the name, more about what really is her name or why there are different versions.

Alex

@Randal'Thor True, although one possibility mentioned at the end of the question is that all three are correct and have some meaning, which could be construed as "significance".

Rand al'Thor

An unlikely possibility.

Now I should ask why Gavrila in Dostoevsky's The Idiot is variously referred to as Ganya, Gañka, and Ganechka at different places throughout the story.

Alex

I haven't read that one, but in War and Peace all the characters have a few variations of their name. I think it's a Russian language thing?

Rand al'Thor

Yes, every Russian name has at least one "diminutive" form, something like a pet name but more widely used than pet names would be in English, and applying to common nouns as well as personal names.

So @Alex might become Alya to most of your friends, Alka to schoolboy chums, Alechka to doting parents. Something like that anyway, as far as I can remember it being described for Gavrila.

Alex

8:25 PM

I think I'll go with Alechka.

Or Alexé.

Rand al'Thor

Alexei is a Russian name too.

I think a separate name from Alexander, rather than a diminutive form.

Alex

How about Alasdair?

The name is a Gaelic form of Alexander which has long been a popular name in Scotland.

Rand al'Thor

@Alex That's a darling name.

Alex

I'm game for a baronship.

Or whatever the correct form of the word would be.

Don't think I'd be a good Member of Parliament though.

Rand al'Thor

@Alex Oh, you might be. You've got a good eye for detail and spotting inconsistencies in long written texts; you'd probably be great at debating bills.

Although you might end up making long-winded speeches that nobody else would agree with.

Alex

8:36 PM

@Randal'Thor This.

I certainly do enjoy a good debate.

Rand al'Thor

You'd be a fringe but vocal backbencher.

bobble

@Randal'Thor perhaps a SCOTUS dissent? :)

Rand al'Thor

Not that that did Jeremy Corbyn any harm.

@bobble I think we were talking about UK-style parliamentary systems :-)

Alex

Does the British system have anything remotely equivalent?

bobble

@Randal'Thor bah, I'm your resident ignorant American and I say down with other countries' confusing political systems! Ours makes perfect sense.

Rand al'Thor

8:42 PM

@bobble I have absolutely no idea why you'd think British politics doesn't make sense.

@Alex To what?

Alex

@Randal'Thor United States Supreme Court, mentioned above.

Rand al'Thor

@Alex Well, Britain has a Supreme Court too.

Tsundoku

@bobble These have either been deleted or "branded" now.

verbose

"branded"?

Alex

The United Kingdom has a doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty,[5] so the Supreme Court is much more limited in its powers of judicial review than the constitutional or supreme courts of some other countries. It cannot overturn any primary legislation made by Parliament.

I guess that's the answer, then.

Tsundoku

8:49 PM

21 hours ago, by Tsundoku

The Grand Radiant Spam is a real username now.

Rand al'Thor

@Alex But it can act as the judicial branch of government to overturn the executive branch in order to protect the legislative branch.

bobble

@Bookworm this question's ga-going onto the HNQs

verbose

@Tsundoku So mods can modify a username if in the mod's judgment the user is spam?

Rand al'Thor

@bobble Pretty impressive for an 18-hour-old question.

verbose

TIL

bobble

8:51 PM

@verbose or whenever

Rand al'Thor

@verbose We have the power to edit usernames, but it's meant to be used with great care.

bobble

For example, if someone made their username "bobble is an evil Nazi and should be hanged", that could be changed

Rand al'Thor

Useful if someone goes and takes an obscene or offensive username.

changes @verbose's username to Laconic

Tsundoku

Or if you want to make profile spammers easy to identify network-wide.

Alex

@bobble I believe there is a 30 character limit.

bobble

8:55 PM

@Alex well, I can't delete the message anyhow

Rand al'Thor

flags it for anti-bobble-ism

hyper-neutrino

Other than uploading a new image as a profile picture, can't we edit just about anything in a user's profile? At least, I think.

Alex

You can flag something for staying in place?

Rand al'Thor

Oh hi @hyper-neutrino!

hyper-neutrino

Hello there! :D

Rand al'Thor

8:58 PM

First time I've seen your name actually in blue and diamonded.

Alex

Something with the words "hyper" or "neutrino" in it glowing blue usually signifies imminent danger.

hyper-neutrino

Huh.. yeah that just occurred to me. Can't recall if we've encountered each other before I became a mod or if this is also my first time seeing yours in blue

@Alex my arrival usually signals impending doom >:-D

Alex

I was wondering where that menacing music came from.

Rand al'Thor

There used to be two mods on different SE sites with the username Darth Vader.

Alex

You mean they were modevaders?

Tsundoku

9:09 PM

Or Vaderators?

bobble

What were their opinions on sand?

Alex

We'd have to dig them up.

verbose

9:38 PM

@Randal'Thor Much nicer than "Taciturn." I salute you

bobble

10:07 PM

@Randal'Thor your latest question seems a mite similar to mine :)

Rand al'Thor

True :-)

Btw, congrats @bobble on overtaking another couple of users in the rep leagues.

I should hurry up and give you a bounty if I'm going to, before you hit 4k.

I think North already bountied your Watership Down answer?

bobble

yep

Bookworm

1

Q: Who are the pronouns referring to in the Mauritanian poem "You Will Tell Them"?

Mariem Mint Derwich's poem "You Will Tell Them", available in English translation from Words Without Borders, appears to be about a Mauritanian woman, perhaps "the" woman of Mauritania representing (metonymously?) the whole Mauritanian culture and people. A number of pronouns are used throughout ...

poetry french-literature mariem-mint-derwich

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