The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

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Alex

02:47

@Mithrandir Not just difficult to remember; it's also cumbersome to implement. For example, if I'm talking to my study-partner (notice how I didn't use a jargon term for that), I can say: Is oneg Shabbos docheh zeman kerias Shema? and he will know exactly what I mean.

Saying the same thing to an outsider would require an entire paragraph explaining what Shabbos is, what oneg Shabbos is, whether sleeping late is considered oneg, what kerias Shema is, that there is a time limit for it's recitation, and then finally the actual question of whether the former overrides the latter.

@Mithrandir You can definitely say the same thing here. I was thinking that if someone were to ask the following question: Can a mudblood parselmouth teach occlumency to a squib? anyone who has not read Harry Potter would not have the foggiest idea what that sentence means.

@Mithrandir Case in point – I don't understand what you just wrote.

8 hours later…

Broklynite

10:45

Anyone about?

I’ve reached a point that I simply tell my coworkers that I’m willing to learn their jargon but they’re going to need to learn some Yiddish because it’s just too damn useful in my opinion.

Mithrandir

11:44

@Broklynite what chutzpah

(that's actually Aramaic, but I digress)

Jenayah

12:04

@Broklynite ahah that's a good throwback :)

3 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

15:31

ANIMATION Harry Potter and the Portrait of what Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash

►

^ what happens when a bot tries to write a Harry Potter story

Still a better story than Cursed Child!

2 hours later…

M&TV Feeds

18:01

Q: Looking for sci-fi film or show name I watched years ago about a father who's son was abducted by aliens

So, I'm not sure how many years ago, but quite a while ago I watched a film which I found extremely weird at the time, it didn't feel like it went in any sort of order and I remember it ended very abruptly It was of a man, who I remember being black, who had a son who was abducted by aliens (it'...

science-fiction

2 hours later…

Alex

19:45

Any Harry Potter experts who are also experts at English feel free to check out this question:

Q: Does the phrase "not nearly as many as" imply some level of similarity?

If a sentence would say: X has nearly as many Ys as Z. I think it would be understood that it means that X has fewer Ys than Z has, but it is not that much fewer. I.e. X has almost as many as Z. When you put a negative in front of the sentence the meaning changes. The question is how much. ...

meaning differences phrase-meaning degree-of-comparison

Well anyone can check it out, but Harry Potter and English experts would probably be more interested.

Mithrandir

> Moreover, the crowd in the mysterious room at the bottom of the basin was comprised of adults, and Harry knew there were not nearly that many teachers at Hogwarts.

This means that the crowd was comprised of a number of adults that far exceeded the amount of teachers at Hogwarts.

Implying that since there a lot more people than there would be if it was the Hogwarts teachers, then it's obviously not limited to Hogwarts teachers in the crowd.

There were not nearly that amount of teachers; so the crowd must be a lot larger than the amount of teachers, strengthening Harry's impression that this isn't Hogwarts.

Alex

@Mithrandir My question is, though, is there any implication as to how many more people there were than teachers at Hogwarts? For instance, if there were only 10 teachers at Hogwarts, I would never describe a room full of 200 people as "there were not nearly that many teachers". I would either say "there were nowhere near that many teachers", or more likely it wouldn't even enter my mind to compare it to the number of teachers because the numbers are so far apart.

Mithrandir

@Alex In this case, he's only comparing the numbers because it's giving reasons why this isn't Hogwarts.

(And I would say that 10 isn't nearly the same as 200, but...)

Edlothiad

I'm an English amateur and a Harry Potter dgaf-er. And I can tell you the Collins English dictionary is correct and you should interpret that to mean there are "nowhere near the same amount of teachers at Hogwarts as there are adults in that room". You go on to say 50. I call that "nowhere near" 200.

Alex

@Edlothiad I used 50 as a conservative example. I'm fine with it being 100-150.

Mithrandir

19:54

@Edlothiad I'm an editor in the English language (semi-professionally), and fairly well-versed in Harry Potter, and I have no idea what I'm talking about, so we're all good

Edlothiad

It doesn't suggest 100-150, it suggests far fewer.

Alex

@Mithrandir Right, but how far does it go? If he was looking down at Earth and saw 7 billion people would it be okay to say that it can't be Hogwarts because there aren't nearly that many teachers?

Edlothiad

That surprises me...

Mithrandir

@Alex Why not?

Alex

@Mithrandir It seems very strange to me.

Edlothiad

19:56

It's perfectly acceptable English.

Mithrandir

Probably depends where you're from, as lots of things with English do.

(chart generated with Google ngrams)

Alex

@Mithrandir What do the percentages represent?

Mithrandir

@Alex of the words in the books from that time, and can pretty much be safely ignored

Lhurgoyf

20:49

Hey, will it say if I change my username?

I'm thinking of changing it to something from Dishonored to go with my description on my profile and my icon.

E.g. "Kaldwin" or "Corvo Attano" or something

Mithrandir

There'll be a record visible to moderators for a few months, but other than that, no - there aren't any features like "used to be known as".

Lhurgoyf

Okay, thanks

@Jenayah @SQB @Randal'Thor I'm changing my username to "Corvo Attano"

How do I star this?

Please star that post so it is seen.

Jenayah

@Lhurgoyf you can't self-star your own messages, I think

Mithrandir

You can't star your own messages. Why do you feel it necessary to? Changing usernames isn't that huge a deal ;)

Lhurgoyf

I could on mobile

Okay

Jenayah

20:53

You could? :o

Lhurgoyf

21:12

It didn't change in Chat.

Even after reloading

Also didn't change after leaving the room and returning.

Mithrandir

21:32

@CorvoAttano I gave your account a refresh, it should be updated niw

Zaphod

22:26

Q: Is Harry Potter the first piece of fiction to involve wands with special cores?

It now seems like a common idea, perhaps one with a long reaching tradition. But my google results seem to be solely dominated by Harry Potter references. I've found references to wands with different things affixed to them like crystals or the like, but is Harry Potter really the originator of t...