@Cerberus Lift it.

Ah, yes.

That sounds idiomatic.

I'm afraid so.

I was thinking, no, it isn't relieve. Then my mind short-circuited.

@IceGirl Hi.

Hey Cerby! I'm struggling with a word. Are you here?

I'm trying to be diplomatic, sometimes not my strength.

Hmm. Anyone?

I guess I'll try back later.

@Jolenealaska Hi!

What word are you struggling with?

Hi Cerby..Hold on:

golds on even while being thrown hither and yon by rapid movements

Well, crap, how do I zoom that?

Zoom? I can read it.

I probably agree with the sentiment expressed in that quotation.

But...what about it?

Yes, I think most reasonable people would agree...however...Pious is not the best word

or piety

Oh.

Religious, meaning "more religious than average"?

Orthodox? Fundamentalist?

I want to be very non-offensive,

But I think pious is a nice word there, actually.

Piety.

right...whattever...

It implies that you are willing to humour those people by saying they may indeed be more pious than others, as they no doubt think they are.

Right?

There is also some irony.

Can I somehow separate it from any religious connotation?

Oh.

Conservative?

Old fashioned?

Cautious?

Not that we don't think alike on this issue...I know you well enough that I know we do...

Probably.

You could say rural, but they might not like that.

Reserved?

Maybe conservative. Hmm. The question (to be self answered) will be, "What the hell does "Funnier than Hell" mean?

So I'm broaching the subject of swearing. I want to tread carefully.

But your gut says "leave it"? What about the ..uh..(?) ?

I'd probably remove the uh and the question mark. And the dots.

There is a nice, subtle irony in "enclaves of piety" that will offend noöne.

Alright, thanks for your advice. I'll leave it like that (without the ...uh(?), so I'm just about ready to post.

Cool!

I'd love for you to one of the first to read it. I'll keep chat open, so I'm all ears for suggestions.

Oh!

When will you post it?

I thought I just did...but it's not posting...

Huh, I hit post, I'm not getting any error messages, It just keeps going back to the enter/edit page

@Cerberus That was a battle, but it's up now.

Yay!

@Jolenealaska Good answer.

One question that remains is, why is funny connected with a swear word at all?

I'm glad you think so.

Believe it or not, I kind of sweated over that one.

If you can say it better than my last line, be my guest.

Hah.

Really!

I kind of hope to get comments and other answers that kind of fill in the blanks.

I'm actually not entirely sure why we have funny as [swear word].

Why not funny as a clown?

(Even though I don't think clowns are funny.)

It makes no sense.

It just is

I don't make these rules :)

Heh.

I'm sure someone could explain the circumstances.

We'd need some historical information.

I'd love to hear it and I'd love it to show up on the thread. Funny thing, if no one is around, say "funnier than hell" out loud. It's hard to do with a straight face! :)

Hey, have we thought about the difference between funnier than hell and funny as hell yet?

I almost linked to a Carlin bit, but I decided that was pushing it.

@Cerberus Still waters run deep.

Do you know Akcent?

@DamkerngT.

Ah, you're here.

How are you?

I am fine Sir.

Want to tell you.

1. bought a new guitar

2. started learning it.

I don't know Akcent. What is it? A band?

3. joined Gym

Yes. It is a band.

Akcent is a band.

I saw your yesterday message. Still want to practice?

Why not sir?

My aim is to speak English fluently.

I am determined.

That's it.

Type back, quick.

All you need is ...

I grew up in a big family. Accidentally walking in on others in embarrassing states of undress was a fairly common thing. My dad would brush it off and say, "If you've seen it before it doesn't matter; if you haven't seen it before you won't know what it is." That fits with swearing too, just replaced "seen" with "heard". :)

All you need is twenty second of insane courage

and I promise you

something great will come of it.

Ah, you can still remember the line.

I also remeber this.

Hello @Jolenealaska

@hellodear2 ^^

Do you love guitar?

I like it. I enjoyed playing it for a while. (Very amateurishly.)

hmmmm......

I am learning classical music on guitar.

Sorry about the non sequitur, we were just discussing swearing... Hi @DamkerngT.

@Jolenealaska No need to worry. I'm sure it was about the conversation between you and Cerb. I didn't scroll back to read the chat log yet. :-)

@hellodear2 Classical guitar is way beyond me. :-)

Yep, It was directed at Cerby. No matter! :)

Hehe.

Handling F Chord is hard enough for me already. :-)

Why did snailplane changed her name?

I think it's snailboat now.

I am not learning chords. I am learning Sa re ga ma pa.

It always snail-something. A transport for snails. :-)

Is that like do re mi?

She really like snails. :D

I don't know sa re ga ma pa.

@DamkerngT. are you serious?

@Jolenealaska I think a chord is rather like a note.

@hellodear2 Yes. If I happened to know it, I must haven't known its name.

@DamkerngT. Are you familiar with do re mi?

Cool. Do you want to listen it in my voice. I wil record it and send to you.

@Jolenealaska As in the Sound of Music?

@hellodear2 Perhaps not now, but you can upload your clip, and I can listen to it later.

Yes, but it's usage is much bigger than that now.

Yes, I will upload it later.

Hah!

You should not bear it. :-p

I didn't mean it that way. :-)

what is the meaning of this: "Wow! Your voice is great!! I like the combination of east meets west."

It could be anything.

Likely, something cultural.

Oh, then it's about your music, I think.

Yes. Somebody from U.S.A commented on my song yesterday.

"Wow! Your voice is great!! I like the combination of east meets west."

So your music (perhaps your voice in particular) reminds him of both something from the East and something from the West.

Can I say this: He likes my song? :-D

Does your music include themes that sound American/European and other themes that sound Asian in flavor?

@Jolenealaska have a look. soundcloud.com/gourav-singhal-1/break-up-pain-2

@hellodear2 Of course!

:-D

I know. Was kidding.

@DamkerngT.

Hello @TylerJamesYoung

I haven't seen you in here for quite a while.

Very nice, and YES, I'm hearing influences of America/Europe and Asia.

Hello

@Jolenealaska thanks for the feedback.

@hellodear2 What is your native language?

I was hoping J.R. would be in here. Can you @ people who aren't here?

Hindi @Jolenealaska and click the like button if you want. :-)

@TylerJamesYoung I believe it's unlikely.

@TylerJamesYoung Sometimes. Other times it doesn't work. Sometimes people will see it show up in their inbox right away

But I think J.R. is on the main every day.

@J.R. Undelete the household name answer!

we'll see if that works

Hindi! Wow...I just had a conversation with someone (totally elsewhere) about translating a musical into Hindi. The idea made him laugh. I'll have to go back to "like" it, but I will :)

@Jolenealaska Hindi is a good language too. :-) HAha. Thanks in advance for the like. :D

@hellodear2 Try transcribing this news: pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2014/03/…

I know nothing about it except that it is very different from English. Hence the conversation that led to the Hindi's speaker's laughter about translating Les Miserables into Hindi.

hahaha... Les miserables,... I think I have heard this name earlier.

@Jolenealaska I think it's a great idea. Not sure if someone already tried it.

It is a movie I think

@hellodear2 You sure did. Remember that Anne Hathaway's song?

Yes, it's been several movies. Most recently a msical. Has it been translated into Hindi?

@DamkerngT. Ohhhhhhh

Yes Yes

My love Anna hathaway

@hellodear2 That was from Les Miserables.

Anne was GREAT!

She's Super!

cool, he undeleted it

She's hot. aww. :-)

She blew that one away. I love the story, the novel is very special to me. As far as I'm concerned, she WAS Fantine.

"becoming a household name" is a good answer.

These days, I am reading P.S I love you.

I agree

@Jolenealaska Imo, the movie's grand.

it just needed some massaging

@TylerJamesYoung nods

Have you seen the 1998 film? The one with Liam Neeson?

@Jolenealaska I have! But I can remember it only vaguely.

But I remember that Liam Neeson did a great job in it.

Also his anti-thesis (I can't remember the character's name).

Here's a bit of weirdness. I hate that film. The acting is great, the cinematography is great...

The portrayal of Javert (the policeman) is so wrong that it pisses me off.

Ah, yes, the character's name is Javert.

Somehow I can't even remember Fantine in the 1998 version.

It's not the actor's fault (Rush was great) but I had to wonder if the director even read the novel.

Was there a Fantine in there?

Yep, she was great, played by Uma Thurman

Ahh... somehow I can't recall Uma Thurman in that movie. :-)

All in all, the acting was great

I think it's not her fault, perhaps it's the script.

Remember a scene when a cold, sick woman was assaulted? A prissy man threw snow down her dress?

I can't. I might need to watch it again when it's rerun on the cable.

Do. It would make an interesting conversation.

I think many complained this version of Javert (the recent one), but I think Javert's last scene is awesome.

I'd love to ask you to read the novel, but that's asking a lot. The damn thing is 3000 pages long and Hugo likes his tangents. Did you know that authors of his day (Dickens included) were paid by the word?

I didn't. They did get paid by the word!?!

Are you speaking of the musical? Javert's last scene was fine but for a silly thing that fans of the stage musical would point out. He was true to the book.

(I hate it when people tried to pay me by the number of lines in my code.)

Yeppers!

Paid by the word!

This is a bit of an inside joke, but that explains Waterloo.

@Jolenealaska Yes. The musical one, the one Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway are in.

The only complaint I had about that scene was a question of timing. Silly really. He played Javert well.

Would you like to get into why I hate the 1998 film (with Neeson)?

I haven't read the original novel yet. But I plan to read the screenplay some day.

@Jolenealaska I sure do. Please tell.

Ok, bear with me, lousy typist...

Javert is NOT a villain

He's an antagonist, but his heart is always true

You mean, in the original novel, right?

If this were D&D...

YES

His alignment would be "lawful good"

The musical keeps that

So do most adaptations (I've seen many)

Ah, that can explain why I think Javert's last scene is grand. He's a man who was true to his heart. And the conflict in his mind appeared to be too much to bear.

In the 1998 film, Javert *witnesses8 the altercation that leads to Fantine's arrest, and arrests her anyway

She was just defending herself

I think it's the same in the musical, isn't it?

No

In the musical (and the book) Javert only arrests Fantine after hearing testimony

Ah, I see. That's different.

He makes the wrong choice because he is more apt to believe the "gentleman" than the whore

It's hugely different

I think Jean Valjean tried to intervene.

Yes, he does, both in the musical and the book

(At least in this musical version)

\

The musical is actually very, very true to the book.

I see. I like this version!

It skips a lot, but the important themes stay true.

If you said that it's 3000 pages, I'm sure they must have to skip a lot. :-)

Eponine is different, but in ways that really don't matter in the telling of the story.

@DamkerngT. EXACTLY!

@Jolenealaska Eponine is the Gypsy girl?

(with a one-side love)

She's not a Gypsy, she's the daughter of the Thenardiers. She actually grew up with Cosette.

But yes, you're thinking of the right character

Ahh... I see. That greedy family.

Yes. Another funny thing skipped in the musical (cause it would take too long to explain) is that Gavroche is also a child of the Thernardiers. He's Eponine's brother.

Mme Thernardier had no use for boy children.

I'm not sure about this child, but I remember that there is a child during the battle scene that is really "stand out". He steals the scene. Perhaps, you mean this child.

Yep

I didn't know that he is Eponine's brother.

The musical (and most movies) never explain that.

3000 pages

It's never even brought up.

That black-red-white song is also great. Somehow I can't remember the leader of the revolution's name.

Enjolras

Thanks.

He's a great character, but my favorite character is the bishop.

The one who took Jean Valjean in?

Yep

He has only a short scene in the movie, but I think it's an important one.

The first (80?) pages of the novel is all about the bishop.

It's a critical scene.

nods

Valjean was a criminal. The bishop bought his soul for good and started the whole ball rolling.

So true.

It's ridiculous that he's got 19 years just for stealing breads. (iirc)

He never sells the candlesticks. He left those to Cosette.

I didn't know that.

He got 5 years for stealing the bread. He got the rest of the time for repeated escape attempts.

Often when he was about to be paroled.

Even at 5 years, it still sounds ridiculous to me.

Yes.

Galleys no less.

It is unfair.

And Valjean made it much worse with his escape attempts.

The movie didn't say much about his escape attempts.

There' one line

"5 years for what you did, the rest because you tried to run"

That's from the stage musical, but I think it made it into the movie

Oh, yes. Javert did say that!

I'm looking it up in the script that I plan to read. :-)

He was also captured aga9n before he buys Cossette.

Skipped

> Javert: Five years for what you did, The rest because you tried to run. Yes, 24601!

Thats it!

@Jolenealaska He was?

Here's a little factoid. I had a mother that couldn't really take care of me. My father adopted me and we are very close to this day. I even had a wicked stepmother. I am Cosette.

Hah!

Yeppers. He even got a new number. He saved another man and played it off as if he had drowned.

I can't remember how it was done exactly in the movie. But I can remember that he was on a run.

But Javert didn't believe Valjean was dead.

Javert must have taken it as his responsibility that Valjean could escape the first time.

In the movie he escapes from Javert and quickly goes to Cosette.

He buys her and hides in the convent.

Ah, I remember that he has a help of someone whom he helped before.

Yes, the man he saved from the runaway cart. There's a great scene in the book about those two.

Getting "in" to the convent is tricky. He (Valjean) ends up buried in a coffin. I forget the guys name, but he's hysterical in the scene.

Hah!

Great comic relief in classic literature.

What happened to Cosette while Valjean was being buried?

Since she is a girl, she blends right in. I can't remember exactly, but she stays in the convent. ZHiding Valjean in a coffin is actually to get him out, so he can get in properly.

I see.

It's convoluted and really funny.

This makes me want to read the novel. :-)

The convent is another (100?) pages in the book. We actually see her grow up in the book, the musical just skips over it.

I highly recommend it. It's a great read.

Oh, it's in Gutenberg. It's Five Volumes!

This is important. Unless you are going to read it in French. What translation?

I'm not sure. I found it here: gutenberg.org/files/135/135-h/135-h.htm

Hold on

Crap, I knew it

That's the first translation I read.

I think it's the only freebie out there.

Sounds like it's not a good one.

It's not.

You want the Signet Classic (hold on for the translator's names) or the Julie Rose.

The Julie Rose is new, she translates into more modern language.

I liked it a lot, but it's a matter of taste.

This one: amazon.com/Miserables-Signet-Classics-Victor-Hugo/dp/045141943X

Is considered to be the "real" one. Especially if you've seen the musical, this one is far superior to the Hapgood.

$7 is not too expensive. Perhaps I could find it in my local bookstore.

Here's a small thing. Hapgood says "Take this money to become an honest man"

Signet says "Take this silver to become an honest man"

Oh, that's different!

Little thing, big difference. The book is full of those.

I can see why you think it's not very good.

Again, especially if you are used to the lyrical language of the musical.

Hapgood is just stilted in comparison.

Looks like Gutenberg has the original in French too: gutenberg.org/files/17489/17489-h/17489-h.htm

I bet you will have no problem. Just be sure to find an unabridged translation, then make sure that it's the Signet Classic. I'm pretty sure it would be the most common one to find (except for freebies, which are always the Hapgood)

Yeah. The original french is totally public domain.

:)

That's a great place to say g'night! Have a good one and I'll cya later!

Thank you for everything. Good night, and see you again!

Hi.

Hello. :-)

Good to see you again!

Good to see you too!