English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2011-04-11 (page 1 of 2)

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12:31 AM

2

A: Should I say "Your order is now complete" or "Your order is now completed"?

Completed in the phrase is completed is used as an adjective, in the same way of warmed in one is warmed by a stove for visitors. Searching for is completed and is complete in the Corpus of Contemporary American, I get the following data (the chart reports the frequency per million of those phra...

Who is this Matt Montag to call me insane?

2 hours later…

2:10 AM

A word of general advice: don't downvote when you're drunk, especially on questions related to marketing lingo (not my words). I didn't vote! I know how to control myself.

2:34 AM

0

Q: Inquiry about an old radio program about American English

After I read an article about the new OED's inclusion of texting acronyms, (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/jan_freeman/) I got into a discussion with a colleague about the old 'prescriptive/descriptive dichotomy. I mentioned that in the fifties there was a radio program, just a ten or fi...

sociolinguistic

Come on! The site is "English Language and Usage," not "American Television and Movies."

Oh, @Cerberus is not here anymore.

1 hour later…

3:54 AM

Closed.

Now I'm off to bed, ciao!

2 hours later…

5:48 AM

@Cerberus See ya!

@Cerberus You can say you closed the question. :-)

@Robusto Is "not if he is married" referring to "not know it," or to "may be a fool"?

2 hours later…

8:14 AM

2

Q: "At the beginning" or "in the beginning"?

Are both expressions "At the beginning" "In the beginning" valid and equivalent? The first "seems wrong" to me, but it has more Google results.

word-choice prepositions

5

Q: "At the beginning of the century" or "in the beginning of the century"?

At the beginning of the century. In the beginning of the century. How to clearly distinguish when to use at, or in?

american-english prepositions british-english

2 hours later…

10:15 AM

@kiamlaluno — I don't understand what you don't understand.

But it means that if he is married his wife will surely let him know that he is a fool.

2 hours later…

12:28 PM

and the retagging continues

@language hacker seems particularly clueless about how to use tags, pretty much always putting down words or meaning. sometimes he gets creative and uses usage

I must get used to your gravatar first, strandja!

i got tired of being the bomb

Morning.

Moin-moin.

and i want to express my brooding, emo, 16-bit gamer side

'neata

12:32 PM

@RegDwight — "less, less"?

German, Robusto. Not French. That's not moinS.

Never heard moin-moin, to be perfectly honest.

Go North. It's all the rage there, and has always been.

How far north?

Hamburg area?

12:34 PM

The funny part is, Southerners think that it's a bowdlerization of "Morgen-morgen", but they are wrong.

@Robusto Precisely.

Around those parts, "moin" means "guten".

I would have thought "Morgen-Morgen".

So you can say "moin-moin" to wish "guten Abend", too.

i assume that moin = [mojn] = meun ?

Or "Mo'en, Mo'en" ...

Oh, Xblast time! TTYL.

12:58 PM

Morning.

'neaţa

@JSBangs So, which game is your char from?

Illusion of Time?

do you have a guess?

Chrono Trigger?

correct w/ #2

1:02 PM

A most excellent game.

Ah, never played that.

Are you serious?

(I have just found out that English howitzer comes from Dutch howitser.)

Yes!

I have heard of it though.

You loved Secret of Mana etc, but never played the game that ruled them all?

How old is it again, and on what kind of machine is it played?

1:09 PM

SNES

Well, yes, I never had a SNES, you know.

it's available on the DS, now

there's also such a thing as emulators

I played it on my babysitter's SNES and much later in an emulator.

(which is where i actually played it -- ZSNES)

Right, I think I have used that one.

1:10 PM

I think I will have to replay it next week on my Xbox.

Here's what @RegDwight looks like IRL:

i bought the DS port, which is excellent. contains a few extra goodies not available in the original. a few goodies and a load of ridiculous bloated crap

user image

My wife will be outta house.

@Robusto Meh. Too cheap.

I haven't played a great many games any more in the last decade, and before that I didn't know how to emulate.

1:11 PM

@Robusto The did have a nice Russian radio station in that game IIRC.

I thought Reg was the owl with the commie star?

That's not me, that's my gravatar... d'oh!

He is like Krishna, many avatars.

Oh, I thought gravatars were supposed to be one's real face.

My bad.

They are. But you're only supposed to have one real face, doggie-boy.

1:13 PM

Well, some of us just happen to be two faced, or even three faced; surely you would not discriminate the facially challenged?

You know, we're getting tired of tossing you dog biscuits with all your yapping heads, btw.

The heads are not.

(getting tired)

@RegDwight — Which station is it? Somehow I always hear Smashing Pumpkins 1979 over and over, plus a lot of right-wing radio. Maybe I steal the wrong cars.

@Cerberus I don't think we discriminate them. We only discriminate against them.

when i meet @Robusto, I full expect him to have a red kanji floating above his neck

1:15 PM

You will only see me in your dreams.

@Robusto I have no idea, honestly. I vaguely recall that the DJ was a female.

@JSBangs Not neck. It's on his nurse drag.

Mar 11 at 17:14, by RegDwight

You know, with the red kanji instead of the red cross.

I got tired of GTA4 before finishing. Who knew killing could be such a chore?

@Robusto And then all those hidden pigeons.

@Reg: Oh! You're right, I meant that intransitively. I could have sworn I'd written "against", but hey that's life.

Pigeons are OK in AC series.

1:18 PM

Has anyone played the latest Civ?

AC = Assassins' Creed for those who don't know.

@Cerberus — I stay away from games I can't put down.

@Cerberus I haven't played, like, the latest ten Civs.

@Reg: Then you're BC or something.

Showing up for work with no sleep is definitely a problem in my line of work.

@Rob: You are wiser than what is good for you!

1:19 PM

@Cerberus — I'm only as wise as I need to be.

Which is apparently excessively so.

And Europa Universalis?

Everyone should be as wise as possible, but not wiser.

@Cerberus — If you mean in the sense of "wise-ass" then I agree.

@Rob: I am afraid this sense is classified. I do apologise.

I'm way more of a wise-ass than I need to be.

1:21 PM

You don't say.

So no EU here?

(I just found out I have 52 icons in my system tray, for those who might have been wondering.)

Eeeeeeeuuuuuuuu.

Hehe.

It is quite enjoyable.

@Cerberus — Thanks for finally announcing that. I win the pot because I took the under in our pool.

Oh, what was the limit, then?

Hey, @@2705@english.stackexchange.com, welcome to the 10k club!

1:24 PM

What?

I'm trying to summon Jimi.

I think the over was the number of bytes addressable in a 64-bit OS.

What is this odd club of no-doubt undesirables?

@Cerberus At almost 10k, you should know better than ask what 10k means.

user image

Look! It worked!

Amazing.

1:26 PM

Phantastic. With an ph.

Knowing statistics about a thing doesn't tell one what it is like to be it.

@Cerberus — That's the third wisest thing anyone ever said.

Meh, you're only poking fun at me.

That's not wise, that's just entertainment.

@RegDwight — Mais certainement.

So no-one knows Europa Universalis... I am disappointed. You can be the Duchy of Moscov too, you know.

1:28 PM

You can be the Douche of anything if you so choose.

@Cerberus — Wow, there's an incentive.

Barbarians!

Varvarians!

(You can't be those.)

Da brat mir doch einer einen Storch. Just look at this:

Mar 19 at 13:49, by Cerberus

Uh, I meant 10,000+ as an adjective: those with over 10k rep.

Do you still insist on not knowing what 10k means?

After freaking defining it freaking yourself?

1:32 PM

sigh Since when is one supposed to be consistent over several days, let alone weeks? I could never keep that up.

@Cerberus Since birth.

Aww come on.

You make little Buddha cry big fat tears.

And them's not of joy.

pffff. consistency is overrated

Well, Buddha should have lost some weight if he doesn't want the bullying.

3

1:33 PM

@JSBangs Look, I mean, even you are consistent in not starting sentences with a capital letter.

Hear, hear!

Constistency isn't that hard. Even JSBangs can do it.

"Even", don't underestimate his talent. No-one could withhold any and all capitals so fastidiously without an ascetic life style.

Well, he does have a freaking lot of them in his handle.

@Cerberus that totally deserved a star

@RegDwight the shift key is also overrated

1:35 PM

thank you

@JSBangs THEN USE CAPSLOCK. D'OH!

Hah I am sure the day will come when a cap-happy newcomer will visit this room.

Nyuszika? As soon as she turns 18.

@RegDwight MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT. I'LL BE TYPING LIKE THIS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY

Hehe.

1:36 PM

@JSBangs Excellent.

Is there a block function?

Of course.

No...

Not that.

You can even ignore users all by yourself.

NO THERE ISN'T. DON'T LISTEN TO HIM

1:37 PM

Oh!

I don't have to hold your hand.

But how does one do that? Is it related to this fabled saying "no" to people?

@Cerberus I dunno, I'm ignoring you. Ask our Captain Cool and the Capslock of Tomorrow.

Yes.

IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE PEOPLE. SO CHAT IS BUILT ON THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUAL ANNOYANCE.

1:39 PM

@JSBangs Just so you know, you will be held up to your promise.

An admirable principle, no doubt. But I don't really feel the annoyance yet.

You must type like that for the rest of the day.

Oh dear.

And not just here, since you didn't specify.

On the main site, too.

Hah!

1:40 PM

@RegDwight AYE AYE, CAP'N

And in whatever code you're currently hacking at.

And in your research papers!

@RegDwight THAT WILL MAKE IT SOMEWHAT HARD TO WRITE CODE

That is your problem.

GUESS I'LL JUST BE USING C MACROS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY

1:40 PM

@JSBangs Your problem, mista.

Jinx

Sometimes it feels as though I had a fourth head attached.

OR MAYBE I CAN SWITCH TO VB OR SOME OTHER LANGUAGE WITH CASE-INSENSITIVE IDENTIFIERS

AM I STILL ALLOWED TO USE THE SHIFT KEY?

You never were in the first place.

Oh, true.

7 mins ago, by JSBangs

@RegDwight the shift key is also overrated

1:42 PM

THEN HOW CAN I TYPE A QUESTION MARK?

You copy-paste it.

You can't. You have to copy-paste from Wikipedia.

Jinx FFS.

Just as you are doing it now, OR SO I PRESUME.

@Reg: Haha you are crazy.

I actually have this bug where I can't type spaces in Gmail when rich editing is on, so I have to copy-paste spaces.

Okay, Cerberus, now that you're in my head, plz do my otha works as well. Kthxbye.

No, you are one of my heads, and the other three are the lazy ones.

1:44 PM

@RegDwight — Buddha only laughs. There's no crying in Buddhism.

@Robusto Not even in the rain?

He just pretends he is laughing to tears.

I am ha-a-a-ai on emotion!

@RegDwight — It's an optical illusion.

Sorry.

1:46 PM

@RegDwight — Dopamine high.

If Christina Aguilera is Xtina, then I suppose Chris de Burgh is X?

And XBlast is Christina Blast?

For X's sake!

XBlast is Chris Blast.

The rules aren't that hard.

So Xmas is Chrismas?

I DEMAND CLARIFICATION ON WHETHER X = CHRIS OR X = CHRIST

1:51 PM

Jesus X, Jesus Xt! Who are you? What have you sacrificed?

Iesos Christos Theou Huios Soter

@Cerberus — I always knew you were a fishmonger.

Ding!

SO X = ΙΧΘΥΣ ? I DID NOT THINK THAT HER NAME WAS ΙΧΘΥΣINA AGUILERA

THOUGH IT DOES HAVE A NICE RING TO IT

There is something fishy about her though.

1:53 PM

@JSBangs A RING OF FIRE?

@Cerberus — If by fishy you mean slutty, then most of the world agrees with you.

It includes that, yeah.

I remember the girl from Genie in a Bottle, which I liked when I was 17. Haven't heard much of her since.

That was the single most worstest "song" in the entire history of mankind, past or future.

I THINK THAT YOU ARE WRONG

Nobody listens to you, you always say that.

1:57 PM

Hey, I think I was actually 16 then, and in a phase where one starts going out and drinking and stuff. It was cool then.

YOU PERHAPS HAVE NOT GROKKED

@RegDwight IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT YOU ARE WRONG WITH SUCH REMARKABLE CONSISTENCY.

@Cerberus Drinking stuff is always cool. But listening to Xtina is always the exact opposite of drinking stuff.

It was the time when Britney Spears scored her first hit, and we were the same age. Probably still are.

@Cerberus You are still 16?

That is ellipsis class for you.

1:59 PM

@RegDwight — If you're talking mental age, I think that's over-generous of you.

To vary on a certain obscure, local meme.

In that case, be informed that them has leap years in America.

Leap years...

Leap of faith years.

Whither do they leap?

2:00 PM

@Cerberus — Local memes don't count. Otherwise you could just say any damn thing and call it a local meme.

@Rob: And the bad part is...?

... you!

Hey! Why be good if you be a baaad dawg.

... you!

Jinx!

Wow what a coincidence!

2:01 PM

That was actually Dinx! (delayed Jinx).

Mar 11 at 17:06, by RegDwight

That's the slowest jinx in history.

It was actually a fake attempt at a jinx!

You can't just repeat what I said yesterday and then invoke Jinx.

Yes, I faked it.

Don't tell my wife.

I calls it fingxs,

from fingo, "make up".

Aww your poor wife. What if she is allergic?

Okay scratch that. But you started it.

2:03 PM

What?

Huh?

Another Dutchman...

Thomas Stock, Ghent, Belgium

111 3

...from Belgium.

How do you know he's not Phlegmish?

Or Wallooney Tunes?

@Robusto Because he said so, and thwack.

I don't believe you.

2:07 PM

I think I gotta go post something with prachtig on each of his posts.

I DON'T BELIEVE THAT THE BELGISH COUNT AS DUTCH

ANY MORE THAN CANADIANS COUNT AS AMERICAN

I agree that the southern rebels should give up their dream of independence and rejoin the mother country. They broke away in 1930, and look what has become of them.

@JSBangs How come you didn't post that as your answer?

And how come your answer is not in caps? I have to reprimand you!

THE ANSWER WAS WRITTEN BEFORE MY VOW OF CAPITALIZATION. CHECK THE TIMESTAMPS

@JSBangs — A Canadian is just an American with health care and no handgun.

2:08 PM

Americans count as English and they should get over their "independence" as well.

@JSBangs Come on, four minutes give or take.

@Cerberus — Then you should get over your "independence" from Spain.

C'MON WE ALL KNOW THAT BELGIUM IS A MADE-UP NON-COUNTRY

@Cerberus is still tetchy because his family sank all their holdings into tulip futures just as the market peaked.

I MEAN, "WALLOON"? THIS IS CLEARLY A PRACTICAL JOKE

2:10 PM

@Rob: That was the result of several unfair wars of succession; the county of Holland and most of the other provinces were fine when they belonged to the HRE.

12

Q: Explain this pickup line: "If Bangkok invaded Djibouti, would Greece help?"

I was at an Model UN conference and often notes like the following get passed. As I'm not a native speaker, I assume that this has to do with some pronunciational issue. Can you please explain what's so funny about this sentence? (Djibouti seemed to be often used in such context.) If Bangkok ...

pronunciation pun obscene jokes

@Cerberus — Well, I suppose it's no accident that all you people who used to have empires now are ruled by queens ... I'm just saying.

Oh not that one again.

BTW, I'm a bit surprised that Portugal folded before Spain.

@Rob: What's wrong with Queens? You Manhattan snob.

Besides, I think Angela is doing a terrific job.

2:12 PM

@Cerberus — Everything named after the Dutch in New York kinda sucks, actually.

So would Hillary have done.

Kevin James lives there.

Who wants to live in Harlem or the Bronx?

@Rob: I'll grant you Wall Street.

But Broadway is all right?

"This is bullshit and I want my money back."

2:15 PM

Right.

We need more checks and balances in haute finance.

(The movie star business is beyond me.)

(Spread the good habit, and somebody will imitate you. Now I am not the only one to use parentheses.)

Holy cow!

I mean, is it already 4 PM?

If you think you invented parentheses, then your case of megalomania is rather severe.

I am not that megalomanic (or megalo-man); I am referring to the usage of parentheses here in chat.

Reg is slow, he doesn't get things.

That's what happens if you fly around town all night.

@RegDwight — I call curly braces parenfeces because that's what they kinda look like: {}

2:26 PM

You have a vivid imagination.

I fly when I dream, or when I fly to USA.

(By the way, semi-date cancelled for the 4th time yesterday. Next time a date is proposed I won't have time.)

By the way, do flies fly?

Yes.

And then you crush their heads against the wall.

Do they use radars too? Do they have radar-flies?

2:29 PM

No, they lack radar. They are just annoying parasites.

Fruit flies like a banana.

Then they should stick to social conventions.

Or buy social radar.

@RegDwight THAT SORT OF SEMANTIC AMBIGUITY WON'T FLY HERE

Be aware of flying bananas: they are like boomerangs.

@Martha you are needed!

Hey!

2:31 PM

Hey! What's up?

Oh work calls, bye!

I'm late already, I see.

Ciao!

See you, vengaboy.

@Cerberus I was offering you to join a new club: "give flies a radar."

(It could be also "give flies a home.")

Wrong SE.

56

Proposed Q&A site for amateur radio experts.

Currently in definition.

I knew it!

As I said, spread the good habits and somebody will imitate you.

Is there a proposal for radar experts too?

2:34 PM

18

Proposed Q&A site for people with an interest in identifying and understanding weather related phenomenon.

Currently in definition.

OK, what is about an "Area 51" proposal?

29

Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Theorists

Proposed Q&A site for people wanting to know what's REALLY going on!

Currently in definition.

UFO?

8

Extraterrestrials

Proposed Q&A site for people studying, or just interested in the very exciting possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth.

Currently in definition.

I didn't choose a good replacement for the shift key; I keep to hit the command key.

2:38 PM

44

Proposed Q&A site for all the hardcore shell hackers, Python, Bash, ksh, sh,zsh, Perl, PHP, Ruby, AWK, sed, grep, Wget, Curl, and what not!

Currently in definition.

What is the number close to the title? I didn't know it was possible to vote proposal.

Followers.

When in definition.

@kiamlaluno WHAT IS THE PURPOSE BEHIND YOUR ABUSE OF PREPOSITIONS?

To spread prepositions?

Omitting != abusing.

2:41 PM

@RegDwight ONCE AGAIN YOU ARE WRONG

Jeez, buddy, that's so news to me, not sure I can handle it.

TO FAIL TO USE CORRECTLY IS TO ABUSE. TO OMIT IS TO FAIL TO USE CORRECTLY. QED.

I could have misunderstood "spread the proposals."

@JSBangs Why are you screaming?

@JSBangs Next time you omit hitting your wife, I'm calling the cops.

@kiamlaluno BLAME @RegDwight

2:43 PM

Yeah, right. Come on, blame me. Pffft.

IN THE INTERESTS OF PEACE I WILL CONCEDE THAT I SHOULD HAVE SAID "OMITTING" RATHER THAN "ABUSING"

@JSBangs Do you mean @RegDwight is deaf?

@kiamlaluno I sure play a mean pinball!

"Pinball Wizard" is a song written by Pete Townshend and performed by the English rock band The Who, and featured on their 1969 rock opera album Tommy. The original recording was released as a single in 1969 and reached #4 in the UK charts and #19 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The B-side of the Pinball Wizard single is an instrumental credited to Keith Moon, titled Dogs Part Two. Despite similar titles it has no musical connection to The Who's 1968 U.K. single Dogs. Story The lyrics are written from the perspective of a pinball champion, called "Local Lad" in the Tommy libretto book, a...

@Cerberus zzzzzzz snrk Huh? Whatchawant? /yawn

For the incognoscenti.

2:45 PM

1 hour ago, by RegDwight

@JSBangs THEN USE CAPSLOCK. D'OH!

That could explain why he says he cannot hear the sounds in a video, but there could be another explanation, as somebody has stolen his speakers.

@JSBangs Well, you did say that I was right!

I mean, you could've just said that I was wrong!

It's not like you'd never done that before!

I cannot imagine what would have happened if @RegDwight would have said "jump the bridge."

@kiamlaluno I can.

Before somebody else says it, you don't jump the bridge; the bridge jumps you!

2:48 PM

173

Board and Card Games – boardgames.stackexchange.com

Beta Q&A site for people who like playing board games, designing board games or modifying the rules of existing board games. Card games, too, because some games really can be classified as both.

Currently in public beta.

@kiamlaluno AGAIN WITH NOT USING THE PREPOSITIONS. ARE YOU ON STRIKE? A NEW PREPOSITION-ABSTINENCE DIET?

@RegDwight — mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/The_Side_Hackers

@kiamlaluno Please direct all bridge-related nonsense directly @Cerberus.

@RegDwight Why? Is he a bridge owner?

@Robusto "Joel exposes a Slinky to radiation and ultraviolet light and creates Gretchen the Pet Slinky."

2:50 PM

@JSBangs I cannot hear you well, if you scream. I am in a little room, and the echo is quite strong.

@kiamlaluno "I am a little room". FTFY.

@RegDwight — I like his "Junk Drawer Starter Kit" idea best.

@RegDwight I told you I am not megalomanic; I am not a room; I am a person.

@kiamlaluno You will be surprised to hear this, but μεγαλο ≠ room.

@RegDwight — Have you never seen MST3K?

2:54 PM

@Robusto I don't think I have.

@RegDwight I am not megalomanic, nor am I a room. In that case, I can say "megalo = room."

Logic according to Italians.

@RegDwight It's the same logic you applied to your sentence.

My logic is not the logic of all Italians, and vice versa.

@kiamlaluno It's the exact opposite of my logic.

@RegDwight — Opposite in every particular? Like in Bizarro world?

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