English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

> A hob is a type of small mythological household spirit found in the north and midlands of England, but especially on the Anglo-Scottish border, according to traditional folklore of those regions. They could live inside the house or outdoors. They are said to work in farmyards and thus could be helpful, however if offended they could become nuisances.

I guess the more Germanic term would be poltergeist.

Cerberus

I like how this spirit is "found in the north and midlands of England", like the geographical habitat of an animal.

Robusto

Yes. It should have a a Latin genus and species name.

What is the word for nuisance in Latin?

Cerberus

Yeah!

Nocens?

Robusto

4:11 PM

Nocens domesticus?

Cerberus

Sounds good.

Robusto

So shall it be written, so shall it be done.

Cerberus

That's settled, then.

Robusto

Here, I will use it in a sentence: "Nortonn S is the nocens domesticus of EL&U."

Cerberus

Then again, we already have other nocentes domestici on the site...

Jinx!!

Robusto

4:13 PM

You still owe me from the previous jinx.

Cerberus

I am not bound by jinxes.

I am a free spirit.

No runes shall bind me, nor rings, nor crowns welded of the iron of Angband. Only by the sword shall I be slain.

For I am a wingèd Balrog!

Robusto

I like Balrog wings, deep fried with hot sauce.

0

Q: Syllable division of VCV pattern in words such as "salad" and "lemon"

In words such as salad /sæləd/, you have a VCV pattern (vowel-consonant-vowel), in which the first vowel is short. The syllable division of such words is generally done after the consonant, i.e, as VC-V. Here are a few examples:salad /sæl-əd/lemon /lem-ən/never /nev-ər/balance /bæl-əns/This div...

We're not your syllable monkeys. Also, this is off topic.

Cerberus

Hot sauce won't be a problem.

Being a Balrog and all, I'm hot stuff.

Robusto

jinx 1911, American English, originally baseball slang; perhaps ultimately from jyng "a charm, a spell" (17c.), originally "wryneck," a bird used in witchcraft and divination, from L. iynx "wryneck," from Gk. iynx.

Cerberus

That is, one infernal creature is not much different from the next.

Cerberus =~ Balrog.

Robusto

4:22 PM

Creature?

Yes.

Also: ~=, not =~

Bleh.

Bluh.

We can use the abbreviation ND for nocens domesticus to further obfuscate our meaning.

Some fools will think we are talking about North Dakota, but we will know the truth.

Cerberus

Very well.

So shall it be.

David Wallace

4:45 PM

@Cerberus These were clearly inspired by The Empire Strikes Back.

Cerberus

Yeah, I immediately thought of giant scifi combat robots...

David Wallace

And vacillate is undoubtedly the correct word.

Robusto

I thought they were gigantic transistors standing in a pool of liquid mercury.

David Wallace

Even though you have doubted it.

Robusto

He will continue to doubt. Just watch.

David Wallace

4:49 PM

They could have been some kind of deadly virus, seen at an incredibly large magnification. But if they were, it is unlikely that they would all be facing the same way.

Cerberus

@Robusto I may, I haven't decided yet.

@DavidWallace And be square.

Robusto

@DavidWallace I dunno. Don't viruses exhibit herd behavior?

David Wallace

@Cerberus Oh, viruses can be quite geometric when it suits them.

Robusto

We need a faster camera, I guess.

►

David Wallace

@Robusto Certainly. They could all be trying to get away from the mercury, I suppose.

Robusto

4:52 PM

Or performing a line dance.

David Wallace

@Robusto I kept expecting the white guy to say "Curse you, Perry the Platypus".

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Sneaky bastards.

David Wallace

I wonder whether they need to tessellate, if they reproduce too quickly.

tchrist

What a happiness this must have been seventy or eighty years ago and upwards, to those chosen few who had the good luck to be born on the eve of this festival of all festivals; when the whole earth was so overrun with alholdes, banshees, barguests,··hags,
hell-hounds, hell-wains, hob-and-lanthorns, hobbits, hobby-lanthorns, hobgoblins, hobgoblins, hob-headlesses, hobhoulards, hob-thrushes, hob-thrusts, hodge-pochers, hudskins,··waffs, waiths, warlocks, whitewomen, wirrikows, witches, wizards, wraiths, and yeth-hounds.

Yes, he mentioned hobgoblins twice. Must have been important.

> ··kelpies, kidnappers, kit-a-can-sticks, kitty-witches, knockers, kobolds, korigans, korreds, kors, kows, larrs, leprechauns, lian-hanshees, lubberkins··

> pad-foots, pans, patches, Peg-powlers, pictrees, pigmies, pixies, portunes, puckles, pucks, rawheads, redcaps, redmen, robinets, Robin-Goodfellows,

> satyrs, scar-bugs, scarecrows, scrags, scrats, shadows, shag-foals, shellycoats, sibyls, silkies, sirens, snapdragons, spectres, spirits, spoorns, sprets, sprites, spunks, spurns, succubuses, swaithes, swarths, sylphs, sylvans,

No shortage of Toms. . . .

> tantarrabobs, thrummy-caps, thurses, tints, tod-lowries, Tom-pokers, Tom-thumbs, Tom-tumblers, tritons, trolls, trows, tutgots, urchins,

I want know what a thurse is.

> . . . and apparitions of every shape, make, form, fashion, kind and description, that there was not a village in England that had not its own peculiar ghost.

> Nay, every lone tenement, castle, or mansion-house, which could boast of any antiquity had its bogle, its spectre, or its knocker.

> The churches, churchyards, and crossroads were all haunted. Every green lane had its boulder-stone on which an apparition kept watch at night. Every common had its circle of fairies belonging to it. And there was scarcely a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit!

> banshees, barguests, black-bugs, black dogs, blackmen, Bloody Bones, boggarts, boggleboes, boggles, boggy-boes, bogies, boguests, bolls, bomen, bonelesses, brags, breaknecks, brownies, brown-men, buckies, bugaboos, bugbears, bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns,

> caddies, calcars, cauld-lads, centaurs, changelings, chittifaces, clabbernappers, cluricauns, colt-pixies, conjurers, corpse lights or candles, cowies, cutties, death-hearses, demons, Dick-a-Tuesdays, dobbies, dopple-gangers, doubles, dudmen, dunnies, dwarfs,

> Elf-fires, elves, fairies, fantasms, fates, fauns, fays, fetches, fiends, fiends, fire-drakes, flay-boggarts, follets, freiths, freits, friars' lanthorns, Gabriel-hounds, gallybeggars, gallytrots, ghosts, ghouls, giants, gnomes, goblins, grants, gringes, guests, gy-carlins, Gyl-burnt-tales, gytrashes

Denham Tracts

The Denham Tracts constitute a publication of a series of pamphlets and jottings on folklore, fifty-four in all, collected between 1846 and 1859 by Michael Aislabie Denham, a Yorkshire tradesman. Most of the original tracts were published with fifty copies (although some of them with twenty-five or even thirteen copies). The tracts were later re-edited by James Hardy for the Folklore Society and imprinted in two volumes in 1892 and 1895. It is possible that J.R.R. Tolkien took the word hobbit from the list of fairies in the Denham Tracts. List of the original tracts I. * «A collection ...

> madcaps, mahounds, mannikins, mares, mawkins, Meg-with-the-wads, melch-dicks, men-in-the-oak, miffies, mock-beggars, mormos, mum-pokers, nacks, nickers, nickies, nicknevins, night-bats, nisses, nixies, nymphs, old-shocks, ouphs,

“Melch-dicks”?

Cerberus

5:45 PM

Is this a kitchen or a church?

Answer: a court room.

David Wallace

@Cerberus Well, obviously, really. Why would anyone think it was a kitchen or a church?

Cerberus

That's what it looks like to me.

I see a kitchen table and a kitchen floor.

David Wallace

Does it look like YOUR kitchen?

Cerberus

I see pillars and lighting resembling a church.

So it must be something in between.

That bar could be either a church or a court room.

But really, what the heck is that kitchen table doing there in the middle of the floor, in front of the bar?

David Wallace

You're actually serious?

Cerberus

5:50 PM

I certainly am. Churches have tiled floors, but court rooms?

David Wallace

One kitchen table is probably where the plaintiff and his/her lawyers sit; the other is where the defendant and his/her lawyers sit.

(I've got those words wrong. What do you call the person on the opposite side from the plaintiff?)

And those twelve seats off to the right are clearly for the jury.

Robusto

@Cerberus Where are the oven and range? Where is the sink? The refrigerator? The cabinets?

David Wallace

Ah, the respondent. That's the word I was looking for.

Could it be a church kitchen?

RegDwighт

0

Q: Was/were exception rule

My kid's English teacher is teaching that there is exception in use of was/were "WAS she and her sister at the zoo?" is right. "WERE she and her sister at the zoo?" is wrong. AFAIK "She and her sister WERE at the zoo" is supposedly right. There is no explanation on that exception in the book....

grammar

Cerberus

@DavidWallace But why are they sitting there, and why at a kitchen table on a kitchen floor? Why not facing the judge, on the front benches?

RegDwighт

5:55 PM

Dupe. But good luck finding the original.

Cerberus

@Robusto Just out of view on the left side.

Hoot.

I'm not saying it's ugly: it looks better than most court rooms here.

David Wallace

How many court rooms have you been in? Is there something you're not telling us about yourself?

Cerberus

Americans have a better sense of proportion than we kleinbürgerliche Dutchmen, Scandinavians, and Germans.

Robusto

@DavidWallace We call that person the defendant.

David Wallace

@Cerberus And Germans. Don't forget the Germans.

RegDwighт

5:57 PM

Americans have no sense of proportion at all. They build the next supermarket twenty miles away and no sidewalks to walk there.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace One doesn't need to be in one to see one these days.

@DavidWallace We're all basically Germans here.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Have you ever been here?

RegDwighт

So they have to invade ten midsized countries just to stock up on beer.

@Robusto you know you won't let me in.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт Well, okay, that was a bit of a euphemism for "big OMG big!".

Robusto

@RegDwighт You have to buy a pickup truck and a gun first. You know that.

RegDwighт

5:58 PM

Crap. I misspelled that as piano and LEGO.

David Wallace

@RegDwighт Why would you want to walk to the supermarket, if you're American?

RegDwighт

@DavidWallace I wouldn't want to walk to the supermarket in America. You don't have a choice to have or car or not have a car.

Especially after what Dubya did to the railways which were never good to begin with.

But I came here to talk about dupes, not dopes.

Robusto

Well, all I can say is this: I used to walk to the supermarket in Chicago, and it was no fun lugging three bags of groceries four blocks home.

David Wallace

Nobody likes walking home from the supermarket.

RegDwighт

Yeah, but that is a problem in any big city. Chicago, Moscow, Berlin, Singapore.

I am talking about countrysider places.

Robusto

6:02 PM

What, I don't recall seeing a market next to every house in Germany.

RegDwighт

But you certainly recall everyone and his grandma taking the bus or the tramway or the tube.

Lugging three bags of groceries.

Robusto

Well, yeah.

Especially the grandmas.

Cerberus

Robusto

@Cerberus seems to be courting us.

Cerberus

I didn't know you were on trial.

As Reg said, courting can be a trial.

David Wallace

6:04 PM

See, that courtroom looks far more like a church than the earlier one.

Cerberus

Yeah, the windows look like a church.

Robusto

@Cerberus Looks like someone should be performing Bach's Mess in B-minor there.

David Wallace

In fact, if it weren't for the row of judges, that could be a church.

RegDwighт

Quit the courtroom talk. I got a, um, what's it's called in English, summoning? to court and I don't want to be reminded. As a witness, before you ask.

Robusto

Uh-huh.

Witness. nods

David Wallace

6:05 PM

A summons.

RegDwighт

Yes. Against the idiot who sold me a Weichholzkleiderschrank on eBay and never delivered.

Robusto

It could also be a subpoena in certain cases.

David Wallace

I think subpoena is an Americanism.

RegDwighт

The German word is Ladung, which as you will understand I don't want to look up in a dictionary.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Is that like an armoire?

RegDwighт

6:07 PM

@Robusto a wardrobe. Somewhat antique. A hundred-odd years.

Robusto

That would be an armoire.

Or like one.

RegDwighт

Maybe. Armoire sounds too fancy for me. I am more used to wardrobe.

David Wallace

Why don't you look up Vorladung?

Cerberus

@Robusto Many large public buildings have vaulted roofs and led lights.

RegDwighт

@DavidWallace because it will get me all the alternatives already suggested here.

Robusto

6:08 PM

@RegDwighт People who buy wardrobes are too fancy anyway. Here we use closets. They don't clutter up the room as much.

RegDwighт

Yup, indeed it does. dict.leo.org/…

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Notice how there is no kitchen floor, and no kitchen table.

RegDwighт

@Robusto yes, but I can't manage the risk of going into the closet and never coming out.

Oh! Soup's ready!

David Wallace

@Cerberus They are just out of view, on the left. Along with the refrigerator and the stove.

RegDwighт

AFK

Cerberus

6:10 PM

@DavidWallace Ohh that's where.

David Wallace

@Robusto I bought a wardrobe.

Robusto

To wear or to store what you wear?

Cerberus

You have to admit that kitchen table looked weird.

David Wallace

@Robusto Oh, I see your point. Sorry. Bit slow.

The idea of my having the other sort of wardrobe is a bit ridiculous.

@Cerberus But there were two identical kitchen tables, remember? How many kitchens have that?

Robusto

Here is another kitchen. The sink, refrigerator, pantry, oven, etc., are offscreen to the left.

David Wallace

6:14 PM

But this one has the refrigerator out of view on the right.

Oh, jinx. Bother.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Many.

Robusto

@DavidWallace No, look again. On the left.

Cerberus

@Robusto That's a fata morgana, silly.

It shows you what you want to see.

You're always thinking of food.

Robusto

@Cerberus Sorry, I don't do fat chicks.

David Wallace

@Cerberus With a huge gap between them like that?

Cerberus

6:15 PM

@Robusto And yet she is yours.

@DavidWallace If the kitchen is large, why not?

David Wallace

@Robusto Sorry, your left or my left? You keep forgetting I'm on the other side of the world.

Cerberus

In any case, pleading the ill-positionedkitchen-table excuse is not helping your case.

Robusto

@Cerberus Why you Messina round with me?

@Cerberus You should take him to court.

Cerberus

Messina?

That's no desert.

The opposite, rather.

Robusto

Fata Morgana ORIGIN Italian, literally ‘fairy Morgan’; originally referring to a mirage seen in the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily and attributed to Morgan le Fay, whose legend and reputation were carried to Sicily by Norman settlers.

Straits are not in deserts. Except dire ones.

RegDwighт

6:18 PM

Just deserts are in deserts.

Ah.

I prefer desserts.

I prefer dissidents.

I didn't know the concept originates in the S of M.

Robusto

You prefer dissonance.

@Cerberus That's why we go over this stuff.

David Wallace

6:21 PM

@Cerberus is all your furniture weird?

Robusto

Why should his furniture be different?

David Wallace

Two kitchen tables so far apart?

Robusto

They have dueling meals.

Cerberus

Beer fest.

Robusto

Whichever team finishes first doesn't have to do the dishes.

David Wallace

6:23 PM

And also, I had this weird dream several months ago where I went to Amsterdam and stayed with Cerb. But his spare bed was only about 80cm long, so most of me was trailing off the end of it.

Robusto

It's a dog bed. Duh.

Cerberus

Um.

David Wallace

Oh, yes, I suppose it probably was. That actually makes sense.

Cerberus

That is weird indeed.

So you were in the doghouse.

David Wallace

Actually, it was more like a cabin on a small cruise ship.

I don't know. This was many months ago.

Robusto

6:26 PM

-1

Q: What is proper sentence structure?

I've got a problem with this structure: "Under this term are meant all things that belong to (...)" I wish to know if it's correct and what kind of structure actually it is. I believe it's probably more of general problem with sentence structure in English. I've got similar problem with this k...

sentence sentence-structure structure

Please tell me this is a dupe. Was/were, is/are — number agreement.

Cerberus

> The underlying lawsuit in the case was brought by a group of medical professionals and patients who argue that their research and health is adversely affected by Myriad's patents. The courts have held that natural phenomena are not eligible for patent protection, and the plaintiffs argue that patenting a naturally-occurring genetic sequence amounts to claiming a fact of nature.

If there is doubt, any doubt at all, whether a patent could possibly cause even the slightest harm to science or people, it should be rejected, thrown out, destroyed like a poisonous parasite.

David Wallace

In the fridge are two tomatoes. Can they be used interchangeably?

Robusto

@DavidWallace Only in informal situations.

Cerberus

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/…

Robusto

►

Betcha can't say what all the words are.

David Wallace

6:30 PM

Weird. Having read the word "patients" near the beginning of Cerberus' quote, my brain changed the subsequent occurrences of "patents" or "patent" to "patients" and "patient" to match. I read it about three times thinking "how can Myriad's patients have adversely affected anyone's research and health".

Robusto

By forcing them to sleep on dog beds?

David Wallace

@Robusto Indeed I can't. I keep thinking of a version of this that I saw, with parody subtitles. In said subtitles, "the Israelites" always appeared as "my ears are alight". This song will never be the same again for me.

Robusto

I actually don't even think legitimate subtitles would help.

David Wallace

►

Perhaps. I seem to remember them being actual subtitles. And much longer.

Robusto

Should be "They pack up and a leave me" I would have thought.

@DavidWallace OH, haha. I get it now. Me slow too.

►

Dylan just phoned it in.

@DavidWallace Mondegreens everywhere. Is there no defense?

And now for something completely different:

David Wallace

6:39 PM

I've got shoes; they're made of plywood.

Robusto

►

Cerberus

Is "book scorpion" common?

It is clear what it means, but I have never heard it before.

Robusto

@Cerberus Wait. You're Yoichi Oishi!

Cerberus

It is kind of a Question, yes.

But I am no elderly Japanese doctor.

Robusto

Post it on ELU. And add "In your face, Oishi-san!" at the bottom.

Cerberus

6:41 PM

So is it common?

Robusto

I have never heard the term.

Is it another term for silverfish?

Cerberus

Ah!

Yeah.

So then it was a good question.

Silverfish only vaguely resemble scorpions, I think.

Robusto

Good guess then. Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.

Cerberus

Yeah, it's truffles most of the time.

Besides, I think you have a question to ask on Biology.SE.

David Wallace

Umm, a book scorpion is an arachnid; a silverfish is an insect.

They both damage books though.

Robusto

6:44 PM

"By God, you gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles are." — Nick in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

@DavidWallace Bad writing damages more books than either scorpions or silverfish.

Hey, @Cerb: My brand-new PC's motherboard shit the bed and I'm back to using the Mac again. Life sucks.

Cerberus

Nooo...

How is that possible?

Robusto

I dunno. Worked great for six weeks and then gave up the ghost.

Cerberus

Returning a mobo sucks.

Robusto

Tell me about it. You have to rip out EVERY DAMN THING.

And then leave it lying around till you get the mobo back.

I already threw the packaging away, too.

Cerberus

Weird that it worked fine for so long, then suddenly died.

David Wallace

6:47 PM

And silverfish are much larger than book scorpions. They're really not very alike at all.

Cerberus

Packaging shouldn't matter for warranty returns.

Robusto

yesterday, by Robusto

Write your complaint here: ____. Be thorough and detailed. Don't leave anything out.

This is what they'll tell me.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Wait, a book scorpion is not the same thing?

@Robusto Then don't leave out any expletives.

David Wallace

4 mins ago, by David Wallace

Umm, a book scorpion is an arachnid; a silverfish is an insect.

Pay attention, dog!

Robusto

Pseudoscorpion

A pseudoscorpion, (also known as a false scorpion or book scorpion), is an arachnid belonging to the order Pseudoscorpionida, also known as Pseudoscorpiones or Chelonethida. Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans since they prey on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies. They are small and inoffensive, and are rarely seen due to their size. Characteristics Pseudoscorpions are small arachnids with a flat, pear-shaped body and pincers that resemble those of scorpions. They usually range from in length. The largest known species is Ga...

Fake scorpions! I knew it!

It's even fake in its Latin name.

> The oldest known fossil pseudoscorpion dates back 380 million years to the Devonian period. It has all of the traits of a modern pseudoscorpion, indicating that the order evolved very early in the history of land animals.

Wait, there were books 380 million years ago?

David Wallace

6:50 PM

@Robusto That's just its pseudonym. It was working on a book.

Robusto

@DavidWallace I'm tired of book scorpions fucking with us like that.

I won't have it.

Maybe they were fake books. Pseudolibrae?

@Cerb: Rustle us up a Latin name for fake book. Feel free to use Greek if it helps.

tchrist

Er, fake pounds?

Robusto

@tchrist I'm new at this. Be kind.

A pseudolibra would be like a Cuba Libre but without the alcohol, no?

tchrist

A book is a liber. Several are libri.

Robusto

That's very liberal of you.

tchrist

6:54 PM

A pound is a libra. Several are librae.

Cerberus

@Robusto -libri.

Robusto

I kinda sorta knew that, but not so much so that anyone could tell.

Cerberus

Libra = pound, scale.

Hence lb.

tchrist

Free books are liberi libri.

Robusto

reaches for his Librium

Matt Эллен

6:55 PM

nacho = corn chip

Cerberus

So do they or don't they eat books?

The article didn't say.

Robusto

@MattЭллен That's pig latin.

Cerberus

Or do they just live inside books?

Robusto

I devour books but I don't eat them.

David Wallace

Can you imagine living inside books and not eating them?

Cerberus

6:56 PM

Well.

Robusto

I live inside a house but I don't eat it.

The closest I come is toll house cookies.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto such as is used when you've got the trots

Cerberus

You should talk to the witch from Hansen und Gretl.

tchrist

Pageaters.

Robusto

@tchrist Phagocyte!

tchrist

6:57 PM

Watch your mouth.

David Wallace

Oh, apparently book scorpions eat booklice, which damage books. So it's probably good to have book scorpions in your books.

I take it all back.

Robusto

Beck

Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck. The four-time platinum artist rose to underground popularity with his early works, which combined social criticism with musical and lyrical experimentation. He first earned wider public attention for his breakthrough single "Loser", a 1994 hit. Beck is known for creating musical collages of a wide range of styles. Two of Beck's most popular and acclaimed recordings are Odelay (1996) and Sea Change (2002). Odelay was awarded Album of the...

Which witch?

@tchrist I can't. It's in my blood.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Yay!

tchrist

Scatophage.

Xylophage?

Robusto

@Cerberus You're cheering bookeaters?

@tchrist Xylophone.

tchrist

6:59 PM

rings

Cerberus

I'm cheering bookeatereaters.

Robusto

Jun 14 at 11:58, by Robusto

Gee, I sure hope pagina is a word.

tchrist

Página blanca.

Yannis Rizos

0

Q: Why do people use present tense on a CV/resume (written in English)?

For example: Develop business relationship Apply for patent paperwork ... It sounds rather stupid/incorrect to me. Either it already happened, in which case I think they should use past tense, e.g. "engineered a TPS reports framework" or it is happening now, in which case I would write: Rai...

resume

Would this be on topic for EL&U?

Robusto

Marginal at best.

I'd go with no.

David Wallace

7:02 PM

@Robusto Were you planning on writing some poetry?

Robusto

@DavidWallace Not necessarily. looks at shoes

David Wallace

Oh, I've just realised that you said so at the time. How do I not remember that conversation?

Yannis Rizos

@Robusto Thanks

Robusto

And the little blocks of wood you hit to make music — are those xylophonemes?

They are the smallest units of a xylophone that can be used to produce a sound, after all.

David Wallace

I do remember it now. And suddenly I feel grumpy again. I should go and eat something. See you all.

David Wallace

7:48 PM

Feel free to continue talking, in my absence.

RegDwighт

8:22 PM

@Robusto yeah, another guy next door nobody would suspect to be a Scientologist. But he is.

Monica

8:42 PM

Hi

Carlo_R.

8:57 PM

@David Hello, how are you? - sorry for the fact I do not speak English - otherwayway I would like to discuss with you. I hope the best for you and for your life. Bye.

Robusto

9:15 PM

Sounds like "have a nice life, kthxbye!"

David Wallace

10:08 PM

@Carlo_R. Hi Carlo, nice to see you.

And your English is just fine; nothing to apologise for. It's not perfect, but then, whose is?

@Monica Hi, sorry I missed you. Out shopping.

David Wallace

10:33 PM

And what on earth is the "bagel" button on my new toaster supposed to do? How is toasting a bagel any different from toasting bread? And why would they put such a thing on a toaster sold in New Zealand?

tchrist

You really don’t know?

Did you try it?

David Wallace

No. I don't have any bagels to put in it.

tchrist

A bagel toaster uses asymmetric roasting.

David Wallace

New Zealanders don't do bagels.

tchrist

You don’t want to toast both sides equally.

It ruins it.