English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2012-08-10 (page 1 of 6)

« first day (638 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4282 days later) »

12:00 AM

BTW, Character, I saw how you tried to ~~tuckpoint~~ codepoint my answer with your fancy UTF garbage. I rolled that shit back.

Plain "straight" quotes for me. No gay quotes, tyvm.

@Robusto I what you mean.

@Robusto Then you demoted the marriage into a mere relationship.

user19161

@Cerberus Huh?

And I find your characterisation of yourself a bit...flattering.

@JasperLoy Ladeeda.

@tchrist I never said I would marry you. You must have misconstrued the casual sex as something more than I intended.

12:02 AM

Thanks, Hans.

I suppose that means you just want to sit down?

user19161

@Robusto You can marry him with someone else.

user19161

You are Padre Robusto!

EL&U.X-Men are recruiting! Submit evidence of a super power and we will decide whether to audition you. Join now!!

@tchrist Yes, but not on your lap this time, OK? I'm still sore.

@Robusto prefers his current sex, thank you very much

@Robusto And so, I see, do you.

And so? I see. Do you?

user19161

12:05 AM

Is the OP notified when an answer to his question is edited?

user19161

I think the answerer is not if the question is edited though.

Oh, one more: @Matt is The Sloth, who sleeps his way through election meetings and even snatched defeat from the jaws of victory due to his somnolence. He sleeps while everyone else is awake!

user19161

@Robusto You always leave me out but it is OK...

Trust me, it's a super power. I wish I could do it during meetings.

@JasperLoy What is your super power?

QED.

12:08 AM

Umm, if you have to think about it ...

@Cerberus Perfect! @Jasper is Non Sequitur! He has the power to cloud men's (and women's) minds by coming up with really random shit. Welcome to the Mutant Army, Jasper!

user19161

Hi @bobobobo. What a username.

@Robusto You silly willy! My goal was to bump the question up into view so people could upvote your answer, as I just did, rather than the somewhat weirdo accepted one.

user19161

@tchrist Which question is this?

@tchrist Ah, me. You should have put that in the notes.

@Robusto As for that, I fear it’s too late: you’ve already committed innumerable gay quotes here.

12:10 AM

7

A: Word to describe gays who are gay friends to each other

Assuming they're not legally married, gay and Lesbian couples usually refer to each other as "my partner" when speaking to others. If they are married, variations on husband and wife are used. Sometimes a gay relationship will have two husbands, two wives, or a husband and a wife. If the relatio...

For how would you know who was gay before you quote them?

@Robusto Well done. QED.

I have other super powers, you know.

After all, I don’t recall you running the Salty Duck test on us.

And believe me, I would have noticed.

The what test?

12:12 AM

The Salty Duck test.

It’s how you find out whether someone is gay or not.

Hey @JasperLoy.

Bobobo-bo is actually a japanese animee cartoon character

@Cerberus joins the Navy. ^

You know someone is gay if their d**k tastes like s**t.

user19161

@tchrist Well, FWIW I was trying to answer the question as closely as I could.

Salty duck test.

12:13 AM

Please see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobobo-bo_Bo-bobo

user19161

@bobobobo anime you mean.

user19161

@tchrist OMG

Forgot, I'm in english.se

Gay people who are gay friends with each other? What the hell kind of question is that?

By friends he means lovers, apparently.

user19161

12:14 AM

@bobobobo on

You're not going to like this.

@tchrist That is...twisted.

What do construction workers who are all big construction working friends with each other call each other?

The answer is..

@bobobobo Non-sexual cross-dressing? How far do you think that Disney crap is going to take you in The Incomprehensible Room?

12:14 AM

Jasper me laddie, surely they have ducks where you come from? Some are of them are marine, you know.

@tchrist No, they're not Marines. Ducks join the Navy.

@Cerberus bows again

Actually I heard it will get me a career.

user19161

@tchrist Of course, come on, I know more things than you imagine I do.

In .. uh .. being.. incomprehensible

12:15 AM

@Robusto Lotsa salty ducks in the navy.

Their ducks taste like salt?

@Robusto Partners, really? I hear many people use this word in Dutch and English, gay or straight, and it sounds so horrible.

And vice versa.

@Cerberus It does sound lame. Still, I only report what I hear.

It's not gay if you're underway.

12:16 AM

Your underwear is gay.

user19161

Maybe I am gay too, I don't know.

@Robusto Yes. I would certainly add a note that it is lame, and that straights use it too.

@JasperLoy Test your duck.

Whoa, Non Sequitur just dealt @Kit a crushing, random blow!

@JasperLoy We have no idea either.

12:16 AM

Job.

Eww. Eww. Eww.

What's her super power anyway?

I dunno. She hasn't filled out the form yet.

Is it that of the Teumessian fox?

Kitty, did you just have a collision with a light bulb?

12:18 AM

Hmm, maybe she could be Subordinate Claws? She only closes questions if others vote on them first?

Nah, not super enough.

Still waiting for the application form, @Kit.

@KitFox The svaha is the best of times.

I'm not a CAT!

And I'm not much subordinate either.

On vera.

Insubordinate.

Insubordinary.

@KitFox Well how do we know? You haven't checked the box to indicate what species you are. On the, uh, application form? You know?

12:19 AM

@Robusto That sounds like a Special Ability in Tyrant. "Heal status effect on adjacent Imperial unit if hit by Raider unit 11 or 13 turns ago".

I don't know if I want to join your army.

@KitFox BTW, FWIW, foxes have claws too.

I was talking to my former nemesis.

@KitFox Well, maybe we don't know if we want you helping us save the world. So there! sticks out tongue

user19161

Why the sudden X-men thing? You must be watching X-men now @Robusto!

12:20 AM

@JasperLoy Doing what you do best!

The Freelancing Insubordinary.

And, no, I'm not watching X-Men right now. This has been brewing for some time now.

@KitFox Former?

Aug 2 at 12:34, by Robusto

So far we have three mutants with super powers. @Reg is The Twister, because he twists everything you say. I am Nuance, because I make fine distinctions between meanings of words (but I only use my power for good). @simchona can be Trollbane (or a nicer-sounding name). Oh, and @MattЭллен is on his way to becoming The Sloth, who sleeps his way through election meetings.

I think I'd rather be the Undersecretary.

12:21 AM

I wouldn't call a whole week sudden, exactly.

@KitFox Which secretary will you be under?

user19161

@Robusto I think I missed that one.

Some people have fallen out of the group, as you can see.

@Robusto All of them. It's my superpower.

user19161

@Robusto That is polysemantic.

taps the APPLICATION FORM sign on the box

user19161

12:22 AM

Oh I forgot I am not part of the army. I am SUPERMAN!

@tchrist Yes. Remember? I had to release you from that position.

sighs Fine.

@JasperLoy No. You're not SUPERMAN. Some guy on some other job is SUPERMAN. Your'e Non Sequitur.

fills out form in triplicate using blood ink

There. Happy?

Triplicate?

2 hours ago, by Robusto

12:24 AM

Did you say triplicate, O Kit?

user image

0

Q: Context, context, context

There was once a man who was renowned as one who knew English very well. And it wasn't just idle hear-say either, he definitely had earned the reputation. People would come from all over the country to study under him. Many times they would ask him what a certain sentence meant. Invariably, his...

WTH?

user19161

@Robusto What kind of shit movie is that?

@tchrist I did.

user19161

@tchrist Lovely eyes.

@JasperLoy What kind of what? You have to wait for the commercial to finish, dummy.

12:26 AM

My ex looked like Buscemi.

user19161

@corn is jumping in and out like a ninja.

user19161

Oh John Lawler is back from vacation.

cornbread ninja

@JasperLoy I thought I'd watch the room go by as I ate my Jimmy John's.

I've got no idea what to do with that Meta question.

@tchrist Why, hello there.

12:28 AM

It's like someone just had a schizophrenic break.

user19161

@KitFox Geezis.

user image

user19161

@KitFox Maybe he took some amphetamines.

user image

You see, I am well-acquainted with your kind.

@KitFox You misspelled WTF.

12:30 AM

I just closed it unilaterally.

@tchrist All I see are unfounded images.

Well, that’s wrong.

user19161

@KitFox I thought it would be NR, but take your pick.

Hm.

Jasper saw them.

What's NR?

user19161

@tchrist I did not. I clicked and saw nothing yet.

12:31 AM

@KitFox We just received your form and ... looks at papers ... yes. Yes, I think we have a place for you. Henceforth you shall be called The Closer because you have the power to close idiotic, patronizing questions.

Hold.

user19161

It also depends on location and connection I guess.

user19161

@KitFox NARQ.

user image

Welcome to our clubhouse. No girls allowed, but you can bring us Mountain dew and stuff.

12:32 AM

How about that one?

No girls, just ex-men.

OK, then I guess Kit can come in the clubhouse after all.

user19161

@tchrist This one has manifested. Very thin neck.

user image

user19161

So from kitty pics we have advanced to foxy pics? Next up is boob pics.

user image

They aren’t just fox pix.

They’re kitfox fix.

12:34 AM

Well, actually I'm a fennec.

I know my name is Kit and I have a kit fox over there <-- but...fennec.

user image

The kit fox is just a costume.

user image

^Me.

user19161

@KitFox This one was used for the longest period.

It was a birthday present from @Reg.

I see. Well, I'll reopen it if you edit it so that it asks a specific question about context. Convoluted parables don't make good discussion questions. — KitFox 3 mins ago

I hope I did not seem mean.

user19161

@KitFox Not at all!

12:37 AM

wonders whether a hyperbolic parabola is sufficiently convoluted for these purposes

user19161

I love to say notatall!

Can we get some more context as to why you're posing a parable as a question? — Robusto 14 secs ago

@KitFox There. Now you don't seem mean at all, by comparison.

tests out his parableptic hyperbole

@tchrist Stop being hypobolic.

No repeating redundancies in this chat.

12:39 AM

@Robusto Hi, Po’ Boy! LICK

That's not a redundancy. That is a redundancy redux.

Salty dux?

@tchrist Stop being licky.

How else can I check for salt?

user19161

@arlen What's wrong with asking for context? Sometimes there is more context which should be provided than meets the eye. — Jasper Loy 14 secs ago

12:41 AM

@tchrist Salt is always assumed. Especially in processed food.

user19161

I happen to be one always asking for more context. He can only think of 1 situation in which the question can be interpreted while I think of 9000. He then interprets my genius as stupidity. I am used to this.

1

A: Meaning of "long gone"

I can't tell for sure with just this little bit, but I'll give it a shot. Context is always important in English. Wooden poles should be pretty self explanatory, so I'll save my breath. Seriously, a picture is worth a thousand words. Most likely it means the wooden poles have long gone, but they ...

WTF?

@Robusto The best unprocessed tube steaks are made of pure premium meat, with just the right amount of salt.

@Robusto This is how I've discovered that being a mod actually kind of sucks.

Drugs.

Definitely drugs.

And not good ones, either.

user19161

12:44 AM

@tchrist Could just be eccentricity.

@KitFox Now you know why I never ran for office. Who wants to be a frickin' janitor?

user19161

@Robusto You can be a janitor at MIT like Will Hunting.

Posting history suggests uneven medication.

Jun 7 '11 at 10:55, by Robusto

A janitor by any other name is still a moderator.

@tchrist Not drugs. Teenage Xianity.

user19161

12:45 AM

@KitFox LOL

-2

A: What does the phrase "Begging the question" mean?

It means that something begs for the question to be asked. Begging, as in asking, in this case, silently. Like a dog begs at a table, not by barking, but by looking intently at the food. "This year's budget deficit is half a trillion dollars. This begs the question- how are we ever going...

user image

Arlen's bio. Now it makes sense.

BTW, if he is a creationist, how can he like astronomy? Also, history.

And music.

And programming.

Anyway, it's schizophrenia.

That's the only way to resolve it.

Nah, I'll give him those. His music is probably imbued with Bieber fever, and he probably programs in VBA, but ...

@KitFox Ah, I see:

1

A: Dedicated "To women" or "To the women"?

I would probably use something like this: to all women to women everywhere However, "women of the world", as was suggested in another answer, has a bit of a negative religious connotation. The conservative and moderate sectors of most religions, especially ones which emphasize morality, would...

KJV idolator:

0

Q: Full Stop, Double Stop, Period and Colon

Different times I see "full stop" used online. Does this just mean a period, or is it something more or less? I would assume it refers to a period specifically at the end of a sentence, but does it mean more than that? In the King James Version of the Bible, the colon is often used as what appea...

punctuation colon period early-modern-english

His profile lies. You would think that would be against the terms of service, but whatever.

It says he has a 100% accept rate.

12:51 AM

0

Q: Difference between at and in

Possible Duplicate: At/In the Summer Olympics I find this here. Gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics Gymnastics is an activity. Olympics is activity. It is possible to have one small activity in big activity. So, shouldn't it be: Gymnastics in the 2012 Summer Olympics

grammar american-english

Riiiiiiiiight.

@tchrist He accepts everything as gospel.

I forgot I was a moderator.

> Although it is true that language changes continually, this observation by itself is not an adequate guide to effective usage.

+1

Do you guys agree with this closure?

12:52 AM

I was going to vote for the close, and then I realized that I am overzealous, and chose to let others chime in.

@tchrist You have a grace period. Or am I missing a joke?

This morning everything only and me and reg closing it.

@KitFox Yes.

I feel a little silly for forgetting that my vote was binding.

@KitFox Probably. There aren’t many Thumpers with 100% acceptance of others.

12:53 AM

Especially since we were just talking about how irritating it is to be a mod.

Kit, if you are sure it is an exact dupe, then I think it is ok.

It's like Assad saying, "sorry, I forgot the artillery actually obeys my commands, and now they shelled that city into the ground".

Just kidding.

Reg likes to post lotsa possible dups and let others decide, but sometimes he just nips it in the bud.

I think it's actually Nortonn.

And I am pretty sure that one is.

12:54 AM

But I don't know what the protocol is.

@Reg @waiwai are you nearby?

Could be. Wasn’t he just here a day or two back?

You have to ping them better than that, don't you?

And Reg is away.

@waiwai933 Are you on site?

I don't know if sim has done any of these yet. Do you happen to know?

user19161

@KitFox Which one?

The one I just closed.

user19161

@KitFox It is. See usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/…

user19161

1:01 AM

That guy just loves to cross-post.

So @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇, how is your new GN? You happy with it?

user19161

He might be spying on us as we speak.

Thanks, Jasper. That's helpful.

Very well done, Jasper!

@Cerberus It’s like the old pope-joke whose punchline runs “...and 20,000 Catholics stooped to poop.”

How does that go? He had commanded all Catholics to do as he did?

1:10 AM

Oh, it was like he was up in front of a mob of the Faithful in St Peter’s Square, and he dropped something and broke it, and he exclaimed “Shit!”. So they did.

Something like that.

It’s one of those junior-high-school–boy jokes.

@KitFox That was quick. :)

Except I don't know what to do about this straggling question:

3

Q: "If he ever was here" vs. "if he was ever here"

I have question about using ever. We don't know if he ever was here. We don't know if he was ever here. Does the place of ever matter?

verbs adverbs word-order

I'll leave it for @Reg to figure out.

3

Q: "If he ever was here" vs. "if he was ever here"

I have question about using ever. We don't know if he ever was here. We don't know if he was ever here. Does the place of ever matter?

verbs adverbs word-order

That one?

Right.

Oh. Well, I guess he does have some open questions.

Just a few, aye.

@KitFox I did look for a dup of that one over where Jasper found the other, but came up empty-handed.

Me too. Must be from a different forum.

1:19 AM

Maybe, but this isn’t especially fruitful.

Interesting. Arlen Beiler has a Founder badge for ELU from two years ago.

So he isn’t a super utter nutter, or anything.

Presumably.

Evening, squires and duchesses.

user19161

@mahnax Boo!

@JasperLoy Good day to you, sir.

Hi.

@tchrist Do you know Russian?

user19161

In Soviet Russia, Russian knows you.

1:31 AM

Hello.

1:41 AM

три, два, один

Huh.

Three, two, one?

Huh, indeed.

Yeah, but I don't know Cyrillic at all. Are those all caps?

Nope, those are all lowercase letters.

When I put them inside <em> tags, they changed.

ТРИ, ДВА, ОДИН.

There's all caps.

1:43 AM

Looks almost the same to me.

Only a few of the letters change significantly.

I suppose that's not a surprise.

I can demonstrate, if you wish.

Actually, it's just the one letter.

I'm particularly confused because I've got something like mpu, dba, oduh.

Tree, dva, odeen.

1:45 AM

Of course, I don't know Cyrillic input...but still. Why would they change like that?

My italics are a weird font or something?

I'm confused as to how you ended up with mpu.

It's the lowercase delta looking d too. not the crooked nose.

in script the cyrillic t looks like an m, also cyrillic r looks like a p

Odd.

Hmm. It must be the italics doing something weird.

1:47 AM

CCCP = soviet ... ... Republic

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, you mean?

user image

Like so?

Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик

@KitFox yeah, the italic lowercase letters in Cyrillic fonts look very different from the non-italic versions

@Mahnax Yes, exactly.

1:48 AM

@KitFox No, Russian I do not know. What I do know is the answer to the toilet question, and it has nothing to do with Fummy’s silly notion.

@JSBձոգչ Oh, OK. So it is supposed to look like that?

i think so

@KitFox As Mitch and JSB said, it's supposed to look like that. I read a bit about it once.

Mahnax's picture looks correct to me

Is that something that Russians read a lot? Or is it weird? Seems weird.

1:49 AM

Russians are pretty used to it

Why are there no Russians around when I need them?

OK then. Thanks.

Gimme a spell to write it up.

when was the last time you thought about, or even noticed, the fact that roman a and italic a have different shapes?

(in some fonts. not this one)

I was thinking like cursive versus block print.

cursive v block is of course a whole nother thing yet

user image

^ this is the sort of thing i was thinking of

1:51 AM

Anyway, I was trying to get this itch out of my head, so if you will pardon...wait a mo.

Hey JSB you're a version of Orthodox, right?

@JSBձոգչ Me? Constantly.

And there is no italic in this font, anyway.

@KitFox yes

@JSBձոգչ Do you use the "now I lay me down to sleep" prayer with your babies?

If there were, it would have an italic a; it doesn’t.

Therefore, it is merely oblique, not italic.

The standard phrase to test for a true italic is The five boxing wizards jump quickly.

pfft Not so good without the foxen.

1:54 AM

@KitFox no. we just say the lords prayer before bed

The difference should be made abundantly clear here.

@JSBձոգչ Is there something commonly used for calming/comforting children in your practice?

Or just the Lord's prayer? And do you say it in English?

If you don't mind me asking of course.

there are some Romanian lullabies... but i can't think of anything that's specifically Orthodox

we say the lord's prayer in English

OK, thank you.

Or here:

In typography, italic type is a cursive typeface based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, such typefaces often slant slightly to the right. Different glyph shapes from roman type are also usually used—another influence from calligraphy. True italics are therefore distinct from oblique type, in which the font is merely distorted into a slanted orientation. However, uppercase letters are often oblique type or swash capitals rather than true italics. This style is called "italic" for historical reasons. Calligraphic typefaces started to...

Sigh. The dumb thing didn’t jump to the examples.

1:57 AM

@JSBձոգչ Do you have a feel for whether the "now I lay me down to sleep" prayer is specifically 'very American'?

There you go!

I love that zed.

it's pretty american to me

I thought that might be.

Thanks.

Back to the toilet.

Oh drat, you made it go away.

Well, perhaps it is for the best.

1:58 AM

What? I didn't.

Would you care to know the correct answer?

Really??

Lemme see who did.

By owner.

« first day (638 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4282 days later) »

Transcript for

Aug '1210

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…

Not for the faint of heart or those easily triggered by Englis...

phrase-requests pronunciation single-word-requests synonyms

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile