English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@tchrist For the most part yes. But there are some shorts that might be considered more formal than some jeans. But also for the most part, jeans are pretty informal. It's not a total order.

Also, not informal is not the same as formal.

tchrist

@Mitch Huh?

But everyone loves a man in a tuxedo, and only the Chili Peppers look good in a sock.

So there we have it.

It is a simple matter of physics.

Evaporative cooling is not possible when you hide your skin from the air.

You get all icky-sticky.

And of course, hot.

How could it be otherwise?

Mitch

@tchrist there are monay things that are not informal, and yet not formal. Since we're talking about fashion, the best example is (nowadays) business casual, or golfing clothes.

Cerberus

@tchrist How dare you!

You don't even know what I look like.

tchrist

Let’s put it this way: if you do look good in a sock, I promise that you’ll look even better without it.

Feel better now?

Cerberus

2:33 AM

@tchrist I find that long trousers protect against the sun better, for one thing.

@tchrist Again, no need for compliments.

It's not going to happen.

tchrist

Well, which do you want?

You yell at me both with and without sock.

Don’t be so bellicose.

Cerberus

I'm not yelling, I'm yelping.

tchrist

@Cerberus You’ve lost your antecedent, I’m afraid. Or at least, I have.

Cerberus

I'm still curious whether you feel that beauty in clothing and the general appearance of a person is worth nothing at all, or just not much, or nothing under certain circumstances...

tchrist

I had a European friend visit some years ago.

It was August.

He brought no shorts.

Cerberus

2:36 AM

Cool!

tchrist

He died.

Well, he immediately saw the error of his ways.

Something about it being 114 talked him right out of his pants, I assure you.

I had another friend from the East Coast visit in July.

He brought no pants.

We were camping by timberline.

Cerberus

I expect you to provide proper four-legged shorts fit to American etiquette if I ever visit you.

tchrist

It froze.

So did he.

There is no bad weather, only people who don’t know how to dress for it.

Cerberus

How unfortunate.

The lesson we can draw from this is that one should not go camping.

tchrist

Yeah sure.

It never occurred to him that it could freeze in July, just as it never occurred to the European how fierce the desert sun truly is.

Cerberus

2:39 AM

@tchrist I find that a personal a/c suit, while admittedly negating bad weather, somehow lacks other properties, like grace. Call me vain.

tchrist

Vain.

What the hell is a personal a/c suit?

Beachwear?

Cerberus

The only thing someone would wear who would, according to you, know how to dress for 30 °C.

@tchrist A space suit attached to a cart carrying a generator and air conditioning unit.

tchrist

If you think 86 is hot, you know nothing.

Cerberus

With a tube to conduct the cold air towards the wearer.

tchrist

It’s been 20 degrees warmer than that here this past summer, and 30 degrees hotter if you hit the deserts.

So you wore pants because it is cold. That makes sense now.

Then why are you complaining?

Cerberus

2:42 AM

Last time I was in Italy, it was 43 °C in the shade, 68 °C in the sun, according to the thermometre.

Dogs die in cars.

tchrist

The sun temp was wrong.

People die in cars, too.

Cerberus

No, it was not.

tchrist

Whatever.

Cerberus

Do you have a/c at home?

tchrist

I could turn it on.

It is not on.

It was not hot today.

It was only in the 80s today.

The very thing you are bemoaning.

JSBձոգչ

2:48 AM

ugh. i hate heat. there's a reason i live in the frozen northland.

Cerberus

Agreed.

I strongly prefer freezing cold.

JSBձոգչ

and dutchistan is barely frozen northland

yes. cold can be easily adapted to by simply wearing more clothes.

tchrist

@Cerberus What would you know of cold?

JSBձոգչ

but heat... you can take all of your clothes off and still be hot.

tchrist

It doesn’t even get below zero very often where you live.

JSBձոգչ

2:49 AM

plus, no one minds if you walk around in a parka

but people mind if you walk around naked

plus there is sunburn, etc.

tchrist

Evaporative cooling.

Cerberus

@JSBձոգչ Yes, although more clothes can be a bit of a hassle under certain extreme circumstances.

tchrist

Wear what runners wear.

JSBձոգչ

altogether, cold is just vastly superior to heat.

tchrist

Cold will kill you without even trying.

With heat, you have to be an idiot to let it kill you.

Cerberus

2:50 AM

@tchrist I remember cycling to school when it was -21 °C.

JSBձոգչ

i fail to see how that's much different from heat

in any case, you have to be pretty dumb/unprepared to die of such things these days

tchrist

@Cerberus As I said, you have no idea of cold either.

JSBձոգչ

we are mostly talking about comfort

Cerberus

@JSBձոգչ Starks trump Lannisters!

tchrist

Surely no one thinks that –6 is very cold at all.

JSBձոգչ

2:51 AM

F or C?

-6 C is balmy

tchrist

I’m speaking English.

JSBձոգչ

-6 F is at least attempting to be truly cold

tchrist

Just to rile the poochy.

Cerberus

-6 °C is not so bad.

tchrist

It gets down below –20 here, with wind chills beyond your imagination.

It’s been –25 with a 50mph wind.

And yes, that’s in the circular scale.

Cerberus

2:52 AM

Move to an island.

tchrist

Nope, quite pleasant, thank you.

JSBձոգչ

wait, where are you that you have both freezing cold and extreme heat like that?

tchrist

No bad weather.

Colorado.

JSBձոգչ

we have cold here. it does occasionally get hot, but nothing like what you were talking about

ah. i lived in CO for many years

but i'm up in MN. overall, we're colder

tchrist

Oh, the bad stuff is out on the Western Slope.

MN is cold and sticky.

JSBձոգչ

2:53 AM

@tchrist right, and i lived on the front range

tchrist

I’m on the Front Range.

I remember one Thanksgiving when the high was –11F.

And we went up to Monarch to ski.

Idiots, us.

–20F plus wind is cold. You should have that in Minnesota.

And @Cerberus has no idea of it.

The nice thing about the mountains is you can always find something you want.

JSBձոգչ

@tchrist we certainly do.

Cerberus

@tchrist Just wear an extra dog pelt.

tchrist

If it is 105 down here, go up a mile.

JSBձոգչ

i much prefer MN heat to CO heat. the heat in CO was dry and life-sapping

but it rarely got over 100F

tchrist

2:55 AM

I find MN’s humidity life-sapping.

We set all kinds of records this summer, ’tis true.

My problem with humidity is that my body overheats, because it cannot sweat to cool itself.

Just to drown.

Whereas here it is so dry that you don’t even need deodorant so long as you shower and put on clean clothes daily.

Cerberus

Just wear something else!

It's really that simple.

tchrist

If your skin cannot evaporate, it doesn’t matter what you wear.

You have to let your skin evaporate the sweat off you.

It’s a simple matter of physics.

Cerberus

Oh, nonsense. There is no bad weather.

Just wear something appropriate.

Like a sock.

tchrist

Weather is something else.

If necessary, you can walk at 5mph to implement an evaporative breeze.

Cerberus

And flap your limbs about.

tchrist

3:07 AM

Chicken.

What was Plato’s remark about featherless bipeds and plucked chickens?

1

Q: Is it wrong or unethical to ask questions using English produced by a translation tool?

Is it wrong or unethical to ask questions in English using Google translator? What is the correct procedure to ask questions in the English language when you do not know the English language?

Uh oh. Something wicked this way comes.

Cerberus

You know why this heat sucks?

tchrist

Yes.

Cerberus

I can hear my neighbour's discussions with her clients.

tchrist

Red-light?

Awfully late for clients, otherwise.

Cerberus

I just heard this, literally, in English, of course (both hookers and clients are usually foreigners):

> Client: I shaved it. Hooker: For me?

tchrist

3:12 AM

Called it.

Cerberus

I guess even this very room is more decent than they.

tchrist

Only for the sake of a sock.

Cerberus

@tchrist Yes, your mind is always in the right places.

@tchrist But still.

tchrist

Do you live on a street where you can hear people outside when they are about?

Or just cars?

Cerberus

I can hear people.

Everything.

tchrist

3:13 AM

I’d rather hear people than cars, I guess.

Cerberus

But the hooker I hear from the kitchen window, at the back.

@tchrist You don't know what you're saying!

tchrist

Mayhap.

Cerberus

The only thing worse than yelling drunks are beer vats thrown out on the street.

Can't sleep through that.

tchrist

So whereabouts do you live, puppy?

Do you live on a canal?

Cerberus

No.

But my neighbour lady does. Well, she only works there.

tchrist

3:15 AM

Does the Damrak count?

Cerberus

Part of it, yes.

tchrist

They still have water in some of it, then?

Cerberus

Have you been there?

Yes.

tchrist

Not lately.

I’ve been to Amsterdam like 4 or 6 times. I forget.

Cerberus

Cool.

tchrist

3:17 AM

I imagine rent must be cheap(er) where you live.

Cerberus

Cheaper than where?

tchrist

Red Light Districts are seldom high-rent districts.

Except by the hour.

Cerberus

Oh, but ours is.

tchrist

Now I understand.

Cerberus

The city centre is all expensive.

tchrist

3:18 AM

You’re hot because you live on that hot street.

Warmoestraat.

Cerberus

No, I'm just hot.

Oh, haha.

Nope, not in that street.

tchrist

I hear that’s a pretty hot street.

peers around on map some more

Cerberus

I love just outside the red-light district, actually; my street is outside it, but the street at the back is in.

tchrist

It doesn’t matter to me where you love.

Nor whom.

Or for that matter, what.

Cerberus

Good.

How very tolerant you are.

tchrist

3:21 AM

Well, I’m not involved.

If I were, it might.

You can even ask me for marital advice.

Cerberus

Can I?

tchrist

I have the same qualifications as a Catholic priest has.

Cerberus

Do you?

tchrist

To wit, none whatsoever.

Cerberus

Oh.

tchrist

3:22 AM

No more having been myself married than most of them have.

Cerberus

I thought you at least had a secret wife someplace.

tchrist

Ports.

Storms.

Cerberus

Like any decent priest.

tchrist

Don’t count.

Cerberus

One in every port?

tchrist

3:23 AM

I’m a world traveller. These things happen.

Only the decent priests have secret wives.

Cerberus

Understandably so.

tchrist

The indecent ones have secret boyfriends.

Cerberus

How is that indecent?

A proper priest needs a few young boys.

tchrist

Because they’re Catholic.

For the altar, I know.

Provided it is set at just the right height.

Otherwise they won’t bend right.

Cerberus

Not everyone gets a kick out of danger, you know.

tchrist

3:26 AM

You aren’t going to trick me into thinking you’re gay, you know.

Cerberus

Most simply prefer the confession stool or stand or whatever it's called.

You’re just Dutch.

@tchrist What?

Gotcha!

Where was I trying to do this?

tchrist

3:27 AM

The indecency remark.

I saw the girls you pulled up.

Can’t fool me now.

Cerberus

Pulled up?

tchrist

pix

Cerberus

Hey, I wasn't the priest here.

You get your pix elsewhere.

tchrist

If you weren’t the priest, what does that make you?

Cerberus

From the monastery where you no doubt work...

Do I have to be anybody?

tchrist

3:29 AM

I don’t know. How do you feel about salty ducks?

Just kidding.

Cerberus

Ehh...

I believe this was something indecent, but lucky for you I forgot what.

tchrist

There’s a search function.

Cerberus

Do I look like I want to know? Or, more importantly, do I look like I want to or can use the search function?

In any case, it's bed time.

tchrist

Happy sweating.

If you were here, you would not need AC at so cool a temp.

Cerberus

Thanks!!

tchrist

3:31 AM

Because our air is clean and dry.

Cerberus

I'm using my mobile a/c.

tchrist

And we lose 30–40 degrees each night.

Which is remarkably useful.

Your cell has a little fan attached to it?

Cerberus

I just have the boys move around trays of ice.

tchrist

That would work. Nice symposia you got there.

Cerberus

Yes, wine too.

Although I'm awfully sober now.

tchrist

3:33 AM

I always think of Gymnopédies.

From Satie.

Cerberus

Kalê nux!

tchrist

night night night.

morning comes.

Cerberus

I know you do, as a priest.

tchrist

soon.

Cerberus

Bye!

tchrist

3:34 AM

My sun will be by for you soon.

He left me but a little while ago, bound in your direction.

Go.

0

Q: How to choose the phone case？

Such as the title indicates, I have a iphone 4, rather the appearance of scratches, the choice of what kind of phone case is good? Thank you for your answer.

phonetics

2

Cerberus

goes

is gone

Mahnax

4:35 AM

@tchrist Haha, phonetics.

Mechanical snail

5:21 AM

ж

@tchrist en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Language

Mahnax

6:48 AM

0

Q: Does ELU object to sb/sth for somebody/something?

As I write, there are 46 questions on main with the abbreviation "sb", and 43 with "sth". While the prevalence/desirability of these abbreviations was being discussed in comments to Can I say "acquire sb sth", the title was amended to spell out the words in full. I don't have a problem with the...

discussion

Yes, I object.

Strongly.

Matt Эллен

8:48 AM

Gord mornorng

RegDwight АΑA

According to English Translation and using rules i ask question about "Translation and non-English languages" can you describe what i say wrong? — Ishikawa Yoshi 2 hours ago

This is hilarious.

And you tell people to read the FAQ. They have read the FAQ.

Matt Эллен

but selectively

RegDwight АΑA

Dig this: don't we read everything selectively?

Matt Эллен

Thanks, I put on my best shirt!

It is understandable that he missed the break between the lists

Thanks to all the recent answer deletion, I've gained 7 reps! Monies for Nothing

user19161

11:52 AM

0

Q: What's the word for the property of being divisible by a particular number?

Example: Since x is even (i.e., divisible by 2), its --word-- is true. Since y is odd, y's --word-- is false. The description suggests 'moddity', but there was another word for it... BTW, I don't know if I should've asked this on Math on SE, so sorry if this violates this site's FAQ (my...

word-choice mathematics dictionaries

user19161

TL

user19161

There is no word that can fit into his examples.

user19161

He probably got the form of the sentences wrong.

Matt Эллен

1

Q: Verb meaning "to robust"

I am looking for a verb meaning "to make something more robust", especially in a software engineering context. Is "to robust" correct and understandable? "Robustify" seems to be another candidate but does not seem so common.

single-word-requests verbs software

Robusto!

user19161

0

Q: Online dictionary with American English Phonetics

I searched for an online English dictionary which has American (not British) pronunciation with phonetics. But I couldn't find one. Dictionary.com uses a different phonetics, and merriam-webster.com is definitely in British. Google presents pronunciation (using define keyword like define equipm...