English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

During the opening night of the Republican National Convention, many speakers took to the podium and took avantage of a phrase spoken by President Obama that some are calling a grammatical error. In a July 13 campaign appearance in Virginia, the president told an audience: “If you’ve got a b...

Cerberus

Do you mean the Schwarzwald?

ЯegDwight

7:14 PM

speech politics obama. AND dash.

cornbread ninja

Black Forest cake

Black Forest gâteau (British English) and Black Forest cake (American English and Australian English) are the English names for the German dessert Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (), literally "Black Forest cherry torte". Typically, Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. In some European traditions sour cherries are used both between the layers and for decorating the top. Traditionally, Kirschwasser (a clear liquor d...

@Cerberus apparently I do!

Cerberus

Ah.

Chocolate!

cornbread ninja

drink Kirschwasser from a shell / San Francisco show and tell

KitFox

@ЯegDwight rofl, i hadn't noticed that.

Cerberus

wants chocolate cake, eats quiche instead

ΜετάEd

7:16 PM

@ЯegDwight Shouldn't that be speech cum politics obama?

KitFox

@ΜετάEd @cornbreadninja Found him. Right here.

Cerberus

Better.

ΜετάEd

raises hand Present.

Cerberus

Now take off your hat and bow.

Matt Эллен

@kit: bill, ben and weed

Cerberus

7:19 PM

Scary dolls.

KitFox

Awww.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus The bow is attached to the hat, silly!

Cerberus

The ribbon?

Then destroy it first.

Who remembers Bow Bow?

ЯegDwight

That's Zelda.

Cerberus

No, that's Bow Bow.

And Link.

ЯegDwight

7:22 PM

You have to squint. Then you'll see Zelda. Holding a Triforce.

Cerberus

I remember that feather...but what was it for?

ЯegDwight

Gusts of air?

Cerberus

@ЯegDwight In the cave?

ЯegDwight

What the leaf was used for in Wind Waker.

Cerberus

I don't think so?

I don't remember gusts of air.

ЯegDwight

7:23 PM

Then I dunno, look it up.

Hmm.

I think he got very strong, could lift rocks.

ЯegDwight

Would make sense if he could float like a feather.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox old skool!

ЯegDwight

7:23 PM

Whis is what those boots were for in OoT.

Cerberus

He make the rocks float, probably.

Huh.

The boots were for running very fast.

Matt Эллен

and now they're high powered solicitors

ЯegDwight

That's what the gauntlets were for in OoT.

Cerberus

If you ran against trees, you could shake stuff out of them.

ЯegDwight

zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Hover_Boots

ΜετάEd

7:24 PM

A huge green fierce snake bars the way!

Cerberus

runs over snake

ЯegDwight

You could always shake stuff off trees by running against them. Boots or not.

You'd just press A to roll.

Cerberus

Ocarina of Time? I never played those novel games.

@ЯegDwight Roll? I can't roll.

ЯegDwight

Then don't tell me that I'm wrong about it.

Cerberus

A is just for...what is it for? Jumping? Hitting people?

ЯegDwight

7:25 PM

@Cerberus you could roll in Zelda for the Game Boy. And SNES.

@Cerberus Jumping in Zelda???

This is not Mario Land.

Cerberus

I...don't remember.

What was rolling for?

ЯegDwight

You always jumped automatically.

Cerberus

When and how was it used?

@ЯegDwight Right.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus I don't know how to do that.

ЯegDwight

The only exception was Zelda II, in which the dungeons were in jump-and-run sidescroll style.

2D

Cerberus

7:26 PM

@ΜετάEd touches snake inappropriately

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus I don't know how to do that.

Cerberus

Do it, stupid computer! kicks computer

use hand on snake

ЯegDwight

@Cerberus rolling was a kind of attack. In OoT and from then on, also a kind of dodge move.

Cerberus

use pail on snake

use snake

@ЯegDwight I really don't remember that at all! Are you 100 % sure it was on the GB?

ΜετάEd

I don't know how to do that.

Cerberus

7:27 PM

I only ever played it on the GB, and a few times on the SNES.

KitFox

What was the one where there was a wolverine in a snowstorm?

Cerberus

@ΜετάEd <use [regex .*] on snake>

By the way, @Reg, do you see how the feather is assigned to the B button?

I think B just used the item you were wearing. A was for main weapon.

B was also used for picking up rocks, I think.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus I don't know how to do that.

ЯegDwight

@Cerberus I am 99% sure. You'd paw the ground, then charge, leaving clouds of dust behind.

Cerberus

Just pulling stuff.

@ΜετάEd What do you know, stupid machine!?

@ЯegDwight I remember that, but it was with the boots on.

You used B for the boots, yes.

That wasn't rolling, just running.

ЯegDwight

7:31 PM

You mean something else entirely.

What I mean you could do pretty much from minute one.

Cerberus

I don't remember that.

ЯegDwight

I noticed.

I'm too lazy to check that Zeldapedia now.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus I don't know how to apply that word here.

Cerberus

Perhaps it was useless, and you always had an item quipped after the very beginning?

@ΜετάEd Ohh you stumbled from your regular line?

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus It is now pitch dark. If you proceed you will likely fall into a pit.

cornbread ninja

7:35 PM

turn left, @Cerb!

Cerberus

►

I forgot, you were in Zelda!!

Anyway, I watched the opening until here, and I see no rolling whatsoever.

@ΜετάEd spreads shadow like a pair of wings, reaching all the way to the walls of the room

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus There is a 12-foot tall balrog stretching up out of the pit, bellowing "Water!! Water!!"

Cerberus

pee pit

pee at pit

pee into pit

piddle balrog

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus I don't know how.

Cerberus

do it, do it now

►

@Reg I still see no rolling whatsoever.

ΜετάEd

7:41 PM

@Cerberus I don't know how.

Cerberus

Nor do I see how you could: with what button?

This is the game exactly how I remember it, except without colours.

@ΜετάEd That doesn't work.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus Nothing happens.

Cerberus

@ΜετάEd waits

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus Where?

Cerberus

I'm trying to remember more Discworld phrases.

I learned that you could say "x doesn't work" in English from that.

I was surprised, I remember, because Dutch uses the same construction.

How old was I?

14? No idea.

I mean the game Discworld.

Ah, 1995, so I was 12.

Okay, I have to go now.

However enticing spending another half hour listening to I don't know how is, having drinks seems somehow closer to what I need.

@Reg You didn't need to watch the entire video, you know.

cornbread ninja

7:46 PM

@Cerberus I'm older than you! gasp

Cerberus

Aww.

You don't look it.

cornbread ninja

blushes

Cerberus

Okay, goodbye!

cornbread ninja

what?

have a nice quiche!

find some cake.

Cerberus

I'm being summoned.

Bye!

cornbread ninja

7:52 PM

bye!

cornbread ninja

9:04 PM

I"m so ronery / so ronery / so ronery and sadry arone

►

ЯegDwight

OMFG Barack Obama is in ur Reddit answering questions.

Except you can't access it cus it's DoSed.

Matt Эллен

that's quite surprising (not the DoS)

ЯegDwight

reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/z1c9z/…

Verified and all.

Except the questions so far are utter crap.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.

ЯegDwight

White House beer? Seriously? Ask about Guantanamo, losers.

Matt Эллен

9:12 PM

> For proof, did he send you a picture of him holding a dated index card? Or did the Secret Service land a helicopter on your house?

lol

ЯegDwight

Ah, there it is, unanswered. When are you going to close Guantanamo?

And DoSed again. Sigh.

Matt Эллен

@ЯegDwight just below "What is your favourite cheese?"

ЯegDwight

"And who cut it?"

Robusto

@ЯegDwight And the whole thing brought Reddit servers to their knees.

ЯegDwight

9:30 PM

Which was the first thing I said. And the third.

And of course I kept reloading like an idiot, making it worse.

Robusto

My scrollbars only move in the down direction. So I don't know what you said above the visible page.

ЯegDwight

Das ist schlecht. Kauf Dir neue Scrollbars.

Robusto

Wo findet man neue Scrollbars zu kaufen?

ΜετάEd

@Robusto New scrollbars for old! New scrollbars for old!

Robusto

Sounds fishy to me.

cornbread ninja

9:49 PM

I get to buy efferdent for the rest of my life.

ΜετάEd

10:03 PM

@cornbreadninja Lucky.

Jez

"It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan"

Anyone want to try a translation of that into modern English for me?

ЯegDwight

More firearms for everyone?

Jez

a proper translation

Robusto

@Jez Sounds like the libertarian credo, which I was just discussing with @Kit: "Libertarians want to seize control of the government — and then leave you all alone."

Anyway, more food for me now. Later.

Jez

"and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction"

what is "that" referring to? the axiom? the people? liberty?

ЯegDwight

10:15 PM

I'll give it another shot at 1 p.m. rather than 1 a.m.

Night all!

Jez

you can't even begin to decipher what one of your founding fathers said? no wonder the US has gone to pot.

ΜετάEd

10:38 PM

@Jez It is modern English.

Jez

well explain it to me :-)

ΜετάEd

Ours is / needs to be a citizen government for us to stay free and for that to work the citizens must learn how to govern.

This goes to the whole "power corrupts" idea.

And the part where this statement falls down is that parties have too much power over education and have basically meddled with it to the point where we're dumb.

Jez

I really don't see how "and that too" fits into the first sentence

it should be more like "said people"

ΜετάEd

Read "and that too" as "and furthermore".

Jez

well

that's not a phrase i recognize

so i say it isn't modern English

ΜετάEd

10:46 PM

I'm not quite following your reasoning there :-)

Jez

if something isn't used in modern English, it isn't modern English

it's like he said "forsooth" or something

JSBձոգչ

it's just a matter of how "modern" is modern

it's not contemporary english

but it's modern in the sense that it belongs to Modern English, which is typically defined as 1600-present

ΜετάEd

@Jez It doesn't strike me as old fashioned.

However, I am 260 years old.

Jez

well, at least it's easier to understand than Shakespeare.

honestly, i can interpret a paragraph of French quite a bit easier than one of Shakie.

cornbread ninja

@ΜετάEd I know!

ΜετάEd

11:03 PM

@Jez Oddsbodkins! Get thee to a nunnery.

@Jez Oddsbodkins! Retire-toi dans un couvent. Sure enough, Google has the same trouble you do.

Poinçons cotes!

Cerberus

@ΜετάEd I would rather see it as picking up everything that came before "of" in the previous part of the sentence.

Jez

Hae thee to a nunnery, bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be

ΜετάEd

I am amazed by the amount of stupid stuff in my memory. I can still navigate around Colossal Cave, which for me dates back thirty years.

Jez

vast antre

that's how Shakie would've said it

ΜετάEd

11:22 PM

Well. Good chat y'all.

Cerberus

@ΜετάEd Crazy!

By the way, did @Reg ever admit he was wrong?

It is plain from the Youtube video that there is no rolling; and the feather serves to jump. You can jump.

►

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus Wrong about what? A feather?

Cerberus

About Zelda on the Game Boy.

He said you could "roll" with A or B, which is not the case.

And he said you couldn't jump.

ΜετάEd

11:37 PM

@Cerberus My whole life up to this moment has been a waste.

Cerberus

@ΜετάEd OMG, you thought you couldn't jump too??

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus That's not it. Zelda! I am in love. I must spend my remaining years with Zelda.

Cerberus

@ΜετάEd You didn't know her?

ΜετάEd

Right

Cerberus

You are fathomless.

ΜετάEd

11:40 PM

Just as well I don't have a boat.

Robusto

►

Cerberus

That is, fathom metaed doesn't work, nor does fathom at metaed.

@Robusto Reverting time like that would be a great idea for many games, instead this stupid saving that we do.

Robusto

Braid is a lot of fun. Very challenging too.

Also cheap.

I bought it during the Steam sale.

ΜετάEd

@Cerberus How do you feel about mathom at fetaed?

Good night, all.

Cerberus

@ΜετάEd Whatever works for you?

I would like some more mathoms.

I feel that I need more.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…