English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

The OED citations of wood in the singular like that are all the 16th century or before. The later ones are all of woods. I'm sure I've heard it used that way, though.

I was very afraid you might have meant that.

RegDwighт

You misspelled very happy.

tchrist

declines to enter the locker room brawl

RegDwighт

8:09 PM

spake he from within said locker room

Listening to Moon River suddenly makes me realize how fucking much I'm used to Autotune by now.

He's easily off by a ¼ tone at times.

Kosmonaut

You could run all your music through an autotuner so that you can avoid that problem

RegDwighт

How does delving into count as avoiding?

MετάEd

@Carlo_R. Really? You are making a complaint about English.SE by spamming my BLOG?

metaed.blogspot.com/2012/09/adamah.html

RegDwighт

lolwut

Kosmonaut

@RegDwighт Avoiding non-autotuned music!

Robusto

8:18 PM

@RegDwighт I reserve the right to underestimate any animals I choose. Mollusks, for example. Everyone overestimates them, and I'm getting sick of it.

RegDwighт

@Robusto what about Durusks? When will people understand them?

coleopterist

bbl

Robusto

@RegDwighт understand => underestimate

Slip of the keyboard.

RegDwighт

Who reads your shit.

Robusto

Meh, I blew the joke. First time ever in this chat.

RegDwighт

8:20 PM

"BBL" always makes me think of the Bible Belt.

tchrist

Where did ngramboy go?

RegDwighт

To the Bible Belt, apparently.

Robusto

@RegDwighт It is barrels of fun.

RegDwighт

They sell him in barrels now? Talk about progress.

tchrist

Robusto

8:21 PM

Or bubbles. I misremember which.

tchrist

He forgot that people used to say which a lot more often than Americans do today.

RegDwighт

@tchrist what about "such as those who occurred"?

tchrist

Already tried.

Flatlines.

RegDwighт

Well that's no fun. No barrel, either.

tchrist

But it’s nice to hear my thoughts echoed in others.

Kosmonaut

8:22 PM

"such as those what occurred"

Robusto

May 7 '11 at 12:36, by Robusto

BTW, I'm getting a little tired of all this argumentum ad verecundiam concerning Google NGrams. If you compare apples and oranges, you can make anything look compelling.

tchrist

@Kosmonaut Ah, maybe. Lemme see.

RegDwighт

Jun 27 '11 at 18:54, by RegDwight

Zwei Idioten, ein Gedanke.

Robusto

@Kosmonaut "such as those who occurred"

Cerberus

Oh, cosmic alert!

reverses shield polarity

RegDwighт

8:23 PM

@Kosmonaut "such as those whomever who's next occured".

Cerberus

linguistic beams hit shield

Kosmonaut

@Robusto Oh hi... you never occurred to me.

RegDwighт

Curry curry

Cerberus

radiation penetrates aft shield

Robusto

@Kosmonaut That's how I'm going to win. You don't see me coming.

Cerberus

8:23 PM

ship is enlightened

RegDwighт

@Robusto That's what she said.

Cerberus

or lit, as you will

Kosmonaut

@Robusto I misunderestimated you again, like those damn mollusks.

Cerberus

ship burns, crew die

tchrist

Nothing but flatness, even expanded and contracted.

Robusto

8:24 PM

@RegDwighт She was facing away from me at the time, obviously.

Cerberus

but captain Picard guides ship back through time hole

and all is well

Kosmonaut

@tchrist I didn't think "those what occurred" would have anything since it is mixing registers

Cerberus

Especially in books.

Robusto

Might work with "them what occurred" ...

tchrist

What’s the right translation, happened?

RegDwighт

8:26 PM

May 9 '11 at 21:25, by RegDwight

Kosmonaut

I wasn't thinking about "occurred" vs. "happened" but there's that too I suppose

tchrist

@Kosmonaut ponders the mollities of mollescence

Cerberus

@RegDwighт Haha, yes, I guess it could have been even worse.

Like funny hats.

Kosmonaut

I was thinking what Robusto said

I don't think I've ever said that before!

RegDwighт

I was knowing Kosmo would be saying that.

Cerberus

8:28 PM

@Robusto One might hear a newly appointed city councillor mix registers like this...

Trying to sound "posh".

But from a different background.

Shining through when he gets mad.

I feel like I'm rambling. I need to make a phone call.

tchrist

0

Q: "directed" preposition collocation: pursuing comprehensive explaination

Is there a comprehensive explaination, which prepositions should I use with "directed", and why. directed at directed to directed on directed onto directed in directed into directed toward directed towards ... ? I have found two partial answers, but they look just "partial" in my case. Here t...

prepositions

RegDwighт

Is that how you heal rambling in Holland?

tchrist

moues

Kosmonaut

Yeah, it's a new kind of therapy — you need an outlet for the rambling

tchrist

Etymology: a. OFr. moe, moue mouth, lip, pout (mod.Fr. moue pouting grimace), of obscure origin; or perh. a. MDutch mouwe of the same meaning. The MDutch word is prob. from OFr.; some, however, think that it was the source, regarding it as a special use of mouwe thick flesh (mow sb.4), from which sense the senses ‘thick lip’, ‘pout’ are assumed to have been developed.

In England the word has little colloquial currency, and the pronunciation is uncertain. The British Dicts. give /maʊ/, the recent U.S. Dicts. /moʊ/. In Scotland, where the word is still in use, the sound is /mʌu/.

I wondered how to say it.

Apparently, nobody knows.

“the pronunciation is uncertain”

I’ll opt for French, I suppose.

Not that anyone would understand me.

They’ll think I’ve been hanging out with my Wisconsin kine.

RegDwighт

8:33 PM

If nobody understands you when you're talking French, then you need to work on your French.

tchrist

remoues

MετάEd

@RegDwighт I need to flag stalking activity related to, but outside of, English.SE. No idea where I do that.

FBI?

You mean your blog?

@MετάEd The FTC?

8:36 PM

@RegDwighт Right.

KitFox

What's this?

tchrist

Do you actually mean stalking stalking?

KitFox

Should we discuss it privately?

Robusto

►

MετάEd

Two messages written on my blog apparently as response or retribution for a comment I flagged.

tchrist

8:36 PM

Go huddle.

RegDwighт

@KitFox Ed created a room already.

I'm asking around in the TL.

MετάEd

@Carlo_R. Please see the FAQ, especially: “Civility is required at all times; rudeness will not be tolerated.” — MετάEd 3 hours ago

tchrist

I didn’t understand that. Did I miss a comment?

KitFox

@RegDwighт I'm so out of touch. My apologies.

tchrist

I figure something got deleted before I read your comment.

At least, I’m hoping that’s what happened.

MετάEd

8:38 PM

This was in reply to a rude comment directed at a different user. The rude comment has since been deleted. Whether deleted by C_R or a mod, I don't know.

Robusto

@MετάEd I would have gone with something like "Hey, moron! Try to treat people with respect! Hello!"

tchrist

Ok, thanks. I was wondering. You don’t seem the sort to say that without cause, of which I saw nothing.

RegDwighт

@Robusto Nonono. Not "Hello". Go for "Like, hello!" for extra impact.

Robusto

makes notes

tchrist

hums along

MετάEd

8:40 PM

The blog spam is at metaed.blogspot.com/2012/04/… and metaed.blogspot.com/2012/09/adamah.html

Robusto

Eeeuuuuwww, blog spam. Smegma's ugly cousin.

MετάEd

@simchona is mentioned.

Robusto

Name-dropper.

tchrist

I really wanted to believe that this had all gone away.

@Robusto Hey, you’re the one who dropped the s-bomb!

Robusto

@tchrist Sarsparilla bomb? Salt bomb? Spaniel Bomb?

tchrist

8:43 PM

I am so glad I am not a janitor.

@Robusto Your holy smegmata.

Robusto

Not mine. Dunno whose it is.

MετάEd

Spam #3: metaed.blogspot.com/2012/04/…

Robusto

2 hours ago, by Robusto

@RegDwighт Talk to the janitor. Not our problem.

Kosmonaut

@Robusto Maybe this

►

MετάEd

Spam #4: metaed.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-bicarbonate-gets-its-name.html

A nice little bit of carpetbombing.

Robusto

8:45 PM

@Kosmonaut But of course. Only now we find that Tom Jones' agent paid women to throw their panties and room keys on stage.

tchrist

@MετάEd I couldn’t help myself. I had to peak at your fontage.

MετάEd

It's a lovely bit of restored old type.

tchrist

Quite.

Robusto

I feel cheated. throws out whole collection of Tom Jones records, only one that belongs to someone else because he has none himself

Kosmonaut

Guys, someone stole my Tom Jones box set

tchrist

8:47 PM

That was fortuitous, but misleading.

Robusto

whistles aimlessly

Kosmonaut

I always make sure to aim my whistles.

Robusto

I'm partial to scattershot whistles, myself.

Aiming whistles is so 2010.

Kosmonaut

I saw Aiming Whistles in Chicago back in 2004.

They opened for Throwing Muses

Carlo_R.

Hello @Paola. I have asked a new question on ILU. I hope that that like to people so they vote and we go in beta.

Robusto

9:01 PM

@Kosmonaut I saw Aimee Mann. Does that count?

Carlo_R.

Here the time is finishing for me, Paola.

RegDwighт

@Robusto I'm looking forward to the new album. No spoilers.

Robusto

Aimee Mann was one of the nihilists, ordering Pfannkuchen in the diner, IIRC.

RegDwighт

We've been there.

Tab number something. Look it up yourself.

KitFox

OK, I'm off.

Robusto

9:09 PM

Listening to Autobahn's most famous album, Nagelbett.

RegDwighт

That was a major WTF.

To this day, everybody I know keeps wondering if they misspelled Nagelbrett, or punned on purpose.

Robusto

There is a picture of a bed of nails on the cover.

RegDwighт

Is it a bed? Always looked like a board to us.

Carlo_R.

@Kit Kit, please do not believe at MetaED. I did not say nothing of rude. I'm sure Andrew Leach can testimony in my favor. I only asked to Andrew why he did not understood the use of tag 'i' and 'b'. I'm sure Andrew would not never flagged my comment.

Robusto

@RegDwighт A bed of nails is always a board. You know, with nails in it?

RegDwighт

9:12 PM

@Robusto not in German though. That's the thing.

Robusto

But the movie wasn't meant for a German audience.

RegDwighт

In German, the nailbed is, well, the bed of your nails. Where your nails attach to yourself.

@Robusto who knows.

It does work as an extra pun just for the Germans.

This is quite clearly a Brett, not a Bett.

Wevs.

When I grow up, I will just ask Die Gebrüder Coen.

Carlo_R.

@Kit the only spam comments I see here are the MetaED's comments, who sistematically and always cites the FAQ whitout providing any help to the asker for improving their questions. This behaviour is not wrong if it is saw in single specific question, but is rude if globally saw.

RegDwighт

@Carlo_R. how is it relevant to his blog?

Robusto

@RegDwighт You are overthinking it.

RegDwighт

9:22 PM

@Robusto Nah, I'm just mentioning stuff. Thought you'd be interested. You are free to ignore it.

Robusto

1

Q: What preposition goes after “directed”?

Is there a comprehensive explanation of which prepositions I should use with directed, and why? directed at directed to directed on directed onto directed in directed into directed toward directed towards ... ? I have found two possible answers, but they look just “partial” in my case: Ques...

prepositions

Hmmm. Narq?

RegDwighт

By.

Ten times out of ten, it's "directed by".

Robusto

I am trying to think of a preposition that can't be used after "directed" ...

RegDwighт

Instead of?

Под?

Robusto

Bed of nails

A bed of nails is an oblong piece of wood with the size of a bed with nails pointing upwards out of it. It appears to the spectator that anyone lying on this "bed" would be injured by the nails, but this is not so. Assuming the nails are numerous enough, the weight is distributed between them such that the pressure exerted by each nail is not enough to break the person's skin. Uses One use of such a device is for magic tricks or physics demonstrations. A famous example requires a volunteer to lie on a bed of several thousand nails, with a board on top of him. Cinder blocks are placed on ...

RegDwighт

9:25 PM

Nail (anatomy)

A nail is a horn-like envelope covering the dorsal aspect of the terminal phalanges of fingers and toes in humans, most non-human primates, and a few other mammals. Nails are similar to claws in other animals. Fingernails and toenails are made of a tough protein called keratin, as are animals' hooves and horns. The mammalian nail, claw, and hoof are all examples of unguis [plural ungues]. Human anatomy The nail consists of the nail plate, the nail matrix and the nail bed below it, and the grooves surrounding it. Parts of the nail The matrix (sometimes called the matrix unguis, ker...

Robusto

Maybe they don't have magic tricks in Germany.

STFU, Donny.

RegDwighт

You're out of your element.

Robusto

You're out of your depth.

Cerberus

@Robusto Photoshop Donny?

Robusto

Nagel

Ein Nagel ist ein am unteren Ende zugespitzter, am oberen Ende abgeplatteter Stift aus Metall oder Holz. Er dient zum Fixieren oder Verbinden von Bauelementen, vor allem aus Holz. Dabei sind die gängigsten Metalle Stahl, Kupfer und Messing. Nägel werden entweder mit dem Hammer eingeschlagen oder mit dem Magazinnagler eingeschossen. Nägel sind die ältesten bekannten Verbindungselemente. Die ältesten Holznägel der Welt wurden 5101 v. Chr. zum Vernageln eines Holzbrunnens in Sachsen gebraucht. Diese konnten anhand der Jahresringe im Holz genau datiert werden. Herstellung Nägel werde...

> Ein Nagel ist ein am unteren Ende zugespitzter, am oberen Ende abgeplatteter Stift aus Metall oder Holz.

German is so awkward.

tchrist

9:30 PM

Nagle's algorithm

Nagle's algorithm, named after John Nagle, is a means of improving the efficiency of TCP/IP networks by reducing the number of packets that need to be sent over the network. Nagle's document, Congestion Control in IP/TCP Internetworks (RFC 896) describes what he called the "small packet problem", where an application repeatedly emits data in small chunks, frequently only 1 byte in size. Since TCP packets have a 40 byte header (20 bytes for TCP, 20 bytes for IPv4), this results in a 41 byte packet for 1 byte of useful information, a huge overhead. This situation often occurs in Telnet sessi...

Carlo_R.

@Reg yes, you are right. His behaviour is relevant here; but moderators does take seriously this situation.

Robusto

You could drive a Mack truck between the article and the noun in that sentence.

tchrist

  setsockopt(SERVER, SOL_SOCKET, TCP_NODELAY, 1)
      || die "Couldn't disable Nagle's algorithm: $!\n";

Carlo_R.

MetaED sistematically cite the FAQ in a way that is surely offensive for the community.

RegDwighт

Germans don't drive Mack trucks. They drive Frontlenker.

Robusto

9:31 PM

Anyway, don't pretend you don't understand what a Nagel is.

RegDwighт

Cab over

Cab-over, also known as Cab Over Engine (COE), cab forward, or forward control, is a body style of truck or van that has a vertical front or "flat face", with the cab of the truck sitting above the front axle. This truck configuration is currently common among European and Japanese truck manufacturers, because the laws governing overall vehicle lengths are strict and the body style allows longer trailers (in the case of a tractor-trailer truck) or a longer cargo area (in the case of a "staight" truck, a truck with a single rigid frame supporting all components and the load) for the sam...

Robusto

@RegDwighт But if they had Mack trucks they could drive them as mentioned.

tchrist

They’re much too PC for that.

RegDwighт

@Robusto but then it would actually occur to them what they are doing and they would stop putting the article so far apart and German would cease to exist.

Robusto

And this is a problem because?

RegDwighт

9:33 PM

You said it is. I didn't.

tchrist

@Robusto Or something like that. I blew all my closevotes early this morning on an NS-jihad.

Robusto

In English we would have to say "A nail is an on-the-bottom-end-pointed, on-the-top-end-flattened pin ..." to get that level of misdirection.

tchrist

Hic venit SHMBO.

RegDwighт

@Robusto yes we get it, languages are weird in other languages.

Robusto

Anyway, enough carping about German. Time to commute and carp about traffic! Byes.

tchrist

9:35 PM

tries to be koi

RegDwighт

CU

Carlo_R.

CU

simchona

Dude, @Carlo_R., I don't think I've ever suspended you.

Unless, of course, there's something you'd like to tell us.

Carlo_R.

@sim I can only repeat what I said. If we globally see the Meta's comments, we can see rudeness. He sistematically cite the FAQ without any specific help for the askers for impriving their questions.

simchona

@Carlo_R. That is unrelated to what you were insinuating.

In addition, those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Carlo_R.

9:46 PM

Sorry @sim, it is difficult to me follow you. It is not a language problem, anyway.

RegDwighт

Well I gotta go. Night all.

simchona

@Carlo_R. Well, if you don't get idioms, colloquialisms, etc. then it is a language problem

Carlo_R.

No @sim, the problem is not the idiom.

But is the fact that I'have insinuating nothing

simchona

@Carlo_R. You want plain English? Ok. You were rude. You were flagged. Comment was deleted.

Don't point fingers at Meta when you've been rude too.

Carlo_R.

@sim frankly, this time there is nothing rude in my comment.

simchona

9:51 PM

@Carlo_R. In your original comment there was. I can still see it, you know.

Carlo_R.

@sim as I said yesterday: ubi major minor cessat.

simchona

@Carlo_R. As I've said before, be nice.

Carlo_R.

okay, good night!

RegDwighт

-13

Q: Please no microsoft advertisements here! Never!

First of all: I really like what you guys do and I really enjoy your portals. To be even more precise: I think the concept of the stackexchange sites is more remarkable than any other so called social network and more helpful than any wiki. So, I love to browse the sites and - must say again - e...

discussion

tchrist

Hah!

Poor guy.

I haven’t seen spamvertising in a thousand years.

Matt Эллен

10:06 PM

well, there is a new MS competition. maybe that's sparked him off

Robusto

10:19 PM

@RegDwighт I'm glad we can agree on something.

@RegDwighт I threw him a pity upvote. I wonder how many upvotes he has. I don't have enough reps on MSO to see.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…