English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

12:01 AM

watches yesterday's NBC Nightly News

KitFox

Anything interesting?

I'm waiting for my boy to go to sleep.

Also, reading.

Also, drinking scotch.

Boy needs to sleep. Go to sleep, boy!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Ho yeah.

Congress voted down gun bill for extended background checks.

Bomb threat at Boston federal court house.

Ricin letters.

KitFox

Lovely.

WendiKidd

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 asdfjkl

WHY

KitFox

My son is yelling now.

tchrist

12:11 AM

NARQ:

-1

Q: How are pluralized forms of fictional words determined?

How does one determine the correct pluralization of words that have been "made up" in their singular forms only? Is it possible to determine the "most similar" existing word and mimic its pluralization rules? Is the only way to ask the original author or canon source?

grammaticality

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@WendiKidd red states.

Montana. Arkansas. et cetera.

tchrist

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Bloody ones.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

What if we split into two countries?

tchrist

Lincoln thought that that was a bad idea.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@KitFox because you yelled at him to go to bed?

tchrist

12:12 AM

I wish we’d just let the idiots go hang themselves.

WendiKidd

@tchrist I think I saw a similar question recently. Either on ELL or ELU, I forget which.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist or shoot themselves. Then we can give prominence to that, and the idea can spread.

tchrist

Kinda like self-deportation taken to the next level.

WendiKidd

I also forget what happened to it. But it was something about plurals or caps or something with made-up words.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

remembers she has scotch

KitFox

12:13 AM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 No, he started off singing, then telling a story to his kitty, I think. It probably just got really exciting.

WendiKidd

@KitFox LOL!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

NO KITTY THAT'S A BAD KITTY! >_<

tchrist

@WendiKidd “Hey like dude you know those guys who make stuff up, like how do they like do that stuff like?”

Lame.

WendiKidd

@tchrist hahahahaha

tchrist

And not an answerable question.

WendiKidd

12:15 AM

Thank you for making me laugh :)

tchrist

I’m just a cut-up character.

WendiKidd

Well. The answer is, "There is no answer, it's different for each word." But...still a bad question. :)

EVERY QUESTION HAS AN ANSWER!

Well. Probably.

I bet you guys could come up with one now that doesn't, just to prove me wrong.

:)

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

WTF, USPS. Those ricin letters were postmarked April 8.

Robusto

@WendiKidd Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

tchrist

@WendiKidd “What question has no answer?”

WendiKidd

12:16 AM

@tchrist "There is no question which has no answer."

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I like your new gravatar, btw.

WendiKidd

@Robusto I know right? she finally drew it! :)

tchrist

@WendiKidd Does the set of all sets that do not contain themselves contain itself?

WendiKidd

I was like....you are cornbread. Why avatar iz cake?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Robusto thanks! I need to make it square.

Robusto

12:16 AM

I think it works as is.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Because he looks sneaky?

Robusto

Violate the boundaries of the square!

tchrist

I could use some work sassies myself.

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 He?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

it?

WendiKidd

12:17 AM

@tchrist If I'm reading that right... That's the null set, right? So... Does nothing contain itself. I'm going to say "No, but that's a great philosophical question!"

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Oh yeah, and American Airlines.

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Them.

WendiKidd

@tchrist Wait no, I did read it wrong

hmmm

Now you're making me think

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist I used to subscribe to Sassy.

Robusto

@tchrist Pull up your Spanx and pitch in. You have to put in your own work around here, boy.

tchrist

12:20 AM

> In a certain library, some books are catalogues that contain lists of other books. For example, there is a catalogue of all the books on the second floor, and a catalogue of all the books about birds. Some catalogues might include themselves. For example, the catalogue of all the books in the library certainly includes itself.

> Such catalogues have red covers; the other catalogues, which do not include themselves, such as the catalogue of all the plays of Shakespeare, have blue covers. Now is there a catalogue of all the catalogues with blue covers?

KitFox

Why is my boy still awake?

tchrist

@KitFox Not enough Scotch.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

The NyQuil hasn't kicked in?

Robusto

Get him drunk.

KitFox

Fucking ladybug in my fucking drink.

tchrist

12:21 AM

@Kit Are you thinking of sending the question to F&SF?

Robusto

I myself had The Balvenie tonight, tyvm.

tchrist

@KitFox Whoa, during this season? Really?

KitFox

feels angry about how the night is unfolding

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Robusto sounds good.

Robusto

@KitFox The night unfolded like a botched piece of origami?

KitFox

12:22 AM

@tchrist Some kind of crazy infestation. I woke up two nights ago with them crawling on my in my sleep.

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Is good. Real good. Mmm-good.

KitFox

@Robusto Yeah, OK. I can roll with that.

tchrist

I could send you a foot or two of snow. That should take care of them.

KitFox

They were here in the winter too.

Just even more now.

tchrist

Now that really is weird. How do they survive, in your attic or something?

KitFox

12:23 AM

Of course I have to fish the bug out of my scotch and finish it anyway.

Robusto

You know, our parking lot at work still has some sand-crusted snow piles in back where it was once in 12-foot piles.

tchrist

@KitFox No, the Scotch will do that for you.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

goes for scotch

KitFox

We've still got a few bits of snow left too.

tchrist

I had two feet between Monday and Wednesday, but as I left work 30 miles to my south today, theirs was all gone already. Comes and goes.

Robusto

12:25 AM

A Fine and Private Place

A Fine and Private Place is a fantasy novel written by Peter S. Beagle, the first of his major fantasies. It was first published in hardcover by Viking Press on May 23, 1960, followed by a trade paperback from Delta the same year. Frederick Muller Ltd. published the first United Kingdom hardcover in 1960, and a regular paperback followed from Corgi in 1963. The first U.S. mass market paperback publication was by Ballantine Books in 1969. The Ballantine edition was reprinted numerous times through 1988. More recently it has appeared in trade paperback editions from Souvenir Press (1997), Ro...

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Karma Chameleon.

tchrist

@Robusto Watcha thinkin?

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Don't start what you can't finish.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

24 hours ago, by KitFox

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 coughs, points to private place

tchrist

OFFS I just quoted MJD!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

12:26 AM

@Robusto red, gold, and green

tchrist

Figgers.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Was it a fine one?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist indeed. Immaculate landscaping.

blushes

Concept art, then.

12:27 AM

@Robusto no, I do not.

sips scotch, tries not to think about cigarettes

KitFox

Oh, don't mention them.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

They would disrupt the flavor, anyway.

tchrist

I have no idea:

2

Q: Is there the word, “Skyfall (or Sky falls) in English?

I found the word, “Skyfall” being used in the article of April 18 Nikkei.com. under the title, “What the collapse of the gold bubble tells” with the following lead copy “International commodity market represented by gold collapsed on April 15th. The collapse was triggered by the dropdown o...

words

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

we will stand tall / and face it all / together / at skyfall

GR?

Hells no.

12:30 AM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I just don’t know the answer.

He couldn’t find it anywhere, and I know he practiced due diligence.

I am a bit surprised.

Skyfall sounds like Nightfall.

I am sure there was an SF story called that. I mean Skyfall. Nightfall is obvious.

Harry Harrison.

KitFox

Henry Higgins.

tchrist

amazon.com/Skyfall-Harry-Harrison/dp/0812539656

Boy, lotta good that did me.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Harry and the Hendersons.

tchrist

1976.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

12:34 AM

Harry from Night Court.

tchrist

I knew it sounded familiar.

Robusto

@tchrist Not top shelf, IMO.

tchrist

@Robusto No, not really. But it probably amused me well enough in 1976.

KitFox

amazon.com/Skyfall-Science-Fiction-Catherine-Asaro/dp/…

I think I read this one.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

grooves to Cameo

tchrist

12:36 AM

Skyfall sounds like Velikovsky. Or Chicken Little.

There seem to be four books with that title.

There, now somebody else can go answer our esteemed Japanese scholar. I hafta go do late-night work.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

It's 6:30!

:P

Mitch

"Then came a torrent of rain— what is known in Sweden as a skyfall. You know, the kind of rain that drenches you to the skin. "

KitFox

Boy is still awake. WTF?

Hiya @Mitch.

Mitch

translate.google.com/#sv/en/skyfall

sw:skyfall -> en: downpour

@KitFox hey!

tchrist

I’m totally amused that one of the Skyfall links is to a book called Je révise mon anglais aux toilettes.

Mitch

12:40 AM

I do that -all- the time!

wait...what's an anglais? could be a pastry, or it could be some outre sex thing

tchrist

> In fact, Homo has been witnessing skyfall events since before he was sapiens. Not only minor meteorite falls, which were amazing enough. Very massive stones also were coming out of the sky, and these were producing dramatic spectacles.

Speaking of outré sex things.

Robusto

Ðone sélestan sǽcyninga ðara ðe in Swióríce sinc brytnade.

tchrist

I don’t see any himinn-haust there.

Mitch

I know, right?!

tchrist

@Mitch You’re thinking of crème anglaise. Again.

Mitch

12:48 AM

bleurgh

Robusto

It's for Helm Scylfinga's enjoyment only.

He was supposed to meet me here ...

Mitch

dit il a la mode francaise

Robusto

looks at watch

Mitch

he was here just a few moments ago.

tchrist

pie a la mode

Mitch

12:49 AM

wondering where you were.

Robusto

heofonfeóllon

tchrist

I found the answer to the alien plurals question.

I hope he’s happy now.

Vowel-affect(at)ion always chokes me up.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Newspaper advertising - does anyone know if frequency discounts for insertion apply on a week-by-week basis, or just a general basis?

@tchrist yes, please.

The rate card is unclear.

tchrist

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 That seems nearly an improper question, madame.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist a madam should know the frequency discount for insertion, yes.

Mitch

12:56 AM

The only remaining questions is why the hell Tolkien didn't just write a grammar and dictionary be done with it. As opposed to what he did was play around a lot, then wrote the grammar and dictionary, then wrote his novels with snippets following the grammar and dictionary, then he threw away the grammar and dictionary. So why didn't he just not throw them away?

tchrist

Apropos de rien, I love the word beldames.

@Mitch He didn’t.

Mitch

da nada

tchrist

They’re in the hands of 5 scholars.

Mitch

he kept hem?

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 It varies.

tchrist

12:57 AM

Yeah, this is too controversial. And I have to run. Darn it.

Mitch

I'm using the new Swedish pronoun for singular plurals.

tchrist

Carl F. Hostetter is one of the five. Chase down the topic. Must fly.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

How Deep Throat of you.

I . . . I poured too much scotch.

Mitch

@tchrist chased down. neat. but it is more convincing me to learn more esoteric and useless languages like Irish or Norwegian.

tchrist

My coworker is apparently still orking.

KitFox

1:04 AM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 There is no such thing.

Mitch

poor cow.

tchrist

So, the linguistic stuff exists, is in very rough form, is being shepherded more slowly than glaciers flow, and we have have no idea when we will get to see what.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

dons lampshade

Mitch

I know this may be obtuse, but it's all made up.

tchrist

I have to stop doing Swiss-time meetings and move to Mexico-time instead.

KitFox

1:05 AM

Gosh, this corner over here is awfully dark. If only I could take advantage of a lamp that could sit on my lap.

tchrist

@Mitch So is mathematics.

“. . . and tell me that you love me!”

Mitch

Yeah, i know.

tchrist

And is mathematics not beautiful?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

lights way to kit

Mitch

but...but...

tchrist

1:06 AM

My kit didn’t come with a headlamp, damn it.

KitFox

Ultraviolet light.

Mitch

There are some rules to beauty

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Ultraviolent light, my droogs.

Journeyman Geek

sign

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

omen

KitFox

1:07 AM

harbinger

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I need a little drencrom for me gulliver.

KitFox

Speaking of binging.

Journeyman Geek

I need to dispose of some uniforms. However I cannot find ANY mention if the official military supplies shop thats NOT inside a military camp accepts them

and I can't just walk into a military camp to dispose of uniforms

Mitch

army/navy store?

KitFox

Are you a fugitive?

Robusto

1:08 AM

I feel your pain. Er, plain.

Journeyman Geek

well, local equivilent

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Robusto to the milk bar!

banana republic?

naw, I'm a reservist

heh

1:08 AM

I'm a recidivist.

Journeyman Geek

but they changed the uniforms, and I'm stuck with a bag of obsolete uniforms

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I'm a conscientious objector.

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Did you ever actually read the novel? It's really good.

Journeyman Geek

I'm tempted to cut the tags, and just throw them out

Mitch

I'm Gunga Din.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

1:08 AM

@Robusto no. Have it.

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I'm an unconscientious objector. You might say a lazy objector.

Journeyman Geek

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者: we have conscription here. Conscientious objectors get thrown into jail for that period.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mitch I'm Gung Ho.

KitFox

I'm an unconscious objector.

tchrist

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Do you still have dairy bars there?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

1:09 AM

@tchrist underground.

Journeyman Geek

@KitFox: I'd argue, were you unconcious...

KitFox

I just said I was.

Mitch

then you can't object

KitFox

I just said I do.

Journeyman Geek

well technically there might be ways this could be done

Robusto

1:10 AM

I obmect.

Mitch

technically but then again I never studied technique.

Journeyman Geek

but there's nothing stopping me from say drawing a mustache with a indelible marker.

Robusto

AKA technic.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 a friend of G.I. Joe.

Robusto

I frequently let nothing stop me.

@Mitch Gastro-Intestinal Joe? How's he doing?

Mitch

1:12 AM

So you'll stop at nothing.

Robusto

I may stop at something. Or nothing. It's hard to remember.

Mitch

@Robusto He's got smooth moves.

Journeyman Geek

ahh, third party sources say this is possible

since I can't trust the government to actually have this on an official website, the idiots

Mitch

what..it's illegal to resell or repurpose uniforms that have their original tags?

Robusto

@Mitch So says Paris Talsis.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

1:14 AM

Journeyman Geek

@Mitch: yes ;p

Robusto

Nov 16 '11 at 17:53, by Robusto

@RegDwightѬſ道 — So I forgot about it. It happens. As you yourself noted, this is the age of short-term memory loss and Google. As I've said before, sometimes I look up things on StackOverflow and find that the accepted answer was written by me.

Mitch

How many? business plan developing

Journeyman Geek

lol

these are used. Unless someone has a fetish for old faded uniforms... ;p

Robusto

Mar 26 '11 at 12:02, by Robusto

But then I've also had this strange experience: the Web has robbed me of my memory and made me lazy. Instead of trying to remember the fine points of an API method call, say, I will simply Google it and read about the arguments and their data types, etc. But twice lately my Googling has pointed me to my own accepted answer to a StackOverflow question, which I didn't recognize until I saw my gravatar at the bottom. Scary.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

1:15 AM

15 mins ago, by cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I . . . I poured too much scotch.

Robusto

I can't remember saying that.

Journeyman Geek

which would creep me out. I'm keeping the set thats not faded the hell out tho

Mitch

what? then just throw them away...or give them to a homeless shelter...or throw a party and hand them out as party gifts.

Robusto

Don't you find all this talk about Army uniforms fatiguing? Just curious.

KitFox

groan

Robusto

1:16 AM

C'mon, give it up.

Mitch

or shred them and make mattress stuffing with them...ok that's also creepy.

Robusto

If @Martha were here, she'd thwack me but good.

Mitch

@Robusto golf clap

KitFox

@Robusto If I had a nickle for every time I heard that one.

Robusto

@Mitch Name two things that are unpleasant that were meant to involve fun somehow?

Mitch

1:18 AM

If I gave you a nickel for every dime, I could buy my own scotch.

Journeyman Geek

@Mitch: they're actually pretty nice to sleep in after a year or two of hard use.

KitFox

I like fatigues.

Mitch

I like trains.

Robusto

But seriously, folks, I once called @Kit a two-bit whore ... and she hit me with a bag of quarters! rimshot

KitFox

@Robusto Disneyworld and Disneyland.

I'm not cheap.

Robusto

1:19 AM

@KitFox No: golf and clap.

KitFox

Yes, I got that.

I was moving on.

Robusto

Stop moving on from my jokes. You can't run forever.

Mitch

You're not cheap if you can afford both Disneyland and Disneyworld

@JourneymanGeek shred them and make stuffed animals out of them.

KitFox

Are they wool?

Mitch

Yes sir! Yes sir!

KitFox

1:23 AM

Three bags full?

Mitch

He never said.

Robusto

The bags are half empty.

ha!

If you GIS 'cornbread ninja', you get a lot of pictures I've taken of cars.

tchrist

1:28 AM

Looks like they may make us vote on a pot tax next election.

Let’s just vote no. :)

The effing state wants a 30% tax. Screw them.

Robusto

That would kill Bed Bath & Beyond.

Journeyman Geek

@KitFox no, cotton

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Looks like you ninjaed off more than you could chew.

Journeyman Geek

@Mitch SERIOUSLY considered that

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Robusto indeed.

Robusto

1:30 AM

But I admire your resolve.

Go big or go home, I always say.

Journeyman Geek

@Robusto: or just dive in and live there.

Robusto

Hey, you should get together with @Wendi and make a game of that. Could be bigger than Angry Birds and Farmville put together. Who doesn't love giant cornbread cupcakes?

WendiKidd

@Robusto Hee. That would be hilarious

Robusto

BTW, rule of thumb: If you are wondering whether you're high enough yet, you're not.

One of life's bitter lessons.

Journeyman Geek

(and before I get told that its a myth, this bloody well did happen), but the last time I was in a room full of weed smoke, I wouldn't describe what I was as high ;p

Robusto

1:35 AM

Were you holding your breath?

Journeyman Geek

no. I think I would probably describe myself as painfully mello

I hated it

KitFox

Hungry?

tchrist

@Robusto The problem is the delayed-onset thingies. Don’t drop another hit of acid or take another pill just because the first hasn’t quite hit yet.

Robusto

@tchrist Like Janis Ian, I learned that lesson At Seventeen.

KitFox

The first time I allegedly got high, I smoked an entire joint by myself. My boyfriend says "Wow, you burned that whole thing on your own?" And I stared at him. "How the fuck am I supposed to know not to smoke an entire fucking joint?"

Journeyman Geek

1:37 AM

@KitFox: no. kinda didn't feel anything at all.

KitFox

Allegedly.

Journeyman Geek

of course

KitFox

I can neither confirm nor deny that those events were either real or fictional.

Journeyman Geek

lol

KitFox

I was pissed. I was a smoker, so I treated it like a cigarette. He knew I'd never smoked weed before. What a prick.

Robusto

1:39 AM

Well, my first few experiences with acid were with mediocre product, so my friends and I would drop one, then 20 minutes later drop another. It got to be a habit. Then we hooked into some of the real stuff. But we were creatures of habit, and after about 20 minutes we went again: almost instantly we started blasting off on the first one. That was a night to remember. I just wish I could remember it.

tchrist

Sounds familiar.

But memories escape me.

KitFox

I've never dropped acid.

tchrist

This may not be a bad thing.

In your case.

Journeyman Geek

Then there was the time I took an entirely regulation dose of flu meds. I apparently was posting on SU that day. I think that's still my second or third most highly voted question.

Robusto

@KitFox How did you get through so much neuroscience without ever giving that a try?

Take enough and it's like your brain is a clock that you disassembled and laid out on a table.

KitFox

1:46 AM

My mother.

Robusto

Yo mama?

KitFox

She's a fruitbat. She dropped acid.

tchrist

Don’t confuse cause and effect there, or even correlation and causation.

KitFox

I'm not confused.

It's an association, is all.

Robusto

You can effect a cause and cause an effect. Circular reasoning works because circular reasoning works.

KitFox

1:49 AM

She smoked pot too, but a lot of people I know and love have as well, so it isn't as strongly associated with "fruitbat" as dropping acid.

tchrist

Some of the smartest people I know have dropped acid. And some of the stupidest.

Tells you nothing.

KitFox

I didn't say it did.

tchrist

Flying foxes are actually quite attractive.

Robusto

I stopped at 21, once I realized it had nothing left to teach me. But I did learn a lot from it.

KitFox

My husband, who I love second only to my children, has dropped acid, and I don't think less of him.

tchrist

1:51 AM

@Robusto Did you leave school then?

KitFox

I never did it because my mother did it and she's a nutbag and I don't want to be like her.

Robusto

@tchrist I wasn't in school then.

tchrist

@KitFox You are just re-enforcing the false connection in your own mind.

KitFox

So?

TemporaryNickName

guys, does the term "indie" generally applies to independent game developers or what?

Robusto

1:52 AM

But, seriously, I didn't get art until I contemplated it while tripping one day. Then it all made sense. All of it.

KitFox

@TemporaryNickName I don't know. I think I would understand it that way in context.

TemporaryNickName

balls, that was a loud noise

KitFox

Shall I do it again?

TemporaryNickName

@KitFox ok

nope

but it doesn't matter anymore because volume is set to lower level

tchrist

@Robusto Collegiate trips outnumber post-collegiates by two orders of magnitude. We thought ⅛ of a tab was a good way to stay awake. We didn’t really know drugs, of course.

But school was really the last time to be serially irresponsible like that. Otherwise you have to drown yourself in Black Rock City for a couple of weeks.

Robusto

1:56 AM