English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@JasperLoy The Queen would like to have a word with you regarding your flagrant disregard for the Royal Order of the Adjectives: ɔ̃nɪswɑkimɑliˈpɑ̃s, quoth ER2.

Robusto

@JasonMarsh 日本人男性

Jason Marsh

일본인남자

Well, they are better than real woman in some way though

Robusto

►

Jason Marsh

they don't complain and you don't need constantly make them happy

by giving them gifts

Robusto

Apr 26 at 12:54, by Robusto

A cynic I used to work with preferred prostitutes because, as he said, "If you're not paying money you're paying too much."

Jason Marsh

12:58 AM

and they don't have diseases.

Robusto

Or diseases.

Hmm, I seem to have quoted that before in this chat. Several times:

Jason Marsh

yeah

Robusto

Apr 7 '11 at 15:37, by Robusto

A guy I used to work with was totally against marriage. He frequented prostitutes instead. I asked him why, and he said, "If you're not paying money, you're paying too much." It was possibly the most cynical thing I ever heard before Dick Cheney became VP.

That's a better one.

Got the Dick Cheney reference and all that.

Hey! Betty Joan Perske died!

tchrist

yesterday, by tchrist

And that guy in the undisclosed location.

Robusto

His location remains undisclosed.

Apr 20 '11 at 14:33, by Robusto

Hey! I discovered the adjectives. Every time you use one you should be paying me royalties.

April 20? I must have been high.

Cerberus

1:03 AM

No comment.

tchrist

@Robusto I believe HM assesses a different assizement depending on whether it was via flaunting or flouting.

Pace flautists.

Robusto

I'm pace-ing myself.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:44 AM

beer and late night coding. Promotion, here I come!

tchrist

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

and I thought facebook was full of RIP Robin Williams stuff today.

tchrist

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Those I took personally, at the old Mork and Mindy house.

I didn’t grab them from elsewhere.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

ah

tchrist

They are my own shots.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

3:55 AM

After reading facebook this morning I was depressed. Srsly I feel worse about RW's death than I do about some of my family members, and I don't even know the guy.

tchrist

It’s one thing to grab things from online newspapers. It’s another to walk over there and watch what’s happening, witness with your own eyes.

When I was a kid, I always thought Boulder must be a fabulous place to live because of Mork.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I never saw the show. It was before my time.

tchrist

I know. Everyone here, pace @Rob, is too kid.

I don’t know whether to envy you or not.

Everyone was extremely respectful.

Some people were crying.

And not young people, either.

But there were very young people there. A father brought his son, tried to explain it to him. His son said, that’s really sad isn’t it Dad, and dad said yeah.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

RW was way more than Mork

tchrist

Nothing was blocked off; you could have walked right up to the house. But nobody did, out of respect.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:01 AM

I didn't understand, at first, why all the signs called him that.

tchrist

He was about 2500% more than Mork. But it was a touchstone for us.

It was the house from the show.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah, I get it now

tchrist

It’s a very nice Victorian house. Now forever touched with sorrow.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I think it's because he committed suicide that this makes me so sad.

tchrist

I waited to learn what had happened.

I didn’t know whether he had an incredibly horrible terminal illness, and had taken the quicker, less painful way out.

And then I found he hadn’t — and had.

A lot of the notes were placed there by children. You can tell. That surprised me.

There was a TV crew there for a while. One of those fifty-foot uploading thingies on the truck. I ignored them. I think everybody else did, too.

Meanwhile, to keep my life interesting, our neighborhood bear is pilfering our fruit trees and defecating in our gardens and courtyards and fields. She smells of old dead skunk, doubtless having been sprayed by one.

She’s here every night or two. I haven’t taken her picture yet.

The kitties get extra curfew now.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:09 AM

you certainly have a lot of wildlife.

we get a bunny in the yard and it's like, "wake up the kids! an animal!"

tchrist

Everybody does.

I just notice them.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

well, I guarantee there are no bears within hundreds of km of here.

tchrist

A doe and twin star-spangled fawns pranced by my window the other day, a couple three ago or something.

I can’t even guarantee there are none within hundreds of yards. In fact, I’m rather certain there are.

You live out east or something, right?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Toronto. on Lake Ontario

it's pretty urban

tchrist

Yeah.

I liked Ottawa best of Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal — insofar as it felt most like home.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:12 AM

we get small critters, like rabbits, raccoons, (o?)possums, skunks, and occasionally coyotes (not in my part of the city)

Ottawa's nice enough.

tchrist

You probably have foxes and don’t know it.

I have coons climbing my apple tree.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

There are probably foxes, but not in this part of the city.

tchrist

I don’t know that it would support mama bear.

For some reason I don’t have rabbits in my yard.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

my friend has 6 skunks living in his shed

tchrist

The damned mule deer are bad enough.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:14 AM

mule deer?

tchrist

Yes.

Giant things.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

ah. I thought you meant some kind of mule-deer, like a mule is a mule-horse or mule-donkey.

didn't realize there's a species called that.

tchrist

They are always very interested in my kitties. And vice versa.

You really are an Easterner. These critters live in the western part of your country, too, you know.

They are about twice the mass of an eastern white-tailed deer.

The apples bring the bears and the deer and the possums and the coons; the deer bring the lions. The lions stay clear of the bears.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah I've basically lived an urban lifestyle my whole life. Even when I lived in a small village I still did things the urban way and spent as much time as possible in the nearby large town.

tchrist

I get city-sick in an urban environment. Honest. I become depressed and sleepless and jumpy.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:19 AM

And now that I'm in Toronto I realize that this is the kind of place I've always wanted to live in.

@tchrist Well, luckily for you there are still "wild" places you can live.

tchrist

> In wildness is the preservation of the world.

And of your soul.

> A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammelled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.

The first line is of course from Thoreau. The second is from the Wilderness Protection Act, one of the few places in our law that poetry enters our lawbooks.

The Canadian Rockies are every bit as grand.

But your timberline is much lower, so you have fewer distinct biozones.

But they are so awe-striking that no man could begrudge them that.

They take your breath away, and your words, and bring tears of relief to your eyes, of solace and joy.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Oh, I'm all for preserving nature, and visiting it. But I just love living in a large city like this one.

tchrist

I would soon die.

Almost 20 years ago I was offered $250k to work in downtown Manhattan for June, July, and August. I of course turned them down.

Because I didn’t know if I could live through it, and even if I did, the damage to my heart might never be healed.

Plus psychiatric costs were not covered.

Nature-deficit disorder would send me into deep and perhaps terminal depression.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hm.

tchrist

I know better than to lock myself in a room full of screaming madmen.

It just isn’t good for me. I freak out.

Give me crickets not sirens.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:29 AM

Do you get to telecommute these days?

tchrist

Yes.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Maybe it's the city. I rarely hear sirens.

tchrist

But you hear cars.

And people.

I don’t.

Not where I live.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah.

tchrist

If I hear people, it is probably people I know.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:30 AM

Actually the loudest thing nearby is airplanes.

tchrist

If I hear a truck come down the street, I look to see if it’s UPS for me.

I do not live on a through street.

Nobody comes here unless they’re coming here.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'd be so bored

I like stepping outside and chatting with random neighbours

tchrist

I cannot imagine it.

I can do that.

But growing things forever renew me.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

right now several of my neighbours are away on vacation and I feel a little lost.

tchrist

I talk to neighbors most days.

They stop over and give me garden-gifts, or I them.

Of late we have been exchanging ursine tales.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:33 AM

I give my neighbours tech support and they give me zucchini

tchrist

kitty wants me to come to bed. he has lain on my chest, purring.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

bed is probably a good idea. it's nearly 1am here.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:48 AM

Sexts from the Void

Gigili

9:41 AM

What's the correct reply to "what's cooking"?

> Hello, what's cooking?

As a mod, please answer my question if you have time @MattЭллен

winks

@Mitch

@AndrewLeach

winks nervously

Matt Эллен

As a mod, your question is not on topic for this site

But, in answer to your question: "What's cooking?" can be a colloquialism meaning the same as "what's up?" or it can literally mean "what are you cooking?"

so the correct reply depends on the context

Gigili

@MattЭллен Eh?

Matt Эллен

@Gigili my being a mod is irrelevant, ain't it?

Gigili

Since I haven't started a conversation with the other party yet, it must be the former

Matt Эллен

probably

Gigili

9:50 AM

@MattЭллен Probably, but it was used as an encouragement or something

RegDwigнt

Hey, good cooking, whatcha've been looking?

Matt Эллен

I haven't been looking! I swear! Don't tell them I've been looking!

Jasper Loy

Today I went out, took a train to X, and then did not feel like walking, so took a train home, lol.

Matt Эллен

I did not feel like cycling to work this morning, so I cycled to work this morning, lol.

Jasper Loy

That is so deep.

Matt Эллен

9:58 AM

I'm going to take up running, too. For a while, anyway.

Jasper Loy

Good, good. The last time I ran was a decade ago, lol.

Matt Эллен

I won't run to work, yet, but I'll build up to it

RegDwigнt

Iran is still there.

Jasper Loy

I get breathless just after a few steps of running now.

Matt Эллен

Iran won a Fields medal

First woman to win a Fields medal

Jasper Loy

9:59 AM

What joke is this?

Matt Эллен

it's not a joke

I read it in New Scientist today

Jasper Loy

Oh!

Matt Эллен

The first woman to win a Fields medal is from Iran

Jasper Loy

Ah, maybe she is Ice Girl.

Matt Эллен

If I could remember her name, that would be something

@JasperLoy seems unlikely

Maryam Mirzakhani

Jasper Loy

10:03 AM

By the time I get well, I won't be in time to win any Fields medal. But I can aim for the Abel Prize, lol.

Matt Эллен

I'm sure you'll be able

Jasper Loy

The first time I saw horizon, I read it as in horizontal.

The seven o'clock Chinese drama is about gods and demons, lol.

I watch it every day.

@tchrist I think I would become depressed in a rural environment.

Robusto

11:09 AM

0

Q: Page range abbreviation "pp.164–71" — a typo or a common shorthand?

I have to translate the following sentence into French: Scrapers and abrasives are used to prepare the surface of a workpiece before a finish (pp.164–71) is applied. I believe there is a mistake in the page range and think it should be: pp.164-171 By any chance, is there any rule in ...

Not our job, seems to me.

Matt Эллен

sometimes I want to say "it's a fucking dash, noöne fucking cares"

oh, I see. there's a number change too

RegDwigнt

I dunno, 15214–15 works for me, but 114–15 is weird. Or 114–5, for that matter.

Not all dashes are created equal.

Matt Эллен

you are unlikely to win me over in that argument.

RegDwigнt

What, you would say "pages one hundred fourteen through five"?

Brits are hilarious.

Matt Эллен

that's not what I meant. I meant about the dashes

I don't know about the numbers

RegDwigнt

11:15 AM

Oh, the dashes. If I can't win you with dashes, mayhap I can do it with lashes.

Matt Эллен

I wouldn't say "pp." I'd say "pages", so I might say "one hundred and sixty four to one hundred and seventy one" even if I'd written "164-71"

who knows?

generally people don't write page ranges backwards, so I don't think it will cause confusion. I don't know about standard practice

RegDwigнt

Yeah I'm just saying that 164–71 can totally read as a typo. I mean, if I write "hllo Matt", the meaning is perfectly clear as well, but a character is still missing.

Somehow I don't have a problem with 2064–71, or with 612416164–71, but when there's just a single character omitted, I'm like, "what's the point?"

Matt Эллен

I agree

25

A: Provide a tool for moderators to migrate comments to chat

This has now been implemented, in the following form: On posts that have been automatically flagged as having too many comments (defined as over 20 comments in 3 days, by default - these values can be tweaked per site), moderators will see in the moderator dashboard section a button - "Move comm...

niew powas

RegDwigнt

Hm. So basically not too different from what was there before.

Except it was completely automatically and not our beer.

Matt Эллен

I don't think so. commenters would have to instigate the move to a room, AFAIK

but they'd have to be asked by the system first

they couldn't just move the thread

bbl

RegDwigнt

11:32 AM

Yeah but the "let us continue this discussion in chat" appeared automatically, and then automatically copied their stuff to that room, too.

Without mods or flaggers having to get involved.

So this is basically an extension of that feature.

I am not sure who will flag an "extended discussion" before the system notifies the participants all by itself.

It only really makes sense when the discussion is not extended, just a couple comments that don't trigger the automatic notification, but then again what's the point of moving just two comments to a dedicated room.

We'll see.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt It's an expression: 164-71=93.

So page 93.

tchrist

11:54 AM

@JasperLoy You would remain depressed wheresoever you should happen to find yourself, for it is something you carry with you.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwigнt we get the "20 comments" flag auto raised in mod flags frequently. previous system only asked about moving if two participants commented a lot, not if there were a lot of comments

RegDwigнt

@Robusto wow your so rong dud, "pp." is for π², you forgot to multiple lol.

Robusto

Huh-huh, you said peepee.

GnomeSlice

Today's Listening | Indie Dance / Nu Disco (Mixsets day 13)

Matt Эллен

12:17 PM

I'm am torn between sending this to ell and leaving it here

0

Q: I got it (to) working

I got it working. I got it to working. In #1, is "working" the objective complement of "it"? In #2, does the prepositional phrase "to working" modify the object "it" or the verb "got?"

verbs

Andrew Leach

No-one who has learned English would make the mistake of (2), so it wouldn't be asked on ELU and is on the wrong site. It then comes down to whether it's a good question (on the "Don't migrate crap" basis). And maybe ELL will be able to explain why it's a mistake in learner-friendly terms.

Matt Эллен

that's why I hesitated: I'm not sure it's a mistake

Andrew Leach

"I got it to working"? Really?

Matt Эллен

e.g. "I've got it to 'working' but you'll have to get it the rest of the way to presentable"

Andrew Leach

Oh.

Matt Эллен

12:28 PM

or some such convolution

Andrew Leach

Well in that case there's not enough context.

Matt Эллен

I've got it to the state of working

@AndrewLeach true

still, it does generally feel wrong

@AndrewLeach closed, for now

Jasper Loy

No need to worry about migration if we merge both sites, lol.

Matt Эллен

no need to worry about sites if we merge the whole world wide web

pick through it with grep to find what you're after

Jasper Loy

No need to worry at all if we are dead.

Indeed, death solves all problems.

Matt Эллен

12:37 PM

no need full stop

jinx!

Jasper Loy

For buddhism, death is not the solution because there is rebirth. But if one does not believe in an afterlife, then death is actually a good thing.

Robusto

> You only have two things to worry about: whether you're sick or you're well. If you're well, you got nothing to worry about. If you're sick, you've got two things to worry about: whether you're going to live or you're going to die. If you're going to live, no worries. If you're going to die, you got two things to worry about: whether you're going to heaven or hell. If heaven, no worries; if hell, you'll be so damn busy shaking hands with your friends you won't have time to worry.

Matt Эллен

lol

Robusto

Old joke from my childhood.

RegDwigнt

A nice pleonasm.

Matt Эллен

12:48 PM

am a splice neon

a neo-man splice

I name no places

RegDwigнt

So that's why there's not a single Matttown.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

cane an emo lisp

Matt Эллен

@RegDwigнt lol. it all becomes clear

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 that'll learn 'em

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

it's hard to get through to them sometimes.

Matt Эллен

all the parentheses get stuck in their ears

RegDwigнt

12:57 PM

It's not a yellow parenthesis, it's a banana.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Matt Эллен

:D

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Robin Williams movie roles in Lego form

Matt Эллен

Rest In Pieces

Jasper Loy

Rest in Paradise

Matt Эллен

1:02 PM

one main L-space

Matt Эллен

1:15 PM

Man icon please

🚶

thanks!

@MattЭллен mannikin

np pal

@tchrist manniKim

1:20 PM

@MattЭллен That’s what is called a rescue-reading: bending over backwards to touch your nose to your heels to make some possible reading — howsoever exquisitely rare that may be.

Matt Эллен

@tchrist yeah. I went in with the idea that maybe, just maybe, there was a way that this wasn't a NNS being a bit wrong

tchrist

@MattЭллен I doubt there’s even a 1‱ chance it’s right.

Matt Эллен

probably not

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Is that a banana in your ear or are you just happy to hear me?

@Mahnax Regarding inspiration, I was withholding judgement till I could learn whether there were some horrible extenuating circumstances that would have made it the braver choice. Well, there weren’t, really.

Sorry my photos were too high-contrast due to the lighting, and that I forgot to bring a wide-angle lens.

I wish this didn’t happen, but it would be easier to “fix’ my wishing it weren’t so than it would be to fix all these darned @re@fr@encing posts.

0

A: Formal word for "gotten made"

In the vein of @AlanSutherland's "commissioned", consider custom ordered (by you) made to order (by ABC Carpentry) For adjectives, custom tailored or simply tailored (in the US), or bespoke (in the UK, or pretentiously in the US)

It almost seems to beg for a trip to the orphanage.

Robusto

@MattЭллен No, ma, an eclipse!

Matt Эллен

1:31 PM

nice

tchrist

I’ve never heard of a gotten-made item in my life.

Robusto

You know, at the risk of offending nearly everyone, when I heard that Robin Williams' death meant there wasn't going to be a Mrs. Doubtfire II, I thought, "Well, I guess every dark cloud does have a silver lining."

tchrist

Apparently I’ve one of the missed-out people.

For some reason, gotten-made brings to mind rotten-made.

Matt Эллен

I've not heard of "gotten-made" either

Robusto

@tchrist Gottengemacht. I.e., of divine origin.

RegDwigнt

1:33 PM

I cannot understand how people can pretend "para" means "paragraph". I feel physically uncomfortable when they do that.

Matt Эллен

para means paratrooper. n e fuel no that

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Too much paracetamol.

a clam-toe rap

No camels allowed.

No rap allowed.

1:35 PM

Maybe it is a paradidymal paradiddle.

Robusto

But camel-toes are always welcome.

tchrist

Or a paradidn’t.

Robusto

Paradigmatic paradiddle.

RegDwigнt

Camel hoes was a great movie.

skullpatrol

Did they all have camel toe?

tchrist

1:37 PM

Parafango is interesting. Almost no one would recognize fango, which is Spanish for mud.

RegDwigнt

@skullpatrol Hey I'm not spoiling crucial plot points here.

skullpatrol

:D

RegDwigнt

imdb.com/title/tt0429729/?ref_=ttqt_qt_ttc

6.4 on imdb!

Robusto

Then what is fandango? Dan in the mud?

RegDwigнt

It takes two to fandango.

Robusto

1:38 PM

How many to fan Django?

RegDwigнt

Propfan or turboprop?

tchrist

> para-aminobenzoic, para-anaesthesia, para-aortic, paraban, parabanate, parabanic, parabaptism, parabaptist,
parabasal, parabases, parabasis, parabema, parabemata, parabematic, paraben, parabenzene (parabenzol, parabiont,
parabiosis, parabiotic, parabiotically, parablast, parablastic, parable, parablepsia, parablepsis, parablepsy,
parableptic, parabola, parabolani, parabolanus, parabole, parabolic, parabolical, parabolicalism, parabolically,
parabolicalness, paraboliform, parabolist, parabolization, parabolize, paraboloid, paraboloidal, parabore, parabrake,

Matt Эллен

Robusto

Paralogorrhea, is that a word?

tchrist

Only 734 possibilities — without spaces.

RegDwigнt

1:39 PM

Everything is a word.

Matt Эллен

para doodle

Robusto

Nothing is a word, too.

RegDwigнt

Whoa.

tchrist

paralog
paralogia
paralogic
paralogical
paralogism
paralogist
paralogistic
paralogize
paralogously

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwigнt Camel Hoe's ... what?

tchrist

1:43 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Something the Russians picked up in Afghanistan.

The Ivan Hoes.

You get it from camels.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

No, it's something that belongs to the camel hoe. But they left out what it was.

RegDwigнt

Well once again I'm not spoiling the plot.

tchrist

Either that or it’s a way a sending your camel through the camel-wash without putting a quarter in the camel-hose machine.

RegDwigнt

Actually I wouldn't be able to tell anyway, because going by the cast it must've been Camel Hoe's 2.

And that one gives away the answer right in the title.

Mitch

@JasperLoy 1. start by walking, then move up to slowly jogging. and build up distance. one city block without stopping then two, then more Don't over do it, but then push yourself a tiny bit more each time. 2. Everyone has a hard time breathing when running. At some point you learn that it's no big deal and you keep running while huffing and puffing.

tchrist

1:51 PM

It appears that WS doesn’t know about slash fiction, but far be it from me to disabuse him of his blissful ignorance.

1

Q: Is the word 'stroke' understood, in meaning one of these / \?

All the meanings of the word 'slash', other than an oblique forward or backward stroke are either violent or obscene. They include cuts made with swords, lashing with a whip, cutting maliciously car tyres with a knife, and in Britain the act of male urination (I have never heard it applied to a f...

american-english offensive-language

Slash fiction

Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on interpersonal attraction and sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex. While the term was originally restricted to stories in which male media characters were involved in an explicit sexual relationship as a primary plot element (also known as "slash" or "m/m slash"), it is now used to refer to any fan story containing a pairing between same-sex characters. Many fans distinguish female-focused slash as a separate genre, commonly referred to as femslash (also known as "f/f slash", "femmeslash", "altfic" and "saffic...

Oh great, now we have Eminem slash.

Mitch

@Gigili It's not literal unless you walk in to the kitchen and someone is actually cooking. and even then it's still more like "what's going on?" The appropriate response is "Not much" or "hey, how's it going?" or "I'm so glad you're here. Can you help me put this body in the trunk? Watch out for that it's a little slippery". Or (your mom) "Why don't you call more often?"

Matt Эллен

"What's cooking?"
"Pork belly teryaki stir fry with noodles"

Robusto

@tchrist Voted to close as peeving in the form of a question.

tchrist

@Mitch How many times do I have to tell you to stop using fugly monospace blueboy stuff on ELU?

0

Q: A word to depict the degree of currentness

We are working on a control similar in functionality to iOS' UIDatePicker: Part of our API allows users to style the items within the control. Using the date picker as a scenario, if the user wants to display the text of the current month in a darker colour, they can write: opacity: currentne...