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00:43
@tchrist I think this one's best for you Mr. Typographer:
0
Q: Technical question: Why is the default footnote type so tiny?

ab2As a compulsive footnote reader, I wish the default footnote font was larger. See, for example, the footnote in this good answer: What do you call someone who is good at everything? If a footnote is worth reading (as this one is), it should be readable! (Don't know what tag is appropriate. I ...

I know.
It's because we don't have a footnote font.
We have a subscript font.
Which is made smaller still in quotations like that.
We need <small>.
Unclear.
Notes should probably be in the full point size, optimally.
Nearly six years later without activity, do you think maybe please we could finally have <small> instead o fugly hacks that don't work so well? — tchrist Sep 4 '16 at 20:29
But <small> won't work for small caps.
Small caps are not smaller versions of full caps.
They are as different from full caps as those are from lower case.
Well, "not smaller versions" in the sense that you can't make small caps by shrinking the point size on full caps.
00:50
@tchrist Hmm, I'm not so sure. Would the <small> tag reduce the line margins of enclosed text?
Right now we don't even reduce the leading: because these are subscripts not footnotes, nothing more.
I'm asking, hypothetically, if we had the small tag, what would the effect be.
I know what we have is ridiculous.
I imagine it would be up to the sheet stylists.
I started learning hypertext markup language just a little too early. I'm used to tags and tag attributes that have an absolute effect, like <i> and align="center". XD
Tell me about it.
 
4 hours later…
04:31
I'm frustrated because I have a hypothesis I can't quite corroborate because I can't quite find a record of the exact question I want to exemplify...
What is the question/sentence?
Are you a member of some sort of secret cult?
Even something close to that would work...
Hmm.
I'm not sure why you need someone else to have said it. It's quite a regular sentence.
It's a rhetorical question I'm pretty sure I've encountered before. I can find the some sort of secret cult part online easily enough.
Ah.
04:36
Corroboration for an answer. v_v
I'd also accept part.
Yeah, I saw that.
It's probably the closest thing to what I want on the internet, but the know each-other idiom seems to override the rhetorical effect of mentioning the cult, at least in simile form =\
04:51
Well, maybe it's not an idiom then.
Even so, it can stand on its own feet as a rhetorical question without the corroboration you seek.
Unfortunately, for my purposes, it needs to be idiomatic because I want to suggest one thing alludes to something else.
So if it's not, and I'm just imagining things, it doesn't work. How unfortunate.
You may have seen/heard it only once and it stuck in your head and became part of your idiom.
Care to say what is supposed to allude to what?
Hmm, since I can't make the answer in a way that satisfies me, I suppose it couldn't hurt:
0
Q: What does "secret handshake" mean in the context?

user225598I've read the following sentences from a book: I wanted it so bad, I’d throw myself into practicing but somehow never got good —while other kids who weren’t putting in nearly the same amount of dedicated time picked up the skills without seeming to sweat the details. Were they just … na...

Secret handshake = Are they a part of some sort of secret cult? = Magical ability to do something effortlessly.
Or rather, the secret handshake proves they're members of some sort of secret cult that grants them the magical ability to do something effortlessly, is the hypothesis. Figuratively speaking, that is.
Hmm. I don't see why it has to allude to magical abilities, especially in that context: Did they have private teachers? Secret handshakes?
It can just mean that they have secret connections who help them in some way.
The broader context has our ponderer going over a list of distinct possibilities. Natural talents and teachers aren't related either.
05:07
They are both pretty regular, or un-magical, if you will.
That's true.
I mean, the text doesn't give grounds for overly fantasizing about things.
It doesn't exactly give grounds against it either. Isn't it pretty common form for such speculation to start tame and end up wild?
It's only possible.
True.
05:13
And good morning. :)
G'mornin'!
Or G'bye! =P
 
1 hour later…
NVZ
NVZ
06:22
This is a great video by VOX.
06:35
If anyone is getting "The english.meta.stackexchange.com page isn’t working. english.meta.stackexchange.com redirected you too many times.", it's caused by HTTPS Everywhere and a PR is in progress to fix it: meta.stackexchange.com/a/292334/162511
NVZ
NVZ
@Hugo Yes. I had that issue. I found that answer in meta SE somewhere.
 
1 hour later…
 
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3 hours later…
12:53
> My reasoning is simple. The Merriam-Webster dictionary contradicts the accepted answer in the original question. Merriam-Webster has more authority than EL&U.
What? This can't be true! We are the ultimate!!!!!!!!
who said that? ban them!
This is baffling to me for so many reasons... who worries about the grammar or form of the notes they scribble to themselves? Enough to go to the internet to ask...? english.stackexchange.com/questions/378877/…
@MattE.Эллен linky?
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I know!
0
Q: I think the question about "either" needs revisiting

ktm5124One of my recent questions (about the use of "either") was understandably marked as a duplicate. The question that it duplicates can be found here. While it is correct to mark my question as a duplicate, I'm afraid that the answer to the original question is probably incorrect. My reasoning is s...

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I'm sure some bleeding heart liberal would complain about modabuse.
let them bleed! Trump's in charge now!
This heralds a change from descriptive linguistics to prescriptivism!
Whatever we say, goes
and also everyone knows dictionaries are fake lexicographies
I mean, the OED is over, so dead. Full of lies
sad
It's pronounced yuge. Not /(h)judʒ/! Fake alphabet!
Biased, failing OED
> I know words, I have the best words — Donald Trump
he literally said that. it must be true
By the Trump Correctness Principle, if it's a positive statement said about himself, it's false, and if it's a negative statement said about an enemy, it's false, and usually applies to him.
Every so often I pause and marvel at the state of the world, and how weird it is.
Huh. I didn't know marvel could mean scream in abject terror.
@terdon lol. where does it mean that?
OIC
nevermind
reading backwards is a habit from Twitter
13:17
rettiwT morf tibah a si sdrawkcab gnidaer?
well, from bottom to top.
which is sort of backwards
I learned reading backwards from shop windows and ambulances
ambulances are very patient teachers
but not very patient drivers, yeesh
 
2 hours later…
15:08
pfft
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Anything we say, goes.
@Mitch You may want to revisit your recent meta answer. You're saying wikitionary steals from wikitionary.
@MattE.Эллен Literally. If by literally, you mean literally.
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 all because of one guy (and the people who chose to tag along)
@Mitch I literally mean literally
@MattE.Эллен not in my, very short-lived, experience
@Mitch you didn't make it? my condolence
15:12
@MattE.Эллен just one condolence? So stingy.
@Tonepoet You're not a logician, are you.
@Mitch it was my last one, if that's of any consolation
@Tonepoet haha...but fixed now. I didn't say I was a logician.
@MattE.Эллен Oh. I didn't want to take your last one. You should use it for something more substantive, like a child who lost a decker from their triple-decker ice cream, or for when .somebody accidentally tries to take an extra step at the top of a flight of stairs
no, no, I insist.
ugh...is the day half over already? I have to get past twiddling around so I can start procrastinating in earnest.
@MattE.Эллен OK thanks then! puts in wallet
consider yourself condoled
15:19
goes to buy liquor
@MattE.Эллен Oh. Please. I had a 'procedure' already to take care of that
When you live on a farm you get used to it.
Or with a lot of animals.
No, I don't live on a farm.
Or with a lot of animals.
so you're not used to it?
8 mins ago, by Mitch
@Tonepoet You're not a logician, are you.
Me either
I'm the logician's assistant
I'm wondering if this means a farm necessarily has to have a lot of animals, or if you could get away with a granary.
or apprentice
15:23
No, I'm worse, I'm a grammarian who doesn't know grammar. =P
The sorceror's landlord
@Tonepoet That's OK. A jackarian doesn't know jack.
The warlock's half brother
He's an accountant
There's no accounting for wizards
they get away tax free
Touché
If they'd get away scot free, that'd be racist.
@Tonepoet Ah, fond memories of 'Catch the Jackfruit'.
@Mitch Poor Dred Scott didn't get away free. =\
Somehow 'scotch' tape (a real brand of tape, doesn't feel racist even though it totally is. Because they really are cheap bastards.
The Scottish are a race now?
@Mitch I think we ought to scotch that rumour about the Scots.
15:29
What do Jews, Scotch, and Dutchmen have in common?
@Cerberus Wales is a country innit.
@Cerberus hesitates
Close.
They're minorities? Except for the Dutch?
We're niggerly!
Scott Tyler (born 1965), known professionally as Dread Scott, is an American artist whose works, often participatory in nature, focus on the experience of African Americans in the contemporary United States. His first major work, "What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag" (1989), was at the center of controversy regarding the desecration of the American flag. == Early life and Art Institute of Chicago == Scott was raised in Hyde Park, Chicago, the only son of his father, a photographer, and mother, who was "largely a housewife" but became a travel agent when Scott's father fell ill. For twelve...
15:33
@Cerberus niggardly?
Where is the fun in that spelling?
your spelling is isn't a recognised spelling
well, at least not of niggardly
@MattE.Эллен Oh, surely you recognised it.
15:34
supposedly not a reference to the Scots
@Cerberus I'm just thinking of the site and your number of chat suspensions
Hehe.
@Cerberus ?? that's not how it's spelled?
You're so considerate.
Matt has an extra condolence lying around, I'm sure.
15:36
@Mitch Weird, huh.
I know!
Did I tell you I have black relatives, by the way?
Found out recently.
Oh. how distant?
Well, quite distant.
But they have my mother's last name.
Did you have an awkward coffee chat with them?
15:38
I only read about it in a newspaper article, about 19th-century Suriname.
But I believe their branch does have living descendants, I should look them up.
So now I can tell people I'm not only Asian but also African.
I'm about 1/16 or so Asian.
But I have to run.
Adios!
@Cerberus That's funny. You don't look Jewish.
16:22
Would anybody object if I recycled an answer from a deleted question to answer a new question?
Maybe it's something I should ask on meta...
16:36
Ah wait, it's not quite the same question. It's interesting that new I can view a deleted question. Hmm. Related though.
16:51
@Tonepoet it's the same question.
You can vote to undelete the deleted answer, if you think that is relevant.
Which answer are you thinking of?
It would be weird to cut and paste from someone else's answer, deleted or not, to make your own, if I understand what you're asking.
@Tonepoet You shouldn't be able to see it unless it's yours.
17:09
@terdon I wrote an answer to it.
@Tonepoet And what was deleted? Your answer or the question?
@Tonepoet That's what surprised me. You shouldn't be able to see deleted questions even with the link if you don't have 10k rep.
Screwing up the chatlog with edits.
@terdon Yeah. I couldn't see it before. I even asked the people here to fetch my answer for me because the topic was closed.
Hmm. Smells like a bug.
I'm hoping it's a feature change because this is quite convenient.
I just checked with another browser. It seems like I can't view the question if I'm not logged in. Maybe people complained about being unable to see what they wrote...
17:31
@NVZ nice find.
'etymological fallicist'
@Tonepoet oh... I think is it is reasonable to cut and paste your own text from a deleted item to make a new answer. But you'd probably want to take into account the comments to the original answer (and also question and why any of those might have been deleted) before continuing.
 
1 hour later…
18:59
On Five Thirty Eight there's an article discussing numbers, and they make the claim that in many languages "5" is the same word as "hand". Can anyone here name a language where those two words are the same? I can't.
@Mitch The word stew now bothers me. Now whenever I hear it, I'm going to think "This word means pot."
19:13
@Tonepoet by 'pot' I assume you refer to either 'prostitute' as mentioned in MVZ's linked video, or 'brothel' as in etymonline.
@Mitch "Vessel for cooking" predates the brothel definition by a century according to The Online Etymology Dictionary. That was really the point I was trying to make.
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 one two three four hand six seven etc. I don't get your question.
@Mitch I knew I could just five this to you and you'd take care of it
@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You're cistern come.
Not as related as I thought. XP
19:21
@Tonepoet I don't think anything is irrelevant when Mitch and Mr. Shiny are talking
@M.A.R. Have you taken all your exams yet?
Nah, the biggest one is months away
oh, that kind of system
that's tough. you have to study continuously for a long time.
@Mitch Yucky kinda system
But again, are there any perfect systems?
And even if there were, are there any systems we can't rant about?
Then I won't bother you (much) with our plans for world changing product inventions.
I just think there's be a better way to stock a space station with meds than by a little baggie with everything you might ever need in there. There should just be an on-demand machine, like that 3D printer to print medical implements, just have one for the meds too.
@M.A.R. and if there weren't any such systems we'd complain that there isn't anything left to complain about.
So if our ultimate goal is to have something to complain about, we're all set no matter what.
19:39
We're really good at that
I could do better
We're also really good at knowing ways to get to the goal, but not good at getting to the goal
oh that's just implementation
that's what staff is for.
19:55
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer: Could you list all stops & continuants? by domino on english.SE
@SmokeDetector Heh, they even didn't survive on ELL.
20:20
The question survived here and got a great answer. I don't know what they're complaining about
43 mins ago, by Mitch
@M.A.R. and if there weren't any such systems we'd complain that there isn't anything left to complain about.
Relevant
@Færd Irreconcilable. They eat one another.
 
2 hours later…
22:33
4
A: Why is there a distinction between "its" and "it's"?

Sven YargsT. O. Churchill, A Grammar of the English Language (1823) identifies two somewhat surprising culprits as being responsible for the deplorable rise of the apostropheless its: printers, and English speakers who inexcusably use of the wrong contraction for "it is." Here is Churchill's argument: ...

I didn't know the change came so late. I may have to start training myself to use 'tis instead of it's. 'Tis surely much less ambiguous.
23:29
Then again, I suppose it's a rather futile task to insist on a proper form of elision.

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