English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

CowperKettle

00:02

> On May 20, 1875, following a trial, a jury committed her to a private asylum in Batavia, Illinois.[56] After the court proceedings, she was so despondent that she attempted suicide. She went to several pharmacies and ordered enough laudanum to kill herself, but an alert pharmacist frustrated her attempts and finally gave her a placebo.

Some people think she might have had low B12 levels

Nowadays, psychiatrists routinely order B12 tests for depressed people over the age of 50.

tchrist

> Since the war began in February, the narrative has morphed from “Ukraine must disappear so that Russia can calm down” to “Ukraine must surrender so that Europe can stay warm.” Now the narrative has become “Ukraine must stop liberating its territories to prevent a new world war.”

CowperKettle

Yes. We have principles, but if you don't like them, we have others.

Cerberus

It changes little.

tchrist

Morphed? Morphed? Go morph yourself. Use grown-up English in formal missives, please.

Cerberus

Whose missive?

They don't teach the kids proper writing no more, these days.

tchrist

00:07

Andriy Yerma, head of the presidential office of Ukraine, in a missive to the Washington Post.

CowperKettle

Intercontinental missive.

Cerberus

Ah, but her English might be less than perfect.

tchrist

She's a gamer, that's what she is.

The Transformers morphed.

Normal things change shape or transform.

Cerberus

The newspaper should have offered to correct any small errors in style.

Agreed.

Perhaps morph is short for metamorph?

CowperKettle

They should create a Grammar Nazi AI engine for that.

Cerberus

00:09

Please do.

tchrist

And the entire reason the Transformers morphed is because it would have felt tautological had they transformed.

Cerberus

Why not changed, then.

CowperKettle

I remember back in school, one boy loved to grab two chairs and run across the classroom, yelling трансформируюсь! (I'm transforming!), like in the Trasnformers cartoon. As if his hands were turning into chairs.

tchrist

Stupid word showed up after I'd gone off to university already for criminy's sake.

Crimea's sake, even.

Robusto

@CowperKettle I think Putin would send him to jail for violating gender norms.

CowperKettle

00:11

LOL

tchrist

> 1982 Re; Killing Umbers in net.games.rogue (Usenet newsgroup) 15 Sept. A staff of polymorph can help too if you morph him into something ‘easy’.

That's the first citation they've found.

It's a kid word.

CowperKettle

We had three kids in my class who called themsevles after the Ninja Turtles, so I sometimes forgot their real Russian names.

tchrist

It grew to extended use in the late 90s.

> 2. In extended use.

a. intransitive. To undergo transformation as if by morphing.
1992 i-D July 27/1 Behind the screen are performers, actors and operatic singers, who ‘morph’ in and out of these virtual worlds.
1993 Spin Apr. 44/3 Industrial is about as nebulous a term as you can find for a genre of music that's constantly morphing.
1994 Guardian 31 Aug. i. 1/2 A series about a group of teenagers able to ‘morph’ into crime-fighting Power Rangers.
2000 Times 12 Jan. i. 2/7 As the session proceeded my suspicion grew that we were hallucinating and Keith Hill would morph in…

> b. transitive. To change (a person or thing) into something different, esp. though a series of rapid transitional phases.
1996 Face Sept. 199/1 Her compulsive exercising and surgery to morph her body into whatever shape is required..point to her need to belong.

CowperKettle

Later I learned that one boy in our class died aged 19, killed by an axe.

tchrist

@CowperKettle What a bucolic childhood you enjoyed! Just like here.

CowperKettle

00:17

Yes, until the USSR collapsed it was bucolic. After that, there were gangs and robbing in the street.

tchrist

@CowperKettle Was it an animated axe, or was he killed by a person with an axe?

CowperKettle

@tchrist He was killed by a person, probably due to a personal conflict

tchrist

I see.

CowperKettle

He was the son of one of the teachers.

tchrist

You should outlaw duels.

It's not common to know someone who was murdered.

It's something you remember for a long time.

CowperKettle

00:19

I only learned about it by email years after the event.

He was athletic and studied well. I never thought he would die young.

Robusto

"Tomorrow is promised to no one."

CowperKettle

00:57

> "He stood, and heard the steeple
Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town.
One, two, three, four, to market place and people
It tossed them down."
(Housman)

CowperKettle

01:12

> In 1868, she wrote a friend: “Tell your wife, whom I have always loved so much, that I intend gathering all the needles that are now running through my body, & send them to her, in a handsome, European pincushion” sci-hub.se/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27397049

Robusto

01:23

The War With Ukraine is Coming Home to Russians

►

CowperKettle

01:37

🤠

Cerberus

Is he Russian?

CowperKettle

Yes

Robusto

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Cerberus

Is he still alive?

If so, one wonders for how long.

Robusto

He'll feel less proud when he's dumped onto a killing field with no training, no food, and no working weapons.

CowperKettle

01:45

> Shall they return to beatings of great bells
In wild trainloads?
A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
May creep back, silent, to still village wells
Up half-known roads.

Robusto

Cerberus

02:40

@tchrist Now he says kways for quays. But that mistake is I think common.

/kweɪz/ for /kiːz/

Though I never know when to write kw or kʷ.

I know too little of phonetics.

user4539917

@Cerberus do you encourage your students to listen to audiobooks?

Cerberus

Well, I rarely teach modern languages.

Let alone modern literature.

But, when I do, why not!

user4539917

There's a whole "reading wars" thing going on in the states.

Cerberus

Better than Russian wars.

user4539917

Indeed.

One side advocates a phonetic approach, while the other wants a holistic approach.

Audio books, on the other hand seem like a cheat.

Cerberus

02:49

Hmm.

This is where we are now.

user4539917

03:10

@Cerberus so you teach how to ~~speak~~ read Latin?

Cerberus

No, Latin is seldom spoken in schools.

It is read.

Yes, to read it.

To read the works of our great ancestors.

user4539917

How about writing it?

Cerberus

Only in exercises do they need to write it.

Filling in gaps.

The right forms.

user4539917

03:32

Hmm, I'm not seeing that many Latin audio books in language learning on line.

Cerberus

That is because Latin is normally read.

But so-called living Latin is now becoming popular.

So, who knows?

user4539917

Do you prefer the holistic approach to reading?

Cerberus

Not sure what that is.

user4539917

03:48

A top down approach to learning to read.

Sort of like learning a language by immersion.

Cerberus

Sure, immersion can be quite effective.

CowperKettle

Cerberus

A combination of immersion and active learning is ultimately the most effective, I think.

2

CowperKettle

Aurora Borealis in the town of Serov, Urals, yesterday

Cerberus

Not near you, I praesume?

Looks pretty cool.

CowperKettle

03:51

@Cerberus Yes, near my city

Cerberus

Oh, really.

CowperKettle

Yes, quite rare here.

Cerberus

But you are not that far north?

CowperKettle

Back in Siberia, we saw them often.

@Cerberus Yes, that's why it's amazing.

Cerberus

I do believe it is very, very rarely seen here, though probably only very faintly.

CowperKettle

03:52

Steamed Hams But It's The Confrontation From Les Misérables

►

"Aurora Borealis here? Aurora, at this time of year?"

user4539917

@Cerberus what is "active learning" with respect to reading?

Cerberus

@jlliagre I should think lost weight made one's footprint smaller, not greater.

@user4539917 I meant things one does deliberately to learn specific things, such as memorising vocabulary and practising sentences.

user4539917

Like "rote learning"?

Cerberus

That is one way, yes.

user4539917

Do you follow the "Learning Scientists" who advocate for active retrieval practice

Cerberus

04:03

I have not heard of them.

I know little!

user4539917

They have a lot of free materials

CowperKettle

Spaced Practice A Video for Students

►

These ones?

M.A.R.

@Cerberus there's this TPRS method they advocate that involves IIRC mostly just focusing on one passage after another, instead of, say, learning a certain grammatical pattern by studying example sentences and coming up with your own.

CowperKettle

I remember a guy who advocated learning a new language by walking in the nature and declaming words and phrases aloud while walking. I don't remember his name. It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite recall it.

M.A.R.

They pretend like it's the cure for cancer but (also IIRC, I may be wrong) as far as I've seen the few comparative studies that exist compare the method to how languages are taught at schools, not how they're taught at private institutes or methods people employ for self-study.

Cerberus

04:09

@M.A.R. Not sure what that really entails, focusing on one passage after another.

Nor do I know this abbreviation.

M.A.R.

The soles of my shoes would be comparatively better than how languages are taught at schools, so it's not much of a competition there

Cerberus

Meanwhile, I am listening to the Lord of the Rings still, and learning things as I go.

I have learned a new word, what was it again.

CowperKettle

There was a video of that guy walking in the park and declaming some Chinese phrases. And then later he was able to converse with a Chinese person, after a very short stint at self-studying.

Cerberus

And heard some that I had partly forgotten about, like salver.

CowperKettle

Probably this - "shadowing" - lingualift.com/blog/shadowing-learn-language-efficiently

howtogetfluent.com/shadowing-for-language-learning

Shadowing a foreign language (Chinese)

►

Here he is.

> Alexander Arguelles demonstrates his technique of shadowing foreign languages

M.A.R.

04:14

@Cerberus learning new vocabulary and grammatical constructions entirely from pre-selected small passages

Cerberus

What is the difference from "studying example sentences"?

CowperKettle

I kept googling for "Corduelis" and he is named "Arguelles", haha.

M.A.R.

Sounds impractical. Not to mention it depends a lot on how adept the instructor is at crafting or picking such passages

Cerberus

Normally, textbooks give you stories to read or translate, in addition to exercises, and word lists and paradigms to memorise.

M.A.R.

@Cerberus "context" eye roll

CowperKettle

04:16

yesterday, by Cerberus

It sounds wishy-washy.

M.A.R.

So this TPRS is the new reason people tell me "you don't need to learn any grammar at all"

Cerberus

A different context?

M.A.R.

Kinda like those green wackos that prefer 'herbs' to 'chemical drugs'

Cerberus

The normal stories in textbooks have and are the context.

One never only memorises grammar and vocabulary.

That is not useful.

One studies or translated stories.

A well known tetxbook begins thus.

> Iuppiter deus est.

Then it goes on about Jupiter and what he is and does.

M.A.R.

> TPR Storytelling is a method of teaching foreign languages. TPRS lessons use a mixture of reading and storytelling to help students learn a foreign language in a classroom setting.

Once again, at best it's useful for intermediate learners.

But people swear by it, so I've probably missed something

Cerberus

04:22

Byre is a new word I have learned.

I'm not sure I shall remember it.

M.A.R.

Isn't it that chemical company in Germany?

Cerberus

@M.A.R. Not sure how this is different from normal methods.

@M.A.R. That's Bayer.

Which has bought Monsanto.

M.A.R.

Byer and Merc

Cerberus

Bayern = Bavaria.

Probably related.

M.A.R.

Flaskosmithclimb

CowperKettle

05:11

Azeri word of the day: allarin aghrimasin (thank you)

Ellerin = "your hands"

But Google Translate provides other phrases, like tessikur edirem

Cerberus

05:30

Sounds pretty cool.

CowperKettle

06:02

Looks like it's a dialectal phrase

forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=25796

Google pronounced it as alriz agrimasin

The word meaning "hand" is əl

speakazeri.blogspot.com/2012/06/…

M.A.R.

06:28

@CowperKettle that's Turkish Turkish, not Azeri Turkish. Tessikur = Thanks

"I do thanks"

@CowperKettle "-iz" is second person plural, also more formal and respectful. "-in" is second person singular, also more casual

CowperKettle

06:43

@M.A.R. Ah! I see now! Thank you!

user4539917

08:36

@CowperKettle yes

TPR Storytelling

TPR Storytelling (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling or TPRS) is a method of teaching foreign languages. TPRS lessons use a mixture of reading and storytelling to help students learn a foreign language in a classroom setting. The method works in three steps: in step one the new vocabulary structures to be learned are taught using a combination of translation, gestures, and personalized questions; in step two those structures are used in a spoken class story; and finally, in step three, these same structures are used in a class reading. Throughout these three steps, the teacher...

Faheem Mitha

This looks like a fairly interesting thread, though in no way relevant to the topic of this chat - mathoverflow.net/questions/432931/…

CowperKettle

09:00

Russian propagandist Anton Krasovsky told in live air that Ukrainian-supporting Russian-speaking kids in Ukraine back in the early 1990s "should have been drowned or torched" twitter.com/ru2ch/status/1584086886829940737

His companion on the TV program, Russian sci-fi writer Lukyanenko, said that he is against such methods, and that simple flogging would have helped to straighten up such kids and put them on the right path.

This Krasovsky is too hysterical.

I'm afraid he will end up badly. He is very intelligent, and may commit suicide if he suddenly realizes what he was saying.

A high-quality dashcam video emerged of the fighter plane that crashed in Yeisk some days ago and killed 15 people: twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1584096079771226115

You can see the pilots ejecting.

The burning engine probably made the plane unsteerable.

uncontrollable

39-yo man with good job, high education, speaking three languages, but with a mild headache. Turned out a huge cyst.

n.neurology.org/content/61/8/1148

jlliagre

10:07

@Cerberus Yes, of course it makes it smaller. That was a joke showing how a single statistic (CO2 released during weight loss) could lead to an incorrect conclusion. When the whole carbon balance is taken into account, the footprint is obviously smaller.

Note also that as far as sand is concerned, loosing weight will make one's footprint shallower ;-)

CowperKettle

11:02

Another fighter plane, Su-30, has just fallen on a 2-storey building in Irkutsk

CowperKettle

12:11

Word of the day: ureteral stent

I never knew such things existed.

People just go about for months and years with such stents inside them.

Wow.

tchrist

13:53

> Last week on “CBS News Sunday Morning,” the writer David Sedaris said he was done “fighting the word ‘queer.’” He went on, “Like the term ‘Latinx,’ ‘queer’ was started by some humanities professor and slowly gathered steam. Then well-meaning radio producers and magazine editors thought, ‘Well, I guess that’s what they want to be called now!’ But I don’t remember any vote being taken.”

Brought to you by the department of the name-gaming renamer blaming game.

CowperKettle

tchrist

I still recoil every time I hear well-meaning people say LatinX in English. And of course, you cannot even say it in Spanish.

@CowperKettle Those are amusing.

CowperKettle

In Yekaterinburg, a man on a bus saw another man wearing a coat with the NASA logo, and started a fight

e1.ru/text/incidents/2022/10/23/71758922

Robusto

@CowperKettle Trust me, you never want to know what that feels like.

#Worldle #275 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
⭐⭐⭐
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

CowperKettle

Probably confused it with NATO O_o

@Robusto Yes, I guess it's tough. One man carried it for 35 years.

But kudos to the doctor who came up with the idea.

@Robusto Sorry to hear that!

> Over 1.5 million ureteral stents are used every year worldwide

Still, this must be a lifesaving thing.

I hope they improve them gradually.

Robusto

14:08

I'm stumped on Globle today. I'm down to the <10 km but I've tried all the countries I know that border the target countries, and still no joy.

🌎 Oct 23, 2022 🌍
🔥 53 | Avg. Guesses: 5.83
🟨🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟩 = 8

#globle

Heh, who knew?

In the US, that isn't even a country.

CowperKettle

Some fresh jokes by Director of Broadcasting at RT.

Robusto

That's a joke?

CowperKettle

I think it was his attempt to joke.

I hope he gets booted from the RT channel.

twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1584054018145685504

Robusto

@CowperKettle Yeah, because nothing is funnier than a bereaved babushka inviting brutal rape by the Russian army ...

CowperKettle

Even his guest (on screen) is not amused.

This is a sci fi author Lukyanenko

Sergei Lukyanenko

Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko (Russian: Серге́й Васи́льевич Лукья́ненко, IPA: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ lʊˈkʲjænʲɪnkə]; born 11 April 1968) is a Russian science fiction and fantasy author, writing in Russian. His works often feature intense action-packed plots, interwoven with the moral dilemma of keeping one's humanity while being strong. Some of his works have been adapted into film productions, for which he wrote the screenplays. == Biography == Lukyanenko was born in Karatau, Kazakhstan, then a part of the Soviet Union. After graduating from school, he moved to Alma-Ata, and enrolled at the...

jlliagre

14:15

🌎 Oct 23, 2022 🌍
🔥 1 | Avg. Guesses: 2
🟧🟩 = 2

#globle

@Robusto Thanks for the tip...

Robusto

@jlliagre De rien.

Wordle 491 6/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

What a horrid Wordle this was.

I finally solved it by imagining what was the worst letter to fill that final space.

M.A.R.

14:30

@CowperKettle kidney or bladder?

CowperKettle

14:44

@M.A.R. The thingie that goes from the kidney to the bladder

It's amazing that someone came up with the idea.

Robusto

14:56

@CowperKettle Actually not all that amazing, considering that the ureter is where kidney stones get caught and cause no end of trouble. It just kind of logically follows.

Cerberus

15:14

🌎 Oct 23, 2022 🌍
🔥 1 | Avg. Guesses: 9
🟧🟥🟥🟩 = 4

#globle

Your hint helped me a tiny bit.

It suggested the size.

Robusto

@Cerberus I guess I'm the pioneer of Globle today.

Cerberus

@jlliagre Yeah that was exactly the joke I was trying to make hehe.

M.A.R.

15:35

@CowperKettle I mean . . . It's just a pipe

A smart pipe that adjusts its diameter to the flow of the liquid inside it

But a pipe

@CowperKettle you'd think the Russian Media Monitor would crack by now

It's really painful to admit our monstrous media have been subtler than Russian state TV

They treat all the morally questionable conflicts with some reverent distance. Then you're fed a few lines of propaganda from somewhere. You don't know what Iranian soldiers have been doing in Syria, not one word. Then after a while every sycophant on TV pretends to know all that's going on there and that they're heroes, no doubt

jlliagre

Wordle 491 6/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Vikas

Today was a World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan.

One of England's cricket page trolled it before the match.

Robusto

It's a small world.

Vikas

Later, it turned out to be one of most exciting matches and India won. Huge number of specatators in stadium (Australia).

Then they admitted it later that they trolled themselves 🤣

It all happened just one day before Diwali.

India vs Pakistan cricket match is arguably biggest rivalry in cricket.

Something like England vs Australia

M.A.R.

@Vikas How do you play a cricket? Do you tap on its wings like a musical instrument? I can see how that can be competitive hmm hmm.

jlliagre

15:49

@Vickas What is cricket?

topendsports.com/world/lists/popular-sport/sports/cricket.htm

Vikas

@M.A.R. 🤣

@jlliagre A creature and a sport!

I think sports is just a matter of time. One sport might become popular and other might become less popular in future.

Robusto

crickets

M.A.R.

@jlliagre Top ends ports. Well now I know who broke my laptop's LAN port.

jlliagre

@Vikas Is Jimini a cricket player?

M.A.R.

Sounds like a river. Too many i's

Robusto

15:55

@jlliagre How does the US merit a 5 on that chart? I've never even seen any promotion of cricket at all here.

M.A.R.

@Robusto obviously don't care enough to go for the first place

Robusto

That score looks more like statistical noise than anything else.

M.A.R.

I googled Jimini and got K-pop stars with hair colors that looked delicious

I'm ambivalent about hair that looks delicious. It's the right response but the wrong organ

jlliagre

@robusto Perhaps due to people of Indian origin? The popularity of fútbol / soccer in the United States is probably mainly due to the presence of Latin Americans there.

M.A.R.

@Robusto it's America, you guys are weird. What if there's a couple of families in North Dakota who just love cricket?

Robusto

16:02

@jlliagre No, soccer is actually quite popular here. I myself watch it when I want to take a nap on the couch with a drone in the background uninterrupted by commercials.

@M.A.R. If so they are Indian ... oh,wait, you said North Dakota. Indian families are too smart to move there.

Indian families live where the tech companies are.

I sold my house in Massachusetts to an Indian family.

Vikas

@jlliagre Never heard that name especially in cricket.

Why?

M.A.R.

I'm sticking to my "crazy cultists unhealthily love cricket" story

An upcoming show on Netflix

Right after yet another TV show about Dahmer

jlliagre

@Vikas

Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket is the Disney version of the "Talking Cricket" (Italian: Il Grillo Parlante), a fictional character created by Italian writer Carlo Collodi for his 1883 children's book The Adventures of Pinocchio, which Walt Disney adapted into the animated film Pinocchio in 1940. Originally an unnamed, minor character in Collodi's novel who is killed by Pinocchio before returning as a ghost, he was transformed for the Disney adaptation into a comical and wisecracking partner who accompanies Pinocchio on his adventures, having been appointed by the Blue Fairy (known in the book as the "Fairy with...

Robusto

16:19

I guess the name Pinocchio means something like "little stick boy"?

jlliagre

16:50

@Robusto Pinocchio used to mean "pine nut" in Tuscan (looks like "eye of pine" but it's probably more like "little pine"). Modern Italian uses pinolo.

tchrist

17:08

This will require most of a day’s free work, so good luck and godspeed to whoever attempts this: anyone who believes this question can be suitably answered in our format will need to synthesize information contained within the OED entries for burg and burgh and borough, and the letter ‹g› and the ‹gh› digraph, as well as Wikipedia page on the Etymology of Edinburgh. — tchrist ♦ 1 min ago

Anybody who has nothing else to do than contribute 4 to 6 hours of their time gratis answering that question is perfectly free to do so. Some of us ain't got time for that, though.

3

Q: Pronunciation of Edinburgh

Why is the Scottish capital Edinburgh pronounced as Edinbruh? It is not clear to me why the letter "u" is silent, so that the "b" is followed directly by the "r". Then a soft "u" is inserted. Next the "gh" is treated as silent. Strange choices. On the other hand, if this pronunciation is deemed a...

I just wasted more than two hours of my Sunday trying to write it up, but I've given up. My time is worth more than that, and I have promises to keep. No, that's not text from the CW post I deleted; it was something else again.

Robusto

@jlliagre Thanks.

@tchrist No, your time isn't worth more than that. It's worth waaaaaaaay more than that.

I already plus-oned you for your community wiki answer, which I see has now been deleted.

I thought that one pretty much said as much as could be said. And was selbstverständlich to boot.

Personally, I think you should undelete and let it stand, despite what Fraser Orr might think.

tchrist

@Robusto ok

Robusto

By the way, I have nothing to do today (waaay too windy to ride, gonna be close to 30 mph soon), and I can't imagine wasting my idleness on crafting such an answer.

@tchrist At the very least it gives a very important resonance to issues of spelling that keep cropping up here.

@tchrist I voted to undelete. Not sure how that works, or how many votes it takes. But your vote would close the deal.

Obviously.

tchrist

17:40

@Robusto I'm surprised it let you do that. I'll fix it. I was bountying it with the minimum amount allowed.

Yeah, it didn't let you vote to undelete because it was deleted by a current diamond holder. Fixing.

No points will be awarded to folk etymologies relating to the Castle of the Giants/Ents. :)

Not that there's anything wrong with fook entymollijeeze as the Orcadians might render it. :)

If they should live long enough, that is. Orcs seldom fair well against Ents.

No such thing as an ettynburger with mustard and mayo.

Vikas

18:20

> Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Sunday discussed Ukraine with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, the Russian defence ministry said, in their second call in less than a week.

Also with France and Germany. And UK.

Looks like Putin wants to negotiate.

tchrist

18:47

@Vikas Sure, he wants to negotiate forever keeping what he's unilaterally declared himself the owner of before Ukraine takes them back from him and makes him look bad.

Cerberus

I have heard there were some signs that Russia wanted to negotiate.

tchrist

Like I said.

Cerberus

Although I am not sure he can offer anything Ukraine will accept.

tchrist

Neither am I.

He's trying to save himself from greater disaster.

The self-inflicted blow to his own country smarts. You can't snatch up 300,000 men from their jobs and chase another 300,000 of them out of the country without the national economy suffering tremendously. That isn't even counting all the casualties.

For chase, read scare.

He's just trying to talk the West out of continuing to help Ukraine. That's his idea of negotiating.

Personally I don't see anything happening right now that would suggest a concrete offramp path, but I'm terribly uninformed.

> Following talks between the UK and Russia, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, refuted claims made by the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, that Ukraine, facilitated by western counties including UK, was planning to escalate the conflict. During the earlier call, Shoigu told Wallace that Russia was concerned Kyiv could be preparing to use a “dirty bomb” in Ukraine – a claim he also made in calls with the French and Turkish defence ministers earlier on Sunday.

It's always projection with these creeps.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…