English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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Robusto

9:00 PM

Herodotus is called the Father of History and the Father of Lies.

Faheem Mitha

A relatively modern example is the British historians' whitewashing of the British Empire.

Mitch

And his wife Necessity was known as the Mother of Invention

guffaw

Faheem Mitha

But of course there are many many examples.

Mitch

Jun 12, 2017 at 18:03, by Mitch

Vulcans don't have a monopoly on assholery

s/Vulcans/The English/

Everybody is forgetting the bad things (or never brought it up in the first place), and embellishing the good.

That one distant cousin you've never heard of?

Exactly. That's why you've never heard of him.

Faheem Mitha

@Robusto Just curious if you dealt with many Hollywood people, and if they seemed like reasonable people, or not so much. E.g. massively egotistical or self-absorbed. Or maybe it varied?

Robusto

9:10 PM

@FaheemMitha I wouldn't say I dealt with many, but I did meet a few. Bill Murray, for example.

Faheem Mitha

@Robusto OK.

Robusto

He was doing Scrooged in the studio next to ours, and when he heard there was a Budweiser shoot going on he and his entourage crashed our set wanting to see "the Budweiser babes." (It wasn't that kind of shoot, but he didn't know that.)

Faheem Mitha

@Robusto I see.

Robusto

Since he came onto our set, I asked him to sign an antique Bud label we had. I wouldn't have done that in public, but since he came onto our turf I figured it was OK. At first he said, "Oh, you don't want me to sign an antique, do you?" I said it was a facsimile, we had tons of them. So I handed him a pen and a label. He said, "Yeah, this pen isn't right for a signature." Then, to his entourage, he yelled, "Somebody get me a Sharpie!" Someone produced a Sharpie and he signed.

True story.

He was in costume for Scrooged and had makeup shields stuffed into his collar, so he must have got up from the makeup chair to come see us.

Faheem Mitha

@Robusto So, how did you find him? Though my question was really a more general one.

I've hardly ever run into show-business people myself.

Though there are tons of them in this city, for example.

Robusto

9:20 PM

@FaheemMitha I explained that. Our stage was next door to his. He came into ours.

Faheem Mitha

@Robusto No, I meant to ask how he seemed to you. I.e. pleasant? Not so pleasant?

I wonder what an entourage consists of.

Robusto

@FaheemMitha He seemed fine. Friendly, but putting on a show.

Kind of a "Heeeeere's Bill Murray!" moment.

@FaheemMitha An assortment of people, in different capacities. Some just friends, some the next thing to servants.

Faheem Mitha

9:39 PM

@Robusto OK.

@Robusto So full of himself?

@Robusto Yes, I see.

Robusto

@FaheemMitha Yes. That's what you notice about stars. They are definitely full of themselves.

Faheem Mitha

@Robusto Yes, that's what I would have expected.

Robusto

But they strive to have "the common touch."

Oh, I just noticed it's Yom Kippur today.

No wonder the Jewish bakery was closed.

Faheem Mitha

Ides of March coin

The Ides of March coin also known as the Denarius of Brutus or the EID MAR is a rare version of the denarius coin issued by Marcus Junius Brutus from 43 to 42 BC. The coin was struck to celebrate the March 15, 44 BC, assassination of Julius Caesar. It features a bust of Brutus, who was one of the assassins, on the obverse while the reverse features a pileus cap between two daggers. The coin was minted in both silver and gold. Approximately 100 of the silver coins are known to exist, but only three of the gold examples have survived. The coin is considered one of the rarest ancient Roman coins...

Interesting bit of history in the present. I had no idea such an artifact existed.

@Robusto Is that a quote from Kipling's "If"?

@Robusto Also Dussehra. October 5th.

Robusto

@FaheemMitha I don't think know. It's a common expression.

Faheem Mitha

9:53 PM

@Robusto OK.

Robusto

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

So yeah, it's in that poem.

Faheem Mitha

Yes, I suppose it's a generic expression.