English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:00 AM

Had they thrown them in 1943, I do not think Japan would have capitulated.

The bombs were supposed to be an object lesson, to show how easily the rest of Japan could be destroyed. Don't forget, the only reason Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen (Nagasaki as a B target, since the initial target was clouded over that day) was because there weren't enough major cities to attack after Curtis LeMay had firebombed everything else.

@Cerberus No, but they might have capitulated sooner.

Cerberus

I believe 100,000 died in one night during the bombing of Tokyo.

Robusto

But they weren't available in 1943 anyway.

@Cerberus Yes. something like that.

Cerberus

@Robusto What I meant is that I think a country will only capitulate after a nuclear bomb if it thinks it cannot win the war.

So the bomb itself does not what that assessment, whether it can win the war.

Robusto

Yes. But Japan knew even as early as 1942 that it was going to lose the war.

Cerberus

12:03 AM

Unless you carpet-bomb the country with atomics.

tchrist

Russian conscripts were supposedly paid $28 a month in 2016. Last summer the BBC said Russia was offering new conscripts $4,000 a month if they were willing to fight in Ukraine (despite not being able to force them). Three months later this is near-universal conscription, and I don't think they they're being asked any longer.

Cerberus

@Robusto That is not as I understood it?

tchrist

> Conscripts in Russia earn 2086 (28$) roubles a month, with an option to earn twice as much due to the bonus system. Of course, legally speaking, conscripts are doing their duty, not performing a job, and they don’t really have to pay for their lodgings, food, uniform, etc. And it’s just for a year.

Professional soldiers in Russia earn something like 30–40 thousand roubles (about 500$) a month, but there are all sorts of bonuses that can influence an individual’s wage. Soldiers fighting in Syria can earn up to 200 thousand roubles ($2600) a month. That’s a lot of money in Russia, but you …

Robusto

@Cerberus You have to appreciate the political situation in Japan at the time. The hawks had taken over, and bet everything on war, even though senior military leaders thought they were wrong. Even so, it is the nature of a Japanese to do as he is told.

Cerberus

Sure, that happens in many wars.

Same thing in Germany.

@tchrist That's not much.

Robusto

12:06 AM

Admiral Yamamoto, the author of the attack on Pearl Harbor, knew going in that this was foolhardy, though he gave it his best effort. As his men were celebrating, he said, "I fear we have only awakened a sleeping giant."

Cerberus

There is a difference between, "we are now in a war and we see absolutely no way to win it any more", and other situations of disadvantage.

tchrist

@Cerberus And 25,000 civilians died in Dresden in one night under the Allied firestorm on February 13th, 1945. No nuclei were fissioned nor fused during this inferno.

Cerberus

I think you need to really rub it in to be convincing.

Robusto

Well, when it comes to nukes, "rubbing it in" means ending civilization as we know it.

Cerberus

@tchrist Yes, I mentioned the German cities as well, and how destroying them did nothing to make Germany surrender—because, in my opinion, a country will usually not surrender even if its cities are destroyed, unless it believes it will lose the war soon anyway.

@Robusto No I mean: to make Japan truly believe that it cannot win, you need to rub that fact in, by e.g. destroying most of its army, defeating all of its forced outside the home island, etc.

tchrist

12:10 AM

@Cerberus My mind cannot even get close enough to forming an opinion about all that stuff because down that road lie panic attacks.

Robusto

@Cerberus The political structure was such that Germany couldn't surrender while Hitler wished them to fight on.

@Cerberus Yes, which is what ultimately happened.

Cerberus

Just a more abstract notion that America would probably win in the end, as it may have existed amongst many Japanese leaders in 1943, is not enough: that's not rubbing it in as I intended it.

tchrist

@Cerberus Chicken feed.

Cerberus

@tchrist I think our very own Robusto once posted a link to an audio discussion about this very subject.

tchrist

Putin can end the war any time he wants. All he has to do is declare victory and go home.

Cerberus

12:12 AM

Yeah.

Robusto

With Japan, you're talking about an enemy whose soldiers would not surrender no matter how bad the situation got.

Cerberus

Perhaps Ukraine should offer to declare that it will never consort with Nazis, to give Putin something to present to the Russian people.

@Robusto Yes, they were extreme.

But Germany didn't surrender either.

Robusto

And the nukes were the result of that. "See, we can destroy you with a few bombs. No glory in that."

tchrist

Unwilling, untrained soldiers will never a war win.

Cerberus

Nor did Russia to Napoleon after the conquest of Moscow.

So will Ukraine?

tchrist

12:14 AM

Invade Moscow? No.

forest

They don't want to send out their trained troops who are happy sitting in their expensive houses, safe in Moscow while the youngsters of their country go to die for them.

Robusto

Napoleon and Hitler both tried to take Moscow. And did take it, briefly. Then the winter set in.

In fact, the war in Europe was already lost by the time Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

Cerberus

@tchrist No: surrender in case Kiev should be nuked.

Robusto

Sure, there was a lot of fighting left. But essentially Hitler had played his hand.

Cerberus

@Robusto I do not believe Hitler did?

Robusto

12:16 AM

Hitler was a madman.

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa; Russian: Операция Барбаросса, romanized: Operatsiya Barbarossa) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after Frederick Barbarossa ("red beard"), a 12th-century Holy Roman emperor and German king, put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it with Germans. The German Generalplan Ost aimed to use some of the conquered people as forced labour for the Axis war...

tchrist

@Cerberus Unclear who could even surrender in that event.

Cerberus

@Robusto I would say the invasion of Russian doomed Hitler's war.

forest

@Robusto He may have been a madman, but at least he killed Hitler.

Cerberus

@tchrist Well, Zelensky would be in his bunker.

Robusto

@Cerberus Exactly.

Cerberus

12:17 AM

But, even then, Germany had some hope.

Only when you really have no options left do you lose hope.

Perhaps the Nazis could have completed nuclear bombs in time. We know now that they were not near enough, but perhaps it did not seem impossible to the Germany government even in 1943.

Robusto

It's a damned good thing that they didn't.

Cerberus

Perhaps they could have finished their first nukes in 1950 and bombed London and Washington and Moscow.

forest

Wasn't it the supply chain issue with the V2 rocket which doomed them more than their inability to design a nuclear device?

Cerberus

They didn't know, in 1943, that the war should end in 1945.

They did not know how much time might pass before the outcome of the war should become clear.

What if the Russians had made a great mistake in 1944?

What if the invasion in Normandy had failed?

Robusto

It should have been clear after Stalingrad that the war was lost. And the fool Hitler, in a fit of pique, let a million of his soldiers be captured (and annihilated) by the Soviets because they had failed him.

Cerberus

12:21 AM

What if a Meloni had been elected in America?

Robusto

One was. What would you call Trump?

Cerberus

He's different hehe.

But I mean in 1944.

Things can change.

Robusto

Yeah, I know. Sometimes it gets very tiring.

tchrist

@Cerberus It's not going to do any good if Putin doesn't want it to.

But pull that pin and the world ticks quickly away.

Cerberus

I'm not sure what you mean.

I just meant Ukraine still had people to negotiate after a bombing of Kiev.

Robusto

12:28 AM

Putin's problem is that he has succumbed to his own ego.

But his problem is also our problem then.

Cerberus

He is probably also caught in a web of powerful factions.

M.A.R.

12:41 AM

Or caught up in a web of powerful factions' ego

Cerberus

12:53 AM

That, too.

And he himself has spun part of it.

> The First Department human rights organization claims that mobilized Russians are being taken to the front without any training.

According to them, the mobilized men, “do not take part in any exercises, do not pass any medical examinations, and do not receive any training.”

In a video that came into First Division’s possession, a mobilized Russian man talks about being sent to Kherson, and that he’s been officially denied a training exercise.

meduza.io/en/news/2022/09/27/…

Apparently, this man was sent as part of a tank regiment, no less.

Robusto

I guess he has to figure out how to work the tank on his way to the front.

M.A.R.

BOOM "Whoops, now we know what that lever does"

Cerberus

1:08 AM

Yup.

Praesumably, others in his tank have at least some training.

Or perhaps he is just supporting infantry in the tank regiment.

Robusto

Enemy at the Gates opening - 20 mins

►

With no training, this is what it will be like.

tchrist

1:38 AM

> Wreoð nu wel þene king, þat he ligge a swæting.

wreón is cover, cover up.

So: "Wrap now well the king, that he lie a-sweating."

I can't pull out a wreath type verb that might sound idiomatic there today.

Mitch

@M.A.R. Or scrambled in a mix of powerful factions' eggs

tchrist

Wrap is probably good enough. A native speaker will inherently recognize how twisty any wr- must always be.

Mitch

@tchrist I am sore wroth at what could have been

tchrist

Nazgûl, much?

Wreathe the king sounds like something else.

Wretched.

Wrath twists you.

Till you a wraith become.

Wrings you dry.

Wrests life from your ghost.

Wracks your soul.

Wrestles you like a tornado.

Mitch

wrangles a dogie to the ground

wren?

this is pretty wreird

tchrist

1:50 AM

Leaving only wrecked wrinkles wrought of wriggling wry wrenches.

Mitch

wrinkled Rwanda

wicked Rhonda

tchrist

No, wren was a metathetic casualty of werna via wrenna.

Mitch

I new a girl in high school, named Rhonda, and her nickname was wicked Rhonda.

@tchrist Quelle formage!

tchrist

> Old English wrenna (also with metathesis werna), wrænna (wærna), obscurely related to Old High German wrendo, wrendilo, Icelandic rindill.

Mitch

@tchrist That sounds like 'werna' came -later- than 'wrenna'

tchrist

1:55 AM

Werna was first noticed in 725.

> c725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) B 136 Birbicariolus, werna.
a1100 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 132 Parrax, wrenna, uel hicemase.
a1250 Owl & Night. 564 (Jesus Coll. MS) Hwat dostu godes among monne? Na mo þene doþ a wrecche wrenne [Cotton MS. wranne].
a1250 Owl & Night. 1717 (Jesus Coll. MS) Þe wrenne [Cotton MS. wranne] for heo cuþe singe Þar com..To helpe þare nyhtegale.
1390 J. Gower Confessio Amantis III. 349 So that the litel wrenne in his mesure Hath yit of kinde a love under his cure.

But there was another branch that had wran like forms.

> c1050 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 260 Litorius,wærna.
a1100 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 286 Bitorius, wrænna, uel pintorus.
a12501 [see α. ]. a12502 [see α. ].
a1525 (▸c1448) R. Holland Bk. Howlat l. 649 in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1925) II. 115 Ye litill we wran Ye wretchit dorche was.
c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) vi. 31 Robeen and the litil vran var hamely in vyntir

Which lasted all the way until the end of the last century.

> 1825 J. Jennings Observ. Dial. W. Eng. 128 Wrans an robin-riddicks.
a1842 in Halliwell Nursery Rhymes 184 We'll hunt the wran, says Robin to Bobbin.
a1859 in Notes & Queries 2nd Ser. VIII. 209/1 The wran, the king of all birds.
1899 E. Œ. Somerville & ‘M. Ross’ Some Experiences Irish R.M. i The carpenter..wished the divil might run the plumber through a wran's quill.

Blame the Scots?

> Forms: α. Old English wrenna ( werna), Middle English–1600s wrenne, Middle English wrenn, Middle English–1500s wrene (1500s plural wreneys), Middle English– wren. β. Old English wrænna ( wærna), Middle English, Scottish1500s–1600s wranne, Middle English Scottish, 1800s Scottish and dialect wran (1600s wrane, 1800s ran), Scottish1500s, 1800s vran (1800s vraun).

Don't let yourself get wrick-wrolled.

> transitive. To sprain or strain.
1904 County Gentleman June 1963 [The race-horse] having wricked his back badly.

Probably wracked?

Oh, no. Closer to wrig and wriggle back and forth.

The wrig is Scottish for "The smallest or weakest of a litter, brood, or family."

tchrist

2:33 AM

0

A: In Early Modern English, are there examples of the "a- + gerund" progressive construction where the gerund begins with a vowel?

Yes, sometimes, at least through the 1700s. After that, not so much. Up through the 1700s in particular it sometimes showed up written an before a word with a vowel or h-. The OED provides one such citation of went an eeling here: 1780 in Narragansett Hist. Reg. (1882) Oct. 104 Went an eelin...

And no, went an eeling is not the same as went a kneeling. :)

Nor went annealing for that matter.

M.A.R.

3:29 AM

Useful beats True any day. — Scott Rowe 2 days ago

Cerberus

3:57 AM

@tchrist Note to self: look up why the Valar commanded the Noldor to stay. It's probably in the Silmarillion.

tchrist

> Eru 'accepted and ratified the position' - though making it plain to Manwe that the Valar should have contested Melkor's domination of Middle-earth far earlier, and that they had lacked estel: they should have trusted that in a legitimate war Eru would not have permitted Melkor so greatly to damage Arda that the Children could not come, or could not inhabit it (Tolkien’s notes in Morgoth’s Ring)

It seems that God was not wholly pleased with his Governors in this.

Cerberus

That is something.

tchrist

I can't remember the timing, but I don't know that Men were awake yet, only Elves.

Cerberus

Second note: look up the slaying of the Teleri.

On my phone in bed now.

tchrist

All the Kinslayings were the Fëanorians.

Although at the first one, some of the host of Fingolfin who arrived in the midst of it were confused about who started the massacre.

Cerberus

4:04 AM

The why and how I'll need to look up.

Perhaps in the taking of their ships.

> it was the most beautiful of her names, and had been given to her by her lover, Teleporno of the Teleri

Teleporno.

2

tchrist

I know that there was an intent for the divine strain of the Ainur and also the blood of the First Kindred to trickle into that of the Second, and that may have required the Noldor returning, at least on the Earendel half of the mixage.

That's Celeborn.

Cerberus

Required? Then why forbid it?

I know.

> This desire of Galadriel’s was, it seems, known to Manwë, and he had not forbidden her; but nor had she been given formal leave to depart.

So why were they not allowed to leave, is the question.

tchrist

Her particular Noldorin strain from Finarfin didn't come into men until Arwen. Earendel was from Fingolfin plus a lot of Vanyar.

Cerberus

Is "but" really necessary here?

tchrist

Yes, he uses "but nor" to mean what we would write today as "but neither". It's an old usage.

I think the Valar wanted the Fëanorians to swallow their pride and recognize that they could never defeat the greatest of the Ainur.

And that they had therefore given up their right to the gems.

I'm more than darned tired, just random typing.

Cerberus

4:15 AM

I would just write "nor".

tchrist

Yes.

I would too.

I've had to learn how to read his ancient "but nor" stuff that as "but neither".

The thing is that "but" always conveys extra surprise.

And without it, there is not as much.

I left and he didn't VS I left but he didn't.

Cerberus

Oh, it is not new to me, I have seen it before.

tchrist

So "but neither" is stronger than just "nor".

And longer.

Cerberus

I just didn't think Tolkien would use it when simply nor would do.

tchrist

He didn't. He added the "but" to make the "nor" have greater strength.

It's just that we these days only write that as "but neither". For we = me.

Cerberus

4:19 AM

In modern average usage, however, I would expect writers to shrink from this adversative nor.

tchrist

They prefer neither here used this way, yes.

Cerberus

Yes.

tchrist

Wilfred Owen is a modern, and his poem uses neither that way.

Cerberus

I like the old use of nor, and I thought Tolkien would, too.

tchrist

> So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spoke and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him.

"Neither do anything to him"

Oh look, there's a clave.

CowperKettle

4:22 AM

@Cerberus I think that maybe he had been trained as a tank crew member in his youth, during the obligatory 1-2 years of service. So he might still remember some things about operating a tank, but it's very bad to send a man to the frontline without a refresher course

Cerberus

Nor is that adversative.

tchrist

Remember that Owen was that famous WW1 gay poet killed right at the end. Britten used his poetry for his War Requiem.

CowperKettle

Owen was a great poet

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Fair enough.

CowperKettle

I'm not sure Owen was gay, though

These days, a lot of historical figures get gayness ascribed to them

tchrist

4:24 AM

Well, yes.

It's a modern "identity" that does not rightly belong to figures in the past.

CowperKettle

I was browsing art feeds on Twitter, and came across an artist who lived with his wife and his lover (woman) at the same time. And fathered further children from three other women.

And he still found some time to paint pictures. He should have written a book on time management.

tchrist

Real people are more complicated than simple slogans.

I'm sure you're read the Owen Wikipedia bits about his sexuality, but again, it is frustratingly difficult to read through the "consent reality" of our times being mapped on to the past.

CowperKettle

nods

CowperKettle

6:35 AM

> This is where Kazakhstan begins, Sam

CowperKettle

7:30 AM

boroughitis

Noun: boroughitis (uncountable)

(US, historical) prolific formation of new boroughs in the state of New Jersey in the 1890s
Synonyms: borough fever, borough mania

CowperKettle

10:30 AM

Robusto

11:59 AM

#Worldle #250 2/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜↙️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

🌎 Sept 28, 2022 🌍
🔥 28 | Avg. Guesses: 6.18
🟨🟧🟨🟧🟧🟥🟩 = 7

#globle

Wordle 466 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Interesting that the NY Times Spelling Bee game doesn't include "chink" in its word list. So it must have a chink in its armor.

jlliagre

12:31 PM

#Worldle #250 4/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜↙️
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜⬇️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨↙️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

🌎 Sept 28, 2022 🌍
🔥 2 | Avg. Guesses: 7.21
🟨🟥🟥🟥🟩 = 5

#globle

Wordle 466 5/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

CowperKettle

> Based on the patient's age, history and physical examination, a clinical diagnosis or classification of the condition can be established.

What is the meaning of "classification"? General class to which the condition belongs, or the precise subtype of the condition?

If it's the general class, this would mean that the precise diagnosis was not determined.

Robusto

1:19 PM

Putin’s War Is a Crime Against the Planet

2

Mitch

1:36 PM

@CowperKettle Yes. Which is to say there's no specification as to how specific 'classification' is. It can be just the top level of the tree, or all the way down to the species.

The sentence doesn't point to 'precise subtype' (it's out of context). Maybe the context helps say that.

Does a very specific diagnosis depend on age/Hx/PE/Dx? eg a 12 year old that is of average weight but diabetic symptoms would should probably be classified as the more specific Type I diabetes. But without age and PE, the classification might just be diabetes (unspecified).

M.A.R.

@CowperKettle What Mitch said. It's possible they're referring to some guideline. Say, according to AHA guidelines, there are four stages of heart failure, so "classification" would refer to the diagnosis of the stage of heart failure

CowperKettle

Thank you!

Mitch

@Robusto I coulda swore someone (you?) had made exactly that observation before... but search doesn't find it.

CowperKettle

Mitch

I sent an 'update' request to Spelling Bee for missing some obvious word (they say 'Please send us fixes!' and I got back a form letter saying 'Thanks, but we don't actually listen. Our word list is what it is.'

CowperKettle

1:47 PM

Gas leaving the blown-up Nord Stream pipes. Three pipes, each costing $6 billion, now filling with salt water to turn into a $18 billion heap of rust.

Mitch

which is a reasonable if unsatisfying response... which they could have said first thing instead of building up hope.

CowperKettle

For comparison, to recreate the Great Pyramid would take $5 billion.

> Russia's children's rights commissioner on Wednesday said that Ukrainian children taken to Russia from Mariupol initially showed negative attitudes toward Russia, but now don't wish to return home.

Mitch

@CowperKettle what level of specificity is not in 'classification'. But that it is more than you have now totally is. "This guy is sick" "How sick?"

"The doc classified it as diabetes"
"The doc classified it as diabetes type I"

CowperKettle

@Mitch Thank you! I just translated it hazily, as in the source.

Mitch

@CowperKettle That seems very doable.

With a couple billion mor, maybe zhoozh it up a little.

a little paint, maybe a balcony

CowperKettle

1:51 PM

An elevator inside.

Mitch

@CowperKettle Exactly. Or an a glass visitor center at the top and a zipline to the top of a smaller pyramid and a luxury mall in the center.

Cripes... did I just describe Las Vegas?

@CowperKettle You (both specifically you yourself, but also the generic 'everybody') can translate -anything-, but might take a lot more words, so the art is doing it with the least ... with the least ... scrambling/loss/implication of what's not there in the original (is there a word in Russian for that?)

CowperKettle

Yes

Mitch

@CowperKettle and scrambled eggs and bacon ... oh... I'm so sorry.

That was insensitive

To eggs

CowperKettle

Reminded me of this.

Mitch

@CowperKettle Yeah... that's really subtle dark humor. No one looks at the background.

Boroughitis

Boroughitis (also borough fever or borough mania) was the creation in the 1890s, usually by referendum, of large numbers of small boroughs in the U.S. state of New Jersey, particularly in Bergen County. Attempts by the New Jersey Legislature to reform local government and school systems led to the breakup of most of Bergen County's townships into small boroughs, which still balkanize the state's political map. This occurred following the development of commuter suburbs in New Jersey, residents of which wanted more government services, whereas the long-time rural population feared the increases...

Lots of funny place names in northern New Jersey/nearby New York, mostly I guess from Dutch.

Hackensack, Hoboken, Weehauken, Badonkadonk, Mahwah, Rahway, Piscataway.

CowperKettle

2:09 PM

Mitch

Mahwah and Rahway maybe Indian names?

Marmaroneck. Not funny sounding but still a mouthful.

CowperKettle

Piscataway sounds nice, like a nice cozy place

Mitch

words are weird. these sound like made up names from Doctor Seuss (the kids book author) made up of silly words mooshed together.

ones that are usually not put together

Robusto

@Mitch None of those can match Sheboygan for silliness.

Mitch

scat as in to shoo or make leave quickly, cat (well, just a cat), away, like to go away.

@Robusto Kalamazoo

Robusto

2:14 PM

The Midwest has the silly names, it's true.

Mitch

but yes Sheboygan is in the top tier

Beloit... the sound of a ball bearing dropped into a toilet

Kickapoo

I rest my case.

Muskegon

Oshkosh.

B'gosh

2:15 PM

Gotta run, gonna be late for my ride. Laterz.

Mitch

Best kids overalls ever.

you can always catch a kid about to run out into the street by the backs of those, almost like a harness

@Robusto We'll be listing them all out until you come back

@CowperKettle most of these midwestern city names are from local Indian languages.

There are a couple funny sounding ones in Massachusetts: Seekonk, Mashpee, Dumbledore, Scituate.

'Scituate' is funny because it sounds like you're starting the word 'situation' but forgot to finish.

I suppose Massachusetts and Connecticut and Mississippi are funny sounds too on first hearing them, but they're so often used, any fun in them is lost.

CowperKettle

Russian schoolkids loved to jokingly pronounce Mississippi as misi-pisi, and probably still do.

Mitch

2:40 PM

@CowperKettle What does that mean?

In English there's a lot in that to make fun of.

It starts off sounding like 'Miss So-and-so' or 'Missy' is also a name (kind of a silly diminutive name).

then 'sip' and then 'pee' so it might be interpreted as drinking piss.

and then there is the spelling difficulties we had trying to remember how many s's and p's and so one.

Lots of laughs.

For 7-8 year olds.

CowperKettle

@Mitch "pisi" means "wee-wees" in Russian, so it's also for 7-8 year-olds ))

Like lake Titicaca, also funny for 8 yo, because "kaka" means "shit" in child-talk and "titi" means "boobs" in child-talk. In Russian, the "i" is used in plural noun endings. So "titya" is a single boob, and "titi" is boobs

Mitch

@CowperKettle All languages and 8 years are the same.

@CowperKettle In US English 'kaka' for some reason doesn't mean anything. But yes 'Titicaca' is sure to get sniggers with that age group (and older)

@CowperKettle Nice. Now I know how to grammar in Russian.

CowperKettle

2:55 PM

Yes ))

kaka

Noun: kaka (plural kakas)

Any of four taxa of birds in the genus Nestor in the parrot family confined to New Zealand and adjacent islands.
kaka
elder brother
elder sister
kaka inan
excrement

jlliagre

4:02 PM

@Mitch Massachusetts is funny to French kids ears because it sounds like Met sa chaussette (Puts on his sock). They also dub the lake Pipicaca...

Robusto

6:54 PM

@Mitch And then there's Pen Island.

(Put the words together for a surprise.)

Robusto

7:47 PM

Putin is limping toward an endgame in Ukraine. Should the West go along?

> That Putin is now blaming the sycophants he created for failing to bend reality to match his delusions was predictable. One must be alert when walking in Moscow these days, given the hazard of plunging bureaucrats tossed from windows and chucked down stairways.

> A deal with Putin to redraw Russia’s borders westward would reward reckless and murderous behavior. By launching a full-scale invasion of a peaceful neighbor, Putin single-handedly created the most profound security crisis in Europe since World War II. His indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities, and the outrages committed by Russian troops, surely constitute war crimes.

Mitch

8:38 PM

@Robusto Pe Nisland? How juvenile!

I've always appreciated 'coworker' because I always have a hard time imagining why you would do that to a cow.

Robusto

9:07 PM

@Mitch Hey, it's a real place! How dare you!

East Pen Island

East Pen Island, sometimes referred to shortly as Pen Island, is one of several uninhabited Canadian arctic islands in Nunavut, Canada located within southwestern Hudson Bay. It is part of the Pen Islands, though West Pen Island is more properly termed a spit, rather than an island. East Pen Island is situated off the shore of Ontario, a few kilometers southeast of Manitoba. The closest community is Fort Severn, Ontario. == Fauna == East Pen is classified as an IBA site, protecting Hudsonian godwits, red knots, black scoters, snow geese, and common eiders. == References ==

M.A.R.

10:12 PM

The great and powerful R.a.'i.s.i himself gave an interview on Channel 1 today.

It was . . . Predictable. The guy is one step removed from Trump actually, he's not even competent enough to inflame his fanbase.

Imagine THAT

Regarding the murder, he was like, "well, something happened, I dunno, someone should investigate".

M.A.R.

10:36 PM

They've added a Wordlebot that analyzes your guesses with numbers and stuff

And it's a lot of numbers and things

And pictures and numbers

drooling