English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

CowperKettle

00:51

Bernard B. Fall (November 19, 1926 – February 21, 1967) was a prominent war correspondent, historian, political scientist, and expert on Indochina during the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Austria, he moved with his family to France as a child after the Anschluss. He started fighting for the French Resistance at the age of 16 and later for the French Army during World War II. In 1950, he first came to the United States for graduate studies at Syracuse University and Johns Hopkins University, returning and making his residence there. He taught at Howard University for most of his career and made regular...

Noam Chomsky has called Fall "the most respected analyst and commentator on the Vietnam War."[9]

Bernard B. Fall Street Without Joy The French Debacle in Indochina Part 01 Audiobook

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Robusto

01:08

Happy birthday, Mark Twain. You are 189 years young today.

2

HippoSawrUs

03:16

I was going to breakup with my spouse, because he gave me a hard time about a $50 princess dress for a sick girl, maybe her last wish, but he gave me the word breakup (which I already knew) and dissolution (the formal word I forgot), so I'll just forgive him and lie to him about anything that requires compassion, like in human form.

Ugh…

Shopping always sucks now

Or just putting a $50 in a card

Oh, maybe he wants to retire, subconsciously

That's prolly it

I should be a mind reader

CowperKettle

04:01

> but he gave me the word breakup (which I already knew) and dissolution (the formal word I forgot)

I don't understand

Vikas

Lol

CowperKettle

@HippoSawrUs Is this for real? Maybe because 50 dollars is a large sum for your budget?

> I took an elevator up to the eleventh floor for a meeting. As I got out, the operator said "Have a good day, son."
"Don't call me son," I said. "You're not my dad."

He scratched his head, "No, but I brought you up, didn't I?"

After my meeting, I got back on the elevator to go back down, and the same operator was there. I said nothing to him, but when we got to the ground floor, he said to me, "I'm sorry."

"Because you thought you were my dad?" I asked him.

He shook his head. "No, son, because I let you down."

HippoSawrUs

04:45

@CowperKettle Really, he wouldn't have even known had I not mentioned it. He had no problem with the $50, and he loves her too. He just thought we'd have to bend time to get to the ATM within 30 minutes, and freaked out a little, 'Why…why…why…why?' I blame Thanksgiving. Old diabetics are not prepared…for all those carbs and people.

But he is so smart; gotta love a smart guy.

CowperKettle

@HippoSawrUs Ah!

Cerberus

Very American...

I almost believed it was true at first glance.

@Vikas This may be complicated.

HippoSawrUs

@CowperKettle It was a coincidence. A question asked for the opposite of formation right after I stomped out of the house towards the ATM…then remembered who I am now, not capable of stomping all the way to an ATM machine. Hahaha, really though…crazy walk.

CowperKettle

05:11

@Cerberus Looks like it indeed was used in the 1920s

@HippoSawrUs I envy people who have actual spouses or girlfriends.

I went to work yesterday, and there were people all around in the shopping mall, holding hands, or walking with kids. I felt like I was under torture, because I have nobody, so I stopped work and went home.

Because I'm having ruminations for hours on end, and they will not stop.

At least at home I can distract myself with something.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Nah this is satire.

Vikas

06:24

Are both of these called Beanie caps or only the one which has longer end on skull side (e.g., the 2nd photo)?

Also, what's the use of such caps which are longer on back/skull side? Is it just for fashion?

alphabet

@HippoSawrUs Perhaps he's secretly a radical feminist trying to follow his belief in the harms a princess dress can inflict on impressionable young girls.

You know, maybe in the Trump era we should stop romanticizing for children the idea of living in an absolute monarchy.

The year is 2030. After threatening the CEO of Disney with execution on charges of "woke sedition," the Trump administration has forced them to make a children's movie about how Princess Ivanka's idyllic upbringing has made her the perfect replacement for the entire Supreme Court.

Xanne

08:20

Wordle 1,261 6/6

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jlliagre

10:29

@Vikas I don't know but in French, both are called bonnets (or tuques in Québec.)

jlliagre

10:48

Tuque comes from toque.

CowperKettle

12:40

I worked for 2 hours, because I can't stand the non-stop rumination and the feeling of hopelesness. So I stopped and cycled home. I compile lists of vacancies, but can't choose which.

I went to the government-funded psychotherapist, but the government only pays for 2 visits. During the first visit, she told me to "do something", basically. I don't recall much of this visit, it was on Thursday.

"Do something, because if you do nothing, nothing happens". I told her that I can't focus.

I told her that I can't decide what to say or what to do. She asked for a real example, I said that I cannot ask someone to move aside in an elevator cabin, or when they are barring the road while I'm on the bike. She told the what she would do. I asked whether I should phone her every time I'm stuck, because I get into stupor in all kinds of situations.

She told that in the end it's my life and only I can live it, which I knew all along.

I told her that I can't focus and just sit and read randomly. And when I'm stressed, I just have an empty mind. She said that an empty mind is a beautiful thing and that Buddha would envy me.

And so on, and so forth.

M.A.R.

13:10

@CowperKettle these days I'm feeling really lazy, because I don't feel like doing anything, almost pathologically. I guess a therapist is out of the question.

Mitch

13:20

@Vikas 1) I would not call it a beanie or a beanie cap. To me 'beanie' is a slighty strange word kind of humorous ('like a bean' which is silly). I associate it with cartoons and a little propeller on top, only worn by 'slow' kids.

2) but, now that you ask, I don't know what I would call it. Maybe just a 'cap' or maybe a 'wool hat' or 'wool 'cap' (even if not made of wool.

3)I don't think there's anything special to me about one that is longer in back. It just means (to me) that they pulled the back down further than usual? So maybe just fashion or utility?

@jlliagre and where does toque come from?

Robusto

13:37

@Vikas Young people call them beanies. I don't know why. Some people call them watch caps. Others would call the more commodious one a stocking cap. Take your pick.

#travle #718 +0 (Perfect)
✅✅✅✅
https://travle.earth

jlliagre

14:11

@Mitch Arabic طاقية (ṭāqiyya)

طاقية

Noun: طَاقِيَّة • (ṭāqiyya) f (plural طَوَاقِيّ (ṭawāqiyy))

a kind of skullcap resulting in the form of cupola, not necessitating but supporting turban cloth [from the Mamluks in the 14th century]
طاقية • (ṭāgiyya) f (plural طاقيات (ṭāgiyyāt) or طَوَاقي (ṭawāgi))
beanie
طاقية • (ṭāqiyya) f (plural...

Toque

A toque ( or ) is a type of hat with a narrow brim or no brim at all. Toques were popular from the 13th to the 16th century in Europe, especially France. They were revived in the 1930s; nowadays, they are primarily known as the traditional headgear for professional cooks, except in Canada, where the term toque is used interchangeably with the French Canadian spelling of tuque knit caps. == Name == The word toque has been known in English since around 1500. It is a loan word from the French tuque (15th century), presumably by the way of the Spanish toca 'woman's headdress', from Arabic *taqa طاقة...

Mitch

@jlliagre 💪🏽

@Robusto really? Beanies? Young people are weird

Also, they should get a haircut.

Robusto

@Mitch They should be forced to watch reruns of Beany & Cecil.

Beany and Cecil-- Cartoon Opening

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Mitch

14:49

@Robusto Which one is Beany?

Robusto

@Mitch They're all Beany.

Vikas

15:21

@M.A.R. First time?

@Mitch Or winter cap? That's what we call (or search with this phrase on shopping websites) them here.

@Mitch I also think it's for fashion. The other use could be: They keep you much warmer than other shorter cap (1st image). But I don't see the science behind that..

CowperKettle

I wonder if there is some drug or illegal drug to stop repetitive depressive ruminations that last for hours on end, and the feeling of hopelesness, while I'm working. I can't stand it.

tchrist

15:49

A three red herring school caution: As her question applies equally to otherwise identical constructions bearing traditional English units, I doubt it concerns the International System of Units per se. She may not grok key usage differences between two distinct classes of ᴘᴏꜱᴛɴᴏᴍɪɴᴀʟ of + ɴ expressions in English: ❶ Latinate-style possessives which ᴄᴀɴ alternate ᴘʀᴇɴᴏᴍɪɴᴀʟʟʏ not only with Germanic-style apostrophe-s clitics but also with attributive nouns; and ❷ ᴘᴏꜱᴛɴᴏᴍɪɴᴀʟ measure phrases including partitives and pseudo-partitives which brook no ᴘʀᴇɴᴏᴍɪɴᴀʟ alternations whatsoever. — tchrist ♦ 14 mins ago

I fear that ChatGPT (insert obligatory genuflection) has confused the poor lass so much she's had to ask us hoomen.

5

A: Quantifiers realised by a noun?

This type of string is often called a pseudo-partitive construction. (A true partitive looks the same, but shows a partition, a subset: a half of the money, a piece of the cake.) From an article by in linguistics by Ilja A. Seržant: Definition of pseudo-partitive constructions A pseudo-partitive...

Never can a school of three red herrings become a three red herring school.

A pint of bitter is never a bitter pint unless drunk under duress.

tchrist

16:15

1

A: 200 fat grams or 200 grams of fat?

Using Keizer's classification of pseudopartitives (Reference Keizer 2007: 109) in which she distinguishes between five types, adapting a classification proposed for Dutch in Vos (Reference Vos 1999) [CUP] ... and including a true partitive of the same form: [(1) True parti...

December is come at last! We are now at liberty to open a sleigh of one horse!

PETA Disclaimer: Rest assured that horses were slain in the production of the previous post immediately above.

Of of them did get sleighed, though. :)

jlliagre

17:52

@Vikas I suspect the second man is a camouflaged Rastafarian. The bulge tries to hide his dreadlocks.

Vikas

18:09

😮

Vikas

18:46

Trump names Vladimir Putin as head of Special Foreign Operations.

Robusto

19:52

Wordle 1,261 4/6

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HippoSawrUs

@alphabet It's probably that, and you just can't rush some with HFA, even if it's what they agreed to and want to do.

alphabet

@Vikas Certainly the former at least would be called a beanie; that's the term clothing brands use.

HippoSawrUs

On the plus side, he got me 55 points, I think, and brought me a lot of food today. I'm prolly an old princess in PJ pants today, mostly just lazy.

alphabet

They're always made from the itchiest fabrics in existence for some reason.

HippoSawrUs

I'm just thanking ppl for their comments and moving on. I'm working on being inconsiderate yet polite at the same time.

@alphabet Yes, I hate acrylic, and wool really too, but some are lined with microfiber. Rarely 100% cotton.

Robusto

20:11

#WhenTaken #278 (01.12.2024)

I scored 834/1000🏅

1️⃣📍412 m - 🗓️0 yrs - 🥇200/200
2️⃣📍66.4 km - 🗓️6 yrs - 🥇190/200
3️⃣📍862 km - 🗓️5 yrs - 🥈169/200
4️⃣📍11.7K km - 🗓️3 yrs - 🥉97/200
5️⃣📍660 km - 🗓️2 yrs - 🥇178/200

https://whentaken.com

Mitch

@tchrist That's a lesson of bitter to learn.

Which is bettern a bitter bittern.

Robusto

Daily Octordle #1042
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Score: 77

HippoSawrUs

@CowperKettle I married for health insurance; this is America. But in Alabama (a common law state), I just joined the Army Reserves and added my "boyfriend" to my insuance with no problem.

We're probably still "married" there.

I meant common law marriage state

@CowperKettle I'm rewatching Bloodline on Netflix, because I can just fall asleep and pick right back up with the familicide or whatever.

Marriage is overrated. I miss malls, really nice ones with Christmas villages to the roof. They were nice.

Robusto

20:27

Daily Sequence Octordle #1042
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Score: 72

tchrist

@HippoSawrUs Marriage forbids you malls?

HippoSawrUs

@tchrist No, they just don't decorate them like they used to.

Married people are afraid to take their children there, so what's the point.

We can't get a slice of pizza if the big kids are going to argue in the food court with guns.

That's just a no-go

Robusto

Tightrope, a daily trivia game | Britannica

Dec. 1, 2024

T I G H T R O P E
✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ 🎉

My Score: 2060

@HippoSawrUs Where do you live that you have such feral malls?

HippoSawrUs

I moved, but that was Fayetteville, NC.

Like normal kids otherwise, they just argue in public with guns.

WTF?

They can't even keep anchor stores in business

No thanks

We used to play Qbert in the Sears arcade

tchrist

@HippoSawrUs On very rare occasion we would spend hours in the car driving to and from the nearest malled city to regard the Christmas decorations surrounding a jolly Santa at the big rich-people stores there, but nobody did that casually. It was too much of a time investment. And you'd always be afraid of being tricked into buying things you couldn't afford. Certainly there was no such thing as "a local mall"!

HippoSawrUs

20:36

They had a snow mountain with skiers and ski shacks to the glass ceiling

Animated elves in workshops, the whole nine yards

tchrist

Pa never did drive little Laura Ingalls to the mall, you know. His horse and buggy had more important things to do.

HippoSawrUs

We just went to the mall and walked around with an Orange Julius (yuck) or Coke; we were broke and happy, no problem.

tchrist

There were exactly zero chain stores when and where I grew up. Zero.

Children of a Lesser God.

Mitch

@tchrist not even a Dollar Store or IGA?

tchrist

@Mitch Are you on drugs? No.

But we all watched Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street every year, so we thought we knew what Hollywood was like.

Mitch

20:45

@tchrist How did you know?

tchrist

Those places did not exist then.

Mitch

Where was the nearest McDonalds?

HippoSawrUs

There is only one gas station and no traffic light by my old house near there. We will give it to my son. He lives near the mall in what used to be the murder apts in the '80s.

Robusto

@Mitch I've often longed to go into a Dollar Store and see if I can put something on layaway.

HippoSawrUs

It's always something

tchrist

20:45

@Mitch About 45 or 60 minutes away by car.

Mitch

@tchrist how old were you when you first get lucky enough to visit a Dairy Queen?

tchrist

@Mitch That seems like a personal question doncha know!

There were root beer stands and dairy bars and diners, and soda jerks at the drugstore lunch counter.

Mitch

@HippoSawrUs I feel like there's some important details that you should follow that up with.

@tchrist "How old were you when you lost your Dairy Queen cherry? Six years old and I cried until Mom got me another Blizzard."

HippoSawrUs

They used to just kill each other in that apt complex every Friday night. Military people and WTFever.

Mitch

@HippoSawrUs no no no I meant what happened to the traffic light

HippoSawrUs

20:52

Oh, never had a traffic light

tchrist

@Mitch I see now that your imagination simply cannot encompass what this vast country was truly like for the American rural heartland during say the late 50s to the early 70s. Something like that. No bright lights. No big cities. Just amber waves of grain and little houses in the wood.

HippoSawrUs

The train stopped people

Haha, fr

My dad and uncle were late getting on the train

Had to sit in the back

alphabet

@Mitch /r/cursedcomments

Mitch

@HippoSawrUs oh

HippoSawrUs

It hit another train head-on

Mitch

20:53

Now I feel bad for the traffic light

HippoSawrUs

So they lived

And now I'm late all the time, with an excuse

tchrist

Farmers do not go to the giant city malls. They have no money to eat out anywhere and everywhere day in and day out. They were too busy raising FOOD for all you city slickers. They were, and are, struggling to get by on meagre bounties.

Mitch

@tchrist you flatter.me in assuming I have an imagination to lose.

HippoSawrUs

It's only 3 miles from a McDonalds, Walmart, etc.

tchrist

@Mitch Cut its fetters and watch it soar.

Mitch

20:55

I remember the first time I visited a Taco Bell like when I was eight.

alphabet

I think I've been to a Dairy Queen maybe once? There aren't many anywhere close to Boston.

Mitch

Of course, because the cuisine was so exotic, I got the Bell Burger, which was essentially a hamburger.

HippoSawrUs

It has two stop signs and a RR track in "town"

Robusto

@tchrist The corporate farmers do.

tchrist

@Mitch It did not become popular until the eighties!

@Robusto "Farmers".

Robusto

20:57

Today's farmers are more like sharecroppers.

tchrist

If you wanted Mexican food you had to drive to Delevan where all the beaners lived.

Robusto

I went into a Taco Bell once. Never again.

HippoSawrUs

Yes, we went to a Taco Bell with our friends around that age

Didn't know what a "tortilla" was

Mitch

@alphabet there's one out on rt 27 near to where it goes under the Pike.

HippoSawrUs

And pronounced it like Flotilla

Mitch

20:59

But it's not like you're missing anything, Boston has too many home grown ice cream shops

HippoSawrUs

One farm has a homemade ice cream shop

Mitch

@HippoSawrUs I have a feeling you don't actually learn that at a Taco Bell anyway.

They just have the same name

HippoSawrUs

Produce stand, pumpkin patch, Sunrise Service amphi…whatever

Strawberry patch

Mitch

@HippoSawrUs my grandmother used to say pih zah for peetsa

Stupid old people

HippoSawrUs

OMG, my grandfather did too

Wait, I think he doubled the Zs somehow

alphabet

21:03

@Mitch I think that's the one I went to once.

HippoSawrUs

Then he would spell it

Mitch

@HippoSawrUs service amphetamines? Man we had mom made homemade. We used to ride our bikes from drug store to drugstore picking up AAA batteries and Sudafed.

HippoSawrUs

It didn't matter that he drove a Chevrolet or whatever

tchrist

It wasn't possible to go to a national chain restaurant outside the big cities. Every little Mexican or Chinese or Italian restaurant, or hot dog stand etc, was a one-shot little family-owned affair.

HippoSawrUs

What is an amphitheater without a roof?

Like the stage may have a half roof

Mitch

21:05

@alphabet Dairy Joy up on 117 is classic

tchrist

But you could always stop off at the country tavern after church for a Tombstone pizza or lake-fish fish fry. Always lots of kids there.

HippoSawrUs

Like a bowl?

tchrist

Never saw any Amish there, though. Just Lutherans.

alphabet

Now I could get there in a mere two hours by public transit. How convenient!

HippoSawrUs

But not cement seating

Just the same shape

Anyway, farmers can live off just farming anymore there

tchrist

21:10

@HippoSawrUs Suvven people did that sorda thing, just like they always did with that Moce Art guy.

HippoSawrUs

@Mitch We had to take turns sitting on one of the ice makers. Were they that expensive? Or did they just think we were dead weight. Good times.

ice cream makers

tchrist

Wait, you guys had INDOOR amphitheaters? Like, with heating and all? I think we could have called those stadiums or something.

Robusto

@HippoSawrUs I hope you weren't wearing your Daisy Dukes at the time.

HippoSawrUs

I rode my tricyle to the store, huge tricyle like maybe the Wright Brothers made it, and bought my mom cigarettes, Belair for the coupons. They gave me all the carton coupons.

alphabet

Imagine not living in a place where people get angry if someone opens up a new pizza place a couple blocks from the longstanding, established, well-reputed pizza place.

HippoSawrUs

21:14

Everybody got Belair catalogue gifts for Christmas.

And I win again!

Thanks for playing Whose the Big Pogue.

tchrist

> The Rise and Fall of the American Suburban Mall.

Ah, that's why. You will have had to be in an urb or its parasitic attachments.

HippoSawrUs

Who's

tchrist

going to fix that spelling for you?

HippoSawrUs

We really don't have to correct anything anymore

tchrist

Good luck with that.

HippoSawrUs

21:18

It makes us obviously old, and therefore a target

tchrist

The city sybarites still cannot imagine a world beyond their cement conflagrations.

HippoSawrUs

catalog?

But Pogue Catalogue looks better

We loved everybody in our town and were dubious of everyone else. I'm still good with that.

alphabet

But without malls, where will parents go to drag around their misbehaving kindergartners?

HippoSawrUs

We took 9 kids to Walmart, and I almost just walked away into the night…

I think that's my main exercise, just walking away…

Holidays are rough, man. I'm turning off my phone any minute now.

alphabet

@HippoSawrUs Walmart could've at least exchanged them for store credit.

HippoSawrUs

21:27

@Robusto No, we were dressed in stiped shirts and pants with stirrups

WTH was that? With mop tops. The British Invasion? I have no idea why we were dressed like little boys.

We were very mod

My mom had a paper dress and white go-go boots

@alphabet In a decent world, yes, or for Soylent Green

It all boils down to Soylent Green

In the end

I meant can't live off farming anymore

HippoSawrUs

21:53

@tchrist Yeah, I mean it's not like the Hollywood Bowl or the one in…NY? You're literally sitting in a carved field or forest made to look like that. Made for boyscouts in the woods, Easter sunrise serices and such in former fields. The stage would more likely be half-covered by a wide, shallow pavilion or such.

jlliagre

#WhenTaken #278 (01.12.2024)

I scored 925/1000👑

1️⃣📍485 km - 🗓️2 yrs - 🥇183/200
2️⃣📍45.2 km - 🗓️9 yrs - 🥇185/200
3️⃣📍4.2 km - 🗓️2 yrs - 🥇198/200
4️⃣📍20.8 km - 🗓️12 yrs - 🥇178/200
5️⃣📍567 km - 🗓️2 yrs - 🥇181/200

https://whentaken.com

Wordle 1,261 5/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟨⬛🟨⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Daily Octordle #1042
🕚9️⃣
5️⃣3️⃣
7️⃣🕛
🕐8️⃣
Score: 68

Daily Sequence Octordle #1042
6️⃣7️⃣
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Score: 80

Mitch

22:25

@HippoSawrUs my arms were killing me after fifteen seconds of turning that thing. Why can't we buy it at the store like normal people?

I think we were moving up in the world when we got the electric ice cream maker, just an electric mixer that was very slow.

Robusto

@jlliagre You should try these. My newest favorite puzzle: nytimes.com/games/connections

jlliagre

22:51

@Robusto It's hard.

Connections
Puzzle #539
🟦🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟦🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟦🟪
🟪🟪🟦🟦

Robusto

@jlliagre Yes, it is!

Connections
Puzzle #539
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟦🟪🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦

And I'm not sure what these colored squares mean.

I guess they're your progress through the game.

But this game works your brain like none of the others do.

jlliagre

@Robusto Spoiler

Mitch

23:11

@Robusto they're just the categories for your third try you got 1 from the purple category and three from the blue category

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…