i'm pretty happy with the way mine coincide

but i think yours is the best i've seen

(one more for size)

Hats are repositionable.

yes they are

@Dominic actually I'm not sure if hats earned in a room go with the site, or with the main account for your user.

probably the latter, now I think about it

@JSBձոգչ it's cool. like you're looking back at your last bounty

Few of the hats align well with my avatar

@Ste You can drag them around the avatar when you choose which one to wear.

The 3-hat one might work without that.

@AndrewLeach You're right that it is almost a duplicate, though I am asking for a light-hearted word or phrase, whilst the other is asking for clarification

@Dominic Are you talking about the hypochondria question?

@MrHen Yes.

Yes. Hypochondriac by proxy.

The lightweight variant would just be "over protective"

Or "extremely protective"

Or "worrisome"

Worrisome?

Part of the issue is that you've described a very non-lighthearted behavior :P

Goes to look that up...

@AndrewLeach "2.tending to worry: having a tendency to worry"

@JasperLoy welcome back to the steel blue world!

@MrHen ODO: causing anxiety or concern

@RegDwigнt I just hope I don't delete my account this time.

dictionary.reference.com/browse/worrisome

"inclined to worry"

I've never encountered that meaning. It's always what causes the worry.

"worrisome" means either "makes others worry" or "is always worried"

@AndrewLeach I have encountered it; it's mostly used to describe older people. "She's a worrisome old hag."

O brb screwed up an invoice or two, must rewrite.

@MrHen Indeed. She might well be :-)

@MrHen It might mean she causes the worry. =)

@AndrewLeach Surely you understand my point. I didn't just randomly make up this usage and slip it into all online dictionaries. ;)

Context is king.

@MrHen Well, yes. But in many cases (like the hag) it could go either way!

"My grandmother is a worrisome old hag; she keeps warning me about every little thing as if my life was hanging by a thread."

I'm actually surprised you haven't heard of this usage before. :P

Still either way.

haha

@AndrewLeach No it isn't. If anyone reads that usage as "causes me to worry" they are misreading "worrisome."

:P

My grandmother is an old hag who causes me a lot of worry; she keeps warning me about every little thing as if my life was hanging by a thread."

@AndrewLeach That doesn't really make a lot of sense. It isn't wrong but it isn't very right. :P

I don't understand why you are arguing with me over this?

I'm not arguing :D

I'm pointing out that I've never heard that way of using it

@AndrewLeach Ah, okay

In any case, "worrisome" would work for @Dominic's question.

...AND that either interpretation is possible in most situations.

Anyway...

My two new tyres were loaded on to a lorry forty miles away at 04:11 this morning and still don't show as Delivered on the ParcelForce website :-(

"Great questions for anyone"

> What are your hopes and dreams for what the future holds for me? For my children?

how is that a question for "anyone"?

If I'm talking to someone I've just met, there is no way asking them that is appropriate

unless they're some sort of politician

or I've been sold as a Russian Husband

@MattЭллен In which case the answer is completely irrelevant to what will actually happen to you.

exactly.

I hope everyone realizes it’s now December 20th in Kiwivania, which means that the Stark Words apply: Winter Is Coming.

Merci.

It is 20th here too.

I'm not sure that Winter Is Coming to kiwis. Or Kiwis.

Well, I suppose it will, eventually.

It is only mentioned 24 times across the first four books.

stark words indeed!

> Ned frowned. “He must learn to face his fears. He will not be three forever. And winter is coming.” “Yes,” Catelyn agreed. The words gave her a chill, as they always did. The Stark words.

> Every noble house had its words. Family mottoes, touchstones, prayers of sorts, they boasted of honor and glory, promised loyalty and truth, swore faith and courage. All but the Starks. Winter is coming, said the Stark words. Not for the first time, she reflected on what a strange people these northerners were.

Higgledy-piggledy
Lord Wyman Manderly
Sups with his foes, leaving
Nary a crumb.

Wolvering wolverenes
Incontrovertibly
Tell all who hearken that
Winter is come.

!!define wolvering

@MattЭллен My pocket dictionary just isn't good enough for you.

@KitSox Haw.

Winter isn't coming. It isn't even breathing hard yet.

Geezis.

Yesterday we had 76; tomorrow we shan’t break freezing.

wolver [ˈwʊlvə(r)]. rare. Also 6-7 wooluer.

Etymology: f. wolve v. or inflexional stem of wolf sb. + -er[entry#1].

1 One who behaves like a wolf; a ravenous or savage creature.

1593 G. Harvey Pierce’s Super. 147 - Three meales of a Lazarello, make the fourth a Woolner [sic].
1604 T. M. Black Bk. Epistle to Rdr., - Scylla and Charibdis, those two Cormorants and Woolners [sic] of the Sea.
1883 Cornh. Mag. Feb. 184 - Jelly-fish, fierce little ‘wolvers’ throwing out their..stings.

2 One who searches or hunts for wolves.

@MattЭллен And now you know . . . the rest of the story.

There's also The Wolverine.

@tchrist OED online doesn't have this :(

@JasperLoy déjà couvert

@MattЭллен Really???

That’s um, impossible.

oh, it does have wolver, but only as a noun

Because I’m grepping the OED2-plus-ish.

They never delete a gloss from the OED.

I thought I smelled paste.

I totally have moar hats than last year.

eats paste

I can't remember how I did last year, but I think I'm doing better

That one looks lovely on you.

I can't recall either.

thanky kindly :)

And I thought the bow was cute.

@MattЭллен Oh wait, I know. I verbed it.

@tchrist oh!

@MattЭллен Now you look like the wolf who pretended to be Red Riding Hood's grandmother.

@MattЭллен I needed it for the scansion, and the final trick at the end. There are like a dozen double-dactylic verses, and only in the final one alone do I make the first line of the second stanza have a Higgledy-piggledy effect. Normally it is nonsense that goes only on the first line of the first stanza, not on the first line of the second as well.

Plus I only used Higgledy-piggledy in the last one, because it is the prototype of the form, and like all the rest of them in the poem, describes the person named in the second line. Lord Manderly is exceedingly fat and hence "piggy". But he’s one of the good guys.

He’s also a Northerner, so he would know when Winter was come.

!!define wolver

@MattЭллен My pocket dictionary just isn't good enough for you.

@tchrist I understand. I've done similar for limericks

There are (currently) eight verses, beginning here:

@JasperLoy would it fool you?

two comments ripe for obsolete flagging: english.stackexchange.com/q/142592/9001

The hexasyllabically rendered singletons in order are: pyromaniacally, apocalyptically, respectability, thaumaturgistally, homoërotically, unsympathetically, ritualistically, chronobiology, incontrovertibly.

I felt bad about all the -ly words.

But there’re nicely adverbial.

Oh I guess there are 9 verses then.

I like double-dactyls much more than limericks, as you can doubtless see.

They have more restrictions, too.

But the triple-meter always amuses, wher’er it may fall.

Yes, they are quite good.

I remember that Rob found a typo in it. Now I wonder where that was.

Is there a way to contest a disputed claim? I'm not sure how the disputed flag features actually work.

I don't know

You corrected it, though.

toodles!

@Robusto Thanks.

Madderly-hatterly                  Summoned the father and
Aerys Targaryen                    Pyromaniacally
Couldn’t be troubled to            Roasted him slowly, con-
Hear Branden’s claims.             Signed to the flames.

Dracally-whackaly                  Rode to the Trident, then
Rhaegar Targaryen                  Apocalyptically
Thought he was born of the         Fell ’neath the hammer and
Dragon’s own blood.                Drowned in the flood.

Morbidly-torpidly                  Sought to increase his reign’s

For some reason, the best line seems to be Feeding the flames of the fire god’s priest.

I can almost feel an Old English alliterative caesura in the middle of that one.

Coo. Rather good. Which syllable in despite do you stress?

@AndrewLeach Thanks. Whichever one makes it scan right. :)

Which isn’t the normal one.

I just got two surprise hats on SO.

By that late in the poem, your brain doesn’t even notice.

@KitFox waffur?

@tchrist Well, actually...

I guess it could read ’Spite of this dubious

I wrote it when I realized that a whole lot of Martin’s main characters had double-dactylic names.

I had to cheat on the final verse, but its other aspects make it too appealing to resist placing in the final position.

@tchrist Necromancer. Someone must have been looking.

Also, Hi Ho Silver...Hmm.

I still can see no hats-in-chat.

What is wrong with hats-in-chat?

Do you all have hats-in-chat?

I see hats in chat but not on me.

Oh. Necromancer is silver. I see.

I see my hat and Andrew's hat.

Oh no.

Now I have Fox in Socks running through my head.

I see hats in chats. And have hats in chats. And aren't I supposed to get a hats in chats today?

@Mitch I don't think she is the only person having to endure this over a crime not directly related to orifices. But I think it happens more often, even a lot, from what I have read. But when, exactly? And what's the rationale behind it?

@Robusto Horrible, yet unsurprising.

What's the solution?

Money should not be let into politics.

@Cerberus Good luck with that. :P Money has a way of getting into anything related to power.

@Cerberus If money isn't the root of all evil, it will certainly do until the real root shows up.

I think the winner-take-all system may be a major factor.

@MrHen But it is not that bad everywhere.

@Robusto The real root is probably...more money.

@Cerberus Money? Or money+politics?

(Radix malorum {...} est.)

@MrHen The latter.

Well, now I must bestir myself. I'm growing lazy and I ought to try get a few things done. I promised myself I'd clean my office over the hiatus, but damn me if I can find the energy for that. Augean stables, more like. Well, at least I can run some errands. Latours.

@Cerberus Ah, I see.

Have fun bestirring yourself.

@MrHen Are people debating winner take all, that you know?

@Cerberus What do you mean "debating"?

I assume you are talking about the American political system's two party problem?

That is a consequence.

@Cerberus I'm trying to understand the context of your question. :)

If the winner gets all the power, that means it is easier to leverage campaign money into power (you only need to shift the votes from 49 to 51 % to achieve a 100 % change in power, ideally).

Another result is that you get only two parties; and two parties means there is less choice and fewer differences, so that campaign money pays off more. So it is a vicious circle.

@tchrist I see which hat you are going for now!

@Ste Heh. Thanks for your help!!!

10 with +1, yeah?

Yeah.

It’s hard because people downvote rude words automatically.

concomminent

How do you spell that word?

con·com·i·tant

Weird. I must have learned it in French originally?

@Cerberus I think a key point in that problem is that the power source is all or nothing. Your vote/opinion/power doesn't matter if you don't pick the winner.

@KitFox It would be the same in French.

Is this a sensible phrase? "demonstrated by an upward trend in mouse sales with a concomitant increase in search page visits"

@MrHen Isn't that what I mean?

I keep trying to say it with an en there.

Not very readable.

@Cerberus I think there is a distinction between "winner takes all" and the power source is "all or nothing".

Concominant is in a lot of scientific literature. Interesting.

"winner takes all" isn't so much a problem if the winner was fairly chosen.

@MrHen How is that different?

How can a winner be fairly chosen?

@Cerberus One is the power output; the other is the power input?

Are you talking about preferential votes?

@Cerberus My point is that the current system is most certainly not fair. It doesn't really matter what happens post-win; the win itself is borked.

Sure.

@Cerberus No, I'm talking about "first past the pole."

Which is very similar to "winner takes all"

Isn't it the same?

@tchrist I'll help best I can. Did you vote for my answer here?: english.stackexchange.com/a/142564/20739 Just need one more vote for two hats and outright second place!

But one focuses on how they won; the other focuses on what they won.

How so?

What they win is always the same?

So, for instance, you can change "winner takes all" by distributing power to the first, second and third place finishers.

Distributing how?

You can change "first past the pole" by bubbling votes up once a candidate is eliminated.

@MrHen I'm not sure I would call that "winner take all"?

@Cerberus That's a good question but not really related to the terms distinction I was trying to make.

@MrHen What does that mean?

@Cerberus Exactly. That system would no longer be winner takes all.

@Cerberus So, if there are candidates A, B and C and they get 40%, 30%, 10% of the votes, respectively, C is now eliminated. Those who voted for C could, theoretically, get to vote between A and B.

That would break "first past the pole" but wouldn't necessarily change "winner takes all".

It means people could vote for third party candidates without worrying about losing their "power" in the election because they threw away their vote on a party that was never going to win.

(In theory; I'm sort of skipping over details.)

@MrHen Ah OK, I see what you mean.

Yes, in that sense "first past the pole" is even worse than "first to get 50+ % of the votes".

@Cerberus Correct.

In my opinion, it's what caused the two-party problem in America.

Presidential elections usually work like that, in two or three rounds.

@Cerberus What happened here is that the first "round" takes place using the primaries. The two main parties have the lesser candidates duke it out without fear of losing control. Then they take the best candidate and the actual election takes place between two opponents.

If it were first past the pole, the extreme right might win the presidency in France; but, if the second round is between extreme right and anybody centre, then everyone but the extreme-right voters will pick the centrist, even if he or she is at the opposite end of the centre.

@Cerberus Exactly.

And, more importantly, everyone can vote for their personal favorite during the first round without losing their "power".

@MrHen Yeah, and the two opponents are first-past-the-pole on two levels, right? First the state electors, and then the president.

@Cerberus As far as I know, all publicly elected officials in the US are elected using first-past-the-pole. But I'm not terribly certain of that; it isn't my field of expertise.

(I'm actually more interested in the game theory behind it than the politics themselves.)

Ok, no rude words here:

@MrHen I think they are.

YOU WILL HAVE A HAPPY THURSDAY

OK!

What is this about?

@MrHen But the thing is, while preferential votes (which is sort of like the phased elections we talked about) may be somewhat more "fair" than first past the pole, and they will make elections somewhat harder to influence with money, they will still not promote diversity nearly as much as proportional elections.

@JasperLoy Hi! Just crazy talk.

@Cerberus Ah, I thought only I was crazy.

Nope it's the room.

@Cerberus "as much as"? Perhaps not. But I still think of them as two distinct "problems".

@Ste Done. I need upvotes on my rude etymology questions, because I’ve offended people.

@MrHen "Them"?

My ultimate goal here is to reduce the influence money can have on politics.

"Fairness" is secondary.

Awful lot of disputed flags on the queue today.

@Cerberus first-past-the-pole and winner-takes-all

It is interesting that awful and awesome have opposite meanings.

@JasperLoy Technically, I believe you can use "awesome" in a negative connotation.

We’re now only 55 hats behind the Unix&Linux stutterers.

@MrHen But you can't have the Pole without the All, right?

And proportional elections destroy both.

@tchrist thanks to Cerberus it will be but 54 in a minute.

Scuse me?

You just got a hat.

Oh noes.

How do you noe?

Because I pay attention.

They starred your message in chat.

I never got the marauder hat during the what is a marauder file sale.

should've put quotes on that. looks ADD.

And we have come full circle!

Attention is not a person, but a corporation.

Oh, wait...

@tylerharms post your answer here and ping @Ste about it.

You lose!

Let’s all give @Cerb more hats!!