English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

5:00 PM

@GraceNote I have done most of that already!

Rhodri

"You'll never guess what His Nibs has decided now," that sort of thing.

Grace Note

@Rhodri I couldn't say that with a straight face either

Cerberus

I take it as a playful variation on his honour, etc.

Kit

@Cerberus But the "his Heels" reference makes it harder to decipher too.

Grace Note

It's too... way too pet-y.

Rhodri

5:01 PM

@GraceNote If I was saying that, my face wouldn't be straight. One way or another :-)

Cerberus

Noble(man) would seem a possible origin of nibs, but OED says it doesn't know.

@Kit That may be formed later, when people interpreted it as "head".

Rhodri

@Cerberus Actually you might well use it in the same way as Hizzonor

Cerberus

Things like that are very common in phonology (false analogy).

Grace Note

Nibs sounds like what you'd call your pet rabbit.

Kit

@Cerberus That's true. I was thinking the other way around.

Cerberus

5:02 PM

@Rhodri Ah, is that also mocking?

Kit

@Cerberus I saw nobs as short for nobles somewhere...was that you that said that @Rhodri?

RegDwight

in War Metal Tyrant, Jul 17 at 17:10, by RegDwight

Nibbler (Futurama)

Lord Nibbler is a fictional character from the animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Frank Welker, who provides not only his speaking lines but also the various noises he makes when not speaking English. During most of the series Nibbler masquerades as an innocent, cute and unintelligent pet. In very rare circumstances he may break his undercover identity and suddenly be discovered to be super-intelligent, equipped with unique technology and strange natural abilities, which he uses as part of his secret mission to preserve the existence of the entire universe. In most inst...

Rhodri

@Cerberus Not so much mocking, but similar. Yes, I did say that.

Cerberus

Nob (3): (nQb) Also Sc. 8 knabb, 8–9 nab. [Of obscure origin: the Sc. forms are against the suggestion that it is an abbreviation of nobleman.]
A person of some wealth or social distinction.

Rhodri

TBH, that's an assumption on my part. I've never actually looked it up anywhere.

Grace Note

5:03 PM

Nobs doesn't sound quite as... pet-y

It sounds like you're just cutting short of Nobles or Noblemans.

Rhodri

@GraceNote More nobbly?

A bit nobbled, perhaps?

Grace Note

No, just... terse

Cerberus

In fact... isn't nob just short for knave?

Rhodri

@Cerberus Yes, that is a bit of a bugger for my theory.

Grace Note

I thought knaves were the opposite of a nobleman.

Cerberus

5:04 PM

@Rhodri Such a knave, that entry!

Grace Note

Or maybe I'm confusing that for pauper

Cerberus

More like a servant, I'd say?

No, scratch that.

In German and Dutch, it is Bauer/boer = farmer, peasant.

Grace Note

Jack Bauer is a farmer?

Cerberus

His family no doubt was.

Grace Note

Crepes, takes the whole "farmboy saves the world from evil overlord" scenario to a whole new level

Cerberus

5:06 PM

Knave = Dutch knaap

Rhodri

@GraceNote Jack the Farmer.

Grace Note

(I know about how most German last names go. I'm a Jaeger)

Hunter

@GraceNote Hunter!

Nice.

5:06 PM

Jinx!

Grace Note

Yes, quite ♪

Cerberus

Better than farmer!

Kit

Of course, I only know that because I'm friends with the Jaegermeister.

Grace Note

Quite quite.

Cerberus

I may have been a toll levyer.

Levier?

Rhodri

5:07 PM

Sorry, cut myself off there. What I meant to say is that most family names are either jobs, place names or patronymics.

Kit

One who levies tolls.

Cerberus

How do you call someone who levies?

Ah.

Kit

When in doubt, work around.

Grace Note

@Rhodri I know. Schneider, Richter... I used to know like 12 others

Cerberus

That is a possible origin of my last name, but it is shrouded in mist beyond the 16th century.

Richter = judge

Kit

5:08 PM

My maiden name was an honorific.

Cerberus

Oh!

Grace Note

And I think Schneider is... tailor. I think. I can't remember anymore.

Cerberus

Not bad.

Rhodri

With Welsh heritage, I'm stuck with a patronym.

Cerberus

Yes, probably. Schneiden = to cut

Grace Note

5:09 PM

@Rhodri Ahha

Kit

One of my family names is Dexter — strong right arm.

Well, right hand, anyway.

Cerberus

@Rhodri Aww... how awful! Did therapy help?

Rhodri

Oh yes, nicknames. Forgot about them.

Cerberus

@Kit Let's not get into that.

Rhodri

::buries head in hands:: I swear you lot are worse than the slash writers for innuendo.

Kit

5:10 PM

What? I never know what to call these.

Grace Note

As far as nicknames went, my brother was the Jaegermeister.

Cerberus

It was Kit, not I!

Kit

@Cerberus What? I didn't do anything!

Cerberus

@GraceNote Did he drink a lot?

Grace Note

@Rhodri I'm glad this goes all over my head, then, because apparently there's a whole lot I'm not seeing here.

Rhodri

5:11 PM

@Cerberus Yeah, sure :-)

Cerberus

@Kit "Right hand"...

Naughty bits...

Grace Note

@Cerberus Not even remotely.

JSBangs

@GraceNote when Kit says anything, you should just assume it's some sort of sexual innuendo

Cerberus

whistles

JSBangs

this includes her function words such as articles and prepositions

Grace Note

5:11 PM

But you can guess what kind of drink most people try to get him to down.

Kit

Come now! I was talking about the surname "Dexter"!

Cerberus

@GraceNote Then he should relinquish his name to someone more deserving! And order us all a Jaegemeister.

Rhodri

@GraceNote I think @Cerberus's entendres are at least double this evening.

Kit

And does someone want to untangle our research into a coherent answer?

Cerberus

@Kit Sure. You are incapable of three-stage innuendos.

Kit

5:12 PM

1

Q: His Knobs, the right jack in the game of cribbage

Before we got married, my husband taught me cribbage as his way of showing me how important our relationship was to him. One of the points in cribbage is for having "the right jack," or the jack whose suit matches the flip card. There are two (that I know of) alternate names for this card. O...

history

Cerberus

Is it innuendi or innuendos?

Kit

@Cerberus sigh

@Cerberus Innuendoes?

z7sg

@Kit You spent the last few days trying to get people to think about titty, so when you mention strong right hand... hur hur. knobs too lol

JSBangs

0

Q: What is the origin and meaning of the phrase 'bane of my existence'?

A friend recently used the phrase 'bane of my existence' and, while I'm familiar with the phrase, I would like to know its origin and meaning.

etymology

y'all think this is gen ref?

Cerberus

@Kit Meh... it must be either Latin or Italian, so I don't like the e much...

Kit

5:13 PM

@JSBangs Ha ha ha. Good timing.

Cerberus

@z7sg Yeah the nobs were too obvious to even merit mention!

Kit

@Cerberus I was thinking like "tornadoes" and "tomatoes." But I don't like the look of it either.

Grace Note

@JSBangs It seems like anything you could see in a dictionary?

I mean, if you just know the words "bane" and "existence", it just... that's all it is.

Cerberus

Right, now that you mention it, I don't like tornadoes either. I am officially changing to tornados.

That is no doubt Spanish.

Matt Ellen

@Cerberus yes it is

Grace Note

5:16 PM

Hm... knowing how to type acutes on letters doesn't do diddly squat for you if don't remember where in the words they go...

JSBangs

@GraceNote yeah, i agree. vote cast

Cerberus

@GraceNote Knowing that might arguable help, yes...

Kit

@GraceNote Does it have a literary origin? Like Shakespeare or something interesting?

Grace Note

@Kit Not anymore than, say, "by the seat of my pants" would have.

(I originally just came up with "by the hem of my skirt", but I can't think of what that would even be used for)

Mr. Disappointment

Ay.

user19161

5:17 PM

3

Q: An apple a day keeps the doctor away

A recent question on Skeptics SE, brought up an interesting debate on the origin of this proverb. Particularly, in the comments to this answer we were wondering whether apple really refers to the specific fruit of Malus domestica or it indicates a generic fruit/vegetable. The OED and various Go...

etymology proverb

user19161

But keeps the dentist coming.

Kit

OK. Gotta have lunch. TTFN.

Matt Ellen

@JasperLoy not if you brush your teeth too!

Grace Note

Later @Kit

JSBangs

i just have a great lunch

Grace Note

5:18 PM

I came back from lunch as well.

user19161

Kit didn't say oop when she left.

Cerberus

Let it be noted that innuendo is a Latin ablative. That means that there is no real plural in Latin. Innuendoes might not be so bad.

Grace Note

To wit, though, eggs benedict

Bogdan Lataianu

@JSBangs the second and third google entries explain that expression well though I am not sure if it should be closed

JSBangs

@Cerberus innuendo -> innuendis

Rhodri

5:19 PM

4 hours ago, by Robusto

@GraceNote — Got you thinking about Eggs Benedict, didn't I?

Cerberus

@JSBangs But that would not be correct, no more than requies.

Grace Note

@Rhodri Thinking about finishing lunch made me think about how someone got all hungered up by hearing about eggs benedict despite having just ate lunch.

Cerberus

It is an abbreviated phrase, not a simple noun.

z7sg

Phrases.org.uk bothered to explane 'bane of my life'

phrases.org.uk/meanings/bane-of-your-life.html

Cerberus

By the way, I was taught that apples are not particularly healthy, because they contain few vitamins and much sugar.

JSBangs

5:22 PM

@Cerberus the ablative has a plural. the fact that it's ablative has nothing to do with it. and participles have plurals, especially when they agree with plural nouns

simchona

@z7sg: Thanks for the ref there

JSBangs

@Cerb what's incorrect about it

user19161

@MattEllen If you don't brush your teeth for too long, the build up of particles could form a natural protection for your teeth, maybe.

Grace Note

@JasperLoy It doesn't work like that

Cerberus

@JSBangs The fact that we use a Latin word in any other case than the nominative shows that it is a phrase we are using. And you cannot pluralize a phrase by merely pluralizing one word in it: if it must be pluralized, an English plural suffix must be used.

z7sg

5:23 PM

@simchona That's not a gen ref source imo, however.

Cerberus

That is why the only possible plural of [dona eis] requiem = requiems.

JSBangs

@Cerberus this is true, i'm just playing with you :). but what's the latin phrase we're abbreviating here?

simchona

@z7sg: No, but it might come in handy for other questions

Grace Note

@z7sg It's also not really conclusive to any kind of special or meaningful reference, though

z7sg

I mean if those sites feel it's something that's worth explaining, ie something you don't just look up in the dictionary, then perhaps we shouldn't close.

Grace Note

5:24 PM

For the particular phrase in question.

Cerberus

@JSBangs Dang! You know I always fall for that.

z7sg

Well, it is debatable!

Grace Note

It is debatable, that is why we discuss it, as it were

z7sg

@simchona Yes it is a useful place to look!

@GraceNote Indeed, that is what we are doing this very moment!

Grace Note

I think that it's just, it's really nothing beyond the words used to construct it.

z7sg

5:25 PM

Discussing, debating etc.

Grace Note

Aye aye, a constructive effort we do, Zvensg

z7sg

However, as phrases points out, bane is quite an unusual and interesting word.

Cerberus

@JSBangs The phrase is a one-word phrase, though there is always an implicit object: "by nodding to, by signifying". It is an adverbial constituent.

Grace Note

@z7sg I don't think it has any special interest but I learned of the word early on in my life.

So I'm a bit biased in that respect

If I subtract the bias from the equation, the question still becomes one of asking the definition of an interesting word.

simchona

-6

Q: For which things the SPAM in Monty Python -sketch is an epitome?

The Spam in the sketch is not implicitly tinned meat. It can also be seen to stand for larger general topics such as stream of consciousness, absurdisusm and train of thought. There are certainly element of each theme in the sketch but whether they are themes is a harder topic. It is possible tha...

synonyms

He's backkkkkkkkkkkk

Cerberus

5:28 PM

Not again!

Grace Note

@simchona You totally missed a terrible, terrible pun opportunity there

z7sg

@GraceNote I know the word from this phrase and also from the poisonous plant Wolfsbane. I think my point here is that although something may be answered by general reference sources, the answer could provide extra information that people may be interested in, stuff that you don't find in the gen ref.

simchona

@GraceNote Dang, really?

z7sg

Anyway TTFN

Grace Note

@z7sg I see that point but that seems like a whole lot of extra work for the answerers for a basic dictionary question.

user19161

5:29 PM

@simchona Why -6?

simchona

He keeps referring to "explicit" and "implicit" issues

JSBangs

@z7sg if you think that's the case, you're free to edit the question to save it, or else provide an answer so awesome that we'll all be blinded by its brilliance and rush to upvote it, taking back our silly close votes

Grace Note

He's trying to figure out what the symbolism of Spam is, from a literary analysis perspective so to speak.

simchona

Is he using "epitome" isstead of "representative"?

Grace Note

@simchona Pretty much

simchona

5:30 PM

Because Spam is the epitome of yummy canned food (to each his own)

it is not deeply symbolic of the existential issues plaguing our very lives

Grace Note

@simchona Just to spite you, I'm going to pronounce that "e-pi-tome"

simchona

@GraceNote Well, I can't hear you anyway

@JasperLoy This question (which I didn't downvote, actually) doesn't improve and its been around since Sunday

Grace Note

Hexes. The sheer thought of such mispronunciation is supposed to inspire rage!

simchona

@JasperLoy The OP keeps telling commenters to "check Monty Python for historical usage"

2

>The meat in the sketch is explicit issue, now I am looking for the implicit issue, the word SPAM is a clear epitome of more general topics: mind-wandering, train of thought, short-term memory -- our natural characteristic to fill space with clutter in such cases. It is a look into the window of absurdism but still so everyday issue. I am sure we can find here someone smarter to me to hit this question with proper answer.

Rhodri

@simchona Well at least it's closed. As muddled and unreadable non-questions go, it has gone.

It is a dead question.

simchona

5:35 PM

@Rhodri The OP keeps commenting, though, and even though people try to help...

Rhodri

It has ceased to be.

simchona

he is resistant

Ok fine, his use of "epitome" bothers me

Rhodri

See "muddled and unreadable" above.

It's got every hallmark of someone who fancies himself as a philosopher, but doesn't actually know what he's talking about.

JSBangs

@Rhodri i'd call for a mod to lock or delete the question to put an end to this. @Reg

Rhodri

Aren't conversations in comments frowned on hereabouts?

simchona

5:40 PM

@Rhodri I think so... can I please link the definition of "epitome" to him?

Grace Note

@Rhodri If it's a pingly back-and-forth, yes

If it's constructive towards the question it is attached to, though, you can usually back-and-forth fine

Cerberus

@Rhodri They are; that is why we are refused proper comments formatting and reply buttons and whatnot.

And most notably proper abridgement.

aedia

@Rhodri It's just pinin'.

simchona

For the Fjords?

Matt Ellen

5:58 PM

@Kit I've done a little digging about Jack and Nob, and found an interesting tangent. So, first you have to accept that nib refers to the heel, because that what I keep turning up. Now, the jack card is called the jack presumably because poor people don't have servants, so calling the card a knave didn't make sense, and jack means "some guy". So the jack is some guy.

The interesting part is that Jack is derived from Jacob and Jacob is derived from the Hebrew for heel! You could try to extend this to imply that heel implies an important person because Jacob is essentially Adam MKII (in the Old Testament) and thus how "His Nibs" refers to an important person, but that might be stretching it.

Rhodri

@MattEllen Doesn't heel normally imply an untrustworthy, dishonourable person?

Matt Ellen

@Rhodri Well, it has come to mean a superior you don't like, but still superior and thus at least nominally important

Rhodri

Ah yes. Etymonline records that meaning as early 20th century. Objection withdrawn.

The line back from "heeled" (as in "well-heeled") is suggestive, though.

Matt Ellen

@Rhodri oh, I had always thought that well-heeled meant you had nice shoes

interesting

Grace Note

@Rhodri I thought it meant more of an antagonist than necessarily untrustworthy.

Matt Ellen

6:12 PM

good night peeps!

Grace Note

G'nite

Rhodri

@GraceNote "You, sirrah, are a cad, and a heel to boot."

Yes, I suppose so.

Good night, @Matt

Grace Note

@Rhodri A theatre buff told me that "sirrah" is apparently supposed to be offensively inclined, but I haven't really gotten a confirmation of that.

aedia

@MattEllen See ya!

user19161

@MattEllen It's not even 8 pm!

Cerberus

6:20 PM

@GraceNote Really! I had no idea.

Grace Note

Again, it's been pretty un-backed on that.

MartyIX

6:48 PM

Hi, I would like to ask a question: "Even good programmers make mistakes. The difference between a good and a bad programmer is that the former one quickly reveals errors with the help of automated tests." - Are the zero articles before "good" and "bad" used properly? Thank you!

JSBangs

@MartyIX i don't see any zero articles there. do you mean the indefinite articles?

z7sg

@MattEllen Well, it does mean that. Shoes used to be an important sign of wealth.

MartyIX

JSBangs: Yes, sorry, my mistake.

z7sg

Now nearly every schmuck can afford fancy sweatshop footwear if they desire it.

JSBangs

@MartyIX then yes, all of the indefinite articles are used correctly

Grace Note

6:51 PM

@z7sg Shoe price was the one thing I heard the complaints about most from my fellow jurors last week.

z7sg

@GraceNote Well I find that odd. It seems to me that the price of shoes has decreased over the last 15 years or so, relative to income!

user19161

High-heeled shoes should be banned. They are dangerous.

JSBangs

more self-promotion

z7sg

@JasperLoy Not as dangerous as the creatures wearing them.

JSBangs

1

A: Against single word requests

Here's my suggestion: questions which are just single-word-requests should be off-topic. In other words, any question where the asker says merely "Please give me a word that means X" should be considered off-topic, as we're no longer in that business. This is the majority of word request question...

MartyIX

6:53 PM

JSBangs: and would it be a mistake to leave these two indefinite articles?

Grace Note

@z7sg Most of my fellow jurors were more lamenting the lack of respect children these days have for money

(Exhibitted in their need for designer shoes just to go to high school)

JSBangs

@MartyIX yes, it would be wrong to leave out a in before either good or bad

z7sg

@GraceNote Oh dear :|

user19161

@z7sg I think men are more dangerous. Most wicked people I know are male.

Grace Note

Fancy shoes, thus, cost quite a bit. Hejudas, the latest pair of nice shoes I got? I got them at a steal for like $40. Normal price? $300.

user19161

6:57 PM

@GraceNote You sure they are authentic?

Grace Note

@JasperLoy Yes, I am. Not a back alley dealer that we dealt with.

There's something to be said for accumulating coupons and crunching sales combinations to get sufficient price reduction.

(Also I bought them before they got popular - this is always a good thing to do)

MartyIX

@JSBangs Thank you!

z7sg

@JasperLoy Not women... wearers of high heels.

RegDwight

7:17 PM

@simchona Oh Lord.

Where's my Mercedes-Benz?

But now this guy is back again:

1

Q: Alternative idioms to "to put the whole matter into a nutshell"?

I need some alternatives to introduce summarization on the final paragraph of non-technical chapters or longer blog articles. Known terms like summary often sound a bit technical to me...

idioms phrase-requests

5

Q: German idiom similar to "to put the whole matter into a nutshell"?

Do similar figure of speech exist in German or should one translate it literally? "Ein Fazit ziehen" seems to make sense, but seems to be better used as a heading with colon. "Fazit:"

translation-en-to-de

Grace Note

Didn't you bring that fellow up earlier?

RegDwight

Sure.

This is the third time in fact.

Grace Note

Is the issue about quality?

RegDwight

Pretty much so.

It's also about quite obviously milking sites for rep.

Grace Note

Is it enough of a problem to merit sending off a warning?

RegDwight

7:28 PM

Or trying, at least.

@GraceNote I dunno. I have pinged a few mods via the appropriate channels.

Grace Note

@RegDwight Ah, that must be why I thought the fellow seemed familiar

RegDwight

I am told that he causes headscratching on at least one other site as well.

@GraceNote Well, I also brought him up here twice.

Grace Note

@RegDwight I'm always watching but I'm not omnipresent.

RegDwight

You need to improve, Grace. You need to improve.

Feb 17 at 19:07, by RegDwight

I'm on all sites 24/7.

I can recommend that as a good starting point.

Feb 25 at 16:40, by RegDwight

I can't be on every site 25/8!

Grace Note

I've yet to have a strong motivation to be on every site. Nevermind that that is a lot of Gravatars to setup.

RegDwight

7:31 PM

Yeah, I know.

Here's an idea. You can pay me later. Just use a different note on every site.

Grace Note

Can't say that I find an appeal to that route

RegDwight

Do, re, fa, si... you never run out of those.

@Robusto probably knows a few more off the top of his head.

Grace Note

Do re mi fa so la ti do

RegDwight

Whoosh.

Grace Note

You should know by now that it's almost expected of that kind of scenario, Dwig

RegDwight

7:35 PM

Oh, I should know many things by now, probably even everything. But I just don't.

I have forgotten more than the rest of me ever knew.

Brb.

simchona

@RegDwight Now there's both hhhhhhhh and H to worry about?

Robusto

7:51 PM

@RegDwight — Here, have a whole page full of those ...

Solfège

In music, solfège (, also called solfeggio, sol-fa or solfa) is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable (or "sol-fa syllable"). The seven syllables commonly used for this practice in English-speaking countries are: do (or doh in tonic sol-fa), re, mi, fa, sol (so in tonic sol-fa), la, and ti/si, which may be heard in "Do-Re-Mi" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's score for The Sound of Music, as well as the Robert Maxwell song "Solfeggio". In other languages, si is used (see...

BTW, note that in @RegDwight, both g's are silent. So his name is actually pronounced Red-White. This illustrates his inner conflict between communism and tsarism.

Bogdan Lataianu

one day until ham and bacon's suspension ends

simchona

Thank you to whichever mod suspended hhh for low-qual submissions

Robusto

8:14 PM

Who is hhh?

Bogdan Lataianu

hhh

1 5

business-language synonyms programming narration

z7sg

Someone should propose Unicorns.SE. There are a lot of people on here with an interest in unicorns.

Just a thought.

simchona

Only mods can see proposed edits and approve them, right?

RegDwight

No.

The owner of the post can.

And anybody with edit privileges.

40

A: How do suggested edits work?

We are experimenting with this feature on Stack Overflow at the moment. For the next few weeks, it may be on or off depending on when you hit the site. See the related blog post for an overview with screenshots: Suggested Edits and Edit Review. Details, as it stands: Who can suggest an edit? ...

simchona

Thank you, I get it now

Bogdan Lataianu

8:30 PM

I think you need 2k points for that

simchona

@BogdanLataianu: I have that

Bogdan Lataianu

@simchona can you edit then?

simchona

I haven't noticed posts that say there are pending edits

it doesn't show up in the top bar until you get 10k

RegDwight

Well, we usually also approve them rather fast.

So even at 10k you barely get to notice.

Okay, who is upvoting this?

1

Q: What is the real meaning behind this quote by Einstein?

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree" Einstein. What did he really mean by this? What Tree? How did he relate these three branches to each other ?

meaning meaning-in-context quotes

simchona

@RegDwight I flagged it as off-topic

I didn't think we were supposed to explain things like this

RegDwight

8:39 PM

And we aren't.

simchona

Just noticed it closed

RegDwight

Discussion, critique and analysis of English literature. That includes quotes by Einstein and lyrics by Radiohead.

simchona

Should I write a "welcome to EL&U but this is off topic" comment?

its his first question

RegDwight

If you have the time, sure. I'm a bit busy cooking right now.

simchona

I'll try my hand at it

RegDwight

8:41 PM

Thanks a bunch.

Robusto

@Martha needs to publish a guide to the eeek-worthiness of things.

2

Q: What happened to the sidebar's chatroom link?

What happened to the "# People Chatting" box in the sidebar? Meta still has it: but it seems to have disappeared from the main site. Is this a temporary glitch? (I'm aware of the "chat" link in the top toolbar, but that takes you to the list of rooms, not directly to the main chatroom.) Edit...

support chat

Grace Note

balpha's comment should really just be an answer, should it not?

Martha

@Robusto It's a case-by-case decision, taking into consideration such highly-relevant things as: how widespread is the problem, how much of an inconvenience it causes, how much of a pain my mother and/or boss has been lately, what the weather is like, and what color the hydrangeas are in the neighbor's yard.

@GraceNote Except the explanation by Jeff can only apply to questions. I saw the problem on the main page of EL&U.

Grace Note

@Martha Should note that to balpha, then

Martha

@GraceNote I posted a comment to that effect on the meta question. Didn't ping anyone, though.

Grace Note

8:52 PM

Ah, the comment should be sufficient

Robusto

@Martha — Yeah. So it's like the female orgasm in those respects.

RegDwight

Huhuh, he said "those", huhuh.

Martha

8 hours ago, by Martha

TMI!

Robusto

@Martha — Hey, men need just that kind of information.

RegDwight

What is this TMI stuff and why did it get starred?

Martha

9:00 PM

[aside: 8 hours ago? there's no way that was 8 hours ago. It's only, what... wait a sec, how the heck did it get to be 5:00 pm???]

@RegDwight TMI = Too Much Information.

Robusto

He knows what it means.

Grace Note

@Martha Well, I went through my full work day, so 8 hours seems appropriate.

Robusto

@Martha — This is an actual case of too much information, given that @RegDwight knows about the TMI semi-meme.

simchona

wow, my monty python comment got starred

Martha

@Robusto [Hint: that's why I posted it. It's a self-referential post, containing too much information. This explanation is just icing on the cake.]

RegDwight

9:03 PM

Transmarginal inhibition

In psychology, Transmarginal inhibition, or TMI, is an organism's response to overwhelming stimuli. Research Ivan Pavlov enumerated details of TMI on his work of conditioning animals to pain. He found that organisms had different levels of tolerance. He commented "that the most basic inherited difference among people was how soon they reached this shutdown point and that the quick-to-shut-down have a fundamentally different type of nervous system." Patients who have reached this shutdown point often become socially dysfunctional or develop one of several personality disorders. Often p...

Robusto

Bye-bye-bye, gotta fly, oh my, oh my.

RegDwight

CU

simchona

this guy ADMITS he's double dipping on rep

2

A: Alternative idioms to "to put the whole matter into a nutshell"?

A few more examples, some of which are highly informal: The short version is ... Essentially, ... In essence, ... To make a long story short, ... The point [to take away from this] is ... In review: ... (esp. before organized text, like a bulleted list) So, what do we know? ... (good for writin...

no critics, just irony, i got better answers there than probably here. Still i think it belong to here as the question was, can i write latin phrases and do native english speaker have a rudimentary latin vocabulary (e.g. you have stronger latin roots then germany) and do they understand but writers.SE is about how you formulate something indpendent of the language. Maybe thats a misview, i didnt know this site...the german language site accepted same question and voted up...

Martha

9:34 PM

@simchona Trying to read that gives me a severe case of TL;DR.

Cerberus

Same. And it isn't even that long.

Just DR, then.

RegDwight

The German site actually closed that question as NARQ.

Ah no wait, it was a different one.

But still, he's on the brink of getting problems there, too.

simchona

I just want to slap him upside the head

RegDwight

9:49 PM

5

Q: Why do many english philosophers speak german, can german philosophical texts be translated hardly?

Concerning this question Is it more common to write longer sentences in german than in english? in conjunction with my knowledge that some well-known english philosophers do speak german, im wondering why they learn german. Alot of important philosophy was written in german in the last cent...

translation

He is so consistent in misspelling basic stuff and not capitalizing "English", German", "Chinese", and "Latin", I'm almost impressed.

simchona

WTF:

simchona you should simply make a link in the sidebar to writers.se as 99% will come to this site and ask similar questions out of alternatives. IMHO its natural someone ask about writing style on a language site. If the majority does use latin phrases, than its ok. A diff. voting of an answer - yes its ok - no its not would have cleared this up as it it on german.SE. Its a matter of convention of majority as it is in German, i wasnt expecting an exact answer. Can you make a poll here?!?

I am clearly the arbiter of all that is EL&U.

RegDwight

Wait, you're not? What a letdown.

simchona

Sorry Reg.

RegDwight

And there I thought you would save us from the rapture and bring us fluffy cornflower-flavored rainbows...

simchona

I want to flag his question for questionable English skills.

OghmaOsiris

9:59 PM

Is there a reason that the questions don't get posted to the chat when created?

In SciFi.SE each new question gets added to chat.

simchona

that user still annoys me...I don't want to see his questions come up in chat

RegDwight

@OghmaOsiris This chat is way too busy as is.

And not every question is noteworthy, let alone problematic.

Not sure what the situation on SciFi is, in either regard.

simchona

@Reg: Can you protect the answer to the last q I posted? I don't think the conversation is going anywhere constructive

RegDwight

You mean lock?

simchona

Yes, if you could

RegDwight

10:12 PM

I'm not sure if that is warranted. I would have to check. But once there are too many comments, they will be moved to a separate chat room automatically.

simchona

Ok. I wish I could edit comments for general English

user19161

10:24 PM

@RegDwight Maybe he learnt that things in German that are capitalised are not so in English, and then took this rule to the extreme.

user19161

@simchona If the flow is not disrupted too heavily and the comments are yours, just delete them and rewrite them.

user19161

@OghmaOsiris Reall? That's surprising. But it'll be too disruptive for chat. IMHO this is unncessary as the questions already appear on the main site.

Martha

@JasperLoy Yeah, I just looked. In fact, it looks like it's some system process/user that adds them. I have no clue why.

user19161

@z7sg You can if you want to. But I ain't sure if it will make it to beta. I can't imagine that many questions asked on unicorns alone.

RegDwight

10:41 PM

Unicorns make me sleepy.

Good night unicorns!

And people, too.

simchona

Good night, Owl

user19161