English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

1:04 PM

If all we're interested in getting the review queue down, perhaps allowing the queue to sort by most close votes first. That way we would at least get to all the 4s and 3s, thereby ensuring that more questions would be closed per review session.

Mitch

One of the difficulties is that even the non-closable questions are dull for the most part. SWR despite being totally misdirected are at least interesting.

Are the questions on the queue all recent or are there a lot that are old?

Robusto

@MattE.Эллен: Clearly Richa Devon did not write a question worthy of Sven's answer. I'd take it up with the OP. — Robusto 8 secs ago

terdon

@RegDwigнt More crap. Far, far more. Also, less obvious scope. The scope of Unix & Linux is, well, pretty much anything to do with Linux or Unix. The scope of ELU is far less obvious to the uninitiated.

2

RegDwigнt

Do people ask things like "how do I tell ls to sort by size"?

Or conversely, "what does ls -ltr in the following sentance means?"

Robusto

1:21 PM

The difference may also be that on a programming site it's probably easier for most users to recognize the gimme da codez questions.

Is this correct? is our version of gimme da codez.

RegDwigнt

Well, it's actually much nicer. You don't have to give them any codez, you can just say "no, it is not".

Robusto

And that is how the bulk of those questions are resolved?

terdon

@RegDwigнt Yes, and kinda. But we've decided we're open to newbies and sometimes answer those.

Matt E. Эллен

@Robusto I want to keep the answer, but I don't know where to put it.

RegDwigнt

Some people will go ahead and actually give codez, but that's their problem.

The real solution, of course, is for the system to just automatically post the answer "no, it is not" and close the question.

Cerberus

1:25 PM

What is wrong with gimme the codez?

If people enjoy giving them.

RegDwigнt

If you have to ask "is this correct", that's proof right there there's at least one person in this world who thinks it's not, regardless of its actual correctness. So the answer is "you must rewrite" in 100% of cases.

Robusto

@Cerberus Next you'll be asking for gay marriage.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus what's wrong is that while some people enjoy giving them, most people do not enjoy anything anymore. Including yourself. Who just hangs out in chat posting pictures of cheeses and bikes.

Robusto

Don't forget gay pride parades.

RegDwigнt

I will always forget gay pride parades.

With extreme prejudice.

Cerberus

1:27 PM

@RegDwigнt I answer a question every couple of days.

RegDwigнt

Yeah, Mother Theresa, tell you what, we get hundreds of those in the mean time.

So how about you get down working.

Cerberus

And I mostly stepped back from SE because of Jeff's aggressive behaviour at the time.

Users answer questions to have fun.

RegDwigнt

Most users have fun by not answering questions.

terdon

What should we do with my meta post about the migration path now that it's open? Andrew posted an answer and added status-complete to this one, so perhaps they should be closed as dupes or the same answer posted on mine as well.

Robusto

I think, at long last, that we need to place a higher bar for asking single-word-request questions.

RegDwigнt

1:29 PM

The bar's been in place forevah.

Cerberus

@terdon Wow, I am imrpessed!

Robusto

These are, in my view, the most-likely-to-be-crap catetgory.

RegDwigнt

The problem's precisely that it's too high, and all we get these days are midgets.

Cerberus

They actually listened to us.

@Robusto I have to agree.

Robusto

What is an antonym for octopus?

RegDwigнt

1:31 PM

@Robusto I get your drift, but here's mine: the most likely to be crap category is anything with the word "english" in it.

Robusto

Fail.

RegDwigнt

Or the word "grammar", for that matter.

Robusto

What is a word that means singular but in a plural sense?

What is a word that means "catch" but does not involve catching things.

RegDwigнt

CC Catch.

C. C. Catch

C. C. Catch (born Caroline Catherine Müller, 31 July 1964 in Oss, Netherlands) is a Dutch-born German pop singer, best known for her collaboration with Dieter Bohlen in the 1980s. == Early lifeEdit == C.C. Catch was born in the Netherlands and moved to Germany in the 1970s with her family. She was supported by her parents from an early age, when they recognized her talent and encouraged her wish to be a famous singer. Her father was especially supportive and has played a very important role in her successful career as her manager and tour-manager. From an early age, the up-and-coming singer took...

See?

I mean, C?

That's an answerable question, actually.

Robusto

What is a word that means fifty wingless birds sipping Coca-Cola through soda straws in 1983?

RegDwigнt

1:33 PM

Steven Seagull.

Robusto

Surely there's a word for that.

@RegDwigнt Sorry, OP asked for one word.

What part of single-word-request do you fail to understand?

RegDwigнt

Use the acronym, SS.

@Robusto I think it's the "quest" part. Yeah, most definitely the "quest" part. It just fails to match any of my expectations of a quest.

Robusto

You've been too involved with The Elder Trolls.

RegDwigнt

Only platonically.

Robusto

OK, I spent all my close votes and the queue is still at 232. Clearly I am not trying hard enough.

RegDwigнt

1:35 PM

3 hours ago, by RegDwigнt

@Robusto U SUCK LOL!!!!!1!

Robusto

If so, U SUCK five times worse. It only takes you one vote to close a question.

Actually, more than five times. Your ability is not constrained.

RegDwigнt

I just spent a mere four votes, and the queue is already down a full 2 %.

That is efficiency, buddy.

Robusto

YOU could single-handedly eliminate the entire review queue. Yet you do nothing.

@RegDwigнt That is loser talk.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto I can't help myself, I just find nothing extremely sexy.

@Robusto hey who let the queue rise to these heights? Not me.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt You have mastured bation.

RegDwigнt

1:40 PM

That all happened on your watch. Moi, I was playing World of Tanks.

Robusto

I don't have a watch here. You do.

RegDwigнt

Actual true fact about RegDwight: he is not wearing a watch right now.

Thing is, while I could single-handedly pull off the awesum trick of turning the 232 into a 0, the last time I single-handedly pulled off an awesum trick you promised to call me God, and never delivered. So why should I bother if I know for a fact it'll be in vain.

Robusto

That's loser talk.

RegDwigнt

That's some talk.

I can just take my tank and go home, you know. Then you'd be left with no talk. And still 232 shit and counting.

user116848

1:55 PM

This is amusing:

user116848

RegDwigнt

OMG Arrowfar is lying to us.

user116848

You are right :)

user116848

I'm the opposite, heh.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt Oh my face

RegDwigнt

1:59 PM

Oh my word!

Mitch

@Robusto Don't forget lion pride parades

Robusto

I thought Putin outlawed all pride parades.

RegDwigнt

Putin only outlawed all parades in the US. And look what happened to that.

-4

Q: Is there a comma in this sentence?

Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate you, and your opinion of our firm.

grammar

Haha. This is gold, Jerry. Gold.

terdon

@Cerberus By what?

Cerberus

35 mins ago, by Cerberus

They actually listened to us.

By that.

RegDwigнt

2:06 PM

I am not bying that.

Cerberus

Okay, then they didn't.

Matt E. Эллен

I'll give you a by

RegDwigнt

You're just a little by-curious.

Mitch

You're a little by-curious curious. How does that work?

Matt E. Эллен

He's just a curious little by

RegDwigнt

2:09 PM

I want to ride my by cycle.

Matt E. Эллен

according to etymonline the etymology of icicle is ice + ikel, and ikel means icicle. so it's an ice icicle. The people who invented English were dumb

RegDwigнt

nobody tell Matt that the French word for "today" is "on the day of today"

nobody tell him about ATM machines, either

let him starve in the gutter

Matt E. Эллен

It's OK, I have food for a few days yet

RegDwigнt

that's because you give a rat's tail

commendable

from Spanish comer

Matt E. Эллен

:D

terdon

2:17 PM

Does anyone feel that bitchy is too vulgar for a title?

> Sorry to bug, but could we edit out b****y from this title? I think we'd rather not have language in our "Hot Meta Posts" sidebar

It's not bitch and it's the OP himself asking whether he "was too bitchy".

RegDwigнt

I'm a bitch, I'm a bitch, oh the bitch is back.

terdon

Someone raised the flag I posted against it. Is my tolerance for vulgarity just too high? Bitchy in that context seems perfectly fine to me.

RegDwigнt

That's because it is.

Robusto

0

Q: Proper Word for 'Writing' Technical Proposal

I am writing my resume and confuse in 'Writing' technical proposal sentence. What is the proper word of it for technical proposal? Is it writing, creating, developing, or other?

verbs vocabulary

terdon

Thanks. Just wanted a second opinion.

RegDwigнt

2:18 PM

But go ahead and replace it with niggardly.

Robusto

Out of votes.

RegDwigнt

Oh no!

Robusto

I told someone they were being asinine and they told me to stop swearing.

RegDwigнt

That's out of my jewrisdiction.

Robusto

My tastes have grown stranger. I now like a cup of coffee with a nibble of provolone. Go figure.

RegDwigнt

2:21 PM

Pro yolo, ne?

Robusto

You only lunch once?

RegDwigнt

0

A: Is there a way to say "the opposite of a statement is not true"?

I'm not a Latin expert but how about "vice non versa"

You don't say.

Matt E. Эллен

I'm non experta latinae.

Robusto

4

A: Is there a way to say "the opposite of a statement is not true"?

When the opposite is true: Jasper likes Lauren, and vice versa. When the opposite is false: Jasper likes Lauren, but not vice versa. This simple negation works well.

I thought Jasper liked Maria.

RegDwigнt

O my Jeez.

Fremdschämen galore

Robusto

2:27 PM

Single word request: whatisitcalledwhengermanscongolomerateallwordstogetherintoone?

See, that is the standard we should establish for single-word-requests. The question itself has to be posed as a single word.

Matt E. Эллен

how?

terdon

@Robusto germancongolomerationofallwordstogetherintooneness

Robusto

1 min ago, by Robusto

Single word request: whatisitcalledwhengermanscongolomerateallwordstogetherintoone?

QED

Matt E. Эллен

@Robusto all questions should be posed as one word questions.

Robusto

I'm fine with that.

It makes finding canonicals much easier.

Q. What?

We can close practically any question on this site as a dupe of What?

Matt E. Эллен

2:34 PM

> ice-shoggles

RegDwigнt

What? is no question I've heard of. Do they speak English in What?

Matt E. Эллен

Why?

RegDwigнt

Hwy?

FTFY

Matt E. Эллен

When?

RegDwigнt

Don't know hwere, don't know hwen.

But we'll meet again Juan sunny day.

Robusto

2:43 PM

0

Q: Which IPA sounds are similar?

Question: Is there a matrix or table showing how audibly similar the different sounds from the IPA are? I'm looking for a scalar value that somehow measures the oral distance between two phonemes. Example: The following sounds are "close" ɑ (father) ɛ (dress) while the following sounds are "di...

speech phonetics sounds ipa

And me out of close votes.

Geezis.

Matt E. Эллен

@RegDwigнt Dover? I barely know her.

Andrew Leach

@Robusto He's already identified that it's a Linguistics question, too.

RegDwigнt

All plosives are similar. All vowels are similar. All stops are similar.

What he is looking for is "categories of sounds".

Basically a link to Wikipedia.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt All happy plosives are similar. All unhappy plosives are dissimilar in different ways.

terdon

@RegDwigнt why did you move that to ELL? It seems better suited to ELU than ELL and far better suited for Linguistics.

Robusto

2:46 PM

Um, it was moved to Linguistics.

terdon

@RegDwigнt I think he's looking for a method to quantify the similarity between phonemes. That's something the linguists must have.

Robusto

0

Q: Which IPA sounds are similar?

Question: Is there a matrix or table showing how audibly similar the different sounds from the IPA are? I'm looking for a scalar value that somehow measures the oral distance between two phonemes. Example: The following sounds are "close" ɑ (father) ɛ (dress) while the following sounds are "di...

speech phonetics ipa

terdon

@Robusto Um, and I'm an idiot.

Robusto

I blame the similar color schemes.

RegDwigнt

All sighted terdons are similar. All blind terdons are blind in different ways.

terdon

2:47 PM

Sorry @Reg, I saw the beta color style and thought it was ELL. Forgot they'd graduated.

RegDwigнt

In Soviet Exchange, graduate sites you!

Robusto

@terdon How do you spell jinx in Greek?

terdon

@Robusto τζινξ

Robusto

Lies.

RegDwigнt

As we know from Wikipedia, all Greeks are liars.

Robusto

2:48 PM

As soon as I get that tattooed on my forehead someone will come along and tell me it means "Big Mac" . . .

RegDwigнt

It means "Le Big Mac".

So it's okay.

Robusto

Or "le Big Mac" . . .

Jinx.

RegDwigнt

τζινξ

terdon

It doesn't mean anything but that's how you spell jinx. Now, had you asked hot you say it, you would have gotten a different answer.

Robusto

I want a picture of a Big Mac coke.

RegDwigнt

2:49 PM

Instructions unclear.

Robusto

You could be replaced with a Magic 8-Ball.

RegDwigнt

Big [Mac coke] or [Big Mac] coke?

@Robusto what do you mean, "could"?

Robusto

ask8ball.net

RegDwigнt

Yeah no I've had enough Rick Astley for tonight.

There. According to Google, that's an image of a Big Mac coke.

Robusto

They set the bar really low.

RegDwigнt

2:51 PM

Unlike ELU.

ELU doesn't even have a bar.

Andrew Leach

But... but... Diet Coke tastes better.

RegDwigнt

This was the concept for our bar. Where the hell is it?

@AndrewLeach in Bizzarro world.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Someone must have Overlooked it.

RegDwigнt

Out of oversight, out of mind.

Matt E. Эллен

The Overlook Hotel

General discussion for writing.stackexchange.com. Writing exer...

RegDwigнt

2:56 PM

Yeah yeah. "On Tuesdays we write and discuss". What has bloody London come to if that reads like a bloody description of a bloody pub to you?

I want to knock Elijah Wood's teeth in. That's the lowest common denominominomi whatever you spell it.

Matt E. Эллен

@RegDwigнt sounds like a good description of an Oxford pub...

Robusto

@RegDwigнt The Greeks pronounce it denominoioi.

RegDwigнt

@MattE.Эллен That explains why the Oxford dictionary sucks bollocks instead of balls.

Robusto

@MattE.Эллен *pube. FTFY

RegDwigнt

Whoa hold the presses. A pube has been sighted in Oxford?

When did that happen?

Matt E. Эллен

3:00 PM

Maybe you're mistaking the Oxford Tube for a pube?

Robusto

0

Q: What to call the situation when cables/wires, after being cuff off, start wriggling like snakes?

For some reason, I can't find the right phrase. Google images always returns something different: wriggling wires cables dancing wires cables cut off wires cables Any suggestions?

phrase-requests

RegDwigнt

I take the RedTube wherever I go.

Robusto

Huh?

Jano, jano, jano. STFU.

Can we stipulate that all phrase-requests are POB?

I mean, they fucking are.

RegDwigнt

You can stipulate whatever you want, honey. It's a free chat.

I, for one, shall stipulate that all gay people are gay.

Robusto

No me llama "Honey" . . .

RegDwigнt

3:02 PM

I can call you whatever I want, Susan.

Even if you are, in point of fact, a llama.

Robusto

OK, gayboi.

RegDwigнt

What's a forest near Paris got to do with this?

Robusto

Thought that one was in Amsterdamn.

RegDwigнt

There's your problem again. Thinking.

How can you even maintain that after looking at questions all day long?

Robusto

Wait, you're looking for a phrase that will elicit a specific result on a Google images search? Come on, that's not worth asking here. — Robusto 8 secs ago

Puh-leez.

Seems like I had one remaining close vote after all. I must've miscounted.

RegDwigнt

3:05 PM

Fuck the puh-leez for Rodney King.

Robusto

C'mon, get out your hammer and hit Jano on the head. That question is the poster child for poor questions.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto so you've been lying to us the whole time. I'm Susan's complete lack of surprise.

tchrist

Sed buenos.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto hey I'm too occupied with namecalling. Who do you think I am, a multitasker?

A multitaskor?

A Multi Task Corps?

Robusto

Moldy tusker?

RegDwigнt

3:07 PM

That's my stage name.

Muddy waters was taken.

Robusto

Susan's Show......Susan & Mr. Pegasus Sing

►

RegDwigнt

Now now now. That's not the Beatles.

tchrist

@Robusto Though the affirmative command is indeed "llámame" the corresponding negative one is "no me llames". Blame the Romans.

Robusto

I will contact my lawyer.

tchrist

Qué le llames.

Sorry, that's leísta. You probably shouldn't do that.

It will confuse the Mejicanitos.

Robusto

3:09 PM

Who is janochen and why is he trolling us so hard?

RegDwigнt

He is writing a novel.

Has been for the last couple years.

tchrist

That's the key to all of this.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt It seems like we're writing his fucking novel for him. Every sentence brings another EL&U question.

2

Q: Compound possessives and yours

which is correct: Thank you for your and your team's time or Thank you for yours and your team's time and should (or does it make a difference if) I place commas before and after "and your team's" ... thanks!!

possessive

RegDwigнt

Well yes.

Robusto

Still open.

And it's a dupe.

Of a dupe.

RegDwigнt

3:18 PM

@Robusto he gets a free ride for having always been there. Much like Yoichi-san. Just like Yoichi-san.

Robusto

Well, as for you, you've always been the caretaker.

At least that's what Grady says.

RegDwigнt

I used to be the Caretaker, but these days I'm more like Stone Cold.

And that's the bottom line, cause Grady said so.

> When the new Miss Italia was asked on her way to winning the glitzy televised contest what historical period she would like to have lived in, her answer caught most Italians by surprise.

Eighteen-year-old Alice Sabatini prompted incredulity online after telling the pageant judges that her epoch of choice was 1942, one of the darkest years of the Second World War and the Mussolini dictatorship.

Oh the irony of having to add that explanation at the end.

> Asked why she had chosen that year, the contestant from Lazio said she wanted to "live" the Second World War, noting that she would not have had to fight since she is a woman.

Excellent stuff. Would read again.

Cerberus

3:35 PM

Most odd.

A true scientist, she is.

RegDwigнt

Miss Italia, ironia The Jackal: la gaffe della vincitrice Alice Sabatini

►

Which reminds me: must mute commies now.

Cerberus

Bye!

Mitch

3:54 PM

She's being a rascal. Deep thinker with a wry sense of humor. I mean from the lowest of the lows it can only get better, right?

Robusto

4:25 PM

@RegDwigнt No. And as everyone knows, women in WWII were invulnerable to bullets, bombs, and rape. She would have simply enjoyed the big picnic everyone was having.

C'mon evahbodeh! Let's par-tay like it's 1942!

Johan Larsson

4:48 PM

triple sauna today, think it is a first

Glen The Udderboat

7:26 PM

Should Yogi Berra and Johan Cruyff both be considered wordsmiths or not?

Robusto

R.I.P. Yogi Berra. We'll not see his like for a long, long time.

@GlenTheUdderboat Berra, certainly. His supposed "gaffes" were too frequently and too paradoxically on the money to be put down to accident or error.

Glen The Udderboat

"In the Netherlands, and to some extent Spain, Cruyff is famous for his one-liners that usually hover between brilliant insight and the blatantly obvious. They are famous for their Amsterdam dialect and incorrect grammar, and often feature tautologies and paradoxes. In Spain, his most famous statement is "En un momento dado" ("In any given moment"). The quote has been used for the title of a 2004 documentary about Cruyff's life: Johan Cruijff - En un momento dado."

"Cruyff rarely limits himself to a single line though, and in a comparison with the equally oracular but reserved football manager Rinus Michels, Kees Fens equated Cruyff's monologues to experimental prose, "without a subject, only an attempt to drop words in a sea of uncertainty (…) there is no full stop"."