@RegDwigнt, @Cerberus, @Tonepoet: Thanks for your concern. Most of the hand feels better today, but the pinkie is still stressed and painful. I'm hoping it's just swollen. It's not broken, I'm all but certain, since although it's swollen there are no bruises around any of the joints (as I've seen when I've broken toes before) and I can grip my bike levers through the pain, which I wouldn't be able to do if it were broken.

If it's not better in a couple of days I'll see someone about it. I doubt time is of the essence here. I tore a nerve in the same finger a while back (like three decades) and they waited for the swelling to go down before they performed the surgery. So ...

@RegDwigнt Space is the future of time.

And yes, he does say "matemathical" ...

And yes, he does say "Swathshill" for "Schwartzschild" ...

> "People are usually shocked when they find out I'm not a very good electrician"

I'm sick of people telling me to "remember the mnemonic" ... so now I have two things to remember? Why not just remember the thing itself?

So, a classic mnemonic: "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." But you could just as easily remember that as "In fourteen hundred and ninety-three, Columbus sailed the deep blue sea."

I prefer to just remember 1492. It isn't really that hard. And no bullshit with mnemonics.

Howsomever ... there is one mnemonic that really hits home. To remember the cardinal points of the compass (NSEW for everyone playing along at home), just remember "No Spaniard Enjoys Washing" ...

And another. To remember the taxonomic rankings, try this one. "Dear Kevin, Please Come Over For Gay Sex." Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species. So there.

OK, so much for high school humor. I'm going to bed and read.

@Robusto Maybe it is kinda silly to add to what you have to remember, but perhaps you're overestimating just how silly. Remembering the number 1492 is kinda pointless unless you can also remember the associated fact that goes alongside it. Even without the memnotic you have to remember "In fourteen ninety two, Columbus sailed sailed the ocean" and whatever extra is necessary to make the rhyme is just there to reinforce the association.

@Tonepoet That was just an attempt at humor. It's always open mic night on EL&U chat, don't forget.

@RegDwigнt Good thing then that I'm just a run-of-the-mill Iranian, not a hard-core Persian.

@Cerberus I'm willing to bet you had linked to that video in the past.

So this is the second time. At least.

As for understanding it, much of it is in colloquial Arabic, which I haven't taken the pains to master. Although it's supposed to be easier than Classical/Standard Arabic.

Do we have a canonical "Turn off the fucking grammar checker in MS Word" question?

@Færd Which colloquial Arabic? From what I read there's classical Arabic (Quranic) which everyone at school is supposed to learn in Quran class (but forgets), there's MSA (academic/government) which is fairly close to classical Arabic, is what secondary education is taught in so educated people converse in it/newspapers are written in it, and TV/radio news is given in it, and then all the regional variations which can be mutually unintelligible.

@tchrist Looking over comments at the '"Are there any 'ge-'/'y-' words" question I realized that Fattie changed his name from Joe Blow a while ago. This explains... well no, 'explains' is not the right word, but simplifies things I suppose. I thought Fattie was a new guy with 'personality' but it's just a continuation of a guy who had been here longer who had 'personality'.

@Mitch tood dood

99% sure this is spam english.stackexchange.com/questions/480232/…

@Færd No doubt!

@Færd Isuspected as much.

@Mitch Yeah I wanted to explain that there are too many of it, which is part of the reason why I didn't bother learning any yet. That is a shame tho, 'cause conversing with people in Standard Arabic is not really practical.

But they're not mutually unintelligible at all. The Egyptian dialect is I believe about mainstream and well-understood across the Arab world, even if not spoken.

The Syrian dialect is I've heard relatively closer to the Standard, so I guess people wouldn't have much difficulty understanding it.

I've also heard people call in from various corners and converse with a reality TV host no problem.

Maybe a Moroccan and an Iraqi who neither have any knowledge of the Standard would run into trouble trying to communicate.

@Robusto just remember "litotes". It's a mnemonic for every mnemonic. From there you can remember everything else.

Also +1, because fuck mnemonics.

@Robusto we don't have a canonical question, but typically none other than Prof. Lawler has a canonical comment that he copypastes in such cases.

Also also, I don't need a question to close a question as a dupe of. I just close all questions, bam.

I guess that's why you're the good samaritan and I'm just, um, an average samaritan.

@Robusto Very good, so they have a 15-minute explanation now. Because I tried watching Nolan's, but it was 2+ hours and still didn't explain anything.

@Færd OK cool. It's hard to know what the reality is just by reading descriptions (and examples of sentences that look entirely different). But whenever I hear 'colloquial Arabic' I'm always surprised they don't just say which one.

The one and only mnemonic I do use, and use it every day, is Geh Du Alter Emil Hechte Fischen and Frische Brötchen Essen Aasgeier, Deshalb Gesalzen.

@Mitch I can tell you more when I get down to learning it/them.

Don't hold your breath tho.

haha

breathes in

Thank you.

I wouldn't expect a report by the end of the day

@RegDwigнt All Cows Eat Grass

That is so wrong.

Your face is wrong

Parallel minor, Home major, Mediant, Dominant? What is this circle of thirds?

haha

nope just the spaces in the bass clef

@Mitch That's why I don't remember my face.

Who needs to remember things in the bass clef? It's not alto. You can just read it.

no coincidence but FACE is the mnemonic for the treble clef

I can't remember FACE, I will need to use Fmaj7 as a mnemonic for that.

circle of augmented fourths

like dropping a drawer full of cutlery down the stairs

Circus of diabole in musica.

Can you do 'shepherd tones' on the piano?

Hans Zimmer can. On the Dunkirk soundtrack.

It's not solo piano tho, he throws a whole orchestra at it because he's a show-off.

That's not black MIDI.

That's racist.

Black MIDIs matter!

@RegDwigнt composers use actual instruments nowadays?

Well Hans Zimmer doesn't, but then again he isn't a composer. So the verdict is unclear.

There should be etudes for something like that.

Write one, then.

Hans Zimmer sounds like the plumber next door

Well no, write two, then. At least two. Because you said études plural.

@RegDwigнt I'm the idea guy, not execution

Nobody expects the Mitch execution.

That doesn't sound like a good thing. Despite my name being involved, which usually implies greatness.

Okay. Hm. Well, how about "Everybody expects the great Mitch execution", then?

People in deutschsprachiger Chatraum are not really chatty.

@RegDwigнt "Nobody expects the 'Mitchquisition' "

@Færd Ever since I left.

There, ftfy

@RegDwigнt Shame

Schade

@Mitch Why would you fix it yourself. I thought you were the idea guy.

@Færd Quel Hommage

@RegDwigнt Also spelling errors

Also, Jim Sterling will issue a DMCA takedown notice if you start using Mitchquisition.

@Mitch Capitalizing doesn't make it German, you know.

@Færd Sure, but it does make it a headline

German for "shame" is "Schande" btw. Just a letter away from schade. There's a mnemonic for you.

notiert

I wonder how it'd look like if I didn't capitalize at all in german.

The word 'schaum' is German for foam.

I should check my Foam outlines for that

an offense like not starting with a big letter in english perhaps?

@Mitch the word "scham" is German for "loin".

That really touches me in the tenderscham

That's dinner in Farsi.

Schade

Actually not loin, pubis.

I was being euphemistic.

Eww

You can also call it Schambein. Pubis leg.

German anatomy is étrange.

Oh it's both shame and vulva, Wiktionary says.

Is what I'm saying yes.

That's interesting. In Farsi, sharm can work for both.

Sharm el Sheikh?

Vulva of the Sheikh?

That is sharming.

Haha That's something else.

Yeah yeah.

Sharm could euphemistically be used for genitals in general.

So for a Sheihk it's his dick.

If it was Farsi, that is.

The real question is, is there any word in any language that can't be used as a euphemism for genitals?

Lots of them.

bleep blorp

The ones that are directly used for genitals.

Wait WTF I actually won that watch? I just got an email.

Thank you guys.

Yoohoo

I didn't think 9 upvotes would've been enough LMAO.

I forgot all about it by now.

You won it for that music video?

Apparently.

I am more shocked than anyone.

@RegDwigнt What time is it?

Can you one-box it here?

WHAT TIME IS IT?

The answer or the video? Or the email?

@Mitch IT IS HAMMERTIME!

One-box a picture of the watch

oh.

you don't have it yet

Yeah they need my address first.

@RegDwigнt Never mind I confused it with an SE context

a picture of the email with your IP addr and passpart #

My IP address is in Malta, I would need to travel for quite some time to take a picture of it.

@Færd Wait...it wasn't an SE contest?

@RegDwigнt I'll wait.

And my passport has expired. True story. So for all I care you can have the whole thing, not just a pic of it.

Watch it.

I can't, they need my address first.

@Mitch they have that picture up on the Meta post, you could one-box that one yourself.

Like this, say.

That'd look nice around your neck. Goes well with the specks of black in your wings.

Good thinking.

But how would you look at it that way.

Then again you're a wise bird yourself.

@Færd I don't need to look at it ever, it's always HAMMERTIME where I'm at.

Hammer it home then.

Ich fliege jetzt weg.

@RegDwigнt In fourteen hundred and ninety-eight, Columbus was just six years too late.

I agree about most mnemonics.

Except when they somehow have a catchy sound.

Like rhythm and/or rhyme.

I especially like mnemonics for things nobody wants to know anyway.

Like colors of the rainbow. Who the fuck cares about those.