English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

20:06

@CowperKettle Which do you mean? The true bullfinch or the pretender to that title, known as the New World tanager?

@Gigili That sounds rather weird to me. I seem to learn a language better than I like it, or if I don't like it at the start, with progress it starts to grow on me.

Sorry, I meant I learn it better if I like it. Not than.

anongoodnurse

@tchrist - My son (nurse) has two people on his unit in negative pressure isolation, and some of the health care workers are symptomatic, but they aren't being tested or sent home. The lack of tests is a shit show. No wonder the numbers in PA are so low...

tchrist

@anongoodnurse That's horrible.

anongoodnurse

This is to say that, first, I'm sorry you're in a few of the categories, but the most important point is don't trust the numbers, please.

I'm looking at CO, and te numbers are climbing, but tis is probably at least an order of magnitude or two off...

tchrist

I have a lot more risk factors than just that. And Colorado's governor just told us there are thousands of cases in Colorado that we don't know about yet.

anongoodnurse

I read that, and I believe it.

tchrist

20:21

I'm now treating this with uttermost care.

anongoodnurse

I believe that's true of PA as well.

tchrist

Probably.

anongoodnurse

@tchrist Good. I'm worried. Please... take care. Above and beyond.

tchrist

Today is the last day my company's Pennsylvanian office is going to be open. That's the big one.

anongoodnurse

I'm very happy to hear that.

tchrist

20:23

They cancelled all travel a couple days ago.

I have a sinus infection right now and am having reduced lung capacity; shortness of breath, etc.

Hate it.

anongoodnurse

I've decided I'm just going to stay home for a couple of weeks at least, though I do have an appointment with an orthopod for my leg.

tchrist

But it's upper- not lower-, and no fever, so I know it's unrelated. But I don't dare get it now.

anongoodnurse

@tchrist I've never ad SOB, but I can imagine it's a terrible feeling.

Exactly.

tchrist

Albuterol helps.

anongoodnurse

I had gestational asthma, but it was never bad.

tchrist

20:26

I'm back on albuterol and symbicort for the first time since our bad forest fires.

anongoodnurse

I'll keep checking in from time to time. Is Mitch in a relatively safe place? And Robusto?

tchrist

Rob's out of Boston, down in Albuquerque now. Mitch is still in Boston, I think.

anongoodnurse

It's funny; I've been gone for so long. But I still worry. Take care.

tchrist

I guess Seattle is nearly out of measures they can take. They've gone through most of their 13-step escalation plan.

Little left beyond shutting down all businesses, making people stay in their homes, and having the national guard enforce a cordon sanitaire.

anongoodnurse

This is going to get so bad. There's a shortage of ventilators somewhere, I can't remember where, but it's starting.

tchrist

20:29

I know. It won't even peak till mid- to late summer.

That means it's going to keep getting much, much worse until then at the least.

anongoodnurse

We need to do what the Dems are proposing, and get those testing kits out and start using them.

tchrist

Just stay home now.

We're very soon now going to see thousands of new cases a day, and hundreds of deaths.

anongoodnurse

@tchrist I am. I hear people already talking about it slowing down because it's spring. Where did they get that idea? This is not going to slow down and reappear.

tchrist

And that's just the beginning.

@anongoodnurse Because rhinoviruses tend to. But no, it won't.

Just see Brazil and Australia.

anongoodnurse

@tchrist I agree. And I hate it.

@tchrist I know! People are associating it with the coronaviruses tat cause te common cold.

Italy is doing it right. So should we.

Flatten the curve for the whole country.

tchrist

20:32

Yes, we have to. ASAFP. You saw the Times interactive graphic on that this morning?

anongoodnurse

But no, our administration is afraid of numbers, not people dying.

tchrist

I know.

anongoodnurse

@tchrist Yes.

tchrist

That's part of why no testing.

No testing, no bad numbers.

This is the most grave and tragic thing to happen to our nation and our world since the Second World War. We need to be treating it that way.

anongoodnurse

I have some other things to do, but between my broken leg and this, reading is an awful lot of what I do these days.

tchrist

20:34

Please go do your other things. I have a meeting to go to I'm late to but nobody else has shown up either.

anongoodnurse

@tchrist email the President, the newspapers, whatever as well. Do be careful.

tchrist

Escapist reading is good. Professional reading may not help your mind.

anongoodnurse

@tchrist I'm worried about my kids. I have a nurse and a doctor (ER) among them.

tchrist

You should be.

anongoodnurse

So I'm keeping up...

tchrist

20:36

The front line people get continuously exposed to the virus. It wears them down.

So despite their ages, etc etc.

anongoodnurse

yes.

tchrist

okay going now for sure, meeting has been joined

anongoodnurse

computer is misbehaving. Dare not take it in. Bye.

Gigili

21:04

@Robusto Weird but true? Well, I've learned languages that I liked at first and languages that I was neutral about, and I stopped learning both. The fact is if you dislike someone, you can try to learn their personality to beat them, same goes for the languages, if you dislike a language you can learn it to destroy it.

That doesn't make much sense because I just made it up.

No need to browse Times for updates on coronavirus outbreak, just log in to ELU chat and you'll get the most recent news.

terdon

21:19

@anongoodnurse They got the idea because their president told them so. Sadly.

tchrist

> It’s the first death in the state since the first two people tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, in Colorado on March 5. Currently the state has 72 known cases of the disease.

RegDwigнt

21:57

Well that was fast.

11 hours ago, by RegDwigнt

That was this morning.

Schools closed everywhere except in Mecklenburg, which is the least populated state of them all. (The sixth largest in the country, but only 1 million people live there out of a total of 86. And half of them live in just two or three towns on the Baltic Sea coast.)

@Cerberus bars and discos getting closed as well now. And all kinds of prostitution are temporarily on hold.

I went to the supermarket around the corner, lots of empty shelves. Toilet paper sold out, many beverages, almost all the pasta except for the most expensive brands.

The zombie apocalypse is here.

Why toilet paper, of all things. I keep hearing that from everywhere.

The last time I saw a shortage of toilet paper on a national scale was in the USSR in the late 1980s.

I need to watch The Road again. Fantastic movie. And read the book again. Fantastic book.

Færd

22:44

@Robusto Matriculation at Harvard Medical School.

Ask @Mitch; he got in.

.

Knowing that I could find the answer with a quick search, and at risk of embarrassing myself, I still don't know why so many people are raiding the toilet paper shelves.

Færd

23:00

@RegDwigнt Oh thank god I'm not the only one to wonder

anongoodnurse

@Færd Mitch is going to Harvard?

@Færd I'm old enough to remember having to wipe wit newspaper in my Gran's outhouse. Not something I ever want to do again. I imagine it's even worse with a computer.

@terdon - Yes, our fearful leader as expressed a great many untruths so far about the virus, and absolutely no empathy. It is extremely disquieting.

RegDwigнt

We still have such an outhouse at our datcha. Newspaper works perfectly fine. Don't use them glossy magazines though.

A couple years ago I took two friends of mine there on a visit. When they saw the outhouse they lay in stitches laughing for many minutes straight.

In the Soviet Union, we used to have that joke, "following numerous reader requests, from now on the Pravda newspaper will be published with no text and as a roll".

Well, this week that Aussie newspaper that I'm sure all of you saw did just that.

Adding a few extra empty pages for use as toilet roll.

Western reality has caught up with Soviet jokes.

@Færd like seriously though, what are they going to do with all that paper, eat it?

Pasta is sold out, but pasta sauce is not.

Toilet paper is sold out, but deep-frozen pizza isn't.

What kind of diet is that.

Canned beans are still there but canned peas are gone. WTF is even happening.

Am I the only one left who still knows how to cook properly.

tchrist

23:28

Our shelves too are empty of many, many, many things.

RegDwigнt

I take no issue with that. I take issue with what things they are.

tchrist

Canned beans are useful, but don't taste as good.

RegDwigнt

I tried watching that Trump address. Jesus fuck the man can't even read. It was so poorly delivered. Literally unwatchable.

tchrist

Which one, today's or Wednesday night's?

And yes, he can't read.

RegDwigнt

Today's with the national emergency or whatever the legal term is.

tchrist

23:30

Basic second-grade level tops.

Yeah.

Formal declaration of a state of emergency at the federal level.

I read better in second grade than he does now.

RegDwigнt

Half of these words don't even apply to what I saw.

Nothing formal, federal, declaration, or level.

tchrist

So you're letting of, a, at, the slip by.

RegDwigнt

Pretty much so.

tchrist

That's because those are the only words he can read.

I guess you haven't seen him trying to read out loud before. His Wednesday night thing was even worse.

RegDwigнt

He kept interrupting himself with nonsequiturs, which he always does, but usually those are his forte. The off-the-cuff bullshit nonsense. This time it was actually the worst bit. He couldn't even say what he wanted to say. Much less what smarter people had written for him.

A mumbling baffoon.

tchrist

23:33

I didn't catch much of it; I had a video meeting.

RegDwigнt

Well I sought it out on YouTube.

And closed it maybe ninety seconds in.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Pinocchio dances poorly when Papa Vladimir Geppetto has let the strings go slack.

RegDwigнt

Like right off the bat there was a lot of blaming all other countries and patting himself on the back, which is the one single thing that he is truly excellent at, and he went and fucked up that. I couldn't believe my ears.

tchrist

Wait, he did that AGAIN?

I thought he learned his lesson when he crashed the stock market yesterday because of all that.

RegDwigнt

Well of course. He started by saying how all the things he did in the last couple weeks saved thousands of lives.

tchrist

23:36

He has done virtually nothing.

Except order that everything be secret.

RegDwigнt

But this time it was like he himself actually didn't believe it.

tchrist

He's trying to keep "his numbers" down. Of cases. Don't test, don't tell.

@RegDwigнt Every now and then, not often, but in a recurring pattern that you only notice because of how much he hogs the camera, he lets down his façade just a tiny bit to reveal some latent self-awareness of how bad he is at everything.

RegDwigнt

The other thing was how we made the address not alone but surrounded by that crowd of fifty staff.

I only recognized the one dude that's always next to Pelosi in your parliament or whatever you call that circus.

tchrist

That has to have been either her lieutenant, or else the opposing general.

RegDwigнt

Anyway, I know you're always supposed to do that, especially in times of great crises. Demonstrate unity. A fireman to your left, a policeman to your right, five generals in the background and a nurse. That kind of thing.

But this one time it sends the worst message actually.

tchrist

23:42

It's cult stuff.

Fearless Leader.

RegDwigнt

You're not supposed to meet with more than four people at once.

tchrist

When did Obama do that stuff.

RegDwigнt

Here there's a crowd of twenty. Doing nothing but standing there, waiting for Trump personally to infect them.

tchrist

Louisiana has postponed its presidential primary election by two months. I wonder when Trump will try to pull that nationally.

RegDwigнt

Oh I was just about to say. None of that changes anything about his re-election of course.

Mark these simple words of mine: Katrina didn't kill Dubya.

tchrist

23:44

He's now a lame duck walking.

@RegDwigнt Only because he didn't sit there at its whirling heart.

RegDwigнt

You can't hold general elections in this kind of situation. So they'll get postponed to like 2030 and there you go.

By that time everyone will either forget everything and hail him as the national hero, or they will not forget at all but he'll have had ten additional years in office anyway.

Catch-22.

tchrist

We have to start separating people. We can't have the NIH guy and the CDC guy together, we can't have Prez and Veep together, etc.

I'm going to be so disappointed if he dies a martyr to the virus.

RegDwigнt

You should not have to separate them. They should bring to the table enough awareness of their own before you even ask.

tchrist

These people are all high-risk, Trump the highest.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist every prez dies a martyr. Remember Reagan?

tchrist

23:48

But presidential continuity has never been about the man, only the office.

RegDwigнt

Tell that to the man. Then tell that to the people.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Unfortunately. Also Carter and Nixon.

RegDwigнt

Yes I'm obviously picking the lowest and most recent hanging fruit.

Færd

@anongoodnurse Oh no sorry that was a joke

@anongoodnurse May I suggest switching to hand bidets. They do a better job and are more efficient and environmentally friendly.

@RegDwigнt What gets sold out depends on the original stocks too

tchrist

Just as nothing did more for the rehabilitation of the public opinion of George Bush père than the stolen election of George Bush fils, nothing has done more for the rehabilitation of the public opinion of George Bush fils than the stolen election of Trump.

Well, not the election per se, but the calibre of the individual.

RegDwigнt

23:52

@Færd Yeah but this no pizza, this toilet paper. The stock of that reaches up to the sky at all times.

It's just a self-reinforcing effect in action.

Færd

@tchrist Ever-shortening memories. Feeling better?

RegDwigнt

As I said, I witnessed that all the time in the Soviet Union as a kid.

tchrist

On what grounds?

What were they thinking?

RegDwigнt

One day they had no socks, so if the next day they did, you immediately went and bought all the socks they had. Even if you needed none.

tchrist

@Færd Not much, my head is still snotty. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Færd

23:55

@RegDwigнt We're a profoundly irrational creature no matter under what regime

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Lingering memories from the war's deprivations in the older generations, or newly kindled out of nothing?

Færd

@tchrist Try rinsing your nose and throat with saline. If it helps you could make sure it's not the devil. Because saline doesn't help with coronavirus.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist No, just a normal downwards spiral. Same as right now really. You see people on TV buying up toilet paper, you go fuck, this is madness, I better buy some myself real quick.

tchrist

@Færd I don't have coronavirus. I have a sinus infection.

Færd

@tchrist Okay so you are already sure.

RegDwigнt

23:57

@tchrist principiis obsta. Or however you spell it. Also applies to the toilet roll situation.

tchrist

@Færd I'm insufficiently febrile.

Færd

Well the symptoms vary from person to person. For some is doesn't get nasty at all. Maybe for the majority of the cases?

I'm no expert tho.

RegDwigнt

Some don't even notice it at all. Which is how it spreads.

tchrist

@Færd This is responding to penicillin. It no virus is.

Færd

I suppose.

RegDwigнt

23:59

If you started bleeding from all orifices, like with Ebola, that'd catch people's attention.

tchrist

Not if you wear diapers.

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