English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

00:02

@Mitch Mas não se fala muito inglês nos Açores, e o muito pouco que lá existe vem sempre molhado.

I have no idea why they're masculine in Portuguese but feminine in Spanish.

Las Azores, oficialmente Región Autónoma de las Azores (en portugués: Região Autónoma dos Açores), es un grupo de nueve islas portuguesas situadas en medio del océano Atlántico, a unos 1400 km al oeste de Lisboa, y forman parte de la Macaronesia. Conforman una región autónoma dotada de autonomía política y administrativa cuya norma suprema es el Estatuto político-administrativo de la Región Autónoma de las Azores. Forman parte de la Unión Europea con la calificación de «región ultraperiférica», según el artículo 299.2 del Tratado de la Unión Europea. La capitalidad de Azores está compartida entre…

Açores

Os Açores, oficialmente Região Autónoma dos Açores, são um arquipélago transcontinental e um território autónomo da República Portuguesa, situado no Atlântico nordeste, dotado de autonomia política e administrativa, consubstanciada no Estatuto Político-Administrativo da Região Autónoma dos Açores. Os Açores integram a União Europeia com o estatuto de região ultraperiférica do território da União, conforme estabelecido nos artigos 349.º e 355.º do Tratado sobre o Funcionamento da União Europeia. == História == Com quase seis séculos de presença humana continuada, os Açores granjearam um l...

Robusto

00:23

Another entry in the flat-adverb sweepstakes: "You did real good."

tchrist

@Robusto True, you did real goodly would have been more common.

Mitch

01:54

@Cerberus more middler than Bermuda

@tchrist OK, then how about Bermuda? I'm sure they have an accent.

.

OK

I have something to say

You're not going to like it

In fact you may be hurt

Even angry

But it's just an opinion

So just accept it that way

So what it is is

Despite what people universally seem to think

Monty Python isn't that funny

Conrado

02:18

@Mitch That's OK.

We'll still care about you.

Robusto

@Mitch Sometimes they're not that funny. Like in MP&tHG. But in LoB they are supremely funny. There, I said it.

Cerberus

@Mitch True. Bermudas are shorter.

Mitch

03:01

@Robusto On rethinking...yeah LoB and MoL are top of the line. And there are some brilliant instances in tHG and before. But for the most part... I don't know why I thought it was -that- funny.

@Conrado Spasibo. I feel loved.

@Cerberus That's silly. Bermudas are the long ones.

Aren't they?

I mean I'm a product of my background, I'm still gonna laugh at all of Monty Python.

I just can't convince someone that they're funny.

Cerberus

@Mitch Depends on your frame of reference?

If you're a seventies kid, you'll be used to shorter shorts.

Mitch

Bermuda shorts

Bermuda shorts, also known as walk shorts or dress shorts, are a particular type of short trousers, worn as semi-casual attire by both men and women. The hem, which can be cuffed or un-cuffed, is around 1 inch (2.5 cm) above the knee. They are so-named because of their popularity in Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, where they are considered appropriate business attire for men when made of suit-like material and worn with knee-length socks, a dress shirt, tie, and blazer. True Bermuda shorts are not to be confused with "capri pants" extending below the knee. Cargo shorts may be a similar length...

I AM VINDICATED!

Cerberus

They're longer than these.

Mitch

an inch above the knee are longish shorts. If they go below the knee they're no longer shorts, they're... pants? capri pants?

@Cerberus true

That reminds me of a childhood incident.

Cerberus

@Mitch I'm not sure where shorts end.

Mitch

03:14

I think I was somewhere between 6 and 10 years old

Cerberus

Look what happened to the hem lines of shorts.

Mitch

I was wearing jeans

Cerberus

No way!

Mitch

that had a rip on one knee, which, you as well know, often happens with kids jeans from rigorous kid activity

Cerberus

Indeed.

Mitch

03:17

I came inside (from some of this rigorous kid activity), and my mom and grandmother were chatting away

They remarked on my torn jeans knee (really it wasn't torn that much) and they offered to sew it up.

I was indignant.

It was my jeans, it was my tear, I wanted that tear in the jeans, I did not want it fixed, and I told them so.

I made my view clear. And they acquiesced.

But...

I was at that age where...

well, not out of any desire or inclination but probably habit, I took a nap.

Right on the couch next to where they were chatting.

You know how it is when you nap, it's like time doesn't exist, and then you're awake.

So...

I awoke.

And

goddamit

My torn jeans knee had been repaired.

God fucking dammit

Those lying liars

How fucking dare they fix something that I expressly asked them -not- to.

-And- to which, at least I thought, they had agreed to not do.

Lying fucking liars

And

to make it worse

they took advantage of me while I was helplessly asleep.

a violation of multiple trusts

Conrado

That wasn't cool!

Mitch

Totally uncool

How fucking dare they.

They ruined... they RUINED those perfectly ripped jeans

Cerberus

03:32

@Mitch Such betrayal!

Conrado

And to think that while they mended, they callously let you nap pantless...

Mitch

fucking parents

and -their- parents

they ruin everything

Cerberus

It's basically filicide.

And nepoticide.

Mitch

@Conrado Oh... I don't they were capable of that kind of atrocity. I'm pretty sure they mended it in situ

Cerberus

In Ancient Rome, they'd have been sown up in a sack and tossed into the Tiber.

Mitch

03:35

@Cerberus I wouldn't go so far as to call it that, but the response should be the same.

Cerberus

Poena cullei

Poena cullei (from Latin 'penalty of the sack') under Roman law was a type of death penalty imposed on a subject who had been found guilty of parricide. The punishment consisted of being sewn up in a leather sack, with an assortment of live animals including a dog, snake, monkey, and a chicken or rooster, and then being thrown into water. The punishment may have varied widely in its frequency and precise form during the Roman period. For example, the earliest fully documented case is from ca. 100 BC, although scholars think the punishment may have developed about a century earlier. Inclusion of...

Mitch

@Cerberus Fortunately enough for them this was not Ancient Rome.

Cerberus

Into the sack with them!

Mitch

kicked down the stairs

Cerberus

Which, accidentally, is a common punishment dealt out by Sinterklaas, whose holiday is this weekend.

"The sack of Saint Nicholas" is a well known song here.

Conrado

03:37

@Mitch Ah... I see. The rip was, perhaps, less than I initially imagined.

images.app.goo.gl/xJE9ZREeA7oKLJEq9

Cerberus

@tchrist Yes, though not if you weigh by the degree of relatedness (proportion of genes in common).

At least I would assume not...

Mitch

@Conrado Oh, those are latter day fashions

Cerberus

@Conrado Ugh, is that still en vogue?

Mitch

probably inspired by, well not me exactly, but I was part of a generation that really started it.

so I can't take -full- credit of the ripped jeans trend

@Cerberus You have no idea

Cerberus

Well, I work with high-school children...

So I have some idea of peer pressure and unfortunate fashion.

Can't blame the parents any more.

Mitch

03:42

Cerberus

@Mitch These days, it seems all fashion is yet another cycle of retro.

@Mitch Oh, how lovely, and how functional.

If only the Brits had those on Bermuda.

Mitch

There's no jeans in those jeans

Cerberus

She must get stuck a lot.

Mitch

@Cerberus If you understand the depth of betrayal in my story, then you'll understand that you can always and forever blame your parents.

Cerberus

Oh, fair enough.

Mitch

03:45

@Cerberus I'm kinda not sure of the point. Like, why bother.

Cerberus

Well, she can hardly go walk around without any trousers on, can she?

Mitch

Anyway, I was pretty mad at the time that they mended my jeans. They sewed a patch over the rip.

Did I wear them again, you might reasonably ask, given the nature of the transgression.

Hm... probably. I mean they still worked.

I'm not a madman.

Now that I think of it, I had a not too dissimilar experience years later with fixing clothes.

OMG...and a third distinct incident.

Goddammit

parents are awful

fixing your clothes

these later incidents were actually worse (one, throwing away a favorite shirt, which of course I still have, and then putting a name tag on some clothes).

Cerberus

@Mitch Oh, Hades, not a patch.

Mitch

pretty shameful.

Cerberus

@Mitch In our house, it was the opposite.

Mitch

03:51

@Cerberus I'm not sure which would have been worse, sewing up the rip (you can do that on jeans) or the patch.

Cerberus

My mother would buy e.g. certain shoes and force me to wear them.

After wearing them to school for one day, I hid them.

They were never found.

Not even when I tried to find them.

Mitch

I mean childhood is full of awful shaming events enough without -supposed- authority figures being party to them.

@Cerberus OMG. I'm so sorry.

Cerberus

Sewing would be less conspicuous?

@Mitch Thank you for your sympathy.

Mitch

@Cerberus Yeah, I think so, but I think that's a mom thing, patches.

Cerberus

Probably.

I think my mother sewed or ironed patches onto my trousers as well.

But only when I was fairly young.

Certainly under twelve.

Mitch

03:53

@Cerberus I mean she's probably a wonderful person to everybody else in the world, and she had to take all her negative thoughts out on you.

Cerberus

That was actually kind of how it was, during menopause.

Mitch

@Cerberus hm... maybe they did take off my pants and iron on a patch?

Maybe.

It's all awful.

Cerberus

Not all the time. But puberty and menopause don't go well together.

Mitch

@Cerberus oh

@Cerberus well

as you get older

I suppose things change

Cerberus

Indeed.

Mitch

03:56

more serious and less serious?

But yeah I remember getting clothes that I wore once and god forbid I will never ever wear that thing again.

ever

not the right color

Cerberus

How did you manage it?

Mitch

I know you didn't ask, but you certainly are curious... yes, I did run out in the middle of the night to pull that favorite shirt, that had been thrown out, out of the middle of the trash can, that was scheduled to be picked up by the garbage men the next day.

It may have been raining.

Pretty sure it was at least damp.

@Cerberus I think I just didn't wear it?

Cerberus

Well done.

3

Mitch

They were overalls.

Cerberus

@Mitch Hmm standing up to your mother was feasible?

Mitch

04:01

(it wasn't the color. I mean other stuff I didn't wear because of the color, but not the overalls)

The overalls just weren't comfortable (I think my mom thought they would be).

SHE WAS WRONG

@Cerberus I had other clothes, so it was avoidable.

Cerberus

That's not how my mother operated.

Mitch

stayed in the drawer or closet for years, and eventually I grew out of it.

Cerberus

I was strong willed, but she was stronger.

I remember refusing to wear those chequered woollen trousers to Christmas at my grandparents.

They (led by my mother) got into the car and pretended to leave without me.

Mitch

@Cerberus Despite the obvious lack of character she exhibited by these numerous transgressions, she was actually pretty cool about it.

Cerberus

Looking back, I know she could not possible have left without me, leaving a young child home alone, and admitting to her parents why.

But back then...she won.

@Mitch Lucky you!

Mitch

04:05

@Cerberus whistles

Harsh

Cerberus

Yeah.

They itched like crazy!

And they were stupid!

I really didn't want to wear red-and-green chequered trousers.

Mitch

@Cerberus The itching part is awful, but the looking stupid... that cannot stand!

Cerberus

I know.

Mitch

@Cerberus I'm so sorry

I am

That cuts to the soul

Cerberus

It did.

Something like this.

Mitch

04:07

tears flowing down my face

Cerberus

But now it's bedtime.

Isn't it?

Mitch

a while ago

more stories for another time

Oh... a story about my sister!

Cerberus

I look forward to it.

Mitch

She was cool. But one time I was about to throw a ball to her...

and our dog was running around us...

and she said 'Don't throw it or you'll hit the dog'

and I threw it

and I hit the dog

Sure I felt bad about hitting the dog (he turned out OK)

but ... how did she know?

I wasn't aiming at the dog. I was trying to throw it to her. And the dog wasn't in the way or anything at the time she said it.

How did she know?

Ok that was the story.

I try to remember others for another time

But how did she know?

I can see exactly where we were in the yard and me throwing it to my sister

and the ball hitting the dog (I mean I threw it hard, but the dog is OK)

but the hardest part about it all was that she was right.

Cerberus

Girls are better at estimating risks than boys?

Xanne