English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

1:10 AM

@CowperKettle Hmm how does it work?

Robusto

1:31 AM

@CowperKettle It must take a heap of high-pressure equipment to get the royals clean.

Cerberus

@CowperKettle Convenient.

Why the wheels, though?

It went with her witherever she went?

Not bad.

Robusto

She used to masquerade as a "Mrs. Brown" to go out and be not-the-queen for a day.

Cerberus

Good.

Beatrix goes out as Mrs van Buren.

Robusto

The nobility who knew her were cautioned not to recognize her if they saw her out as Mrs. Brown.

@Cerberus Does she really?

If so, I suppose the mundane becomes exotic if your life is exotic.

"After you've been having steak for a long time, beans, beans taste fine."

Beans Taste Fine

►

I think typically the royalty were the ones who caused the most deaths.

Cerberus

1:48 AM

@Robusto So it is said.

@CowperKettle I think many monarchs still do.

Though probably unannounced.

1914 really scared them.

Hmm.

When the King attends the yearly commemoration ceremony on Dam Square, the people living there are ordered to keep their windows shut.

Probably so as not to distract sharpshooters who protect him.

Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898. Elisabeth was born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. Nicknamed Sisi (also Sissi), she enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of sixteen. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. Early in the marriage she was at odds with her mother-in...

Sissi also went out incognita.

But her stay and her exact location were leaked.

So the assassin had enough time and opportunity to find her and stalk her.

Robusto

@CowperKettle When President Clinton went to Boston back in the '90s, he flew by helicopter from the airport, and his helicopter (there were two identical ones that could have been his) were attended by several Apache attack helicopters, in case there might be anyone who wanted to shoot at the Prez. I watched the whole squadron come up the Charles, and it was a weirdly unsettling display of power.

So it's definitely common for heads of state in powerful countries to look out for their well-being.

Cerberus

America and China are known for this.

Robusto

2:04 AM

To be fair, we have had presidents assassinated.

Cerberus

Our first stadholder was assassinated.

Robusto

Four, in fact.

Didn't a Swedish head of state get assassinated a few years back?

Cerberus

Most probably no head of state.

I think a Scandinavian prime minister was assassinated some decades ago?

Assassination of Olof Palme

On Friday, 28 February 1986, at 23:21 CET (22:21 UTC), Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden, was fatally wounded by a single gunshot while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbeth Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen. Lisbeth Palme was slightly wounded by a second shot. The couple did not have bodyguards with them. Christer Pettersson, who had previously been convicted of manslaughter, was convicted of the murder in 1988 after having been identified as the killer by Mrs Palme. However, on appeal to Svea Court of Appeal, he was acquitted. A petition for a new trial, filed by the...

Robusto

Yes.

You don't think of that sort of thing happening in Sweden.

Cerberus

It can happen anywhere.

Robusto

2:09 AM

Yeah. Any idiot with a gun can do it.

Cerberus

2:20 AM

Indeed.

tchrist

@Robusto Winter is coming.

You could see it move it. Literally. A squall.

We'll see how much snow we get tomorrow.

Cerberus

2:36 AM

Your weather!

tchrist

I moved all the little starter tomatoes and chiles and basil into the house just as this was hitting. I haven't planted them yet. Thank goodness: they can't handle the 3 degrees below freezing that we're expecting, let alone the driving sleet and perhaps snow. A cold wet wind can kill those even 8 degrees over freezing.

Cerberus

Ouch.

tchrist

It was very very hot today. Much too hot for anything that covered your knees, or ankles, or shoulders. They had called for 88F/31C but I don't think we quite got there. But the sun is very high in the sky this time of the year, so it's an automatic +15 degrees for how much it warms you.

Then try working or exercising. Definitely a recipe for dehydration.

Also, wildfire.

We went straight from a fire-weather warning to a winter-storm warning today!!

Oh gee I still have windows open. No wonder I'm freezing. BRB.

As far as the season goes, we're in the middle of the time of peak irises and lilacs and oriental poppies. It isn't yet peony time, but soon.

So a winter storm is unusual this late.

Cherry blossoms peaked like last week.

This will likely kill most annuals people have put in if they don't protect them.

Species in the Viola genus will of course be fine, even the annual ones. There are a few genera like that. The Brassica vegetables will be fine, and lettuce probably.

Begonias and impatiens will all be killed. The things gardeners calls "geraniums" will too (they're actually in Pelargonium, which split from Linnaeus’s Geranium at one point), although the real geraniums will be ok.

Cerberus

2:58 AM

@tchrist Hmm not afraid of sunburn?

tchrist

@Cerberus Oh yes.

UV was 9/10 today.

Wear a hat. Wear SPF 50 sunscreen, etc.

I wasn't outside much. It was a work day.

Cerberus

How long does that hold?

OK.

tchrist

I knocked off at 4:30 and spent the next 3+ hours rescuing and protecting things.

Coleus will die.

I hate waiting for June, but gosh.

In 2008 we had a killing freeze on June 8th. You just can't win.

It's only 49 now here, and still plunging.

Cerberus

That's late.

Does the cold help against fires?

tchrist

Yes, a little.

The moisture will help even more.

Unclear how much we'll get, but there's a 100% chance that we will.

Lemme check the fire status today.

Gosh, they're evacuating people in western Colorado due to wildfire.

I don't know whether the southwest part of the state will get the cold and moisture that we are.

Yeah, this isn't going to hit northern New Mexico, so it still sucks to be Rob.

OFMH!!

That's more than a foot of snow. And many degrees below freezing. I wasn't expecting that.

Cerberus

3:10 AM

Snow!

tchrist

Indeed. And more than a foot, no less.

You probably don't get that much a year. :)

It's dark now. There isn't much more I can do. For potted stuff, I left only a few viola planters outside.

We probably won't get any peonies at all this year. They're all budded right now.

Cerberus

We count our snow in mm.

Poor flowers.

tchrist

I can count mine in mm too, like tomorrow they're saying we'll get over 300.

A lot of flowers and vegetables will be killed or stunned.

The violas won't be killed by 26F, but their blooms will wilt so they'll have to create new ones.

I feel like I should go around the neighborhood in the dark of night and pick a bouquet of people's irises. They'll be ex-flowers 24h from now.

Oh crud, tomorrow is Graduation Day at the public schools here: "Due to the incoming snow storm, which could bring up to 14" of wet, sloppy snow, BVSD teams have been working feverishly to find alternative options for our graduation ceremonies." This is not normal.

I bet even @CowperKettle has warmer weather than me right now.

Cerberus

3:27 AM

Hmm.

tchrist

At least he shouldn't be looking at a foot of snow for the morrow.

I expect my yard to be full of ravenous hummingbirds, orioles, and tanager tomorrow. The storm will drive them down from the mountains. They will have nothing to eat otherwise.

Last year I had more than a dozen of each all at the same time for most of the week when there was a storm in early May.

Because they're all tropical birds; canopy gleaners and nectar drinkers.

No insects are there to glean from the forest canopy during a blizzard.

Poor things. I'll keep them going.

Right now it's +7C, but falling.

We had around +30C earlier today.

Washington Post: From 90 degrees to snow: Wild weather expected in Denver and Rockies. Summerlike temperatures, dangerous fire conditions and a full-fledged snowstorm are all possible in 36 hours’ time.

90F is 32C.

Robusto

1:25 PM

#Worldle #119 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

jlliagre

1:57 PM

#Worldle #119 2/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨⬅️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

I should have picked the right one first but I confused two countries.

Robusto

@jlliagre Yeah, there are a few that this could be without a map to help you. I got lucky on my first guess.

tchrist

@jlliagre Do you think I meant country matters? Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 2

As if country matters.

Robusto

No double entendre in chat.

tchrist

> Q: What's the best way to find a gifted four-year-old?
A: Check whether her gift-tag is still attached.

Robusto

And if the gift tag is still attached, see if there's any give in it.

tchrist

2:09 PM

No gifted four-year-olds, please: human traffucking is disgusting.

Robusto

Eeeuuuw.

tchrist

Oh good, I see you aren't a rat. Your gag reflex still works.

Robusto

I haven't seen gags this odious since the last time @Mitch was here.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. Mitch's gags are usually fairly innocuous.

tchrist

@Robusto Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, / Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

That's an odious gag.

Robusto

But nightingales are not odious.

tchrist

2:12 PM

Its full-throatedness gave it away.

Robusto

Was it a vision or a waking dream?

I thought I was awake. Glad I did not waken to a wake.

tchrist

As through a glass, darkly.

Robusto

I did an entire paper on Keats's use of nature imagery. Which, of course, was spectacular.

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
   Among the river sallows, borne aloft
      Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
      And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Maybe my favorite cascade of nature imagery in all of poetry.

tchrist

Full-throated summer in Colorado is when icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall, And milk comes frozen home in pail.

Robusto

Where's greasy Joan?

tchrist

2:17 PM

Former friend of Tom's.

Robusto

Ah.

tchrist

The one that slipped away.

Do you have birds that sing at night there?

Robusto

I don't think so. But I don't sleep outdoors, and our insulation is very good.

That is something I miss. I love waking up to birdsong.

One can do that in summertime in Massachusetts, sleep with the windows open.

Here it's just too warm.

But look at that passage from Keats, how it moves the eye from the river to the hills to the hedges and finally up to the skies. It is a prayer.

It is a feast for the senses.

tchrist

Tired head that by open window rests wakes oft with forehead splattered pests.

Robusto

Except: screens.

tchrist

2:24 PM

I had to drop my window to a half-inch last night. Simply too cold to sleep otherwise.

Also, too wet.

It didn't help. I kept being disturbed by plangent pussycats drenched with ice-rain.

They like to snuggle after they soak themselves. Not a fan.

Robusto

Yeah. They want to go out. Or come in. Or both.

tchrist

No, they go out their cat door for five minutes, come back in and rub against my face with their icy wet bodies. I awake and dry them right away because it's too unpleasant otherwise.

This may be their master plan.

It's only the big tabby who does this. The small longhair doesn't like to get soaked.

Robusto

How to divine the ways of cats?

tchrist

With a curious haruspex?

Robusto

And all that that entrails.

Wordle 335 4/6

⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

That could have been dicey.

Very apt, given the tenor of this discussion.

And I knew you had to be a fan of Keats.

One of my absolute favorites.

Does Keats translate well into Russian?

Well, if any poetry can be said to translate well ...

Translation is such a two-edged sword.

@CowperKettle Are they in iambic pentameter? Does Russian even have that meter?

jlliagre

2:52 PM

@tchrist I think nothing, my lord. ;-)

Robusto

@CowperKettle Yeah, comparing it with the original I see the meter has suffered. But I am not good enough at Russian to understand the words and their implications.

Haha. Yes, that would be a wonderful motivation.

jlliagre

@Robusto Double entendre is funny because it uses French words but is only used in English. If it was used in French, that was many centuries ago.

Robusto

@jlliagre Well, English is the current lingua franca, no?

@CowperKettle For the crime of ...?

Geezis.

And these are the glory days Putin wants to go back to.

You should.

Wordle (ES) #134 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟨🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

https://wordle.danielfrg.com/

Mitch

3:19 PM

@Robusto I'm back!

Hey I see that JL is acting like some teenagers are walking on his lawn.

@CowperKettle So I suppose you could say that solitary confinement isn't all that bad.

@Robusto nice

I may have recounted this before, but we have all sorts of friends who have dogs as pets, and they all (the dogs) have their little stuffed toys to chaw on, and every time we visit with then (the dogs and the people) they seem to always have a new different toy and I always wonder why they (the dogs or the people) can't keep track of the toys.

jlliagre

4:00 PM

@Robusto It clearly is indeed.

Wordle (ES) #134 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟨🟩⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

https://wordle.danielfrg.com/

Robusto

@jlliagre I drew a complete blank on my seed word this time.

jlliagre

May 16 at 7:33, by jlliagre

Wordle 331 6/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟩🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Two attempts without even a single hit...

Robusto

Yeah, that makes it hard.

Mitch

4:23 PM

And then thee was one time when I was playing tug of war and catch with one of the plush toys and the little guy had taken it over to a corner and the dog had started to disembowel the toy

Robusto

Dogs are like that. Yeah, they are.

Mitch

He was tugging at the belly of the toy, looking to get a tooth in, and then once in, he pulled out the stuffing like he was pulling out the intestines.

Pulling a strand, pulling some more, yum yum, andouille sausage casing

On the one hand, the dog was enjoying himself so much.

Robusto

They should sell dog toys with real intestines. Yum!

Mitch

On the other, guts (or rather plush toy stuffing) being distributed everywhere.

@Robusto Speaking for all dogs everywhere, -that- would awesome

Robusto

It's a toy! It's a meal! Wait, it's a happy meal!

Mitch

4:27 PM

But sometimes I have to close my eyes when dog do that.

I mean the dog has to eat

But...

but it looks like a torture scene.

Cats do their own torture, but I never expected behavior like this from dogs.

They seem -so- happy doing it.

Robusto

It is their nature.

High Fidelity - "Babe, I Love Your Way" w/ Lisa Bonet

►

Mitch

the circle of life

or really the circle of murder food

@Robusto huh

Robusto

All eating that's not about photosynthesis involves murder food.

Mitch

Fruitarians

only eat the fruits.

Robusto

People are divided on that.

Mitch

4:34 PM

ie celery and broccoli and potatoes are out because you're killing the whole plant

so rice and wheat might be ok if you just shake off the seeds from the plant.

honey and milk are similarly ok

@Robusto Did you see the more recent Netflix series redo with Zoe Kravitz playing the John Cusack role?

Robusto

@Mitch No.

I don't see how that would work.

For me, High Fidelity was a perfect movie.

Perfectly cast, perfectly written, perfectly acted. A gem.

Mitch

4:49 PM

@Robusto It wasn't bad

I think it would work fine if you had never seen the original.

Robusto

Possibly. And yet, I did see the original.

Mitch

maybe not as iconic

Robusto

I would constantly be checking back with how the film did it. Quite a distraction.

Mitch

@Robusto You should change that, watch the remake, and then tell me.

Robusto

It's on Hulu, I think. Not Netflix. Or did Netflix acquire it?

Mitch

4:51 PM

@Robusto Didn't someone do a frame by frame remake of Psycho?

Robusto

Yeah, and what was the point of that?

Mitch

There are instances of when the movie was better than the book (2001: Space Odyssey is my canonical example), but are there examples where the remake is better than the original?

Robusto

And I really wish people would quit remaking A Star is Born.

How many times do I have to refuse to see a movie?

Mitch

@Robusto Because the director had the means to do it. For themselves.

@Robusto I have been very successful in not caring about that movie at all.

those movies

Planet of the Apes - remake was awful. Well executed technically, but awful.

Every Batman movie? Even the first one... I couldn't care less.

Robusto

Well, why not remake a Wes Anderson film with, say, David Hasselhoff in place of Bill Murray?

Mitch

4:54 PM

@Robusto takes notes

Robusto

@Mitch Yeah. Why do they keep remaking all these origin stories over and over?

Mitch

Or Pet Detective with Robin Williams instead of .. that other guy.

@Robusto Money

@Robusto Oh. I can't keep track of all those services. To me it's all 'TV' but now I have to switch between services and search each one individually

Robusto

I liked the original X-Men and the original Spiderman, and the original Hellboy. But then they had to try to force-feed me all this continuing bathos.

Mitch

They should make a remake of Star Wars

wait

That's what Return of the Jedi was. Mostly the same plot but with older characters.

Robusto

They should remake Birth of a Nation only as a Spike Lee film.

Mitch

4:58 PM

and ewoks

who would make great plush dog toys for their copious entrails

@Robusto spit take

Robusto