English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

00:56

I was lured to SO by a new comment pinging me, and when I got there, I found that there are 554 flags waiting to be processed, just on the 10k (20k?) queue alone. Madness!!!

MετάEd

01:37

Okay, everybody stop.

Cerberus

01:48

@MετάEd Wow!

11,111 is a nice colour to match your age.

And I like the white 1s wit the white bird.

Very harmonious.

tchrist

02:03

@Cerberus Ed hasn’t been effteen in quite some time now.

@Gigili You are right that there is something awry here, but it is not the if-would-if that makes it go off. It is the sequence of tenses being wrong. @Mitch seems to have misread it. The if part is in the wrong tense: it should be “if you ever pass, I would appreciate it if you could take a look.” The simple past would require a sequence of tenses more like “If you ever passed, you never bothered to stop by and give us a holler.”

tchrist

02:18

was pleased to learn that if you should bake half a kilogram of chestnuts for two kiloseconds in an oven set to half a kilokelvin, it follows that you should bake two kilograms of chestnuts for eight kiloseconds in an oven set to two kilokelvins

It’s an old KKK recipe.

cornbread ninja

03:07

@MετάEd nice!

Robusto

I wonder what a tanning parlor on the moon would look like. I'm imagining something like a camera shutter that would open for a second or two, expose you to the sun (through glass, of course), and then close. All done!

MετάEd

@tchrist I fell for it.

tchrist

@MετάEd Hope you didn’t start a fire.

MετάEd

No, only started the math.

cornbread ninja

03:23

resists writing billy joel lyrics

MετάEd

@cornbreadninja Admirable self control.

cornbread ninja

03:39

@MετάEd hey, I tried.

user19161

Just now someone posted a question in Esperanto! But someone else edited it into English.

cornbread ninja

howdy ho, jasper johns

I mean matt dam--I mean will hunting

user19161

Wait, what is johns? Is it like pirate speech?

user19161

@cornbreadninja No, you are matt!

cornbread ninja

the tv's in esperanto / you know that that's a bitch / but alienation's for the rich / and I'm feelin'poorer every day

@WillHunting jasper johns was an "artist"

Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns, Jr. (born May 15, 1930) is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking. Life Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed. He then spent a year living with his mother in Columbia, South Carolina and thereafter he spent several years living with his aunt Gladys in Lake Murray, South Carolina, twenty-two miles from Columbia. He completed high school in Sumter, South Carolina, where he once again lived with his mother. Recounting...

howdy @Mahnax

Mahnax

03:42

@cornbreadninja Hi there.

user19161

@Robusto I was reading up on sunblock and sunscreen and suntan lotion and apparently they are all different but the terminology is all mized up anyway so don't bother.

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax have you driven a Ford lately?

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja Hrmm, nope. Never driven a Ford, actually.

Just a Chevy, a Buick, and a Toyota.

cornbread ninja

google.com/…

user19161

I don't drive a Ford, but I drive a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other.

user19161

03:44

I can use chopsticks alright, but I prefer to use the fork.

Mahnax

All I know of Ford is Fix Or Repair Daily.

cornbread ninja

:(

user19161

I think BMWs feel really solid when you sit in them.

cornbread ninja

I am watching the UFC peripherally

it's over on the right

user19161

You really feel less impact in a BMW than any other brand.

cornbread ninja

03:45

they are in Montreal

user19161

@cornbreadninja What is UFC?

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting I'm not sure I've ever sat in a BMW.

user19161

Is it a KFC variant?

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting ultimate fighting championship

user19161

@cornbreadninja Is it boxing?

cornbread ninja

03:46

mixed martial arts

mixed marital arts

user19161

Why do these people fight and get bruises all over? I am a wuss, I won't do such things.

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja Haha.

cornbread ninja

They get like $75,000 a fight

@Mahnax :)

user19161

Wow, OK, good enough to be injured.

Mahnax

Here comes Nancy, looking for John! He got home too late last night and woke her up, plus he lost the car keys! He is in for a beatdown!

user19161

03:47

I like to watch Ninja Warriors.

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax y'know, throwing dinner parties and-- oh.

No, that's better.

user19161

Also, Who's Still Standing.

Mahnax

John has found the keys, and saved his hide for now! But Nancy is still fuming! He's off to buy her some roses, looks like.

cornbread ninja

rofl

user19161

@Mahnax What are you saying? Are you nuts?

cornbread ninja

03:49

2 mins ago, by cornbread ninja

mixed marital arts

Mahnax

John has returned with the roses, and Nancy has begrudgingly accepted them.

user19161

Is that the meaning of mized?

cornbread ninja

ninja warriors?

Mahnax

He went for a kiss on the cheek, but she evaded him; looks like they're still having a bit of a spat.

user19161

It's an obstacle course.

cornbread ninja

03:50

it's the marital part

marriage

Mahnax

Meanwhile, Linda and Rufus are arguing over whether the kids have to go to church!

Rufus is a Christian, but Linda is an atheist.

cornbread ninja

I'm on Team Linda

Mahnax

This could get interesting, folks! We'll be right back.

user19161

Geezis, I refuse to google and try to figure out all this myself.

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting which?

user19161

03:51

@cornbreadninja Well, UFC!

cornbread ninja

OIC

user19161

Is mahnax talking about UFC?

cornbread ninja

h-i-g-i-g-i-l-i

Gigili

@MετάEd You're right, thanks.

Mahnax

@WillHunting No, I'm talking about Mixed Marital Arts.

user19161

03:51

@Mahnax Is that another show?

Mahnax

@WillHunting sighs

cornbread ninja

hehe aww.

Mahnax

Sorry, I shouldn't be like that.

Gigili

Hi Corn! y-o-u-l-o-o-k-b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l-i-n-t-h-a-t-p-i-c-t-u-r-e.

Mahnax

Mixed Martial Arts is a sort of physical fighting.

cornbread ninja

03:53

@Gigili :D

Mahnax

Cornbread made a bit of a play on words by saying Marital arts, and I took it further.

user19161

@Gigili Not as beautiful as me.

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting truth.

Mahnax

Marital = of or relating to marriage

user19161

Oh, I just saw the typo!!!

user19161

03:54

HAHAHAHAHAHAH

cornbread ninja

yaaay :D

Mahnax

There we go! Hurray!

user19161

@Mahnax Yes, my English is much better than that you know.

Mahnax

@WillHunting Just making sure, hehe.

cornbread ninja

So what's shakin' tonight?

Or morning

user19161

03:55

Mized martial arts could mean male and female fighting!

user19161

What kind of competition would that be?

user19161

@gigili That passage has too many thanks, one will do.

Gigili

@tchrist Noted. Thank you for your explanation.

@WillHunting (Thank you)^n.

$$

cornbread ninja

$ps -ef

user19161

Wanna hear a stupid story?

Mahnax

03:59

I don't know, is it stupid?

Gigili

No stupid stories in this chat while I am here.

user19161

Ah never mind, don't feel like saying now.

Gigili

Anyway, I'm out of here. Toodles.

Mahnax

Bye Gigi.

user19161

@mahnax I saw your comment. Good observation.

Mahnax

04:00

@WillHunting Kiitos.

user19161

Yeah I am wondering why he did that, was it an April FOol's joke?

Mahnax

He was a little early [late?].

user19161

Or maybe he had too much whiskey!

Mahnax

whisk(e)y

user19161

anyway i shant be bothered with proper spelling in chat anymore

Mahnax

04:03

vomits

user19161

@corn Are you going to keep the matt pic forever?

Mitch

@cornbreadninja you have no culture.

user19161

@Mitch Hey did I tell you that I reached 24k already? So I am officially retired, yay!!!

Mitch

I thought you were going to 25K. What about infinity?

Relevantly:

►

exec summary: towards the end, he makes up the line at infinity out of points at infinity, all the directions from the origin.

user19161

@Mitch Hmm, I am not awre of this series of lectures. I have not watched many videos of this type, but i took a look at the MIT OCW.

Mitch

04:16

He's done a lot of them.

user19161

@mahnax That guy did not respond to the comments so he is probably concussed now...

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting it is back to tough corn on the main site

Mitch

Anybody from the south? How do you ask for a coke, when you want coca-cola and not a sprite? Because coke means soda down there.

user19161

@cornbreadninja Lemesee.

user19161

@Mitch Say coca cola then!

Mitch

04:28

@WillHunting I want to know how -they- do it naturally. I don't want to act like an NNS.

cornbread ninja

cornbread ninja, these united states

13.1k 2 27 49

user19161

@cornbreadninja Haha, I am gonna say the same thing, I can't tell if that is male or female.

cornbread ninja

so now that you've seen me, don't you think I look like that?

@Mitch does MetaEd count as a southerner?

user19161

@cornbreadninja Not really.

user19161

@Mitch What is a soda? Is it Sprite, 7-up, etc?

Mitch

04:31

@cornbreadninja I cant remember where he's from.

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting no, those are un-colas

Mitch

4

Q: Which is correct: "soda" or "pop"?

Depending on where you go in the world, some people will refer to a carbonated beverage as "soda" while others choose to use the term "pop." For example, "Can I get you a soda" vs. "Can I get you a pop." I assume they both came from "soda pop" and were shortened at some point. My question is if o...

word-choice american-english nouns dialects

user19161

@cornbreadninja I prefer pepsi to coca-cola.

user19161

KFC sells pepsi.

cornbread ninja

I used to like pepsi more.

it tastes too sweet now.

user19161

04:33

Pepsi is sweeter and has less gas.

cornbread ninja

Those are two of my New Year's resolutions; be sweeter and have less gas.

5

user19161

@cornbreadninja It's only November and you have resolitions?

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting naw

well, I guess I do now.

user19161

@cornbreadninja Oh it must be last year's!

user19161

@cornbreadninja Well, you should just be yourself really.

cornbread ninja

04:35

@WillHunting hehe

user19161

All pretences will show up eventually!

cornbread ninja

This morning, I farted in my sleep. It woke me up! I sleepily apologized to my bed partner.

user19161

Of course, trying to be a better person is another thing.

Mitch

@WillHunting in the us, the generic name for carbonated soft drinks varies by region. in the northeast and west, it's soda, in the midwest it is pop, and in the south it is coke.

cornbread ninja

This midwesterner says soda.

user19161

04:36

@Mitch HAHAHA, well here we only use brand names.

Mitch

So in the north east when ou want a coke you ask for a 'coke' . But I want to know how they ask fr it in the south.

cornbread ninja

I think they ask for confirmation. See the following mock exchange:

Waitress: Y'all want a coke?

You: Yeah

Mitch

@cornbreadninja you're just a self-hating midwesterner. no pride in your heritage...either that or no slave to fashion.

cornbread ninja

Waitress: what kind?

You: Coke

Mitch

OK. I wasn't sure about the pragmatics neither.

cornbread ninja

04:38

@Mitch I hate pop. To me, it's a work term meaning Point of Presence.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja I had you up until 'to me'. WTH is 'point of presence'? Sounds like a really tech-geeky musical name.

user19161

Coke here just means coca-cola I guess.

MετάEd

I sometimes hear that "coke" means something other than Coca-Cola but I have never, ever encountered it personally.

cornbread ninja

MετάEd

It seems almost mythical.

cornbread ninja

04:40

I'm sure it is prevalent around Atlanta.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja AhA! so you're from St louis, or the surrounding area. Or that map is crap. Or maybe you moved.

cornbread ninja

@Mitch KC

Mitch

@cornbreadninja hey hey hey?

cornbread ninja

@Mitch and the sunshine band

MετάEd

@cornbreadninja I have lived for more than 20 years in Texas counties which that map has marked as 80--100% "coke" as a generic name for a soda.

Mitch

04:41

@cornbreadninja They are -not- from Kansas.

@MετάEd and...what do you call 'it'?

cornbread ninja

@MετάEd the datas are crap.

MετάEd

And when people ask for "coke" they want Coca-Cola, at least in my personal experience.

Mitch

and were you born n raised there?

MετάEd

I moved here from Iowa.

Mitch

@MετάEd yeah...I thought that map was crap.

MετάEd

04:42

But I have lived with many natives and basically gone native myself.

Mitch

@MετάEd your driveway is longer than Israel is wide?

cornbread ninja

@MετάEd rhinestones?

Mitch

@cornbreadninja embossed boots?

cornbread ninja

@Mitch no, yeah, that's a better starting point.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja John Deere or cowboy hat?

cornbread ninja

04:44

gramma got run over by a john deere

@MετάEd what a nice change of winters.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja Is there a winter in far northern Texas?

MετάEd

@cornbreadninja Definitely

@cornbreadninja Ha. No rhinestones.

Mitch

@MετάEd "Y'all"?

MετάEd

@Mitch Constantly.

Mitch

@MετάEd best word ever. Normal English don't know what it's missing. Literally.

The whole soda thing is kind of misleading. No one says 'soda'. LIke @WillHunting, you only ask for the brand you want (Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, etc).

cornbread ninja

04:50

Wow!

MετάEd

@Mitch I'm Irish. We invented it.

Along with youse and yinz I might add.

Mitch

@MετάEd No way!

The Irish invented everything good about English. Except for deep fried Mars bars. The Scots did that.

MετάEd

I hasten to clarify that I am Irish by ancestry.

Mitch

Ah. Clarification. I will only overgeneralize and prejudge based on established generic labels.

Gigili

08:30

Is I don't have time to write bullshit grammatical? Is it the same as saying I don't have time for talking nonsense? It doesn't sound grammatical to me.

Perhaps I don't have time to bullshit around is better?

Or maybe it's even better when you try to be more polite and avoid using such words.

Ha!

Barrie England

0

Q: What's the meaning of this absolute phrase?

I guess ‘the way Seamus Finnigan told it’ is an absolute phrase. It seems to be meaning, ‘according to the way Seamus Finnigan told it.’ Can an absolute phrase have the kind of meaning? He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming arou...

absolute

I think we should call a halt to questions about the interpretation of J K Rowling’s prose.

9

Robusto

10:59

@Mahnax Wrong. I drive a Ford Fusion Hybrid, and it's never given me any trouble apart from the repairs it needed after I got blind-sided by someone who ran a stop sign, which can hardly be blamed on Ford. The idiot who "missed the brake" was driving a Toyota, btw.

@BarrieEngland Hear, hear. In fact, perhaps those could be deported to ELL.

tchrist

12:42

Our janitors seem to be letting Nordie run with it. Potemic has been going for a day now, and has four postings.

2

Q: "A brief stand-in"

Here is a sentence from the Economist that I don't understand: Since Mr Mandela retired in 1999, the country has been woefully led. For nine years it endured Thabo Mbeki’s race-tinted prickliness, so different from Mr Mandela’s big-hearted inclusiveness. Mr Mbeki’s denial of the link betwee...

adjectives word-usage writing-style collocation

And per usual, Barrie has answered him.

This one @Rob did:

-1

Q: A Hearing Due To Start

I need some advice on the word "due": Paper The lawyers, explaining in vague terms in an emergency hearing on Wednesday the sudden developments that sent him to the hospital, requested a delay in a routine pre-trial hearing due on Thursday. There was no word on Holmes' current condition....

grammar

It has his unmentionable trademarks.

Robusto

@tchrist Oh, is this a Nortonn?

tchrist

I think so. It has 6+ features of him.

Robusto

I'm not as discerning so early in the morning. I will remove my answer, apropos though it may be.

tchrist

I could be wrong, of course. But his style of framing question, his style of comment, his using a punny user name, his attracting high-rep users :)

If there were a janitor around, it would be easier, because they could check Certain Other Things.

He never has other accounts, he never posts answers.

Robusto

Well, I'm about to stop answering questions altogether. Again. There's nothing good to answer anymore, and when there is something the Brits have first crack at it overnight.

Meanwhile, coffee.

tchrist

12:49

I’d rather not say much more about his style of question and comment, but it extends both to syntax and to typography. The comment rejoinders often begin with So,.

Remember, today is Crapday on ELU. Every Sunday is.

I am amused by Barrie’s call for a moratorium on Rolling Prose.

Courtesy of NPR, the word for the week is spatchcock, which can be both a noun and a verb. You can have a spatchcock for breakfast, and your bird can be spatchcocked.

1. A fowl split open and grilled after being killed, plucked, and dressed in a summary fashion. Also attrib. Orig. in Irish use, later chiefly Anglo-Indian.
1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar T., ― Spatch cock, abbreviation of a dispatch cock, an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion. It is a hen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled.
1819 Moore Mem. (1853) II. 317 ― We had a good deal of laughing at an Irishman who was of our party, on account of a bull he had made at breakfast, and which we called ‘half a nightingale’-a sort of ‘spatch-cock nightingale’.

1901 Bradley Highw. & B. Lake District 62 ― Any official··would have run a grave risk of being made a spatchcock of, or in other words, of his head being stuck in a rabbit‐hole, and his legs staked to the ground.

1. trans. To cook as, or in the manner of, a spatchcock. Hence ˈspatchcocked ppl. a.
1890 Queen 11 Jan. 68/3 ― To split a fowl in two and serve one half à la Marengo, and the other half the next day either spatchcocked with mushrooms, or in any other approved fashion.

2. To insert, interpolate, or sandwich (a phrase, sentence, etc.). Const. in or into.
1901 Gen. Buller in Times 11 Oct. 10/2, ― I therefore spatchcocked into the middle of that telegram a sentence in which [etc.].
1903 Mahaffy in Cal. St. P., Irel. Introd. 12 ― We read phrases of apparent sincere religious fervour spatchcocked in between these bloodthirsty expressions.

b. To add to, or modify, by interpolation.
1901 Daily Chron. 24 Oct. 5/6 ― They knew of the spatch‐cocked telegram then.
1901 Speaker 16 Nov. 190/1 ― Generals spatchcock telegrams and receive dismissal.

tchrist

13:26

Oh give this man your votes:

1

A: What is the origin of the different pronunciations of C and G before different vowels?

The vowels represented in most European lanaguages (but not English) by /a/, /o/, and /u/ are back vowels: in pronouncing them the tongue is positioned back toward the throat. The vowels represented by /e/ and /i/ are front vowels: the tongue is positioned toward the front of the mouth. The /k/ ...

Robusto

13:44

Wow, it's flag city in here.

@tchrist Most verbs and nouns can switch roles.

tchrist

13:59

@Robusto Which here is here? You mean SO’s flag city, or us?

@Robusto Or most words can serve as either role.

Robusto

@tchrist There were 12 flags here when I came back.

tchrist

Oh, in chat.

I never see those. I saw just one this morning. But it is because I am not usually in this window, and they seem to have fixed the bug of dismissed flags not evaporating in chat.

I have never seen more than a blue ❷ here, I think.

As doth Nature a vacuum abhor, so too doth ELU suffer not a zero-scored question to long endure in that neutral state.

It’s hard to find any zeroes here.

tchrist

15:08

foolnrony

11 1

meaning prepositions phrasal-verbs

He asked Nordie questions, but doesn’t use Nordie style.

Unlike this one, who does both:

potomec

24 3

grammar word-usage writing-style adjectives collocation

RegDwighт

TIL that Indian is a potentially offensive word.

I do wonder, is there a word that is not potentially offensive?

It's a nationality. Come on.

tchrist

@RegDwighт TIL?

RegDwighт

Today I learned.

Welcome to the Internet.

tchrist

Ta.

YANETUT.

@RegDwighт Is this the Eskimo problem, or the Pakistani problem, or the Canadian problem, or the Red Indian problem, or the Brahmin problem?

RegDwighт

You asking me?

tchrist

15:14

Well, I wondered which group it was that you today learned might be offended.

RegDwighт

english.stackexchange.com/posts/6996/revisions

Number 23.

So far the group is Lynn.

tchrist

Certainly there is no shortage of people to be offended. Some 9 billions of them, at last count.

RegDwighт

I am offended by that.

And now I must do laundry. These offences just won't stop!

tchrist

@RegDwighт That is ridiculous. No one would upon hearing it confuse Indian with Endian or In Dion.

Whereas iGlue is offensive to Prisoners of Bill.

RegDwighт

Celine Dion is offensive, I'll give you that.

tchrist

15:17

That’s rather what I was thinking.

RegDwighт

I'm off to the cellar.

tchrist

Yes, it is surely laundry day.

tchrist

15:30

χ-mas is slang?

tchrist

15:46

@RegDwighт Why can’t people sort? Is English so difficult?

C Original: Car, Candy, Cat, Cellphone, Child, Circle, Coffee, Computer, Cup
C Collated: Candy, Car, Cat, Cellphone, Child, Circle, Coffee, Computer, Cup

S Original: Seal, Skunk, Snake, Snow, Smoke, Strawberry, Sun
S Collated: Seal, Skunk, Smoke, Snake, Snow, Strawberry, Sun

X Original: Xylophone, X-mas, X-ray
X Collated: X-mas, X-ray, Xylophone

See here for the tool to do this. I will fix the post.

Mahnax

@Robusto I wasn't serious, of course. I've never driven or owned a Ford, so to me they're just as good as any other car (or possibly better, I wouldn't know).

tchrist

16:28

There, my good janitorial deed for the day is done: if that isn’t just about infinitely improved, I’m a monkey’s uncle:

8

A: I'm trying to teach Non-English kids the alphabet. What is a good list of words starting with A-Z?

This is a community-edited answer that anyone with more than 100 reps can improve. The sublist for each letter is sorted alphabetically, with the word used by the NATO Phonetic Alphabet for that letter set in bold. Judge for yourself which word best suits your purposes. A — Alpha, Ant, Apple. B...

It was bloody unmaintainable, sorted wrong, had the wrong URLs, blah blah blah.

Compare my source with the previous source. I mean, like seriously, dude!

@RegDwighт Can’t users with < 100 reps now edit CWs, subject to approval/rejection like any other edit?

Robusto

@RegDwighт Dots or feathers? Because if it's feathers, the ones I've talked to (including Lakotah Sioux out on the Pine Ridge reservation) call themselves that, or just skins, which is short for redskins. I saw bumper stickers on their cars that said "Skins Are In!" And if it's dots, well, none of the dozens of those I work with have a problem with being called Indian. Most likely it's just a bunch of PC folks who are on their behalf in either case.

tchrist

16:53

0

Q: Can someone please explain the following passage from Milton's Paradise Lost?

I understand all the words, but not quite the meaning of the following passage, from Milton's Paradise Lost, Book I: 635 For me be witness all the host of heaven, 636 If counsels different, or danger shunn'd, 637 By me, have lost our hopes, Also, I'd like to know if there are some ref...

meaning literature interpretation

@Barrie very recently became Legendary. Why no fanfare?

Robusto

You can send him a fruit basket if you like.

RegDwighт

@Robusto no idea, ask Lynn. As I said, I don't find either offensive.

Robusto

I don't get exercised when people call me a Yank, either.

Who gives a fuck?

tchrist

That’s because Yank as used by Brits is not a swear word.

As used by Suvverners, it is.

Robusto

I also don't care if rednecks call me that.

tchrist

16:59

When they say Yankee, it’s a nasty name. When Brits say Yank, it’s just what they say.

Cerberus

@Robusto Ah! Just as I thought.

RegDwighт

@tchrist Hm. Tom, I'm not sure the NATO alphabet is a good addition. We are talking about children. Pineapples to boot. The whole point of the question is not to have a copy of the NATO alphabet (which makes it gen-ref anyway). How do you picture Lima for children? Juliet? Heck, they won't even care about Quebec or Alpha.

Anyway I think the question needs closed with a historical-importance notice. Wouldn't have survived today. So it shouldn't.

tchrist

Anyway, I always thought the Northern equivalent to Yankee was Traitor.

@RegDwighт I’ll take it out if you’d like, but it seems weird not to have it as part of the rest.

And people really pick lame words, too.

Robusto

@Cerberus Meant to say: "Most likely it's just a bunch of PC folks who are being offended on their behalf in either case.

tchrist

I wanted to sneak in India without getting yelled at for, nor by, Indians.

Cerberus

17:00

Yeah I got that.

We always say Indianen in Dutch.

Robusto

@tchrist Keep saying India in chat and you're gonna get flagged.

Cerberus

The adjective being Indiaans.

People from India are Indiaas.

RegDwighт

@tchrist Nah no need to edit that thing yet again, I guess. It's already too much back-and-forth. Ice cream has been added for the zillionth time. Nobody reads the comments. Meh. Kill with fire.

I was thinking about ice cream myself (it even had to do with the question at hand), but I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be a perfect fit as it is two words. — RegDwighт Dec 18 '10 at 12:35

I mean, come on. That's two years ago. And that's two years of people not being able to read it.

I would suggest that any additions adhere to the following rules: 1) a noun, 2) as common as possible, 3) not abstract, can be easily pictured, 4) as short as possible (I think even mountain is too long, let alone xylophone). To sum it up: think of the children! — RegDwighт Dec 18 '10 at 15:47

Cerberus

And one person from India is probably an Indiaer, or Indiër, but then Indonesians could be called Indiërs too...so confusing.

Robusto

How about ichthyosaur?

Cerberus

17:03

We call those American.

I.e. fishy.

RegDwighт

Locked. And dinner time.

tchrist

►

Cerberus

Ask Reg about Fishy.

Robusto

@Cerberus You are so getting flagged.

Cerberus

You're not leaving, are you, Fishy?

@Robusto Not again!

Robusto

17:04

@Cerberus No. I'm still here, Cheese Breath. So do something. puts up fists

Cerberus

Hehe.

Very well.

I remember talking about ichthyosaurs in this presentation in primary school.

I was a dinosaur fandog.

Robusto

Jun 15 '11 at 12:48, by Robusto

Speaking of disappointment, I thought when I hit 40K rep there'd be, like, fruit baskets or Balloon-O-Grams or something. You know.

Cerberus

Even before they became in, with Juressic Park and all.

Robusto

Juressic Park? That's the Downton Abbey pronunciation, I suppose.

Cerberus

Hmm I need to log in and out, one moment.

tchrist

17:07

►

Cerberus

Cute.

How very educational.

@Robusto Oh, wait.

Hey, give me a break, I was 14 or so, back then.

I did know the Jura.

From the mountain range.

Robusto

@Cerberus What, during the Jurassic period?

Cerberus

Yes.

What else could I mean?

D'oh.

Robusto

Hell of a time to be growing up. Exciting, though.

Cerberus

I know you're from the Trias.

Which was a bit mellower.

Robusto

17:14

Nope. Cretaceous all the way, baby.

Cerberus

Uhh you wish!

Robusto

You can chalk it up to my Cretaceous habits.

Cerberus

Inject botox all you like...

Haha.

I do not, for thou art thoroughly Triassic.

Dost thou understandan me in this dialect closer to that of thy childhood?

Perhaps I should practice more, like Tchrist's dinosaur.

Robusto

@Cerberus Grawkk'skikh!!

That's my warning sound.

So back off, buddy.

Cerberus

Ah.

But, see, I'm a Cerberosaur.

tchrist

17:18

Thunder Chickens are out, Bouncing Bears are in.

Cerberus

In our age, we grow bigger.

Wtf?

That bear fell from a tree? I thought bears couldn't climb?

Robusto

@tchrist Tell them they need a comma. Christ, even our punctuation throws down harder than theirs.

Cerberus

Asia is funny.

Robusto

@Cerberus Grizzly bears can't. They just knock the trees down. But black bears can and do climb trees.

Cerberus

Ugly tile floor, beautiful PM.

@Robusto I see. And do you mean all-black bears (which I think are dangerous), or the ones with a yellowish snout, like this one?

Robusto

17:20

@Cerberus Only if that's how they go to the bathroom in Asia.

@Cerberus I don't get close enough to examine the snouts, in most cases.

Cerberus

Somehow I don't think they let Obama sign something in a bathroom.

The bear in the picture seems to have a yellow snout.

tchrist

American Bears, not Horrible Bears. How often must this be repeated?

Robusto

Until Cerberus gets it.

He's had to stay after school before, you know.

tchrist

Obviously.

Cerberus

I still don't.

tchrist

17:22

For all the good it didn’t.

Cerberus

Are you saying all American black bears have yellow snouts?

Robusto

Gah, there's nothing for it. I have to go out and get some exercise. Nice day and all. Holidays coming.

Lateur.

Cerberus

Bye.

tchrist

Look up the Latin, kid.

Cerberus

Say hi to Lateur.

tchrist

17:24

Ursus americanus ≠ Ursus arctos horribilis. QED.

Carlo_R.

19:35

It seems that the David Wallace' user profile is no longer in ELU.

What's happen. He was my friend, and I'm afraid he is no longer here.

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