English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

JSBձոգչ

00:05

if your runt is cunning, go see a doctor

cornbread ninja

01:10

@JSBձոգչ I'll do that.

MετάEd

03:44

mmm ... passes around spiced roasted pumpkin seeds

MετάEd

04:04

So ... a new tab just appeared in my FF window. The URL being chrome://adblockplus/content/ui/firstRun.xhtml and the content being "Thank you for installing Adblock Plus".

FF != Chrome. confused

MετάEd

04:53

God help me, I'm trying again to make a good pie crust.

MετάEd

06:57

This year's pie baking experience. Might add a couple of photos later.

Cerberus

07:43

What a funny font.

MετάEd

It's old.

Let me find you a reference on it.

google.com/webfonts/specimen/IM+Fell+English

google.com/webfonts/specimen/IM+Fell+DW+Pica

It's the second one that I actually use (except for headlines).

Cerberus

@MετάEd It does look old.

MετάEd

I like how EL&U uses older looking fonts.

Cerberus

Only for the title, right?

@MετάEd Nice.

MετάEd

In the ampersand of the title you can clearly see that the & is "et".

And the pies are cooling.

Cerberus

07:59

Yes, there are several types of ampersand.

So how's the crust look?

And why does that recipe choose a crust without sugar and without egg?

MετάEd

Just took the photo ... should be posted in a bit.

Cerberus

Oh!

Great.

MετάEd

@Cerberus The ampersand I handwrite is very et-like.

Cerberus

Hmm.

MετάEd

I like et.

Cerberus

08:06

I hardly ever write it.

Probably because en is actually easier to write than &.

MετάEd

Sure.

There's another et sign. Some kind of shorthand.

Cerberus

Yes.

It looks a bit like pi.

Then there are many subtle variations on the ampersand.

MετάEd

The Tironian et.

Tironian notes

Tironian notes (') is a system of shorthand said to have been invented by Cicero's scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro. Tiro's system consisted of about 4,000 signs, somewhat extended in classical times to 5,000 signs. In the European Medieval period, Tironian notes were taught in monasteries and the system was extended to about 13,000 signs (see scribal abbreviations). The use of Tironian notes declined after 1100 but some use can still be seen through the 17th century. Note on sign counts Tironian notes can be themselves composites (ligatures) of simpler Tironian notes, the resulting ...

@Cerberus This didn't work. "Remote Linking Forbidden"

Cerberus

Yes, Tironian notes.

MετάEd

That's the one.

⁊

Cerberus

08:15

Yes.

There are many variantions on it too.

MετάEd

I like that it's used with Gaelic.

Cerberus

Yeah. A bit...artificial, though.

MετάEd

08:32

I suppose ... artifice being a good description of writing.

Cerberus

I mean in the 19th-century way.

MετάEd

09:12

1

Q: Follow Around The Suspect

Could the verb phrase "follow around" have some usage restriction about the placement of its direct object? Undercover police followed the suspect around. Undercover police followed around the suspect. Is the second sentence ambiguous or easily misinterpreted? EDIT: EXAMPLE OF WRONG...

grammar

This one looks like a Nortonn.

Cerberus

09:24

MετάEd

The worm in the apple, eh.

Cerberus

Or the serpent.

Even Adam and Eve eventually found out the apple was bad news.

And the other infamous apple was the source of great grief and war.

Shiny, but trollish.

Eris knew all there was to know.

MετάEd

69. I mean 42. I mean 23.

Cerberus

09:53

What?

What are these wicked, cryptic numbers?

MετάEd

The Illuminatus! Trilogy

The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magic-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, related to the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third and first person perspectives and jumps around in time. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology, and Discordianism. The trilogy comprises The Eye ...

Jez

hmm

MετάEd

hi hmm.

Jez

there seem to be some dresses that make girls' asses look bigger and curvier.

there's this girl whose ass is nice normally in trousers but in pencil skirts, god DAMN she's so sexy

it's not fair. how can she push my buttons so much?!?

MετάEd

10:09

@Jez You have big buttons maybe.

Jez

mmm

she'd like em if she tried em.

RegDwighт

10:23

This deleted answer is hilarious.

MετάEd

Yeah, I remember that one.

Great advice.

Gigili

Hallu.

Is it correct to say thank you for following up my case through someone?

Meaning to phone that person to find out what should be done and do it.

Really? Umm.

Are you always this slow on the uptake?

Cerberus

10:51

@Gigili Um I'm not sure I understand what you mean here.

"Thank you for following up on my case"?

Gigili

Yes, I know that part is correct.

Cerberus

I don't know what you mean by the other part.

Gigili

But what's the correct preposition to use? Through?

Cerberus

I don't understand it.

Gigili

For example, I ask you to call Mr.Something to ask what has happened to my project.

Matt Эллен

10:53

@Gigili do you mean you talked to someone who phoned someone else, and you want to thank the first person for making the phone call?

In that case I would use with, not through

Gigili

@MattЭллен I want to thank the one who made the phone call but I also would like to point out that there was someone else who helped him. Umm or something...

@MattЭллен OK, "with". Thank you.

Matt Эллен

no problem :)

Cerberus

11:39

developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

That's Google/Android's own graph.

Jez

11:53

@Cerberus my cyanogenmod says android 2.3.7

Cerberus

Abomination!

abominates you

joker13

12:20

anybody here up for some speaking exercise?

Robusto

12:57

My candidate for worst answer ever on EL&U.

I like @Reg's comment especially.

user19161

13:09

@Robusto Geezis.

user19161

@mahnax You are up early today!

user19161

@MετάEd Looks delicious! You must be a great cook!

RegDwighт

@Robusto I don't even remember which question it was on. And yet the answer does answer it most perfectly. So looks like my comment was very apropos. As always.

user19161

Mint 14 is out, grab it while fresh!

Mahnax

@WillHunting Yes indeed!

I had to call a potential employer back to talk about an interview.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

13:23

2

Jez

13:52

haha

the last slide is unrealistic tho

Robusto

@RegDwighт I like his clever introduction of the "endorsed and excused words" trope. Linguists, take notice: possible dissertation material!

BTW, that was in answer to this question:

6

Q: Usage of "many" vs "many a"?

Can someone please elucidate the difference between "many" and "many a". In what context of usage should we add an extra "a" beside the word "many"? For example: Many times, I had seen that..... vs Many a times, I had seen that.... I do not know if the example is accurate enough to...

word-usage

I only noticed it because someone made a comment on my answer.

BTW, @Reg, a question about German. The Bach Chorale Prelude BWV 646, entitled "Wo soll ich fliehen hin" — is that an archaic construction? Would a modern German be more likely to say "Wohin soll ich fliehen"? Or is it just another way to phrase that?

Cerberus

(I vote for archaic. Note that wo soll ich hinfliehen may also be a possibility.)

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Nice.

RegDwighт

15:07

@Robusto yeah, archaic or poetic license. You're right about your rephrasing, too. Cerberus's is kind of in-between, actually. It's normal but just a tad not normal enough.

Would be perfectly normal with a different verb, I guess. Hinfliehen is not as common as hingehen, say.

Robusto

15:31

@RegDwighт Yeah, good point about the poetic or lyrical license. Wohin soll ich fliehen wouldn't scan the same. Wo soll ich fliehen hin gives you iambs to work with.

RegDwighт

Only in China.

This guy and his wife refused to move out. So the highway was built around their home.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Makes getting the mail an adventure, I guess.

RegDwighт

Similar stuff does happen in Russia; all the time, in fact. But on a much smaller scale.

The Chinese are breaking our records!

Direct comparison:

Russia: OVER 9000, China: OVER 9000 times OVER 9000.

Cerberus

Great.

That'll teach those peasants progress.

Jez

15:52

CSS2 is, once again, evil.

it's amazing how when I think "vertical alignment", i know i'm going to spend the next few hours probably fruitfully searching for a solution

getting from here:

to here:

ought to be trivial.

With CSS, it's impossible.

Andrew Leach

16:10

@RegDwighт The UK highway authorities can do similar things with roads...

...but at least they use huge amounts of paint in the process.

RegDwighт

@AndrewLeach nice try, UK highway authorities.

Nov 14 at 16:11, by RegDwighт

We don't even need paint for that. We have nobler uses for it.

Andrew Leach

I'm strangely comforted by the knowledge of what the Russians can do. But there is always this...

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204630/…

RegDwighт

16:29

Meh. Three-foot letters are the absolute minimum size for misspellings in Russia.

But I gotta run.

Cerberus

16:41

@AndrewLeach I predict major chain crashes from people trying to read that.

MετάEd

17:18

@RegDwighт I don't see the funny.

@Jez It looks like a job for an inline-block.

@AndrewLeach My favorite response: "Now why does this NOT suprise me."

23 hours ago, by MετάEd

24 Nortonn S questions remain open.

Why has this number not changed.

Andrew Leach

18:22

@MετάEd This morning's question was closed and deleted.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus so they can't make graphs either!

Andrew Leach

I'd like to know when Nortonn's going to have his access cut off. There must be a way of doing it.

Although my helpful flag count is going up.

Jez

18:38

@MετάEd inline-block? how would an inline-block help?

cornbread ninja

19:23

howdy @Matt

Matt Эллен

halloo

cornbread ninja

lol

Matt Эллен

the end of podcast 37 is funny

the last 5 minutes or so

cornbread ninja

SE?

Matt Эллен

aye

cornbread ninja

19:25

I've only listened to one of those

Matt Эллен

soundcloud won't let me comment on it, which is annoying enough to whinge about, but not annoying enough to actually do anything about

@cornbreadninja yeah, I only listen occasionally

cornbread ninja

I wonder what the Sandy one is like.

Matt Эллен

I didn't listen to that one.

Cerberus

20:01

@MattЭллен Or perhaps someone else can't...

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus :Þ

Cerberus

Haha.

That's the way the world goes round.

Matt Эллен

Si

Jez

20:34

seen that one Matt. it's good.

it's incredible how mad religion is.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

20:59

So... are all the Americans off today?

Mahnax

21:39

Seems like it.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…