English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

David Wallace

08:11

@MετάEd American political snarking goes over my head. Sorry.

I live in a cardboard box.

user19161

@mah What have you become?

MετάEd

Campaign for "santorum" neologism

In May 2003, the columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage held a contest among his readers to create a definition for the word "santorum" Savage announced the winning entry, which defined "santorum" as "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex." He created a web site, spreadingsantorum.com (and santorum.com), to promote the definition, which became a prominent search result for Santorum's name on several web search engines. In 2010 Savage offered to take the site down if Santorum donated US$5 million to Freedom to Marry, a group advoca...

user19161

I wonder when corn will change out of matt.

Mahnax

@WillHunting A Dostoevsky!

user19161

@Mahnax Ah! Mahnax has gone mad!

Mahnax

08:22

@WillHunting …no!

David Wallace

@MετάEd That's just nasty.

MετάEd

@DavidWallace Totally.

Mahnax

@MετάEd Yuck.

David Wallace

I was about to go and have dinner; but since the mention of the frothy mixture of lube and faecal matter, I think I would prefer to wait for a while.

RegDwighт

13:49

1

A: Why do Americans say "tuna fish"?

The words tuna[fish], tone[=1000Kgr] and tone[in music] are written or pronounced the same in many countries of the world. Etymology is probably Greek or Latin, -I believe is Greek but not 100% sure-. So the point is, it has to be some distinction that characterizes what kind of "tone" we are tal...

I do wonder who upvotes such utter crap.

tchrist

And here I thought I was just being a sourpuss about it.

RegDwighт

14:05

Well, all the inaccuracies aside, it does not even attempt to address the question as stated.

It's all smoke and mirrors, and the smoke and mirrors are wrong.

Really quite abysmal.

Cerberus

14:20

Hello.

I'm making hazelnut praliné.

For filled chocolates.

Or whatever you call them in English, praliné aux noisettes.

tchrist

I don’t know that we have words for those.

We just call them Belgian chocolates. :)

And I have no earthly idea how one goes about making them.

I don’t imagine we might have a turdid expert on hand here?

Cerberus

It's very simple, the filling.

Joseph Weissman

Yay, chocolate filling!

Cerberus

Caramelize sugar, add roasted hazelnuts, let it cool off, smash the result to pieces, grind pieces in blender.

tchrist

Sounds like Christmas fare.

Cerberus

14:25

@JosephWeissman Yeah, I am planning to coat them in dark chocolate, or some chocolate ganache with cocoa powder on the outside.

What's that?

Joseph Weissman

Cerberus

(The only think I am afraid of is that it doesn't turn out very well if you fail to grind it fine(ly) enough.

I am very glad to hear that you like chocolate.

I really don't understand it, but there are people who don't care much for chocolate.

Or cheese.

Or bacon.

Joseph Weissman

I've known people who claim they don't like music.

Cerberus

Haha no way!

I do know musical omnivores, who don't seem to care much about what they're listening to exactly.

Joseph Weissman

Yeah, it's one of the weirder ones.

Also, I've heard "I don't really care for food/sex"...

People are strange.

Cerberus

14:28

Heh.

Yes, I know food omnivores too.

tchrist

Chocolate, cheese, and bacon? Ew!

Joseph Weissman

HERETIC

Cerberus

As to sex, they probably mean it was usually not very pleasant in their experiences with other people.

@tchrist You're lying and you know it.

Joseph Weissman

(Yeah. That one actually makes some sense.)

tchrist

@Cerberus You forget: I don’t eat meat.

Cerberus

14:31

(I must say I feel that many people enjoy casual sex more than I do. Or perhaps they enjoy the desire, even though the actual act is not always that enjoyable for them?)

No meat? Why not? Well, there's still cheese and chocolate.

Joseph Weissman

And deep fried, cheese-injected, chocolate-covered bacon.

Cerberus

Uhhh...

Chocolate-covered bacon sex, to Mozart's Leck mir den Arsch — no thanks.

Joseph Weissman

Cuisine of the Southern United States

The cuisine of the Southern United States is defined as the historical regional culinary form of states generally south of the Mason Dixon Line dividing Pennsylvania from Maryland and Delaware as well as along the Ohio River, and extending west to southern Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The most notable influences come from English, Scottish, Irish, German, French, Native American, and African American cuisines. Tidewater, Appalachian, Cajun, Creole, Lowcountry, and Floribbean are examples of types Southern cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread north, hav...

Cerberus

Leck mich im Arsch

"Leck mich im Arsch" (literally "Lick me in the arse") is a canon in B-flat major composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 231 (K. 382c), with lyrics in German. It was one of a set of at least six canons probably written in Vienna in 1782. Sung by six voices as a three-part round, it is thought to be a party piece for his friends. English translation A literal translation of the song's title and lyrics into English would be "Lick me in the ". A more idiomatic translation would be "Kiss my arse!" Publication and modern discovery Mozart died in 1791 and his widow, Constanze Mozart...

tchrist

@Cerberus I won’t eat anything whose life I could not bring myself to take, and I consider paying other people to do my murders for me to be highly immoral.

Cerberus

14:34

@JosephWeissman Do they eat bacon with chocolate?

@tchrist Okay, fair enough.

Joseph Weissman

They eat bacon with everything.

Cerberus

Odd.

tchrist

@Cerberus That piece is normally translated idiomatically, not literally.

Cerberus

So...

Joseph Weissman

I like that Mozart wrote pieces where the lyrics are talking about "Kiss my ass, Goethe!"

tchrist

14:35

The question is whether to use lick or kiss, though.

Cerberus

@JosephWeissman Goethe, even?

Joseph Weissman

I guess it's actually a bowdlerized adaptation.

Cerberus

You know what time it is?

Nut-crushing time!

Joseph Weissman

Cerberus

That you?

I'm giving them a few more minutes to harden.

They still feel luke warm.

Joseph Weissman

14:40

Just a reaction face to your announcement that "nut-crushing time" had commenced

Cerberus

Heh.

I do hope the praliné won't fail.

I think I over-roasted the nuts a little bit.

Cerberus

14:54

So texture turned out very well.

And it tastes good, but over-roasted.

Alas.

So I don't feel it would go well with chocolate.

I shall have to buy new hazelnuts.

Somehow they're freaking expensive...

It is possible that I also over-heated the caramel, but it looked fine.

This just tastes too...smoky.

Not for hazelnuts in general, but way too much for praliné.

> Lorsque vous pouvez touchez les noisettes du doigt, cassez la masse en gros morceaux afin d’accélérer le refroidissement. C’est le moment le plus difficile car il faut résister à l’envie de tout manger.

From a praliné recipe.

Funny.

Notice the typo touchez<toucher.

tchrist

15:23

Yes, that amuses.

user19161

15:41

@Cerberus That looks like shit.

user19161

Hey @matt!

Matt Эллен

hi @WillHunting

user19161

@MattЭллен How is your NaNoWriMo?

Matt Эллен

it's going ok

I'm at 42053

nanowrimo.org/en/participants/neomojo/novels/the-ring-182452/…

Cerberus

16:36

Okay, I have bought new hazelnuts.

cornbread ninja

Finally. Geez.

Ooh, are you making nutella?

user19161

@cornbreadninja Hey, are we supposed to see matt now or something else?

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting smoking corn. :(

user19161

@cornbreadninja Oh dear, the gravatar is messed up man!

Cerberus

Hazelnut praliné.

tchrist

16:49

@RegDwighт Why did you tag the delight question with nouns?

RegDwighт

I knew someone would ask that.

Just a guess. Tag it with verbs as well if you want to.

user19161

Reg loves to have many tags for questions. I love to have few tags for my own questions, so don't retag mine.

RegDwighт

Any one tag is utterly useless on its own.

We have five slots, so we use them.

I'd rather have eight.

user19161

I rather have none.

RegDwighт

That much is clear.

You don't want your questions to be found.

Perhaps because you don't want them to be answered.

tchrist

16:59

pops popcorn

RegDwighт

That is original. How about pushing popcorn for a change?

Matt Эллен

ma's popcorn

tchrist

I could also corn it.

Um, is this really buyable?

It means that most people don't spell consistently, and this is no longer a problem, now that more and more people read cooperatively, since they, along with search engines and writing software, can figure it out, whether it's spelt the way they expect or not. Technology changes, a fact that applies to all technology, including literacy. — John Lawler 24 mins ago

He had said that “spelling has no use”, and that is his explanation.

user19161

@tchrist I think I should delete my answer on the colon now that Stony has given his.

tchrist

What, and lose his very useful comment?

user19161

17:09

@tchrist In the "List of Abbreviations, Signs, &c" it is said that "in the Etymol. [...] :— = extant representative, or regular phonetic descendant of" — StoneyB 3 mins ago

user19161

Here, specially for you!

tchrist

Déjà lu.

And here I always thought :- was an emoticon for folks who couldn’t find the ♂ on their keyboard.

user19161

-1

Q: In the context of this poem is the correct English piss flaps or piss-flaps?

In this poem is the correct English piss flaps or piss-flaps http://www.scribd.com/doc/32943004/Aghani-Al-Kus-erotic-poetry

user19161

Deja vu!

tchrist

You already saw a question where people piss flaps, or a person flaps piss?

user19161

17:24

I think the question was last year, not sure if it is deleted.

tchrist

And why the pity bump?

user19161

Probably deleted, can't find it anymore.

user19161

Might be the same person who is trying to get an answer, or maybe just trolling.

tchrist

5

Q: Why is there a fly in my pants?

There's a fly in my pants! Why is the zipper on pants called a fly? I searched etymonline for "fly" and found nothing related to pants. Is this a particularly American usage, or more global?

meaning etymology

I believe that would be your piss-flap, n’est-ce pas?

Cerberus

@JohnLawler: It is not so simple. Uniform spelling has various advantages, some of which have only become more important in the digital age. For one thing, people read a text for a significant part based on the shape of a word, not letter by letter, and varying spelling can change this shape radically. It is easier and quicker if the same word always has the same shape—although of course a certain degree of flexibility is not necessarily a problem. Secondly, digital search engines are often not very good ad handling spelling variants, especially incidental, accidental, and new ones. — Cerberus 28 secs ago

@tchrist Told you he was a radical.

tchrist

17:29

@WillHunting Well, @RegDwighт should be able to verify that by searching deleted questions. I couldn’t find anything but the cited fly question myself.

@Cerberus I hadn’t realized it ran so deep.

user19161

@tchrist That question is on the exact same poem!

Cerberus

@tchrist Oh, but I did.

All very political.

tchrist

Be careful about searching for piss flaps in general: apparently it is some kidslang for labia majora.

@WillHunting That is quite curious then.

RegDwighт

@tchrist you can search the chat transcript.

Feb 17 at 14:01, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

0

Q: Is the correct English pissflaps or piss-flaps

Is the correct English pissflaps or piss-flaps in this poem http://www.scribd.com/doc/32943004/Aghani-Al-Kus-erotic-poetry

grammar

Feb 17 at 14:24, by RegDwight Ѭſ道

0

Q: why do you keep closing this question about pissflaps or piss-flaps-What are you afriad of

why do you keep closing this question about pissflaps or piss-flaps http://www.scribd.com/doc/32943004/Aghani-Al-Kus-erotic-poetry

discussion

tchrist

I see.

user19161

17:30

HAHAHAHA

tchrist

Twoll?

RegDwighт

He had more of that kind. All pointing to the same site. All about poetry. All about sex.

user19161

Could this guy be Nortonn S accomplice?

RegDwighт

I think he pretended to be from Iran.

tchrist

Different MO.

RegDwighт

17:32

Oh I see. Now he calls himself Afghani.

tchrist

Maybe he’s trying to prove that people are racist about racy Persians. He should see whether he might get more upvotes for Catallus.

Imbalanced nutter, then.

RegDwighт

@tchrist trying? I think he openly stated just that. What a bunch of fucking prudes we all were. Or, more to the point, not fucking prudes.

user19161

I know two people who come to this chat from Iran, but I have to keep mum.

tchrist

@Cerberus I am just not going to answer him. There is too much there that boggles me.

Cerberus

@WillHunting Everybody knows.

@tchrist I did.

tchrist

17:34

@Cerberus Good.

Cerberus

It is true that sometimes orthographical uniformity is overemphasised.

I can sympathise so far.

RegDwighт

I do wonder who upvoted him.

This site is full of trolls.

I mean it's Sunday for crying out loud.

user19161

@RegDwighт Me. Sorry. I don't know why I like that question.

Cerberus

I think you have answered your own question.

tchrist

Sunday = Crapday@ELU

RegDwighт

17:35

It takes quite a boatload of trolls to have every crap get upvoted within five minutes of its getting posted at all times ever.

user19161

I AM A TROLL!

tchrist

But I was thinking the long American weekend might have thinned them out some.

RegDwighт

@WillHunting tell us something new.

tchrist

@WillHunting Don’t you ever run out of pity-votes?

RegDwighт

I think upvotes should cost rep.

tchrist

17:36

jinx

RegDwighт

I said that before, I think.

It should be a closed economy.

user19161

@tchrist That was not really a pity vote. Something about piss flaps made me click upvote.

RegDwighт

I also said something similar about questions.

tchrist

Zero sum game.

@WillHunting labia majora?

RegDwighт

That the number of questions should be limited. You want to ask a new one, you have to delete an old one first.

user19161

17:37

@tchrist =)

tchrist

0

Q: English podcasts or videos - request

I'm looking for websites which have podcasts or videos in English (British English). If you know some please share the links.

british-english resources learning

On your marks. . . .

user19161

@tchrist I cast a delete vote, on your marks...

user19161

@RegDwighт I AM CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!

tchrist

0

Q: How to examine vowel length phonetically and phonologically?

Stress on the 'phonetically' and 'phonologically' bit cos havent got a clue! I understand what phonology and phonetics mean but to relate it to the task, I cant think of the how. All greek to me!

phonology

How the hell can anybody think that that sort of crap spelling is acceptable here?

RegDwighт

Frigg this. I am going back to LEGO. This just won't stop. We're treading water.

Lators gators.

Meysam

17:56

helo

what is the meaning of "stained with a blue bag" in this? "Nothing was left in it but a lump of gritty yellow soap in one corner of the kitchen window sill and a piece of flannel stained with a blue bag in another"

tchrist

I have no idea.

user19161

@Meysam Hmm, I don't know. Doesn't seem to be an idiom.

user19161

Is there a blue bag for staining things in the story?

Meysam

I found it in the first paragraph of this page: nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/…

Link

Hi

can anyone explain what a dangling modifier is?

it keeps coming up on my sat practice tests, but i don't know what it is :C

user19161

18:02

Dangling modifier

A dangling modifier (a specific case of which is the dangling participle) is an ambiguous grammatical construct, often considered an error in prescriptivist accounts of English, whereby a grammatical modifier could be misinterpreted as being associated with a word other than the one intended, or with no particular word at all. For example, a writer may have meant to modify the subject, but word order makes the modifier seem to modify an object instead. Such ambiguities can lead to unintentional humor or difficulty in understanding a sentence in formal contexts. A typical example of a dang...

Link

@WillHunting, multichatting too eh?

thanks

i get it now :p

tchrist

Upvotes for mangled spelling now?

Tsk!

Cerberus

@Meysam Yeah I have no idea either. Perhaps it is some typical element of NZ culture that we have never heard of?

Meysam

@Cerberus I dont know. I will ask it on the site

Cerberus

Yeah...there were some other things in that story that I didn't understand.

user19161

18:13

@Meysam OK, I will upvote it!

Meysam

Thank you!

I am thinking of posting the whole story as a question

user19161

english.stackexchange.com/badges/61/sportsmanship

user19161

So few people have the sportsmanship badge.

Meysam

@WillHunting I posted it. Please upvote!

0

Q: What's the meaning of "stained with a blue bag" in this text?

In a story titled "Prelude" written by "Katherine Mansfield" I came across the following sentence in this paragraph: After tea Kezia wandered back to their own house. Slowly she walked up the back steps, and through the scullery into the kitchen. Nothing was left in it but a lump of grit...

meaning-in-context

cornbread ninja

19:37

@tchrist hey now.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting - it's a visual perception thing - a small amount of blue makes white things look brighter

user19161

@MattЭллен Hmm, maybe.

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting well, it's what I was taught at school.

user19161

20:03

@Meysam Your question might become very hot.

Mahnax

@Matt How goes your novel?

Matt Эллен

@Mahnax I've just passed 43K

how is your coming?

Mahnax

@MattЭллен Wow! Nice.

Matt Эллен

thanks :)

Mahnax

I'm at 39.5k, but tonight is catch-up night.

Matt Эллен

20:14

good, good! I saw someone on twitter say they had 42K left to go /facepalm

Mahnax

Haha.

I have a friend who's already done.

Matt Эллен

!!

are they editing it now?

have you read it though yet?

Mahnax

50022 words thus far—I'm not sure if he's done writing or not.

Matt Эллен

oh

wow

I'm not sure I have enough story left to go beyond 50K. I'm having to stretch it thin as it is!

Mahnax

Likewise. I hit a bit of a wall a few thousand words ago, but I'm working on getting around it.

Matt Эллен

20:16

glad to hear it. I had the same problem at 25K

i'm sure you have loads left to write about, you've just not realised it yet :D

Mahnax

I hope so!

user19161

The three Matts are here now. Matt Ellen, Mahnax and Matt Damon. QED.

Mahnax

Today is the Grey Cup.

Matt Эллен

Grey Cup?

Mahnax

Canadian Football championship game.

Essentially, I get snacks and pop, so I'm happy.

Matt Эллен

20:19

yay! :D

Mahnax

Yes indeed! So I'm trying to get my homework done before the game starts so I can write afterwards.

Matt Эллен

good thinking. I'm trying to get 1k more in before bed

user19161

@MattЭллен gives you 1k of words

user19161

@Mahnax does your homework

Matt Эллен

@WillHunting ta! tries to fit them into the story

Mahnax

20:22

@WillHunting Wow, thanks!

…but why is it in Chinese?

user19161

@Mahnax More importantly, why are all the answers wrong?!

Mahnax

@WillHunting I can't tell, it's in Chinese!

Cerberus

20:47

Hello @Tolstoy.

cornbread ninja

@Mahnax your pythons!

Mahnax

@Cerberus Nope.

Cerberus

Excuse me?

Mahnax

I don't see Tolstoy anywhere here.

Matt Эллен

how rude! That's a picture of Mahnax

Cerberus

20:49

Well.

Mahnax

user19161

@cornbreadninja Your Matt!

user19161

Ooh, I just got some presents...

user19161

But I want more, more!

Cerberus

Huh, is that really Fyodor?

Well, it had to be one or the other.

tchrist

21:01

I am so going to shoot the next apostrophe-s question, and dressing it up in ad hoc mathematics about the Theory of Bayes isn't going to protect it from my wrath.

Mahnax

@Cerberus Ayup.

Cerberus

I like him.

user19161

0

Q: Books for foreiners

I'm learning English as my second language and I'm still making some minor and some huge mistakes during writing and speaking. I know where I can find some grammar books, but I don't know how to improve my vocabulary, especially in context of common phrases. Recently I had an idea, that maybe s...

books

user19161

On your marks...

Mahnax

@Cerberus As do I.

user19161

21:17

@Mahnax Is that supposed to be Theodore?

Cerberus

Good, good.

Mahnax

@WillHunting Pardon?

user19161

@Mahnax Fyodor.

Mahnax

@WillHunting No, it's Fyodor.

Matt Эллен

beat you to it @Will!

user19161

21:19

@Mahnax Exactly, my question is perhaps they are equivalent forms you know.

Cerberus

May very well come from Theodore, not sure.

Mahnax

@WillHunting Oh, I don't know. Could be.

tchrist

22:17

@Cerberus Apparently.

> The baby boy name Fyodor is pronounced FAYAO-Dao-er or FAYOWD-er †. Fyodor is of Old Greek origin and it is predominantly used in the Russian language. Fyodor is a derivative of the English, French, and Greek Theodore. A derivative of Fyodor is the Russian diminutive Fedya.

Firty-somefing hits for f-fronting.

Cerberus

> FAYAO-Dao-er or FAYOWD-er

Funny how this is the opposite of clear.

Stupid English and their vowel shifts.

tchrist

No, the problem is the folly and stupidity of trying to use "spelling" pronunciations.

RegDwighт

0

A: Modern-day equivalent of "dog my cats"

My Great Grandfather, born 1865, used to use the term and I asked him what it meant. He told me that it was short for 'turn your dogs loose on my cats why don't you'. It was used when someone was being unnecessarily mean to you verbally or physically.

Wow. That is one Great Grandfather.

Also, is this guy messing with my brain:

3

A: to "sleep" vs to "go to sleep"

I'm a school teacher and have found this quite frequently amongst children of non-native English speakers. It sounds awkward to me every single time I hear it and I'm pretty sure it comes down to incorrect usage, coming from an incorrect seepage of their family tongue into the English language. ...

I wanted to turn the therefor into a therefore but came to a grinding halt when I realized it could be a trap.

Screw doubts, I'm editing.

Over and out.

user19161

22:41

@RegDwighт Quit stealing my line.

Cerberus

Hi and bi.

user19161

Which means a different thing from hi bi =)

user19161

Hello @haluk welcome to this chat!

tchrist

23:22

@RegDwighт I believe I also have a great-grandfather who was born during or shortly after the American Civil War.

user19161

23:52

@reg Why are you still not sleeping?

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…