English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

14:21

@RegDwighт No good deed goes unpunished.

@Robusto I passed that link on to @Cerb.

The problem is clearly that people try to boil them.

Have you ever tried a “45-degree egg”?

Apparently at 45C, the proteins don’t do the same kind of thing as they when cooked hotter.

It takes very precise apparatus though.

Robusto

What you do is boil the water first, then take it off the heat. Then you add a tablespoon or so of vinegar, some salt, then break the eggs into a teacup before sliding them into the water. Cover, wait five minutes, and bingo — perfect poached eggs. Take more time if you want the yolks to be not runny.

Also, you cook them in a skillet, not a saucepan.

tchrist

Do you recall what the vinegar does again?

And I remember it should be white vinegar not colored.

My serial-downvoter, whose 10 downvotes on me were reversed the other day, seems to be trying to pick at me piecewise. My last two answers just suddenly got downvotes, and I don’t see what’s wrong with them.

I don’t know if Occam would say it isn’t him, but the burnt child fears fire.

Robusto

@tchrist It acts on the proteins in the egg white to cause them to coagulate (or whatever the verb is) more quickly.

tchrist

Ahah, right. Thanks.

Robusto

You can probably hear the podcast by going to NPR. It was featured on this week's Science Friday.

tchrist

14:28

Yes, I heard it yesterday, in delirium.

I passed on the podcast link to @Cerb.

Robusto

@tchrist It was tremensdous.

tchrist

But I have a mind like a steel sieve sometimes. Fever didn’t help.

This is not GR, it’s OT-Proofreading:

-2

Q: the narrator keep trying vs. the narrator keeps

Is 'keep' or 'keeps' the right word to use in the sentence below: The documentary we are watching irritates me because the narrator keeps trying to force his opinion down our throats. The subject of the verb 'keeps' is 'narrator', and it is singular, so 'keeps' seems the right choice.

grammaticality

Robusto

Yeah. There were some other good tips, too. Like making perfect pie crusts by substituting vodka for half of the water. Something like that.

tchrist

That was surprising.

I might almost call these tricks more than mere tips. They seem magic.

Robusto

Yes. But science has invaded cookery.

Apparently you can use more vodka than you can water because it is a lighter liquid, so instead of six ounces of water you could use four ounces of water and four ounces of vodka, resulting in a wetter crust that rolls out more smoothly and easily, without cracking.

tchrist

14:32

There was the suggestion that the techniques used in commercial kitchens might have advanced beyond the “folk-chemistry” we still mostly use at home, but I don’t recall that that was elaborated.

And it doesn’t matter whether it is vodka or any other 80-proof spirit, which surprised me. I should think a strong, colored spirit like rum would leave some residual flavor.

Robusto

Long ago when I was hitch-hiking around the country, I got a ride from a chemistry professor who went on and on about how cooking was just chemistry. He said, for example, that there was no reason other than taste why you couldn't use toothpaste, say, instead of eggs in some recipes that merely called for a binding agent. I told him I wouldn't accept any dinner invitations at his house.

tchrist

Heh.

Robusto

@tchrist Vodka is the most neutral-flavored of spirits.

tchrist

Yes, of course. Which is why I was surprised when he said that you could use any 80⁺-proof spirit, and that it didn’t “much” matter.

Robusto

Perhaps all the fruit flavor overwhelms any residual impurities in the spirits.

Johan Larsson

14:39

Where they really take science to the next level is the food industry. Try read the table of contents of a sponge cake. Common denominator for all is that they are cost effective and pump well in stainless tubes.

Robusto

Here's a wonderment: an accepted answer with a -5 score.

-5

A: What is the origin of the word "wog"?

I cannot speak for the Pommies (eh heh), but there is not an Australian in Australia, who would concur with the above. The word was undeniably intended (and widely used) as a slur; which is something little minds have been known to channel, ostensibly into a weapon (of sorts). Somewhat ambitio...

Johan Larsson

Health is probably only a concern if it can be proven beyond any doubt that it is harmful

Robusto

Already has one delete vote.

@JohanLarsson Yes. What, one wonders, is carageenan gum?

tchrist

I thought they no longer let us delete accepteds.

I wonder that the delete vote might not be mine, as I am one of the downvotes.

I could find out, but that would put two on it if I am not. Then again, so?

@Robusto Something I just learned they put in various things labelled cream and which interfere with whipping.

Why do I need seaweed in my cream?

Robusto

@tchrist It now has two.

tchrist

14:42

Nay, 3 and gone.

Robusto

In the interests of science, you're almost obliged to try.

Whee.

tchrist

Done.

Wow. Powah! Delete the Accepteds even.

Robusto

Mine is still the best answer there, IMHO.

tchrist

And Thursy won’t be back to pick something new any time Real Soon Now.

Robusto

Yeah, but it's still a finite suspension. 2014 isn't that far off.

tchrist

14:44

All suspensions are by definition finite, no?

Robusto

Woohoo, the flag I put on that post got me Yakety Staks hat.

@tchrist Well, I suppose you could hold that F in the C-major chord forever, but it isn't likely.

tchrist

Not recorded yet.

They don’t even bump up Norty’s suspension with each new question of his.

Robusto

I suppose I could lay hold of 3rd place if I ask a question that gets points.

tchrist

They just don’t count the way I do. 27 is rank #1, 21 is #2, 18 is #3, 17 is #4, 16 is #5, 14 is #6, etc.

It does not matter who many instances of that number there are the way I count.

Robusto

It doesn't matter how many there are, either, O febrile one.

tchrist

14:51

They sent me home with a Z-pak, prednisone, and codeine cough syrup yesterday. Seems my lungs were gumming up a bit.

This new cough-syrup bottle requires a syringe to extract the juice. Weird.

I expect to be utterly manic by tomorrow latest. Oral steroids makes you so twitchy.

Robusto

Our cat Bones, who we had to put down, was on prednisone for the last week or so of his life. The steroid didn't help shrink the tumor in his larynx.

0

Q: "Consists of" vs. "consists in": different meanings of the verb, or the same meaning applied differently?

Mark Twain said, Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person. Could he have used consists of there instead of consists in and still meant the same thing? In other words, is there a nuance to the word consist that shades the...

word-choice verbs prepositions

OK, I asked me a question to which I know the answer. But it seems worth the trouble to ask.

@tchrist: BTW, YMMV regarding the prednisone.

tchrist

You mean I might not have to be put down?

Robusto

@tchrist No problem.

tchrist

Is it yet becoming clear that the billions of would-be English speakers from China and India have the capacity to completely overwhelm ELU?

And that is not a Saganistic billions, but a literal one.

Robusto

@tchrist I think Sagan literally meant there are billions and billions of stars in the galaxy, etc.

tchrist

15:06

I’m trying to say that I am hardly employing some mere rhetorical flourish, but talking about hard numbers.

Robusto

So, ya gonna help me with a hat or what?

tchrist

I can’t answer your question for you. You have to do that.

If that is the hat you meant.

@Cerberus That one actually has to be "I didn’t hear you thumping”, not *your. No native speaker would ever say the other one. I didn’t hear you calling me, I didn’t hear you butchering the lambs, I can’t hear you pounding the table, I won’t hear you chewing with your mouth open.

Robusto

@tchrist No. Upvotes will help.

tchrist

Kit finally figured out that you could almost only get more hats via asking more questions, and she hadn’t the whatever for it.

@Robusto Yokay.

I don’t know how to elicit views, though.

Did you see the one where Barrie taught us that molly could mean bugger?

Sounds like sailor slang, mollies being fish.

Noah

I DON'T LIKE HATS. I WANT, umm, I dont know.

Molly is a fish.

tchrist

15:17

Or a girl’s name, but that probably doesn’t work here.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t have a whole bunch of other meanings, too.

Noah

That might be a molly name though.

tchrist

What is with all the damned meta traffic over the last few weeks? I long for the days when there were only 5 new ones a week.

Noah

I dont know. But I remember a report on The Telegraph where a guy was being questioned and held in LA for 24 hours for using destroy in one of his tweets, by which he meant partying but the authorities had gotten it literally.

tchrist

Sequitur?

Noah

@tchrist dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093796/…

Sorry, I dont have the link for The Telegraph version.

tchrist

15:27

I don’t know what is worse: that they screw things up that badly, or that they can and do connect tweets to real people about to pass through the security gates. That is chilling.

Noah

@tchrist I don't know either, but to be honest, I am tired of this whole thing.

tchrist

And then they have the unmitigated gall to deport them, too. Takes the cake.

Guilty until proven innocent. Fuck due process.

What the hell have they bleeped out, anyway? “p*******”? There is no such forbidden profanity.

Noah

@tchrist This is awesome. Quote of the year.

tchrist

15:55

@Rob You are so right about commenting and downvotes. It only leads to repercussions. I cannot believe people think they should be mandatory. For example:

-1

A: One word for "stealing something on its way to the recipient"

how about 'take over'? as in.. 'When I was younger.. I used a lot mIRC and there was always some guys trying to take over my channel (#)! They were making the X or W (bots with higher privilege than a common user and depending on the channel owner settings even with more authority than an operato...

And that one is very mild, too. There are far worse.

Newcomers often take all downvotes and closevotes as grave insults.

Robusto

Yup.

@tchrist This is also why I don't tweet or Facebook. And why I use screen names instead of my real name. I say so many things that could be egregiously taken out of context, and governments are so not known for their sense of humor, that it's best not to be out in the open when making jokes that can be misconstrued.

tchrist

See my entry on the starboard.

Posting on Twitter or Facebook is too much like walking around wearing only chaps and nothing under them.

No thanks.

Robusto

@tchrist Are you saying it's gay?

Ha, Barrie answered my question without so much as an upvote. Doesn't have "the common courtesy to give a guy a reach-around."

►

Johan Larsson

@Robusto [x] Abrasive protection

Also Abrassive but then I can't live with myself

Robusto

16:11

Assbrasive?

Johan Larsson

I failed, again...

Robusto

Noah

@JohanLarsson Fail, Fail, FAIL. After the third time, wear a cone of shame.

Johan Larsson

@Noah I am also out of cones

Noah

@JohanLarsson In Sweden you might find some sort of hats that could be worn instead.

tchrist

16:21

@Robusto Gotta love how your previous post bled into this one.

Noah

But in any case. Dont worry, failure is part of our nature.

Robusto

Johan Larsson

tchrist

I thought a double facepalm used both hands.

Robusto

@tchrist They're playing team doubles.

tchrist

16:23

@Robusto Those look like LEGO pieces to me. Send them to the Leggists amongst us.

Noah

@tchrist They might be out of hands.

Robusto

@tchrist They're not LEGit pieces, though.

tchrist

Does one typically facepalm using one’s dominant hand, or one’s off-hand?

Robusto

I guess it depends. You get a higher degree-of-difficulty score for using your off hand, I would think.

tchrist

And now you got an Accept without an upvote, too. Explain me these people?

Robusto

16:25

Beats the shit out of me.

Please let ELL be launched. Please let ELL be launched.

tchrist

Third time’s the charm.

Robusto

Well, I'm used to accepts sans votes. I got the Unsung Hero gold badge on SO, ferchrissakes.

tchrist

It just seems rude, maybe even ofensive.

Declued.

Robusto

common courtesy ... reach around ...

tchrist

Aye.

Flag fodder:

-1

A: Longest English word without a vowel sound

not showing clearly i want the english word which is longest in the dictionary

The guy I downvoted and said why still hasn’t edited his post. He probably thinks that is fine written English. How can I downvote it again? :)

Robusto

16:30

You could edit it, remove your downvote, then downvote again.

tchrist

But then I do the work he should be doing. :(

You know, @Reg (or somebody) caught and converted the latest Norty posting in under 4 minutes. That may be a new record, I dunno.

Robusto

You don't have to edit much. Just change a character.

tchrist

You know their whitespace-detector doesn’t catch LRE and RLE and such, right?

Nor do those show up as a glyph.

So you can pad comments and such with invisible characters that count towards minimal length of posting.

They can’t count them because they are legit control characters. Otherwise embedding Arabic and Hebrew and such could be a problem.

It might be more reasonable to detect their print length, which can range from 0 to 2.

But they are C# programmers; can’t them nuthin'.

One base character with 37 combining marks that takes up a print-width of 1 hardly seems sporting, but sneaks past.

They don’t have libraries for detecting print width, is the problem.

It is a UTC#xx for some "xx" I am too lazy to look up. East Asian Width, and such.

Robusto

Has anyone asked this question: Is there a name for a word that can be split into two English words that have nothing to do with the longer word? For example, therapist can be split into the + rapist.

tchrist

There is even a tag for it.

Robusto

16:36

Threesome wouldn't count, because three has something to do with it.

tchrist

metanalysis

Robusto

Not quite sure that's what I'm asking.

tchrist

an ekename > a nickname; une narange > an orange

ExpertSexChange

Robusto

That's more like a mondegreen, but the term metanalysis does apply.

Noah

An ell (from Old Germanic *alinâ cognate with Latin "ulna"),[1] is a unit of measurement, originally a cubit, i.e., approximating the length of a man's arm from the elbow ("elbow" means the bend or bow of the ell or arm) to the tip of the middle finger, or about 18 inches; in later usage, any of several longer units.[2][3] In English-speaking countries, these included (until the 19th century) the Flemish ell (3⁄4 of a yard), English ell (5⁄4 yard) and French ell (6⁄4 yard), some of which are thought to derive from a 'double ell'.[4][5]

English Lanuage for Learners

tchrist

16:41

@Rob You might go scan a list of classical rhetorical devices, and ask a question to which one of those is the answer. Just make sure it hasn’t already been asked.

There is a 15-hat hat; I wonder whether there is a 30-hat hat?

Noah

How is Jamaican English different from AmE or BrE?

tchrist

No, I do not see a 30-hat hat here.

Noah

Is it just Bob Marley singing sweet songs or is there more to it?

tchrist

Jamaican English

Jamaican English or Jamaican Standard English is a variety of the English spoken in Jamaica. It melds parts of both American English and British English dialects, along with many aspects of Irish intonation. Typically, it uses British English spellings instead of American English spellings. Although the distinction between the two is best described as a continuum rather than a solid line, it is not to be confused with Jamaican Patois. Grammar Jamaican Standard English is grammatically similar to Standard English (see English English). However since the mid-20th century, Jamaica has inc...

Robusto

I was going to give you guys a little puzzle. Whatever the name for that kind of thing is, conflagration would qualify, because it contains con + flag + ration, all in order, none of the sub-words providing any meaning to the whole word (con may be argued, but it is used here in the sense of convict, a prisoner, so it loses the with meaning).

Now, conflagration contains 13 letters. Can anyone think of a longer example of this phenomenon?

@tchrist: puzzle alert! ^

tchrist

16:57

Depends what you mean by think.

Robusto

Discover, find, produce.

tchrist

Also, you have a sort a min–max problem here that is poorly defined.

In it trivial to slap a few prefixes or suffixes on things that can be themselves standalone words, but one could argue that such results are . . . inconsequential.

So is there a max length on the components?

Johan Larsson

@Noah I was in Jamaica a couple of weeks some years ago, the English they speak was hardly understandable for me, sounded cool though.

tchrist

microcryptocrystalline

Hi, Andrew.

Johan Larsson

We went to the Asylum club, everyone had to pass metal detector + frisk search before entering.

Robusto

17:04

@tchrist The original word has to be exactly composed of the sub-words, in order.

Andrew Leach

Hello. Thought I'd drop in before I was missed.

Robusto

We were just saying we didn't miss you.

tchrist

@Robusto And cannot contribute to meaning. Right.

Johan Larsson

I remember the DJ, if the lyrics in a song was "I'm gonna love you forever" he yelled LIES in the microphone

tchrist

I didn’t know what you meant by “in order”.

Robusto

17:05

So microcrystalline, fine though it may be, has crystal as a comiponent.

Andrew Leach

@Robusto At least it wasn't couldn't miss me. I'm not that big.

tchrist

@AndrewLeach Wrong attribution. :(

Robusto

@tchrist con (1) + flag (2) + ration (3): conflagration.

Andrew Leach

@tchrist It moved.

tchrist

Because C falls before F and F before R?

I have seen this puzzle before somewhere.

Johan Larsson

17:06

When we were hanging with guys in the street they said the we were FBI on many separate occasions.

Robusto

@AndrewLeach No, we could certainly miss you if you were gone longer. Say a year or so? :)

Johan Larsson

I liked Kingston, the rest was more standard tourist

Andrew Leach

@Robusto I'm sorry to say you may not get that opportunity.

Robusto

@tchrist In retrospect, I probably don't mean in order. I just mean that they have to exactly fit, no overlap.

tchrist

Oh.

cancels tweakings

Robusto

17:09

I feel a Perl script coming on.

tchrist

The problem is you have to inspect them by hand to see that they are not related morphemes.

Are these Mitch-words, or OED-words?

Robusto

@AndrewLeach Like the poet said, "How can we miss you if you won't go away?"

@tchrist Yes, that is what makes it harder.

I can only think of one of 14 letters in length.

tchrist

I have one but you won’t like it.

weathercockism

weat+her+cockism

Wear weat is an obsolete spelling of wait. :)

And cockism is a poulterer’s term.

Or should be. :)

1557 The Lord guyde your hearts to the loue of God, and the weating for of Christe.

Ok, I will look for longer ones now.

Robusto

@tchrist If I were to accept it, it would be for we + at + her + cockism ... if *cockism were a word.

tchrist

Pity I cannot use wondermongering.

Robusto

17:21

Off on an errand (err + and). AFK.

tchrist

@Rob ventricolumnar = vent + rico + lumnar

MετάEd

Of a vertebra having a hole placed there by the cops.

tchrist

I’m using /usr/share/dict/words for candidates, but the OED for validity of components. :)

Cerberus

tchrist

@Cerberus Pub date?

Cerberus

17:31

1875.

tchrist

Well.

I could hear them, stamping on the floor above out of frustration for our pounding music.

Cerberus

1983

tchrist

I am not going to change what I said. Check with other native speakers, please.

Cerberus

tchrist

One hears someone doing something. One does not hear their doing something.

Cerberus

17:34

Fowler would disagree.

tchrist

Fowler is dead.

Long dead, in fact.

Cerberus

In any case, I disagree.

tchrist

I heard you calling your mother.

*I heard your calling your other.

That is clear.

Cerberus

The possessive shifts focus.

tchrist

Yes.

Cerberus

17:35

If you want to emphasise the process, or something.

It's hard to explain.

tchrist

I heard a cop stopping traffic with his whistle.

That just doesn’t sit right if you do it the other way.

Cerberus

tchrist

I figured out how to code up Rob’s problem very efficiently (execution speed, I mean), but I think I should lie down. Head hurts too much.

Cerberus

@tchrist It's harder if you can't use a possessive adjective, you know that.

tchrist

So why should it matter?

Cerberus

17:37

I could go on forever.

Tons of examples in decent-quality texts.

tchrist

We heard the choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Go ahead: fix that one, I dare ya.

Cerberus

1 min ago, by Cerberus

@tchrist It's harder if you can't use a possessive adjective, you know that.

tchrist

1 min ago, by tchrist

So why should it matter?

Cerberus

I don't need to explain why.

It is common knowledge that it does. Read any grammar.

tchrist

It is not right that you completely shift things with a noun that you do not with a pronoun, or vice versa.

No, it does not.

Cerberus

17:39

sighs

tchrist

I also know how people actually talk.

And they just do not say it that way.

Cerberus

I'm not talking, I'm writing, and you know I would never speak as Americans do anyway.

tchrist

No grammar explains how people talk.

No, you speak as Dutchers do. All else is hearsay.

It makes no difference what continent you aren’t on.

I heard him calling out my name.

Go ahead, make my day: try that one the other way. All will laugh at you.

Cerberus

Let me find a quotation for you.

Andrew Leach

Surely it only works where the words describe both the sound and making the sound (like stamp and sing). It won't work with call.

Cerberus

17:44

Yeah it is a little bit different with those words.

tchrist

I heard it thundering in the heavens.

I heard you asking me for seconds.

Andrew Leach

Its thundering works. It's poetic.

tchrist

And just whose thundering would that be? :)

Cerberus

Thanks.

tchrist

Don’t think you can do it with a pleonastic it.

Cerberus

17:46

It is less common with impersonal it, of course.

tchrist

I heard it raining on my roof.

I heard it hailing on my skylights.

That is not a real it.

Andrew Leach

@tchrist Whatever it is. Indeed, you can't do it with a pleonastic it.

A dummy it can't possess or make anything. It just does.

tchrist

Agreed.

There sure seem to be a lot of complicated “rules” about this so-called rule of using a possessive. Smells like some bogus prescriptivist’s invention, not something that actually describes how people speak.

Andrew Leach

But you can still have their stamping (the sound) as well as them stamping (the action).

Cerberus

Why don't you just admit you were wrong.

tchrist

17:50

I want him running scared.

Cerberus

The debate about this construction has been going on for a century.

There are many options and more opinions.

tchrist

@Cerberus Not this side of a lobotomy. Dream on.

Me wanna see his running scaredlike.

Cerberus

I didn't expect you to. Even with the evidence I gave you...

tchrist

They ya go.

What you said does not sound right to my native-speaker ear. Period.

If you really cannot live without a possessive, then get rid of the object.

Cerberus

tchrist

17:55

Until you manage to convince hundreds of millions of native speakers that they are “wrong” and that they should perforce change their dirty little habits, you have no hope of convincing me.

Cerberus

He then goes on to list examples with personal pronouns later on.

tchrist

You need to learn to listen to how people talk, not to what prescriptivists say is how they ought to talk.

Cerberus

So you can see the fact that there is something special about personal pronouns/adjectives, as I said above, is well known.

Whom or what did I call "wrong"?

And who says I want to speak like the average native speaker?

tchrist

Do you want to sound like a human being, or like some escapee from a Shakespeare production?

Cerberus

I have no desire to sound like the average person, neither in Dutch nor in English, thank you very much.

Robusto

18:06

I'm getting no love on my questions. I should asking something pineapplese about be, when?, if? or for time. !?

Or this:

0

Q: What is the meaning of this sentence - "Were it not for the bodies there on the ground, it would have appeared to be a normal day at the oasis."?

What is the meaning of this sentence - "Were it not for the bodies there on the ground, it would have appeared to be a normal day at the oasis."? Does it mean something like this - If the bodies were not there on the ground, it would have appeared to be a normal day at the oasis. Can anyone als...

meaning sentence

Cerberus

Congratulations!

You're even less comprehensible than some pineapples.

Robusto

That will beat out both of my questions soon enough.

@Cerberus Flatterer.

Cerberus

You truly honour the spirit of this room.

@Robusto I should know, right?

Robusto

Tru dat.

@Cerberus Is it a friendly spirit?

Cerberus

Fickle is a better description.

Do you sometimes notice small objects missing?

Robusto

18:10

Poltergeist?

Cerberus

Ask Reg.

tchrist

@Robusto Super-dupe. But more challenging to search for than it should be.

Robusto

What, no existing Perl script will suffice?

tchrist

Oh, for the program.

Robusto

1

Q: Term for a word that is unintentionally made up of two or more other words?

For example, therapist may be split into the + rapist, neither of which (arguably) has anything to do with the original words. Another example would be conflagration: con + flag + ration. Or weather: we + at + her. Note that words like threesome and purebred would not qualify, because the part...

single-word-requests terminology

Hey, you're not going to let jlovegren walk away with this, are you?

tchrist

18:12

Now you make me write the program.

Didn’t see it.

Too busy dupe-hunting.

I don’t like how short it is.

tchrist

18:49

Why does the verb houses not rhyme with the verb mouses?

Cerberus

19:18

Mouzez/ss v. houssez?

KitFox

19:36

@Reg rock panel bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6082

It took not too long to figure out it must have been Majisto's something or other.

Thanks for the help.

simchona

@kit have you checked the mod room recently? Could use some help with something

Robusto

20:16

I see some people don't like my words question. Probably they take Lawler's comment as censorious, which it isn't.

@tchrist Verbs are just funny like that sometimes. A better question may be why the verb "louse" does rhyme with mouse.

Also grouse.

So stop grousing about these things.

And go carousing.

simchona

@Alenanno I think this would take a lot of work before getting migrated, but if it gets fixed it has potential.

simchona

20:53

@Robusto On this question you'll be happy to know you were also the accepted answer on the dupe

Robusto

@simchona Haha, I thought I'd seen that before, but I couldn't find it. I figured, what the hell, might as well try for more hats.

simchona

@Robusto It took me a long time to find it. Search isn't that great, even after they chaned it

Robusto

Yeah, if I don't find something in the first couple of pages I usually just give up.

Query formulation is inexact at best.

Anyways, everyone's standards seem to be lowered during hat season, so why should I be any different?

@simchona Now, if you want to be fair, you'll also bring the hammer down on this dupe:

3

Q: What is the meaning of this sentence - "Were it not for the bodies there on the ground, it would have appeared to be a normal day at the oasis."?

What is the meaning of this sentence - "Were it not for the bodies there on the ground, it would have appeared to be a normal day at the oasis."? Does it mean something like this - If the bodies were not there on the ground, it would have appeared to be a normal day at the oasis. Can anyone als...

meaning sentence

@Robusto Ah, you are so right.

Now up to three votes, while my consists of/in question languishes.

simchona

@Robusto You're talking to yourself?

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…