English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

tchrist

00:02

Or via greylisting.

Where is the quote from?

KitFox

@tchrist I can't see the fox. growls at error-filled website

Cerberus

arstechnica.com/security/2013/03/…

tchrist

@KitFox Hm/

When I follow my link, I get 404, but when I use this it is ok.

Oh, I bet it is the right single quote in the URL.

KitFox

It's missing a...yeah.

tchrist

Probably needs to be encoded as UTF-8 bytes and percent escaped.

peregrineadventures.com/highlight/…

There’s a bug in . . . something.

But that link should work now.

I changed it from http://www.peregrineadventures.com/highlight/iceland’s-only-native-land-mammal-arctic-fox to http://www.peregrineadventures.com/highlight/iceland%E2%80%99s-only-native-land-mammal-arctic-fox. See?

Er.

KitFox

00:12

Yeah, I figured it out by googling the site for "artic fox" but man, that's a poorly designed website.

tchrist

I wonder if it’s a chat bug.

You have to do that for links in comments on the main site, but not in the Q&A posts. Some markdown issue I guess.

It’s because there are codepoints over 128 in there.

So they need escaping — technically. A lot of stuff used behind-the-scenes automagic. You should never have to think about that.

Cerberus

> I can’t count the number of developers and companies that all ran into the same trouble and finally gave up—meaning they dropped iCloud support completely after hundreds of thousands of users lost their data."

tchrist

Still, ’tis a pretty fox, isn’t he?

Cerberus

Go, Apple! Of course they just want to lock people up and they don't really care.

tchrist

@Cerberus What’s next for you, Slashdot?

Hm, you might be too young to remember /.

Cerberus

00:15

arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/…

tchrist

Some of these are interesting.

KitFox

@tchrist Yes.

tchrist

4-Billion-Pixel Panorama View From Curiosity Rover. DOJ Often Used Cell Tower Impersonating Devices Without Explicit Warrants. Misconfigured Open DNS Resolvers Key To Massive DDoS Attacks (Spamhaus row). Google Pledges Not To Sue Any Open Source Projects Using Their Patents. A German Parking Garage Parks Your Car For You.
Building Better Body Armor With Nanofoams. Bees Communicate With Electric Fields. One In Six Amazon S3 Storage Buckets Are Ripe For Data-Plundering.

@Cerb Those are all current Slashdot stories.

KitFox

4 Billion Pixel Mars Panorama was what I was just going to post.

Cerberus

?

tchrist

00:22

It’s already there. :)

KitFox

You didn't link it.

tchrist

True.

KitFox

Why are my users so dumb?

tchrist

Most IT Admins Have Considered Quitting Due To Stress. North Korea Halts 3G Internet Access After One Month. Supreme Court of Canada Rules That Text Messages Are Private. Largest DDoS In History Reaches 300 Billion Bits Per Second (more Spamhaus woes). Mobile Phone Use Patterns Identify Individuals Better Than Fingerprints. Another Way Carriers Screw Customers: Premium SMS 'Errors'.

All lusers are dumb.

pourjour

what is the difference between error and mistake?

KitFox

00:28

@pourjour In what context?

tchrist

Brain Scans Predict Which Criminals Are More Likely To Re-offend. Man Who Pointed Laser At Aircraft Gets 30-Month Sentence. Bezos Patenting 'Dumb' Tablets, Glasses, Windshields. Wi-Fi Enabled Digital Cameras Easily Exploitable. FAA Pushed To Review Ban On Electronics. Lawmakers Seek To Ban Google Glass On the Road. Massachusetts May Try To Tax the Cloud. US Senate Passes National Internet Sales Tax Mandate. Florida House Passes Bill To Ban "Internet Cafes".

I’d read all of those if I had time.

Mitch

@KitFox s/my users/people

KitFox

Oh, that makes so much more sense now.

I had a user complain about how the system suddenly stopped working.

Because the button disappeared.

The button where she added data.

It only happens sometimes.

...because it vanishes when you have entered all of your data, so that you don't accidentally enter future data. And it's been that way for two years.

So I guess she's never noticed it before because she's not been doing her work on time.

But the interaction was like that. "HEY! The system isn't working!!!!" "What do you mean?" "The button is gone!!!!" "Which button?" etc.

Mitch

00:44

@Mahnax Yeah...that's kind of a parent thing. They've 'seen' things.

KitFox

I decided to wait until tomorrow to tell her that she's just not been observant.

Mitch

Even really super smart people can be effing idiots.

KitFox

Well, that's true. I can't keep lie and lay straight.

Oh. You weren't talking about me, were you?

So it looks like Gramma D is going to pull through.

Mitch

"The application is all broken!" "So whats wrong? did the screen freeze? was the data corrupted?" "No, the data elements are all chaotic over the page" "Wow, really, -all- over?" "Yeah all over the page." "Is there any pattern at all?" "Well the left hand side is fine but the right hand side is all over the place."

... lots of back and forth ...

"So you mean you can read all the elements just fine because they are all left justified, but it doesn't look absolutely great because it is also not right justified?" "Yeah, the whole thing is a mess! Can you fix that? it's totally broken!"

KitFox

You poor thing.

Mitch

00:51

"Yeah, everybody here is complaining because it's all unreadable." because it was not also right justified

KitFox

rolls eyes Some people.

My project lead recently discovered he could use the program director as a scapegoat to leverage:

Mitch

@KitFox Ha ha...you thought referring to super smart people who are also effing idiots meant you?

KitFox

> Mary called and asked us to please add the training center citation to the database. Is that doable? Director's Training Center for Literacy Stuff and Center for Educational Research and Awesome Databases

@Mitch That was the joke, yes.

So I emailed back to the team:

> So the full text in the footer would be: Supported by Director's Training Center for Literacy Stuff and Center for Educational Research and Awesome Databases, and Division of Early Childhood Education and Diseases (W. D. Peabody, Director), My Place of Employment. And you want that on all the sites?

Sorry. I know you won't really get the context. He's always flip like this and gets obnoxious with his "I don't see what's so hard about changing a text label" attitude.

So he thinks that making it the Director's request will make it too hard for me to say no.

Mitch

@MετάEd wait...there's a thing called an -olive- bar? How do you tell the difference between disgusting and revolting? And nauseating? And ...there are not enough adjectives for the entire bar!

KitFox

But the point is, he doesn't think about it, he never considers the overall impact.

Mitch

00:59

@KitFox YOu should be passive-aggressive and add it but with misspellings.

KitFox

Nah, I did better. By sending it to the whole team, the big boss responded with a "Jeez, that's awfully wordy to appear on all the pages. We should do something else."

Haha. Fuck you, project lead.

I made you look dumb in front of your boss.

That's what you get for being such a dick to me all the time.

Now I've got lots of text walls in chat.

Mitch

Also, you spend all the time designing and implementing the whole thing, and then someone says, oh by the way, can you add this screen (that requires reworking the entire design, visual and data flow) and requires integrating with 3rd party software that you have no control over, and then when you're done, they say 'oh, and we'll have these other people do the interface (which you just finished) and by the way, this will be obsoleted within a year when we buy another project.

KitFox

frowns

Mitch

what's a 'text wall' in chat'? When you're not tweened enough?

KitFox

@Mitch My project lead wanted me to do Motion Charts with the Google API, and then wanted me to make it so they were viewable on the iPad.

Mitch

01:03

in the browser sure.

KitFox

He also tries to keep me in my place by making sure I remember that they did just fine with shared Google spreadsheets, and that really he's just humoring me by hiring me to do his work for him.

@Mitch Nope. They are Flash-based.

So it is impossible.

Mitch

oh. stupid technology.

KitFox

It is really frustrating to work with him.

Mitch

I give it 10...no 15 years before all the apps are 'done'

KitFox

What do you mean?

Mitch

01:06

no that's full of shit, there will -always- be programming work. Even after the singularity comes.

I meant that all software applications that humans use will have been written. But that is dumb.

KitFox

Oh. Yeah. Kinda.

I wonder if I could find a job where my skills are actually respected.

Mitch

It's just people. People are jerks sometimes. Sometimes not. wait...fortune cookie coming...

"Forgive the action. Forget the intent."

That is the dumbest thing I ever heard. Holy crap, forgive sure, but don't be a sucker and forget.

KitFox

Yeah, then you'll let yourself be victimized over and over again.

Mitch

Also, 'Li zi' means 'pear'.

I'm off to write the last Great American Novel...AFK BBL...wait...what was the most recent great American novel? Old Man and the Sea? Naked Lunch? Things Fall Apart?

KitFox

Tell you in a sec.

@Mitch The Shadow of the Night of the Fall of the Arcane Fox

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

01:22

Howdy.

Mitch

wow..never heard of it. the arcane fox thing.

tchrist

Airlines should charge obese passengers more, a Norwegian economist has suggested, arguing that "pay as you weigh" pricing would bring health, financial and environmental dividends.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Boring or Painful: which one? 10 seconds.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mitch Painful.

@tchrist How often do obese passengers fly?

tchrist

All the time. 36% are obese.

Mitch

01:29

@KitFox I checked wikipedia. nope you're wrong, it is Philip ROth's American Pastoral. I think that was a bit pandering though. kinda trying too hard. Like obviously 'Silver Lining Playbook' was trying for an Oscar.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Hunh. Really. Wait, I meant which one would you choose, not what are things like.

"the most accurate representative of the zeitgeist in the United States at the time of its writing" ... and Lolita captured that? What do they think Americans are like?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mitch boring is painful.

Mitch

Ooohhhh.... so complicated.

I was going for "Boring...cuz you know, painful hurts."

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Then how is it my choice?

Mitch

What? Sure it's your choice. But it's only a word game. I mean some people are actually happy. or really mostly neither one way or the other.

tchrist

Somebody reassure me that this is an English question:

0

Q: What does "with all the discrimination of a shotgun" mean?

"If you scatter commas into a sentence with all the discrimination of a shotgun, you might make it to the foyer before we politely escort you from the building." Source: http://goo.gl/ZH6lO Doesn't a shotgun fire one bullet per round? Wouldn't it be better to say 'machine gun' in this context?

Or at least, a keep-openable question.

Mitch

01:39

@tchrist An interesting topic for someone who doesn't know, and English was involved in forming the question, but it's not about English.

tchrist

Here’s the problem: people are stupid. So they read things that they do not understand, and they figure since they read it in English, it goes here.

As I said, people are stupid.

I despair of ELU ever being more that a sh@tc@n of cr@ppy non-questions.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

How often do stupid people fly?

tchrist

All the time. 90% are stupid. Sturgeon’s Law.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Are you for or against the charge by weight?

tchrist

“This product sold by weight, not by volume.”

It will make children’s tickets very cheap.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

01:43

Some children.

tchrist

So I guess that’s just.

Mitch

initially for...then after thought against

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

tchrist

Jesus wept.

Mitch

Its just sorta mean.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

01:45

Rico asked for your fries.

Mitch

1

Q: Sentence search engine

A couple of weeks ago I came across a sentence search engine that allows you to search for a word or a phrase and would show sentences with said phrases, plus (user contributed) translations into other languages. You could also just search for a verb, and sentences with different conjugations wo...

sentence research

tchrist

Don’t look at me.

I didn’t do it.

Mitch

another question that only tangentially involves english.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

ah, camelbrush.

Matt Эллен

is it like cameltoe?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

01:47

:D

I have not forgotten your orc head block print.

I have it penciled on the block. Just need to cut it.

Matt Эллен

cool!

I was thinking of getting it printed on a t-shirt

because I don't have enough t-shirts

tchrist

@MattЭллен Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to print cameltoe on pants than on a shirt?

Matt Эллен

I am inappropriate

tchrist

What kind of propriate are you in?

I of course meant that it in the UK sense, for your benefit.

Matt Эллен

the kind where you hope the rats don't start to gnaw at your face

tchrist

01:52

I’m feverish. Pay me no mind.

Matt Эллен

I'm drunk, pay me none either :D

I hope your fever breaks soon

tchrist

I’m keeping it below 100 with antipyretics, but only just barely. Feel ugly.

If it’s over 100 tomorrow I’m bitching to my doc to swab me for strep A.

I hate triple digit temperatures. I realize that my body is trying to kill the little buggers infesting it that way, but it really irks me.

Matt Эллен

yeah. being too hot is inconvenient

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MattЭллен that reminds me that I'm a vile creature.

@tchrist yeeeow!

Matt Эллен

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 because you gnaw at people's faceS?

tchrist

01:54

Didn’t sleep well last night because I forgot to reset the thermostat down and it isn’t automatic. It could be. I just never bothered. So I kept waking up sweating.

Well, or maybe that was the fever.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MattЭллен I've been trying remove approximately six years of soap scum from the shower at my old apartment.

Matt Эллен

hmmm

I maybe should do something about cleaning my flat

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Those little scrubby deals with the handle are nice.

Matt Эллен

we'll see

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I don't know if you can get Kaboom, but it is good stuff.

I don't think I'm getting my deposit back. :x

Matt Эллен

01:57

looks similar to cillit bang

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Wow, that looks an awful lot like clit at quick glance.

And yes!

Matt Эллен

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 nah, you'll be fine. it's just regular wear and tear

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 yes it does :D

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@MattЭллен I wish.

I sort of had a roommate for a while who came with a cat, and the cat became ill.

Matt Эллен

yucky?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Yadda yadda yadda, they'll have to replace the carpet.

Matt Эллен

01:59

ah

Mitch

yucky.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Which I would think they'd do after six years, anyway.

Matt Эллен

yeah

you could hire a steam cleaner, maybe? but maybe it's more than the deposit's worth

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Probably. And I have to give the keys back Saturday.

Matt Эллен

oh

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

02:02

So . . . bunnies. Chocolate.

Pleasant things.

Matt Эллен

just blame the landlord for not scotch guarding the carpet

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

ha!

I like it.

tchrist

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 The Last Supper. Gethsemane. Golgotha. INRI.

Sorry, just injecting a bit of seasonal cheer.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@tchrist ouch!

You didn't swab the area!

Matt Эллен

don't let the cops in until CSI have finished

bed.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

02:10

Have a nice bed!

tchrist

♬ Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen. ♬

►

The last one has subtitles.

This one has perhaps better sound, and no distracting visuals:

►

Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen,Sehet— Wen? — den Bräutigam, seht ihn — Wie? — als wie ein Lamm! O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig am Stamm des Kreuzes geschlachtet, Sehet, — Was? — seht die Geduld,allzeit erfunden geduldig, wiewohl du warest verachtet. erbarm dich unser, o Jesu! Seht — Wohin? — auf unsre Schuld All Sünd hast du getragen, sonst müßten wir verzagen. Sehet ihn aus Lieb und Huld Holz zum Kreuze selber tragen! Sehet ihn aus Lieb und Huld Holz zum Kreuze selber tragen.

Original title: Passio Domini Nostri J.C. Secundum Evangelistam Matthaeum

It is heart-breakingly beautiful music.

Bladder-breakingly, too.

St Matthew Passion

The St Matthew Passion, (also frequently St Matthew's Passion) BWV 244, (), is a sacred oratorio from the Passions written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). It sets chapters and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew (in the German translation of Martin Luther) to music, with interspersed chorales and arias. It is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of classical sacred music. The original Latin title ' translates to "The Passion of our Lord J[esus] C[hrist] according to the Evangelis...

Mahnax

02:29

@tchrist I certainly hope not.

tchrist

It takes a long time to perform.

A very long time.

Like 3 hours.

Mahnax

Hmm. So it breaks the urinary sphincter, then.

camelbrush

suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!

Mahnax

I think you would do well to use just a few more u's.

camelbrush

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 is that real or some kinda costume?

like how many more?

how about suuuuuup!

or wait. darn. forgot to count again. ;)

user19161

02:34

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 OMG! That is unhealthy.

camelbrush

McDonalds is unhealthy. Darn I miss eating their burgers in India.

user19161

@camelbrush Why India?

camelbrush

cause they have a different menu there. the famous cheese burger here aint even on the menu there!

btw. I had free ice cream at work today. anyone else had a good day at work?

Mahnax

I didn't work today, but I will work tomorrow, and I get time and a half, so that's nice.

camelbrush

why? cause of easter?

sorry I meant good friday?

Mahnax

02:37

It's Good Friday tomorrow, which is a statutory holiday here.

Yeah.

user19161

@camelbrush You are invisible.

camelbrush

@JasperLoy what do you mean?

Mahnax

@camelbrush There is a Maharaja Mac, isn't there?

camelbrush

@Mahnax I am here too! except my company doesn't pay me off.

user19161

@camelbrush Well, in this room at least.

camelbrush

02:38

nor does it pay for good friday.

@JasperLoy how do get back online/visible?

@Mahnax yup. Maharaja Mac. which is really yuk! they have a veg variant of the McChicken, just better. same price though. but the one I miss the most is Alloo Tikki (with a potato patty) . I miss not eating them that enough, when I was there. mostly cause they were the cheapest items on the menu.

Mahnax

@camelbrush Hmm. I don't eat at McDonald's (except for when I indulge on their fries once every few months).

camelbrush

@neither do I, here at-least. I like burger king better. but wait. this week, I had strong craving for their chocolate shakes after munchies!

@mahn

@Mahnax that comment was for you.

Robusto

@tchrist The only one I know of is geyser. Since Iceland wasn't settled till the time of the Viking expansion, it would be hard to differentiate their language from Old Norse at all, I should think. I'm glad it never fell to my lot to do that. Meanwhile, back to Bach. I'm hooked!

user19161

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Purple is still the ugliest colour to me.

tchrist

@Rob Good.

I’m listening to the Passion.

Mahnax

02:43

@camelbrush Haha, yes, I understand.

camelbrush

btw, reading the conversations above reminds me of the Vikings on History channel. any one else hooked up to it?

tchrist

It ends on Cm7.

camelbrush

Cm7?

tchrist

Aye.

Or in, if you prefer.

camelbrush

@tchrist whats Cm7?

tchrist

02:47

The end of the St Matthew Passion.

Mahnax

Is it a chord? A note? I don't know music things.

C minor 7.

user19161

The end of passion is compassion.

tchrist

camelbrush

@Mahnax gotchya! was wrongly relating things!

@tchrist thanks!

user19161

So I got a gold badge for showing that -1 times -1 is 1, lol.

tchrist

02:49

> Thus the Passion ends on a sour note (literally: the final chord is a C-minor seventh chord). When it was first performed it shocked many of the listeners, who thought it was inappropriate for instrumental music to be played in church, especially on Good Friday.

Mahnax

Chord, righto.

camelbrush

the Bible lasts 8 to10 right? and then 1 hour of viking? I thought its gonna be 2 hrs too, except they repeated the first hour again from 11 to midnight.

user19161

@Mahnax Do you play any instruments?

tchrist

> Since I primarily want to do what I most lack the ability to do, which is convey the power of the music, instead of perform an analysis of the words, I'll simply skip to the final chord of the final chorus, because it is interesting. It is dissonant. Bach ends what is probably the most powerful of his works on a minor seventh appoggiatura, which only flows to a c-minor chord as an afterthought.

> This makes sense with reflection: Why would Bach want his audience to go home with a full cadence in mind? What they had just heard was certainly not happy. What they have just spent the last three hours immersed in could arguably be one of the worst things in the world. It is only fitting, then, that it does not end, as the cliche says, on a happy note.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy I can whistle.

user19161

02:51

@Mahnax Good, good.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy whistles casually

whistles causally

whistles caustically

camelbrush

@Mahnax can you whistle using your fingers or without?

user19161

@Mahnax I prefer to sing.

Mahnax

@camelbrush Without, but I can also whistle through my front teeth. There is a slight gap there.

@JasperLoy I like to sing sometimes, but I'm not very good. It's just fun.

camelbrush

@Mahnax me too. I wish I could whistle using my fingers too. those are really really loud.

user19161

02:53

@Mahnax I can whistle very loudly.

Mahnax

@camelbrush I have no use for loud whistling, but to each their own.

@JasperLoy Why would you want to do that?

camelbrush

@JasperLoy using your fingers?

user19161

@camelbrush No.

user19161

@Mahnax For fun.

camelbrush

yeah for fun. :D

Mahnax

02:54

@JasperLoy OK.

I thought you rounded up sheep, or something.

user19161

@Mahnax I can also sing very, very loudly.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy You must be talented. I recall hearing about your choir days, actually.

user19161

@Mahnax Yes, I can't sing as well now. But in the past, I was awesome.

camelbrush

also to be heard from my 14th floor window by the ladies passing across the street. ;) college was fun

Mahnax

@JasperLoy makes especial note of thy humility

@camelbrush frowns

camelbrush

02:56

@Mahnax hey. you be surprise how many of em took it as a compliment and actually replied back in a fun way.

user19161

@Mahnax Whistling is the surest way to put girls off.

user19161

My singing attracts girls actually, lol.

camelbrush

@JasperLoy umm....maybe the up tight ones...but the fun loving ones would just play along....atleast from my experience.

I wish I could sing!

Mahnax

Well, my singing frightens pets and terrorizes neighbourhoods.

camelbrush

haha!

that reminds me. gotta talk to this girl at work.

any1 lives in VA?

Mahnax

02:59

Virginia?

camelbrush

yeah

Mahnax

Nope.

camelbrush

ok.

Mahnax

Speaking of Virginia, I should make some guacamole.

camelbrush

how did that come along?

Mahnax

03:00

Well, non sequitur struck again, that's how!

music plays

BRB.

camelbrush

oh. happens to me too. a lot.

sure

okay. cya guys. hitting the bed now! gn

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@JasperLoy :(

What was that failed internet currency that Whoopi Goldberg shilled for?

Mahnax!

user19161

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 What is your favourite colour?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@JasperLoy blue

user19161

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Yay! I am now "blue".

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

03:04

Flooze?

user19161

No, I mean that I am the blue square.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Yeah. Flooz.

Flooz.com

Flooz.com was a dot-com venture, now defunct, based in New York City that went online in February 1999, promoted by comic actress Whoopi Goldberg in a series of television advertisements. Started by iVillage co-founder Robert Levitan, the company attempted to establish a currency unique to Internet merchants, somewhat similar in concept to airline frequent flier programs or grocery store stamp books. The name "flooz" was based upon the Arabic word for money, فلوس, fuloos. Users accumulated flooz credits either as a promotional bonus given away by some internet businesses or purchased dir...

user19161

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Your cake looks delicious.

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 ?

Hi!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Hello!

Good night!

Mahnax

03:12

Oh, good night then!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Sorry! :x

Mahnax

No problem!

Sudhir

03:54

Hi @Mahnax

Mahnax

@Sudhir Hello.

Sudhir

I'm fine.

Mahnax

Good morning. How are you?

Sudhir

How do you do?

Mahnax

I don't think that's quite right.

Sudhir

03:56

Why?

Mahnax

Well, now you've gone and fixed it, see, so I was right.

Sudhir

:)

I've one doubt

Mahnax

Oh?

Sudhir

"None of the above sentences is/are strictly correct."

What should come here?

Mahnax

None of the above sentences are strictly correct.

Sudhir

03:59

books.google.com/ngrams/…

I feel shocked.

Mahnax

Why?

Sudhir

are has zero appearance.

Mahnax

Well, it's a rather specific search term.

11

Q: "None" as plural indefinite pronoun

In my grammar book (English Grammar, HarperCollins Publishers), I read that none is occasionally treated as plural, but it is usually regarded as singular. Can you give me an example of sentence where none is used as plural pronoun?

grammatical-number pronouns uncountable-nouns

See this question.

Sudhir

Thanks.

Mahnax

No problem.

David Wallace

04:17

@Sudhir None of the above sentences IS strictly correct.

Older people tend to say "is". Younger people tend to say "are". I am older than Mahnax.

@Mitch What gets me with acquired tastes isn't the question of who was the person to try it, but the question of who was the person to try it for a second time. I want to know who the first person to eat TWO olives was, and what they could possibly have been thinking.

MετάEd

04:40

When does humongous or humungous appear in print?

So far the earliest I have found is the Princeton Alumni Weekly, February 24, 1970. books.google.com/…

OnEtymD says "by 1972" and I lack an OED.

Cerberus

04:57

> 1970 Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) IV. 19 Humongous, very large (a combination of huge and tremendous).

OED (2nd ed.).

David Wallace

My OED lacks humungous.

MετάEd

@Cerberus Given that they published quarterly and started in summer of 1966, that was probably within a couple of months of Princeton.

Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Vol. 2: H-O is said to date the word to 1968, student slang.

"In the '80s I heard from a couple of people independently that it came
from "mung" meaning the kind of filth that accumulates under the bed in
the humid atmosphere at a particular (but I've forgotten which) college
in the Pacific Northwest. "

So maybe it is a construction from "humung" + "-ous".

MετάEd

05:39

The Jargon file has HUNGUS (hung'ghis) [perhaps related to current slang "humongous"; which one came first (if either) is unclear] adj. Large, unwieldy, usually unmanageable. "TCP is a hungus piece of code." "This is a hungus set of modifications." but that file apparently dates back no further than 1975.

Cerberus

05:49

Not related to huge?

Sudhir

Hi @DavidWallace

David Wallace

Hello, @Sudhir

Sudhir

How do you do?

Seen after long time.

David Wallace

One does by doing and sees by seeing.

Sudhir

So it'd be sleeping time at your end, I guess.

David Wallace

05:58

Then you guess incorrectly. It is around 7pm

Sudhir

:)

So you're native speaker of English?

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