English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Robusto

00:07

@Cerberus — Little? Really? This from a cute little Dutch boy who wears wooden shoes while he paints your house.

Cerberus

@Rob: Hai.

And why should I be painting anyone's house? I don't like painting.

I prefer cheese-making and joint-rolling.

Robusto

Both of which are popular pastimes in Amsterdam.

Cerberus

Absolutely! Though I have never smoked anything.

Robusto

Anyway, you called me — and I quote —

1 hour ago, by Cerberus

Yes he a complex little thing.

Cerberus

I remember. I have no regrets!

Robusto

00:11

Now, I object to both characterizations.

Cerberus

Hence, complex.

Robusto

I am pretty simple, when you get right down to it. And not small at all. Over 6' tall.

Cerberus

Hence parvanimity, if that's a word. And I think we calculated that you were shorter than the average Dutchman?

Robusto

184.215 cm.

And how do you compare to the average Dutchman? Besides not being baked to the gills?

Writers.SE is circling the drain:

in The Overlook Hotel, 14 mins ago, by Robusto

Wow, four of the last five questions on this site have been closed. The chances of this site ever getting out of beta ain't lookin' too great. What's going on?

Cerberus

Yes you are short: the average Dutchman aged 20-30 is 184.8 cm.

Aww poor Writers... I'd really like it to reach adulthood.

Robusto

00:15

@Cerberus — You mock me because you don't have a real language. Parvanimity — really, let's not say things we can't take back.

Cerberus

Hah did it take that long for you to figure out what it should mean?

Robusto

Apr 23 at 13:57, by Robusto

►

Cerberus

Yeah yeah, like I'm watching that again.

Robusto

@Cerberus — Not one of my words. I would never say that about anybody.

Cerberus

I know.

Not all words fit into an animus parvus! Buwahaha.

Robusto

00:18

Not even @RegDwight.

Well ... on the other hand ...

Same root as parvenu I wonder?

Cerberus

Nope but it would be fitting!

Par-venir = to arrive, in French, as you probably know.

Robusto

Well, then the answer is not "nope", little doggy.

Cerberus

Magn-animous = great-minded, from Latin.

Robusto

Ah, OK. Me sees.

Cerberus

Not nope? Why not?

Parvus = small in Latin

Robusto

00:21

A parvenu is an arriviste ... I thought you were making the opposite point.

Cerberus

Am I ever making a point?

Robusto

Well, we've found the word that describes me: magnanimous, i.e. great-minded.

Cerberus

Ehm... show it to me if you ever find it!

Robusto

@Cerberus — I have regrets, but I don't regret having them. What would life be without regret?

Here it is:

2 mins ago, by Cerberus

Magn-animous = great-minded, from Latin.

Cerberus

Wouldn't life be blissful if you just forgot bad things?

Robusto

00:23

Nay. Life would be blissful if you forgot everything.

Cerberus

@Robusto Okay, fair enough: congratulations on finding it!

Robusto

It took weeks to find, but I finally came up with it.

Cerberus

Does thinking about good things that happened in the past infringe upon one's bliss?

Robusto

In the sense that you are reliving something instead of living something new.

Memory is no substitute for sex.

Cerberus

Eh, ah! So bliss = sex?

Robusto

00:25

Well, if you've ever had sex, you'd know.

Cerberus

I still don't think this is what is meant by eternal bliss...

Robusto

Oh ... you need eternal bliss? Mustn't be piggy.

Cerberus

What can I say... they probably used some pig parts when they made me.

Robusto

Eeuuwwww ... which parts? Wait. Don't answer that.

Cerberus

Exactly.

Robusto

00:28

I have to find a way to pace myself.

Cerberus

Pace?

Robusto

Yes.

Cerberus

Is your pace too great or too low?

Robusto

Today I had 21 upvotes over the rep cap. If I could have folded those into tomorrow I wouldn't have to do any work here.

Cerberus

Oh, yes.

But what is your goal? Reaching 100k?

Robusto

00:30

No. After I hit the Legendary badge I am going to throttle way back.

Cerberus

Oh how does one earn that?

Robusto

It's a meaningless, pointless goal — but that kind of describes all games, really.

Cerberus

True! As long as the game is fun.

Robusto

150 days over the rep cap = legendary badge.

Cerberus

Ah...

Do they have to be consecutive?

Robusto

00:31

Hah! No. They make it hard enough already.

Cerberus

Heh.

Robusto

Last time I checked I was the only one on this site to get the Epic badge.

Cerberus

Oh, what does Epic do?

Robusto

english.stackexchange.com/badges/26/epic

Cerberus

Ah..

Robusto

00:33

Seems like 100 should be legendary. I mean, come on.

Cerberus

I can imagine it is more fun to have something if you don't have to share it.

I remember when you had only 6000 rep or so.

Robusto

You remember when I had 0 rep.

Cerberus

Really?

Was I here first?

Robusto

Eh, no. Sorry, was thinking of someone else.

Cerberus

Good thing I don't remember things, then.

So do you also answer questions that you find boring, just for the heck of it?

I sometimes do it, when I'm really bored.

Robusto

00:35

Not anymore. If they're really boring I just pass.

Cerberus

Yeah. And do you like single-word requests?

Robusto

I don't know. I don't look at the tags.

I don't look at the person who asked the question, either, until I've answered the question. Usually, that is.

Cerberus

I like questions about linguistics and style. And interpretation, sometimes. The rest I usually find a bit meh.

Robusto

My top three tags are word-choice, usage, and meaning.

Cerberus

I might have the same ones.

Robusto

00:37

No. You are usage, grammar, etymology.

Cerberus

Oh right.

Robusto

When I got on SO, my goal was to get to 10k. I got there and then pretty much left it in the rearview mirror.

Cerberus

Yeah that figures. I avoid the word-choice questions when I see their boring titles.

Robusto

And the thing is, I didn't really care about the number. It was just arbitrary, just a game to see if I could do it. A diversion, something to do with my compile time.

Cerberus

I wonder, would there be any way to stop the simplest questions from getting the most votes, most of the time?

Right, goals in games are as often as not random numbers.

Robusto

00:40

I don't know. Sometimes the simplest questions are the best. Sometimes not.

Of all the questions I've answered on this site there have been maybe four or five I was really interested in.

Cerberus

I think it's usually because if a question is very simple many people will know the answer. And they will only vote if they are able to compare the answer to what they think is right.

Oh, really? What kind of questions were those? I have more.

Robusto

I like questions that let me show off my erudition while exercising my flair for humor.

Cerberus

Oh, I hadn't noticed.

But erudition on any specific subject? Or doesn't that matter?

1

A: How to use "for some reason" in a sentence?

I would use either For some reason, he went to the store. or He went to the store, for some reason. "For some reason" means that the speaker is unsure why the action has occurred. It is advisable to make it a subordinate clause here because otherwise its meaning could be ambiguous; y...

What is this about a subordinate clause? It is just an adverbial phrase...

Robusto

It is a clause.

Adverbial phrases can be clauses too.

And, yeah, I don't always get what I want.

Cerberus

They can, but this one isn't?

It is a prepositional phrase.

Robusto

00:46

Well, in the particular use case I'm talking about, I'm deliberately subordinating it. Otherwise, if it's merely an adverbial phrase, it's ambiguous.

Cerberus

But you aren't subordinating anything! You are just putting it before or after the rest of the sentence.

Robusto

Stop your damned Dutch insubordination! Stop it, I say!

Cerberus

Heh.

Robusto

But you could be right. I'm too much in my cups right now to care very much about clauses and subordination. If I were German I'd care about subordinating things, but obviously I'm not.

Cerberus

It is you who has insubordinated that phrase...

Robusto

00:48

Well, if it bothers you, go ahead and edit it.

Cerberus

Perhaps you meant parenthesis rather than subordination?

I think that's what you mean: if you leave out the comma, which could be said to put it in parenthesis, you get the effect that you went to the store in order to get some reason.

Robusto

3 mins ago, by Robusto

Well, if it bothers you, go ahead and edit it.

AFK, going to refill my wine glass. It may require a trip to the cellar, I'm not sure.

Cerberus

Have fun! I have edited your answer: I changed it to "it is advisable to use a comma".

Robusto

01:21

@Cerberus — Thanks. At this point more wine doesn't probably help me, but work was a drag today, so there's nothing else for it.

I'm in a deadline situation and I have to wait on middle-tier people to get their shit together. Which they're not doing.

Billare

11:31

@RegDwight Does "--" really bother you when you see it? ;)

RegDwight

12:01

@Billare Yes.

yesterday, by RegDwight

Im in ur answerz fixing ur dashes cause them displays as -
-
for me.

JSBangs

hey, i want loan-words and foreign-words to be synonyms

does that sound reasonable?

RegDwight

I never understood why we have foreign-words to begin with.

Foreign words are off-topic here.

JSBangs

same reason we have loan-words ?

RegDwight

Yes, but loan words are on-topic.

JSBangs

all of the questions currently tagged foreign-words are about loan words

RegDwight

12:06

Then I'll merge.

JSBangs

or take @Billare's popular enfant terrible question right now

RegDwight

Done.

JSBangs

wooo

i knew i could count on you

RegDwight

You make me feel all giddy.

Stack Overflow Blog: Improved Tag Sets

Posted by Jeff Atwood on April 27th, 2011

Earlier this month, Emmett asked for feedback on what we should improve next on stackexchange.com.

The consensus seemed to be that the existing functionality was good, but it could be simpler to use — as expressed by Pekka:

I miss the carefully crafted minimalism that I’ve come to love so much on SO. From that perspective, stackexchange.com is not yet doing as well as I would expect from what is the public face of the network, and its official headquarters. I don’t have a clear idea of what needs to be done, but I would like to see the site taking a more intuitive and beginner-friendly approach to exploring the network. …

JSBangs

yeah, i've been playing all morning

stackexchange.com/filters/11029/english-bad-tags

does that link work for you?

i'm wondering if i can just send out a link to one of my filters and have it work for others

RegDwight

12:19

"All sites [usage]"?

I see some questions from SU and SO.

JSBangs

probably a mistake

i'll fix that

RegDwight

Much better.

I think you should post a blacklist request for [words] on meta.

It's unkillable.

I would love to burninate it, but only devs can do that.

JSBangs

I'll do that

i'm also going to request dev action on the usage proposal i posted a while back

5

Q: Usage of [usage]

Our top-rated tag is usage. However this tag is nearly useless: the word usage is right there in the site title, and almost every question on the site could be construed to be about "usage" in some sense. I manually retagged every question that had only the usage tag, but this spammed the Active ...

RegDwight

I've been stripping old questions with 4-5 tags of [usage], but new questions keep coming in and I have to be careful not to spam the front page. So we keep meandering between some 825 and some 840 questions with that tag.

Right now it's 835. Gah. It used to be 830 just a day ago or so.

JSBangs

keep up the good work, though. if we can get the devs to mass-retag, then the problem should take care of itself

because usage will no longer be a top tag, and it will no longer be suggested as "related" for every other tag on the site

at least, the incoming stream of new usage question should slow down

RegDwight

12:33

I would have done much, much more last Saturday night / Sunday morning, but there was a surprising amount of new questions coming in, and I didn't want to deprive them of visibility.

I mean, my wife's outta house, I would have the time.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Aren't you forgetting to mention the LEGO factor in all this?

RegDwight

Ha!

This stupid chat keeps distracting me.

Just count the times I said "I'm out, I really am" last night, only for someone to join the room and keep me here.

Robusto

Also, 'raus mit dir!

RegDwight

Well, right now I'm at work, so I can't play with LEGO.

I mean, there is a metric ton of LEGO under my desk. Such a tease.

Kosmonaut

13:06

Your desk should be made of lego.

JSBangs

now that's a suggestion i can get behind

RegDwight

@Kosmonaut Well, it kind of is 50% LEGO already.

My office is a freaking LEGO shop.

JSBangs

13:46

skeptics is hitting a new low

7

Q: Do trees shed their leaves in autumn?

Growing up, we were regularly taught in geography about the different seasons and how most trees would shed their leaves in autumn, while evergreen trees do not shed their leaves. However, I live in India (at about 28° N), and I saw that many trees on our campus were shedding leaves in March ins...

environment weather

upcoming questions include "Do palm trees exist? I live in Canada and I've never seen them." and "Is there a monster under my bed? Have you checked?"

4

RegDwight

The funny thing about Skeptics is, they try to enforce "high standards" and "verifiability" and whatnot, but they still boil down to just a random site on the Web where some random dudes, or for all I know random dogs, say random stuff.

JSBangs

"Does having sex cause babies? I've had sex, like, twice, and I haven't had a baby yet."

RegDwight

I mean, someone asks, "has man walked on the Moon" and the answer is a bunch of pictures that, for all I know, the OP just forged himself.

JSBangs

@RegDwight precisely

better would have been to link to the Mythbusters episode about the moon landing

RegDwight

Or someone asks, is there any proof why the Earth is older than 6000 years, and the (highly upvoted) answer says that if it weren't the Theory of Relativity wouldn't work.

Well, thanks for nothing, for all I know the Theory of Relativity doesn't even exist.

I've only ever heard about it on TV.

And I'm not even sure TV exists. I might be imagining it.

Mr. Disappointment

13:55

I think you'd do well as an active participant over there...

RegDwight

Meh. I don't want to get involved in that site's politics.

Mr. Disappointment

I was curious enough to head over on one occasion, seems I wasted an afternoon there in a single hour.

RegDwight

I answered one question there, got downvoted by mods, and upvoted by everyone else.

You see, I didn't include any NASA pictures, I just used common sense.

I surely appreciate the mods' efforts, but it appears they are fighting a losing battle against their own community.

That being said, that site is certainly very entertaining at times.

Mr. Disappointment

14:10

Oh dear, and, visiting their meta is a task I dare not even undertake.

Actually..

'Is popping your knuckles bad for you?', 'Was Einstein really a poor student?', 'Cold and catching colds (temperature and disease)' - some titles of the 'best' skeptics questions, apparently.

I didn't even know these topics were open for debate.

RegDwight

Well, I'm not sure there's anything not open for debate there.

Kosmonaut

@kiamlaluno: I have an Italy question next time you are around.

@RegDwight That's debatable.

RegDwight

"Where is Italy? Does it even exist? Are you a dog?"

@Kosmonaut You mean it's debatable that I'm not sure? Sure!

Kosmonaut

14:26

@RegDwight I'm not sure.

Mr. Disappointment

Depends how much earthquakes are affecting the axis of the planet. Only when you're looking at it. And yes, but l.. but... but...

RegDwight

@Kosmonaut At least that is not debatable in the least.

Kosmonaut

But fishhooks are definitely debaitable.

RegDwight

You're a fishhook.

Also, thwack.

Kosmonaut

But be advised to never, ever debate a bull.

RegDwight

14:33

Feb 24 at 12:01, by RegDwight

Thanks for teaching me, sensei.

Hey @JSBangs, I have put up a "deprecated" message on the usage tag wiki.

JSBangs

@RegDwight a good place to start

RegDwight

Yeah, it just occurred to me that we were kind of actively promoting it.

"13 asked this week, 81 this month".

And I suppose it's not counting the questions where it subsequently got deleted.

JSBangs

i e-mailed the support address to request action on the mass retagging

haven't heard back yet

RegDwight

"Thank you for your interest in StackExchange."))))

Seriously though, from what I've heard, they do look at every incoming message.

I don't want to have that job.

Heck, I wouldn't even want to look at every hundredth message.

147

Q: About your f***ing website.

Presented for your enjoyment-slash-amusement. Email received by [email protected] from Name Jesus Christ Almighty, what a f***ing mess of a website. I'm trying to post a question. Just the one, you know, f***ing question. So I sign up for an ID and I'm sent an email that doesn't real...

discussion fun email

JSBangs

14:50

0

Q: Blacklist [words]

The tag words has been heavily discouraged since the early days of the site. A few weeks ago I manually retagged every question that used words, and there are currently no questions with that tag, save one question that has since been migrated. This tag is really bad. It means nothing at all, an...

feature-request tags

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut If the question doesn't involve politics, I will be happy to answer.

Kosmonaut

@kiamlaluno I am wondering about flying to Sardinia.

Do you know if there is a cheap airline to get from Rome or Milan to Sardinia?

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut Are you going to visit Berlusconi? Whoops, I vetted politics from the question.

Kosmonaut

Haha

There will be a conference there.

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut What is your definition of "cheap"?

Kosmonaut

14:55

@kiamlaluno Cheapest possible :)

Sometimes in Europe there are cheap local airlines that we don't know about.

I found some flights for about $200, that is the cheapest I saw

kiamlaluno

I have to check that; I have a name on my tongue tip.

Kosmonaut

The one I found was Meridiana

kiamlaluno

(Whatever that is the correct translation of "sulla punta della lingua.")

Kosmonaut

It seems like the best one, but I just wanted to see if there is any better.

psmears

@kiamlaluno "It's on the tip of my tongue" :)

Kosmonaut

14:57

@kiamlaluno "On the tip of my tongue" is how we usually say the idiom in English

kiamlaluno

I think it's one of the best.

I see; you keep to copy from Italian. :-)

@Kosmonaut Do you have any preference for the arrival city?

Kosmonaut

Cagliari... I guess it is far to get to there from any other airport.

kiamlaluno

I forgot the most important question: for when? :-)

Kosmonaut

in the fall

kiamlaluno

Isn't that the falling season?

Hehehe! :-)

I am scratching my own armpit.

RegDwight

15:02

@Kosmonaut: once you're over Europe, do me a favor and start making beeping sounds or singing La Marseillaise, and really loud, please, so I can hear when you're over my head and wave back to you. Thanks.

kiamlaluno

Holy smokes!

I am sorry; edreams.it gave me a flight from Milano Malpensa for 59 euros per person.

Kosmonaut

@RegDwight Okay, I will see if I can get the other passengers to join in.

@kiamlaluno Wow

That's a good price!

I guess it must be tough to get to Malpensa airport if I fly into the other one...

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut Yes, but I am like Saint Thomas. :-)

RegDwight

@Kosmonaut Great idea. God knows where in Europe I will be in the fall, so it's really important that you beep really loud.

kiamlaluno

I am actually using edreams.it to get a list of possible flight companies.

That is not good; they ask me to register.

This site is better: EasyJet, €80.

Kosmonaut

15:12

EasyJet, ok I will look at that one too!

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut I selected September 2 to September 16 just to get a price, and that is the price for a direct flight.

From Rome, the ticket price for the same period is €137 with Meridiana.

Kosmonaut

@kiamlaluno Yes, that agrees with my $200 price that I found

RegDwight

I'm trying to make head or tails of swoodoo.com

It keeps telling me "ab 34 Euro", but when I click on that, I get more like 125+ Euro.

It doesn't help that I don't know the exact date.

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut Euro Jet changed name in Air Four: air4.com/it.

Cerberus

Hey.

RegDwight

15:20

But here's an overview for September.

Cerberus

What are you trying to book?

Kosmonaut

@RegDwight Yes... I just don't want to post all my travel info in the chat... I'm paranoid like that :)

Cerberus

Wise.

RegDwight

@Kosmonaut Sure. I'm just saying that you'll have to click yourself.

Cerberus

This site automatically searches all(?) airlines for the time, date, etc. you specify and compares prices. Works very well.

skyscanner.net

RegDwight

15:23

So does Swoodoo.

I wouldn't be surprised if all those sites used the same backend.

kiamlaluno

I used expedia.it; I just needed to find the company name, as I didn't remember it.

Cerberus

Possible...

kiamlaluno

Euro Jet has also good prices for flights from USA to Italy.

I have to reset my computer, now.

RegDwight

There you go, @nohat, no giant quotes no more.

nohat

I even kind of agree with Jin's reason, too

Cerberus

15:26

Never mind.

Skyscanner is much faster than Swoodoo, and it allows you to easily pick ranges for departure and arrival times, as well as for total travel time.

(I am not affiliated with any of those sites.)

Oh, and Swoodoo only seems to have one of the two Singaporean airports in its list...

Kosmonaut

SkyScanner's results page looks a lot like kayak.com

Cerberus

Hmm let me check that...

Kosmonaut

They must be associated somehow.

RegDwight

I have never used any of those sites before... I have that one standard route, so I kinda know the prices by heart.

There's always some wiggle room, but no huge surprises.

Cerberus

Huh Kayak's cheapest flight is USD 1700...

Swoodoo and Skyscanner have several flights at around €1000.

And Kayak also has only one airport for Singapore.

Kosmonaut

15:32

The costs are about equal for the days I was looking at. That is strange

You see how similar kayak looks with the results?

Man.... I am so tired of the bad exchange rate for dollars to euros...

Cerberus

Yes they look similar... but Kayak doesn't have the slider for the duration of the trip.

Vitaly

Hello.

Cerberus

Hi @Vit

@Kos: What rate do you get?

Kosmonaut

1099 is the lowest

With SkyScanner

Cerberus

From where to where?

Kosmonaut

15:36

New York to Cagliari

Vitaly

@Reg: are you sympathetic to New Age? If not, I need some help with English. Please?

Cerberus

Haha!

RegDwight

@Vitaly Oh sorry, I was just going to say bye. Gotta run.

TTYL.

Vitaly

Oh, rats. Bye.

Cerberus

Bye!

RegDwight

15:38

But look around, so many English speakers!

I'm out!

Vitaly

@RegDwight But noone else with a sufficient command of Russian. Or not that I know of.

Cerberus

skyscanner.net/flights/nyca/cag/may-2011/may-2011/…

Skyscanner has a calendar with lowest prices for each day (see above).

kiamlaluno

The lower I get is $1180, with American Airlines and Meridiana.

Cerberus

What dates?

kiamlaluno

From September 2 to September 16.

Kosmonaut

15:41

Well, those are the dates that you made up.

Cerberus

Haha.

kiamlaluno

The problem is that you arrive to Milano Malpensa, and the other airplane flies from Milano Linate.

Kosmonaut

@kiamlaluno Yeah, I think that is probably very difficult.

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut Well, I cannot select all the fall. :-)

There are buses to go from Malpensa to Linate.

When I come back from Malpensa, I always get one of those buses; the difference is that I go to the Milan train station.

I have never used my car, when I travel to USA.

Kosmonaut

Why does this conference have to be on Sardinia????

It's so complicated.

kiamlaluno

15:45

Sardinia is a good place for a conference. It is much better than Milan.

Cerberus

I get around the same prices and the same change of airports, with the waiting time and all. Meh.

Are you sure you have to go to this conference?

kiamlaluno

Ask Berlusconi; he keeps to go in Sardinia, instead of staying in Milan.

Kosmonaut

@Cerberus Well I don't have to do anything technically, but yes, career-wise, it's what I need to do!

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus The problem is that in Italy, for a direct flight from USA you always land on Milano Malpensa.

If you take a not direct flight, then you can land on Linate.

Kosmonaut

Is Malpensa the bigger airport?

kiamlaluno

15:47

Milano Malpensa is the airport for the intercontinental flights.

Cerberus

What about this USD 1350 flight via Rome? Much quicker, only 13 hours or so total.

kiamlaluno

Rome and Malpensa are the bigger ones.

Cerberus

Departs from Newark.

kiamlaluno

Rome airport is a mess.

Cerberus

Really? Never had problems there, unless there is a strike...

You'd have 1.30h to change planes.

kiamlaluno

15:49

if you have a coincidence, Rome is the airport I would not suggest to my worst enemy. :-)

Cerberus

Aww.

Kosmonaut

Shoot, I have to go

kiamlaluno

I know people from USA who keep to say bad things about Rome airport.

Kosmonaut

Thanks for thinking about all of this flight stuff

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut You are welcome.

Kosmonaut

15:51

I have to go through it all but I have some good new sites to work with

See you all in a bit

Cerberus

Good luck!

kiamlaluno

@Kosmonaut Buh bye!

Cerberus

I must be AFK as well.

kiamlaluno

Isn't that JFK?

psmears

16:13

@kiamlaluno apparently not, but I don't think it's very convenient for Sardinia...

kiamlaluno

@psmears I was referring to "I must be AFK as well." :-)

There are no direct flights from USA to Sardinia. Airports on Sardinia are not intercontinental.

psmears

@kiamlaluno I know you were... look at the airport identifier in my link :-)

kiamlaluno

Haha! I didn't follow the link, before.

They had a lot of fantasy, to come with AFK as identifier for an airport in Nebraska.

JSBangs

16:30

ah, some soothing death metal is exactly what this wednesday needed

kiamlaluno

17:05

Death metal?

JSBangs

search on "death metal" in the chat history. i'm sure you'll get the gist of it

RegDwight

Mar 29 at 14:50, by RegDwight

Death metal or no metal at all!

kiamlaluno

17:27

"That is exaggerated. I use it once every Pope's death."

That is quite useful, when you search for "death metal."

I wonder why the NOAD doesn't report when a noun is a mass noun as the OED does.

JSBangs

17:47

0

Q: What does the punctuation "//" mean?

What does the punctuation "//" mean? For example: I think I owe myself a THWACK. //ashamed ... //run ... //head down I heard this is related to the comment in the programming language C. But still I don't get the actual meaning and purpose it tries to convey, not to say how to u...

punctuation

off topic?

RegDwight

No idea...

More like "self-explanatory"...

MrHen

@JSBangs Well, I answered it

I don't think it is strictly off-topic but the '//' certainly isn't unique to English

RegDwight

We must have a similar question somewhere... about <ashamed> vs *ashamed* vs something else. Not sure if the answers mentioned //ashamed, but I think the top answer basically said, "the possibilities are endless!"

Robusto

@RegDwight: Obligatory cartoon indeed. You are so not above the fray.

RegDwight

I copied it from chat.

Robusto

17:58

Uh-huh.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…