English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2015-03-23

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10:01 AM

You had me convinced by the time I was only 0.5 way through your answer. :) — tchrist 3 mins ago

3 hours later…

1:05 PM

When you say:

Hello,
In the ... <- Should it be capitalized or not?

Yes, because it's the start of a sentence.

12

Q: Should I capitalize the starting sentence after a greeting that ends in a comma (e.g. "Hello,")?

Should I open the starting sentence after comma in adressing "Hi," ("Hello,") with capital letter? Hi, Xxxl, Dear Xxx L, let me ... vs. Dear Xxx L, Let me ... In Russian it is not though it is more than frequently being goofed. Related question: Comma place: “He...

capitalization comma letter-writing greetings

infinitesimal simplicio

Interesting exception

And lighting speed at finding the answer :-)

@AndrewLeach Ok

2 hours later…

2:42 PM

Where haz all me peeples gone, long time pissin?

3

infinitesimal simplicio

Ya, really quiet in here?

Did you watch the master hacker vid I posted above @tchrist?

1 hour later…

4:10 PM

GR close votes should not subtract from one’s quota. :)

1 hour later…

5:13 PM

It's funny how you say "herbs de Provence" and not "herbs of Provence"

infinitesimal simplicio

What's so funny?

a funny mix of languages

in French it's herbes not herbs

infinitesimal simplicio

ok, I see

language mixes can be a source of confusion

Like in programming, people naming their variables in their local language instead of English, which gives something awful with language keywords

@crl Do we? I thought that would be a simple mistake.

infinitesimal simplicio

5:21 PM

?

@crl yes, I just checked on NGrams and there are no hits for herbs de Provence, only for herbes de Provence

@terdon imgur.com/gallery/PQpos

near the end

Oh so it must be a mistake above then ^

@crl Yes, well. I'm sure it's a common mistake but, thankfully, it does not make it past professional editors often.

Right, yes

Common designer typos

:)

infinitesimal simplicio

5:28 PM

user image

:D

6:07 PM

I's listening to fados.

infinitesimal simplicio

Opera?

@infinitesimalsimplicio Portuguese love songs.

infinitesimal simplicio

Thanks for the info

George Pompidou

hannah montana in a panamera.

infinitesimal simplicio

Hi pal

George Pompidou

6:19 PM

I'm not your pal guy

infinitesimal simplicio

ok np

u still mad at me?

Apparently you're not as thick skinned as your hippopotamus avatar would suggest @GeorgePompidou

2

I apologize for threatening you.

I am sorry.

George Pompidou

who on god's green earth are you and why would I be mad at you

infinitesimal simplicio

I am aka skullpatrol

George Pompidou

6:37 PM

false

you are a man on the internet.

and you mean nothing to me.

Don’t be rude.

infinitesimal simplicio

He's right

@infinitesimalsimplicio You threatened him?

infinitesimal simplicio

Yes.

Wow. I can understand why he's pissed then.

infinitesimal simplicio

6:40 PM

This is between him and I.

@infinitesimalsimplicio Note that I did not ask for details :)

infinitesimal simplicio

noted.

George Pompidou

@infinitesimalsimplicio I think you mean him and me

this is English chat, not etiquette and being mad at people chat.

@tchrist don't be ugly

looks for a flag; finds one; hoists the Jolly Roger and starts cutting throats

infinitesimal simplicio

Don't call my friend ugly

6:43 PM

consults tea leaves

George Pompidou

heehee

every time I come in here it's like some weird sitcom where the drama and relationships of real human life get entangled in the interwebs and manifest themselves in a chatroom

Wherever you go, you bring yourself with you.

George Pompidou

I'm just at my desk at work

I was hoping to chat about English

but I guess I'm stuck talking about friendship and anger

infinitesimal simplicio

Him and me?

George Pompidou

yes; that was the object of your sentence

infinitesimal simplicio

6:47 PM

Why does your sentence not have a capital?

Because he’s emajusculated.

2

George Pompidou

because I do not concern myself too much with the shift key.

haha

infinitesimal simplicio

Do you accept my apology?

res, non verba

George Pompidou

still don't know what you're on about

stop acting like this is a show on HBO dude

6:49 PM

basta

George Pompidou

basta pasta

infinitesimal simplicio

Do I have to bring skullpatrol back here?

waves skull-and-crossbones flag

George Pompidou

waves penis

infinitesimal simplicio

-_-

6:51 PM

> Although the origins are difficult to trace, today fado is commonly regarded as simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain traditional [Portuguese] structure. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor, and infused with a sentiment of resignation, fatefulness and melancholia

Pix or it didn’t happen.

@tchrist Be careful what you ask for...

infinitesimal simplicio

@Cerberus thanks

5 Horas de Fado

Nice title, huh?

Looks like Porto.

6:53 PM

Possível!

talvez

Pot ser

assim

George Pompidou

hamburger

Too bad my stupid telenovela is finished.

Or there are no more episodes online.

Now what Portuguese series should I watch?

7:16 PM

Evening!

Is revokable a valid world? Should it be revocable?

Adjective: revokable (not comparable)

Alternative spelling of revocable

George Pompidou

I've only ever seen the latter.

Only if you say it again.

I was not aware of revokable but it does, apparently, exist.

George Pompidou

then again, I suppose revoglobali^%skrplrzable could also be an alternative spelling.

7:19 PM

@terdon Saw that, but Google and other spell checkers recommend revocable.

George Pompidou

why don't we just spell all words alternatively

thun we'66 fpl srqf undzplnghtsn eaty113thr

grumbles angrily like an old man

@IonicăBizău So do I. So will everyone. My initial reaction was that revokable is simply wrong. Apparently it does exist but it certainly isn't the usual spelling.

user image

Just use revocable like everyone else.

George Pompidou

@terdon și eu sînt de acord cu el

Glad to hear it.

@GeorgePompidou Do you speak Romanian? :)

7:22 PM

Funny accent though.

@terdon Nice stats! :)

George Pompidou

well clearly

I need to practice my Romanian because I have to travel there and apply for a birth certificate and passport. they will test my knowledge of the language and dedication to the country.

Seriously? Bloody chauvinists. That's ridiculous. I'd have to give up both my passports if I had to demonstrate my dedication.

George Pompidou

I just want EU citizenship so I can work there easier.

I don't think they much like Americans.

but I'm plenty dedicated to Romania. I can attest that Petrom is indeed benzină de calitate superioară.

@GeorgePompidou This one is a funny American guy who came in Romania. :)

He had some YouTube videos but I cannot find them anymore... He was taking Romanian pretty good.

Romania has a weird image in the world... I guess...

George Pompidou

7:29 PM

hehe. I am born of Romanian parents and it was actually my first language.

Wow, cool! :)

George Pompidou

so not quite that bad.

my first day in school I didn't know how to say "I need to go to the bathroom" in English

damn near made a tiny fool of myself.

39 mins ago, by George Pompidou

waves penis

Hehe :) In Romania you don't even go to school toilets. :D

George Pompidou

school toilets come to you?

7:30 PM

@GeorgePompidou They like some.

No, you just wave your penis around.

No, they are just terrible.

Americans or toilets?

George Pompidou

hey @IonicăBizău have you heard anywhere on the news in Romania about the Gheorghe Ursu case?

All this Romanian talk, next thing I'm listening to O-Zone!

7:32 PM

@GeorgePompidou Sounds familiar... but I don't know anything special about him.

George Pompidou

interesting...

@GeorgePompidou Interesting case, just read about it on wikipedia.

George Pompidou

my father is over there making a big ruckus about it. Gheorghe was my grandfather.

in fact I am named after him.

Wow!

George Pompidou

I am just curious if anyone has really heard about it or if it's just my dad making a big fuss.

7:34 PM

@GeorgePompidou The communism made a lot of terrible things.

Many of the members of the church we belong to were tortured in the communism prisons just because they refused to work on Saturday (we keep it as holy day, instead of Sunday).

George Pompidou

@IonicăBizău that it did. I can still see the effect in my parents--my dad is vengeful and has nightmares of it regularly, and my mother is paranoid and has 16 security cameras on her property.

@IonicăBizău that's very upsetting. unfortunately a classic example of what was happening.

Oh... Did you ever heard about the "Experiment of Pitești"?

George Pompidou

yes...

part of how the whole government worked, to discourage any other way of thinking

and a good example of Orwell predicting the future

When my father was young, he and other friends went in another village to meet the members of the church. The communism security forces came to my father's home and asked my grandmother where they went. Since they already were guessing where my father and his friends went, they wanted to go in that village, but the car crashed in a bridge.

There are a lot of awesome experiences, books and so...

George Pompidou

whose car crashed? the securitate?

7:44 PM

Yes. And the people from it died.

George Pompidou

wow

An uncle of my father was tortured in the communism prisons too...

George Pompidou

what did they get him for? if I remember correctly my grandfather was arrested for having US dollars in his apartment

then they found his journal and that was the end

Well, the reason was we do believe the Bible. And the communism was having atheistic views...

Based on Bible, we believe the 7th Day (Saturday) is the one that God sanctified. We do not work on Saturday and because of that many young people were imprisoned (during the army).

And such times will come again (even more terrible). We believe the final conflict will be between the two worship days: Sunday (the mark of the beast) and Saturday (the God's seal).

George Pompidou

the communists were afraid of any ideology or thought that could make people invulnerable to their brainwashing and control

7:56 PM

True. They killed and tortured many smart people, especially students...

George Pompidou

and religion was one of those, they couldn't stand it

and artists--many poets my family knew were taken away

They burned a lot of hymn notebooks of my mother (not composed but transcribed by her)...

Just found a pretty recent article about Gheorghe Ursu. Is Andrei Ursu your father, @GeorgePompidou?

George Pompidou

@IonicăBizău yep

I think he was even on television a while ago

@GeorgePompidou As family, we never had a TV in our house.

George Pompidou

8:16 PM

mmm, probably for the best.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@IonicăBizău I've never heard this one before. How can you be sure that throughout all of history, the calendar and weekly progression of days has remained constant and accurately recorded?

George Pompidou

I myself rest on Saturdays. but I'm not religious, just advantageous. I pretend to be religious when people ask me to work on Saturdays and I am feeling lazy.

my family is Jewish so it's believable by Americans.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Since we have a calendar, I rest on Saturday. Is there any prove that the days changed?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@IonicăBizău No. But is there any proof that the start of the modern calendar accurately reflects whatever day was sanctified thousands of years ago?

I mean, normally such distinctions aren't important. But you've just said that the choice of day is the final conflict

that makes it seem like you'd want to be sure you got the right day

You'd hate for some tribe of Israelites to have made a mistake accounting the days they were in the desert. There could have been a serious storm that lasted a few days and the leader was like "well, it was hard to tell, but we figure 3 days have passed" and in reality it was 4.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 The worship day is important. According to the Bible, the United States and the papacy will create a Sunday law.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:25 PM

@IonicăBizău So if it's important, then you have accurate records that don't miss any days, even when the Israelites were enslaved in Babylon? They didn't lose track of the days on the way there, you're sure about that?

George Pompidou

the United States has distinction between law and religion.

kind of.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 pretty sure he wouldn't have been speaking English, bub.

@GeorgePompidou They claim that and probably now they have. But please follow what happened in 1888: they tried to implement the Sunday law, but they couldn't.

And also, follow the relations between United Stats and pope in the past years.

It's unbelievable how the pope gains more and more power...

Pope Power Poopery

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@GeorgePompidou I'm paraphrasing.

@IonicăBizău You mean less and less.

George Pompidou

and no negative PR from helping nazis escape europe, raising infant mortality rates in third world countries, spreading hatred of most demographics, and not addressing the child rape issue

it's actually mental this church

but hey, I just ignore it to keep my sanity.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 you're falsifying an account is what you're doing

8:32 PM

GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN GODWIN

George Pompidou

how do you know that he said anything remotely close to that? maybe all of the facts on which you're basing your question are based on accounts which the israelites wrote while intoxicated.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@GeorgePompidou It's a hypothetical account, so it can't really be "false" or "true".

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Follow the relations between the pope and US and also between the catholic church and protestant churches. Everything goes in the direction of being united. What they have in common is the Sunday worship day.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'm actually truly curious, how far back do we have an accurate recording of the day of the week?

George Pompidou

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 how do you know for sure it's hypothetical? what if everything you said is exactly what happened?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

8:38 PM

@IonicăBizău In the US, as well as in Canada and Europe and many other places, the churches are losing influence. Even in the Catholic Church itself the laity has split with official doctrine; most Western Catholics are okay with birth control, for example.

@GeorgePompidou Then I didn't falsify it.

QED

Have to go to sleep. :) See you guys!

George Pompidou

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 but what if that was one day off? what if you actually falsified something on a Tuesday?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

pleasant dreams

@GeorgePompidou "what if that was one day off" was actually what I was hypothesizing, so, again, QED

George Pompidou

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 but what if we are dreaming and this is actually August?

damn, you're owning my glibness with remarkably good logic.

gives Mr. Shiny a prize

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@tchrist I think your cat is standing on your ⌘-V keys again.

@GeorgePompidou I had a dream that my grandfather was just returning from a trip to China, where he'd visited the same island where Oliver Queen was marooned, on that show "Arrow"

George Pompidou

8:44 PM

is it a show worth watching?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I liked the first season a lot, the second season a lot, but not as much, and the third season is okay, but again not as good as the 2nd.

It has its moments.

Do you like comic books?

If so, you might enjoy it. It's very comic-booky

George Pompidou

I'm not much of a comic book guy. but I do enjoy Anime series and movies, which are most often based on comics.

I wonder if my amazon instant video will work in Germany.

thinks critically

gets back to programming

9:13 PM

user image

@terdon Have you seen this?

Tsipras says he disapproves of it.

But you're probably far uptodater than I am.

George Pompidou

uptodater

he is the uptodatesten

1 hour later…

10:38 PM

funny comments that may amuse you imgur.com/gallery/Oo99BIw

10:49 PM

[ SmokeDetector ] Repeating characters in answer: "Improvement in/on/of/to something" by user114713 on english.stackexchange.com

George Pompidou

lolwat

nice catch by smokedetector

George Pompidou

what is the point of that answer

spamming/trolling/raging probably

George Pompidou

yes but usually those have a point

like spam is generally for advertising and trolling is for hilariousness

but this is neither

10:53 PM

Right, maybe just a desperate rage then

@Cerberus Yup. But that's actually from Der Spiegel. The Germans can make fun of themselves as they wish. It is horribly bad taste when the Greeks do it, I don't personally much care if the Germans do.

@terdon Yeah.

But he was trying to come across as a reasonable, nice guy to the German public, probably.

11:09 PM

@Cerberus Huh?

@terdon Well, the cartoon is critital of Merkel, portraying her as a Nazi for dominating Greece.

So Tsipras wanted to tell the Germans that he found that characterization unfair.

@Cerberus Oh, well. Yes, he has to. There have been loads of such cartoons in the Greek media.

Yeah.

Damn stupid Greek idiots.

Talk about counterproductive, needlessly provocative, small minded foolishness.

Hiya.

11:21 PM

Yooo!

Come stai?

@terdon Oh, well, it is understandable.

@Cerberus Still bleedin annoying.

Hey @Mahnax long time no see!

I was watching this Portuguese telenovela (don't ask), and they were also joking about the troika and stuff robbing them.

@Cerberus I'm… tired. How are you?

@terdon Indeed! I haven't been by in a month.

@Mahnax Same!

Very much so.

Ah, I haven't caught you in longer.

11:23 PM

Understandable, given I've visited maybe five times this year :) How've you both been?

Good, good.

We were discussing the Greek crisis.

If I may call it that.

How is university life?

[ SmokeDetector ] Repeating characters in answer: How should wireless technology names be hyphenated and capitalized? by Hussin Mostafa on english.stackexchange.com

@Cerberus Tiresome and stressful! I can't wait for this semester to be over. Next year should be better.

@SmokeDetector Wow, that is super fast.

It has got my delete vote.

@Mahnax Oh, hmm. The workload is very high?

@Cerberus Yup. Assignments out the wazoo.

11:27 PM

I see.

Also, I've basically been writing midterms since mid-February.

They just don't stop.

Hmm.

But the rest of the semester was not like that?

Most classes have two. I finally wrote my last midterm today—three weeks before the end of classes.

Somebody please spam flag this: english.stackexchange.com/a/235172/25030

Why do people downvote instead of flagging these posts?

@Cerberus Well, everything after the middle of February has been pretty intense.

11:47 PM

@Mahnax OK. But if this is only during midterms, then your first academic year is quite OK, right?

11:58 PM

At any rate, I wish you good luck!

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