English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2017-05-30 (page 2 of 3)

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1:01 PM

@Gigili Good for you. Other users, including me, expect mods to be civil at all times and expect them to lead by example and set the tone of what is and is not an acceptable way to address users on the site. That's actually one of the hardest things about being a mod.

You feel that comment was acceptable, which is your right. Reg also obviously feels so which is also his right. I felt it wasn't, brought it up, was politely dismissed and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned.

Let those without sin cast the first stone.

FWIW, "What have you been smoking?" is more jocular than offensive. It is certainly within bounds when dealing with someone who is making no sense at all.

I doubt anything will actually get them to gibber any less.

I feel like this incident isn't worth the time y'all are investing into discussing it.
The game's not worth the candles.

@RegDwigнt Agreed. I raised a point, you heard and answered and happened to disagree. I was fine with that.

is with Terdy

1:08 PM

@RegDwigнt FWIW, that expression is normally expressed with singular candle.

@Cerberus Yay! :P

Certainly not worth making a big deal out of this anyway, and that wasn't my intent.

Better to light...

although he agrees that it isn't a big deal

Still, this is the place we go to talk things into the ground, so the result is not surprising.

nods

1:11 PM

@Robusto FWIW I didn't even know you had the expression.

Let's talk about something of global import, like the three stooges.

I was translating on-the-fly from Russian. Word for word.

Mar 4 '15 at 15:28, by Robusto

Feels like the game is no longer worth the candle.

I have had it for quite some time.

Is that an idiom, really?

@RegDwigнt How presidential of you.

1:12 PM

Note the equivalence set up with the singular, more symmetrical.

Oct 22 '15 at 13:20, by RegDwigнt

Who reads your shit.

dictionary.com/browse/game-is-not-worth-the-candle--the

Huh

@terdon well it is in Russian.

English too, apparently.

What?

1:13 PM

I think Rob is trying to jump on the Russian bandwagon, seems to be all the rage with Um-Err-Icans these days.

> This expression, which began as a translation of a term used by the French essayist Michel de Montaigne in 1580, alludes to gambling by candlelight, which involved the expense of illumination. If the winnings were not sufficient, they did not warrant the expense.

@RegDwigнt You're all a bunch of frog lovers.

Ó tu que e-fumas

@RegDwigнt You're calling me a Trumpist now? Careful, we don't want to say things we can't take back.

@Robusto I didn't realize your Russian was that good.

@tchrist Have you heard his English? What makes you think his Russian is any more impressive?

1:14 PM

@Robusto fair enough, I shall instead call you out on living in a third world country where a casino cannot afford but one candle.

I'm sure he can mumble monosyllables in Russian too.

Who the fuck plays a game of cards by the light of a candle?

Kevin Spacey?

Who said anything about cards?

I always understood it to be about chess.

Dworkin of Amber?

1:15 PM

Oh yeah. Of course.

All the chess gamblers.

Sorry, my bad.

No, the idea is that a candle costs money to burn.

@tchrist Whoa dude. Some of us here may well be stooges in real life.

Please lock the China up before the Elephant the White House enters.

practices German

And if you don't think people gamble at chess, you've never been to Washington Square in Manhattan, or Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA.

@tchrist Too late.

@Robusto Those guys are hardcore

1:17 PM

China is very big. It is indeed so most very big, not even the American prison system could accomodate it.

They will mess you up if you don't pay up.

@Robusto yes, because that's where the expression originated, as we've learned.

@RegDwigнt They could always annex Siberia for that.

Common misconception. Candles were invented at MIT, not Harvard

@tchrist They could buy Siberia.

1:19 PM

@terdon you felt it wasn't acceptable and brought it up. I disagreed and tried to discuss the matter further. If you don't feel like discussing, simply just say so.

Candles were not invented. They were handed to us. Five thousand years ago.

@Gigili ???

Guys stop talking about ELU, start talking about gambling. Jesus. Get with the programme.

@Robusto At least Siberia offers Lebensraum.

I detect some aggression there. Yes, I find it rude. Still do. Reg, Rob and yourself don't. What would you like to further discuss @Gigili?

1:20 PM

Unlike Tibet or T’Pau.

Jan 31 '15 at 13:35, by Robusto

Light a candle up to kingdom come
Make a welcome for the chosen one

Chosen one, community moderator?

Nobody can buy Siberia. It's got like tons of gold in it. And your stupid currency ain't even backed up by gold anymore. Not backed up by anything, actually.

@RegDwigнt More flies than gold, I think.

Oh, it's backed up daily.

Might not be backed though.

1:21 PM

@Robusto you're forgetting all the ointments in its flies.

@terdon Rush hours.

I wonder what the actual tonnage of flies in Siberia would be ...

Dogstar levels.

Tonnage? How much is that in stones?

Midges are normally measured in fucktons.

1:22 PM

Metric?

Ok fine, metric fucktons then if they’re Siberian midges.

> On calm and sultry evenings as we busied ourselves around the camp, mosquitoes came at us as if shot from a fire hose. Usually mosquitoes cluster in a cloud around their targets, but as Volodya made dinner I observed a thick and proximate cloud surrounding him head to toe, and then a whole other sort of candidate swarm around that inner swarm, and then more in all directions, minutely enlivening the sky.

@terdon Nothing. I wonder which part of my comment was aggressive, since I am the one who is offended by your replies.

> With such astronomical numbers, Siberian mosquitoes have learned to diversify. There are the majority, of course, who just bite you anywhere. Those are your general-practitioner mosquitoes, or G.P.s. Then, you have your specialists—your eye, ear, nose, and throat mosquitoes. Eye mosquitoes fly directly at the eyeball and crash-land there. The reason for this tactic is a mystery.

Why is Rob quoting No Country for Blood Suttre: The Road Orchard at us?

1:25 PM

@Gigili Offended? How? The aggressive bit was "if you don't feel like discussing, simply just say so" which reads as though I've angered you. You now confirm that I have indeed done so, but I have no idea why. That wasn't my intent.

It's from The New Yorker, of course

I think I broke terdon. Sucks to be me.

I honestly don't know what else there is to say. Reg's a mod here as is tchrist, if they feel the comment is OK, it's their call to make. I would delete it on sight on either of the sites I mod and would flag it on a site where I don't have such easy access to the mods.

Midgewater marshes many a merry man mosqueado make, pace the minaret.

How do you type in red letters on SE?

1:26 PM

@RegDwigнt Oh yeah? Imagine how I feel! I'm the one who's broken!

@Robusto not ënough diäräsëses.

Di what? Sorry couldn't understand

> The sheer volume of mosquitoes might cause an observer not to mention the gnats, flies, and tiny biting insects (known as “no-see-’ums” in America); there are plenty of all those as well. Sometimes in the evenings, I imagined I could hear the great insect totality tuning up all around, a continent-wide humming.

@RegDwigнt Ouch. Poor Reg, did Cerb give you his diarrhesis infection?

@SBM No probs, try understanding again. It's allowed by Addendum 52 to Chat Rules.

1:27 PM

@Cerberus would chide you on your spelling. I think he prefers diarrhoesis ...

@SBM They are links: [foo](http://www.example.com) is rendered in red: foo

@RegDwigнt Real mensches use untypably diacriticked diæ̈reses.

Rho rho rho your bhoat ...

Oh

@SBM Use the red letter key on your keyboard

1:29 PM

I was looking for the oe ligature but too lazy to find it.

G h o t I s

@Robusto Tu quoque?

@Robusto I believe you meant diarrhœsis.

@SBM Ich auch.

@terdon Thank you. Yes, of course.

45 secs ago, by Robusto

I was looking for the oe ligature but too lazy to find it.

.... Pardon?

1:29 PM

No not pardon, terdon.

A common typo.

@Robusto Yeah, didn't see that. I was too busy looking for the damn œ so I could look cool.

We should get back to being offensive

œ?

@Robusto he thinks "kinderspeelplaats" is a spelling. Nobody cares for what he thinks.

I'm really sorry if I was mean

@Mitch WE? It's only Tuesday.

1:30 PM

@terdon See, I got credit for the idea without actually having to bring the project to fruition.

I have lab assistants for that sort of thing.

@SBM Mean? How were you mean? We're the ones being incomprehensible. If you don't understand, it just means your brain still works.

For about two months, I have had lots of bad news

@Robusto Damn, you're good!

All your credit are belong to Jared Kuschner.

Don't get too cocky just yet.

Oh, I see

1:31 PM

When the bad news stops, that's when I start to worry

Mar 7 '15 at 18:25, by Robusto

Jun 24 '11 at 15:39, by Kosmonaut

@Robusto Dutch isn't even a convincing forgery.

He had me at "Dutch isn't".

@Mitch These must be carefree days for you then.

@RegDwigнt who's Jared?

That is the question, my friend.

Nobody knows the answer.

Not even Jared, for all we know.

1:32 PM

Luke Skywalker - I care

@SBM The White House Lord High Everything Else.

Ivanka & Jared: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

@Robusto These are all on your keyboard, dude.

perl -CS -le 'print "di\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER AE}\N{COMBINING DIAERESIS}reticked dia\N{COMBINING DIAERESIS}rrh\N{LATIN SMALL LIGATURE OE}ticking"'

Feb 16 '11 at 15:11, by Kosmonaut

@RegDwight: You appear to have spilled some IPA symbols all over the ground. Shall I help you pick them up?

@tchrist That's a lotta typing for a single character.

1:34 PM

I just got it with Alt+X, dunno about you people.

White House lord? Donald Trump?

Yes. I might even go as far and question the concept of it being single anymore.

@Robusto ’Tis indeed, which is why I have private shortcuts like "\N{oe}"

@terdon still not single, tho.

@tchrist that's not a shortcut. That's a fucking longcut.

@RegDwigнt Once they're fused, they're a single character.

1:35 PM

But what if they refused?

@terdon Opt-q yields œ for me.

@RegDwigнt Still single.

@tchrist That's just wrong.

Or maybe the're married after being ligated, I dunno.

You know a lot of many things. I am impressive.

1:36 PM

Opt-Q yields Œ

Or do you spell your Opt Alt?

Alt your opt is going its own way again.

user image

Gandalf will be jealous.

The Mac has an opt-in keyboard. Microsoft opted out of that.

Do you know what they call Mac in France?

Wait, I didn't know Q was a sex toy ...

1:37 PM

@Robusto ¿¡Ligaste anoche?!

@RegDwigнt Royale with iOS?

Oh crap, I’ve crossed the streams.

Yes, the iOS-eating surrender monkeys.

Stupid scrolls of doom.

@RegDwigнt Oh man, for a second I thought that was Data and not Q and was really wanting to watch that episode!

1:38 PM

Data is everything.

@tchrist Por supuesto.

@tchrist it's only gay if the ghouls don't touch.

@Robusto Tsk, "Yo ligo cada noche" querías decir.

@terdon I thought it was just once a year in the desert.

Mar 12 '11 at 1:30, by RegDwight

Coito ergo sum.

1:40 PM

The difference between nerd and geek, defined: Complete the following sentence: "May the force be _____________." Nerd says "with you" ... Geek says "the product of mass times acceleration."

@RegDwigнt I see your coaches are coming along swimmingly.

@tchrist Yeah, but he was feeling good about himself there.

@Robusto That's a geek with a God complex.

Don't they all have that?

@Robusto err. A geek will never define a physical quality using "may". That's some Christian talk right there. It should be "is".

@RegDwigнt Don't forget, the geek didn't begin the sentence, he was just looking for a way to complete it.

1:42 PM

I think the geek was looking for a way to cross the road.

@terdon Actually "Agreed. I raised a point, you heard and answered and happened to disagree. I was fine with that." was parsed as "I was not talking to you". Thanks for your clarification anyway.

user image

@Gigili Oh, no, that was directed at Reg, not you.

De colores son los Arabos que vienen d'afuera.

From the Isles of Babylon they come.

1:43 PM

Y por eso los grandes amores de muchos colores me gustan a mí.

A tempora a mores.

@tchrist snort, subtle :P

Shouldn't that be te regalaria though?

@terdon Yeah, it should. The Portuguese also sometimes use the imperfect when they should use the conditional in um conditionals. I don't know why.

(Just realized my joke might not be kosher for all.)

Write it I did not.

1:46 PM

@Robusto I like big Watts and I cannot lie.

Whoa.

@Robusto ’Twasn’t. And thanks.

@tchrist I know, I was just curious. It might have been some regional thing.

@Robusto you misspelled "my joke might not be kosher for Jews".

Because frankly nobody else cares.

@terdon We could ask. I wonder if that image would be too risqué for the Spanish SE.

I do know that the Portuguese do this at times in casual speech.

1:48 PM

I can't say I remember what the Spanish (or, at least, the Catalans) do.

@Mitch Don't you need a red keyboard for that?

@tchrist ¿Por qué sería patatas y no papas? ¿Hay una diferencia?

@Robusto Sip. Papas no se dice en peninsular.

@Robusto Patatas en España, papas en América.

@Gigili He means red in the sense of communist.

1:51 PM

user image

@tchrist Canarias también.

Canarias in the coal mine.

I think I just jinxed @Reg, but not sure.

> En la lengua coloquial es frecuente hoy el empleo en la oración apódosis del pretérito imperfecto o copretérito de indicativo: Si me tocara/tocase la lotería, me compraba un coche.

Guess that’s the answer: it’s a Pan-Iberian malaise.

Huh

@Robusto no I was just randomly posting pictures of Ahhnold because that's what I do.

1:52 PM

@Robusto What would Jesus say?

If it was me I would never haven't said it. Sounds wrong.

Arnold as a communist is rather too coincidental there.

user image

@Robusto Well. You've heard it here first!

@Mitch Jesus would say "Screw the poor, give everything to the rich" ... oh, wait, that's Republicans.

1:54 PM

Jesus just wanted to be left alone.

user image

ELU chat is the place where you come to jerk off, and not the other way around.

@Mitch Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

Wait, Ahhnold is in *that* one as well?
The plot thickens.

@Robusto I uh wat. do not understand.

Please don't curdle.

1:55 PM

What is the other way round?

Corn starch

@RegDwigнt Jerk off to come.

Oh.

No thanks.

Sed buenos.

Can't believe I stumped you on that one.

1:56 PM

Yeah I was literally like what the fuck.

Then again I stumped you with Ahhnold.

Quid pro qua.

Status quo Aunty

user image

That's not Ahhnold. That's Ahhntonio.

Le chat qui rit.

@tchrist Cheesy joke.

1:58 PM

Where's his bandejas?

He cooked a racha.

Y no puede caminar, porque le falta marijuana de fumar.

We've come full circle at last.

We still don't know what Freddy was smoking.

Marry Juana and be merry all your life short.

@RegDwigнt shit?

Go ahead and smoke your little smoke, drink your little drink

That's ganja to you.

2:00 PM

Man, that New Yorker article is long.

all those words!

@Mitch Ｐｉｃｋ‪ ‪ ‪ｓｏｍｅ‪ ‪ ‪ｗｏｒｄ‪ ‪ ‪ｗｉｔｈ‪ ‪ ‪ｍｏｒｅ‪ ‪ ‪ｔｈａｎ‪ ‪ ‪ｆｏｕｒ‪ ‪ ‪ｂｉｔｓ‪ ‪ ‪ｅａｃｈ．‪ ‪‌ ‪

@Mitch That's how they do at The New Yorker ...

Do them words actually say anything of notice?

> The only drawback to this diet was that it made us smell like babies. And as we were able to bathe only infrequently our basic aroma became that of grownup, dusty, sweaty babies: the summertime smell of Mongols, in other words.

that's so racist

user image

2:02 PM

@Mitch Still, kinda funny.

user image

All bears are arctic bears.

@Mitch Oh, and the best part is ... it's just the second installment!

Mongols think it's funny because it's true

@tchrist That's Greek to me.

What idiots.

2:03 PM

@tchrist Oh, what stock is pictured in the background?

Can't be Disney's.

Norm's.

@Robusto please let the first one be mostly New Yorker comics.

Lionsgate.

Ig norm and they'll go away.

2:04 PM

Thank you, Matthew McConnaghey.

@Mitch Denied.

Okay, some things you just should not google.

You are lying. You should google all the things.

@tchrist That's right. You can't un-Google something, after all.

I googled all the things once, and it was glorious.

2:06 PM

I was on the Images page. This was a mistake of the first order.

Delusions.

I googled delusions, too.

@tchrist That's a rookie move.

@Robusto Of grandeur, and manic depressives who walk in the rain.

It's called castling, you noob.

2:06 PM

Queenside.

And I know that because I googled rookie moves once.

@RegDwigнt Something about a shotgun schach.

Whatever, just don't show me Dr Manhattan's blue balls again.

Dr Manhattan is the most boring divinity ever to be named after a borough.

Wait, what is Trump named after again?

2:12 PM

@RegDwigнt The rear end of a horse, I think. I don't know what the T stands for.

Oh, you meant the stupid duck.

That reminds me of a joke

> I'm willing to bet it crossed Nintendo's mind more than once to call its new console the "S-Wii-tch", but thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, and for once, we have a Nintendo console whose name actually means something! An appropriate meaning, as well, for a switch is another name for a beating stick with which one might conceivably flog a dead horse.

nope, not that one

Hm.

There's other jokes?

2:27 PM

It's so hot these days.

@Mitch What's the joke?

What joke?

> When a conveyance you are riding in fails to move and fails to move, and you hope and pray and apply all your mental powers in an attempt to get it rolling, and it finally does move, that’s one of life’s sweetest feelings.

Haha, so funny.

I think I'll rather go watch more Meryl Streep not knowing what a "video game" is.

pretends to understand

@Mitch That's a copy paste joke.

Keeley Hawes' Tomb Raider sound effects - The Graham Norton Show: Episode 4 - BBC One

2:41 PM

@RegDwigнt The Lara Croft noises are more interesting than Meryl Streep's ignorance.

You don't say.

Mornin!

Mornin!

This is too meta for me.

@MetaEd It's not morning in Europe. It's morning in America. Didn't you hear a word Ronald Reagan said?

2:42 PM

He's dead, mate.

@Robusto Couldn't hear him ... he was going deaf.

@RegDwigнt But he did say things when he was alive. I'm pretty confident on that point.

If you're hearing him, go consult a doctor. Preferrably a non-Republican one.

@Robusto you're misremembering. It's the wear and tear on your brain of all the pledges of allegiance.

user image

When I was a kid, we could only have lemon pledges.

@MetaEd How old are you now?

2:44 PM

Suburbia strikes again.

@englishstudent Older than dirt.

See, he's not saying a word. He's writing them. His mouth is otherwise preoccupied. QED.

@englishstudent It's no joke. Same with waiting for elevators. Please please please elevator. Don't stop at the 4th floor! Or the third. Or the ... goddamit who the hell gets on the elevator at the second floor.

@RegDwigнt But where there's smoke there's feuer.

@MetaEd have you seen how old dirt is?

2:45 PM

You misspelled Fuehrer.

You misspelled vestibule

@RegDwigнt You misspelled Nietsche.

But that's understandable

jinx

You owe me a coke.

@MetaEd haha.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (/ˈniːtʃə/ German: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈniːtʃə]; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, philologist, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869, at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life, and he completed...

2:47 PM

You should go back to Managua. You would go unnoticed in such a place.

user image

Oh but I am in Managua. That's why you're not noticing I am.

Sometimes "coke" seems like "cocaine".

The word I mean.

Not the drink.

How long have you been an English student?

6

A: How can I practice pronouncing "Coke" so it is not mistaken for another word?

Refer to it as Coca-cola.

Shit, that's not what I meant to post.

I wanted to post the question.

9

Q: How can I practice pronouncing "Coke" so it is not mistaken for another word?

I always fear my conversation sounds like this: — What would you like to drink, sir? — I will take some cock, thanks. — ROFL. Any tips on how to pronounce Coke so it is not mistaken for anything? :)

pronunciation diphthongs

2:49 PM

@Robusto Oh all my life.

We all have. We all have.

@Robusto But I rarely get the practice it in real life so I come here. It is a good place to talk to people and ask questions etc. :)

Functionally there is no difference in pronunciation between the two words, pronunciation-wise. Just understand that the difference lies in whether you use article or determiner: a coke is a drink; some coke is a drug.

You should get a video game console so you can talk to native speakers in casual setups.

Or just get a Tinder account for that.

@englishstudent What is your native language?

2:52 PM

@Robusto just because you can't drink some coke and always have to drink all of it, doesn't mean you know anything about grammer.

@Robusto yeah about that. What good are these for?

@RegDwigнt If Nicaraugua is a state of mind, you are in its capital.

Nothing is ever happening on Tinder.

Or OKcupid or whatever.

Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, producer, director, writer, singer, and activist. Grammer is known for his two-decade-long portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcoms Cheers and Frasier. He has won five Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and one Tony Award, and has also worked as a television producer, director, writer, and as a voice actor on The Simpsons as Sideshow Bob (for which he received his fifth Primetime Emmy). Grammer has been married four times and has seven children. == Early life == Grammer...

That's all you need to know about grammer.

Or is it Tegucigalpa?

@Robusto But that's my point. You know nothing about him. You just copypasted Wikipedia.

He's an Allen, an illegal Allen.

2:54 PM

@RegDwigнt I've seen him on TV. That's enough for me.

@Robusto It's Hindi.

@englishstudent Then it's probably too late for you already.

@englishstudent You need more exclamation marks in your writing.

Like this...

Also ... Hindi? Not some dialect?

It's Hindi!

Then everybody will clap

2:55 PM

@Robusto tru dat. Never watch him in movies. You will regret it and kill yourself. And not even in that order.

@Robusto Late to practice English? Why?

If you're Hindi and you know it, clap your hands.

@Mitch Aren't those "ellipses" Mitch?

@RegDwigнt You can't regret killing yourself before doing it.

That's just logic

You can't. Because loser talk.

2:56 PM

@RegDwigнt clap clap

I can do anything at all if I put my mind to it. And even if I don't.

@englishstudent No no no, not too late to practice ... just to divorce your mother tongue from the alien and barbaric rhythms of English.

Again again!

Rhythm is a dancer. You can feel it in the air.

Mitch is a lotta fun ... but the fun never stops.

2:57 PM

Hammertime!

@Robusto are you referring to troglodytic ululations?

Men are forbidden from ululating. It's, like, the law or something.

Who is Ellipses Mitch?

@RegDwigнt Tina Turner is a tiny rhythm.

Hey Jude, don't make it law.

2:58 PM

1 min ago, by Robusto

Mitch is a lotta fun ... but the fun never stops.

QED

I know all about tiny dancers. And Tony Danzas.

Science, biatch.

@Robusto Stephen Colbert does it all the time. But he also knows showtunes. That's not an explanation just an observation.

and that's not an excuse just an explanation

Anything you can do I can do better.avi

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