English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

RegDwigнt

9:06 PM

Archimedes was right all along.

Robusto

He was right about a lot of things.

RegDwigнt

Give me a place to stand and I will make the Polaris flat.

Robusto

@tchrist The letter I excerpted earlier was written on the back of a half-begun letter written by my great-grandmother, in which she adds this (spelling and punctuation her own):

> They are making a hospital out of the City hall some familys are all sick and cant get any body to take care of them, they are getting two nurses up their that dont take any Influenza caces in Litchfield at all

So that's the step after the whole WTF comes crashing down.

@RegDwigнt See, Polaris A is for strings and Polaris Ab is for woodwinds and brass.

RegDwigнt

That's a very interesting letter to read.

Robusto

Did you see the other one?

RegDwigнt

9:12 PM

I remember reading letters by my great-grandfather, very roughly from the same time. Some fourteen years later maybe. Which wasn't the same time at all anymore.

@Robusto not yet.

Robusto

Yeah. The one from my grandma is a good read. I'll link it.

6 hours ago, by Robusto

> The town is under quarantine for Influenza. No one can come into this place or leave it. Good-Night! I see where you won't get to come home for a while. Henry cannot even go to Work. They closed mines No. 15 & 5 on account of it. (Excuse figures because I don't feel like writing)
> This is some place, they wouldn't let us celebrate the close of the world war. We wanted to hang the Kaiser in effigy but we weren't even _allowed_ to ring the bells. The policeman said we would celebrate next week. Wel that's just like this town always behind times.

That's just an excerpt. It's from November 12, 1918, the day after WWI ended.

There's more after that fragment.

RegDwigнt

Yes that I read. Is where I have the date from.

I thought it was the same letter. The two excerpts.

Robusto

Feb 24 at 2:56, by Robusto

It's a really interesting letter, and introduced me to her as a real person with wit and charm and enduring love. I still have it.

@RegDwigнt The one with all the misspellings was one from her mother, which is on the back of one of the pages of my grandmother's letter, which she did just so that my great-grandmother's letter would get sent.

Also because there was nothing to do except take care of her baby (my father).

RegDwigнt

I see now.

That's why we go over these things.

Robusto

> Dear Sister:
> I suppose I will have to finish Mother's letter or you will never get it. What do you think about Kaiser Bill now? Aren't you glad it is all over "over there." We all are tea-kettled to death.

That's how grandma's letter begins.

She was a much better writer than her mother.

RegDwigнt

9:18 PM

No mention of tea-kettle as a verb in Wiktionary.

Robusto

I know. It's obviously a pun on tickled, but I'm not sure if it has another dimension.

RegDwigнt

Oh.

Well that wasn't obvious to me.

Robusto

For a long time I thought it might be a pun involving women getting together for tea and gossiping. It still might be.

RegDwigнt

Earlier today some idiot on MuseScore complained that his school now forced everybody to learn a second language. He sounded genuinely cross. Wondered WTF the point of it was.

Robusto

I wish she'd lived till I was old enough to ask her about it, but she died nearly 30 years before I was born.

RegDwigнt

9:20 PM

I replied by saying that if nobody learned a second language, nobody would understand a word of what he had only just said.

How would you know about tickling and teakettles if you never learned English.

Alas. Some people.

Some of my grandparents lived for the longest time but it only occurs to you after their death, all the things you could've asked them but didn't.

Robusto

Yeah. You think everyone is going to be around forever.

Here's you on the left, MuseScore commenters on the right.

RegDwigнt

My great-grandma died a couple months before I was born. I must say I have less issues with that precisely because we never even met.

Robusto

Well, I wouldn't have any issues at all if I her letter hadn't found its way down to me. But there is clearly a voice, an intelligence there that I wish I'd had the opportunity to know.

RegDwigнt

True.

So why are you reading them letters now.

Is it because of this influenza thing.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Yeah. Coronavirus reminded me of that earlier epidemic.

RegDwigнt

9:28 PM

I see. So it's not just a coincidence.

Robusto

I've had this letter since my mother died, and I read it first when I was about 17.

RegDwigнt

Earlier today I was wondering with a friend if the opposite of all those quarantines wouldn't be a smarter idea in the end.

Robusto

Logic being?

RegDwigнt

Everyone's gonna go through it eventually, so why not all go through it all at once.

Rather than have Joe have it for two weeks, then Jake, then Susan. And three years later you're still locked in your house waiting for everyone to be done with their turn.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Well, the point is if everyone gets it all at once that brings the whole healthcare system to its knees. And more people will die.

RegDwigнt

9:31 PM

Well yes.

Not the last bit, but the system collapsing.

Robusto

The last bit is a result of the system collapsing.

RegDwigнt

But then again, what you have now is a village of some thirty people somewhere being sick, and you send ten doctors and two thousand military their way.

Lots and lots of resources are tied up, and tied up rather disproportionately.

If everyone everywhere were sick, you wouldn't need a thousand soldiers for every citizen.

The soldiers would all be sick themselves anyway.

Robusto

OK, I don't know of the case you're talking about.

RegDwigнt

Well mostly the one in Italy.

But there's other places by now.

And, like, more and more places every day.

Robusto

It's symptomatic of ignorance, disorganization, and lack of foresight.

RegDwigнt

9:35 PM

Yes, but that's the beauty of my plan. You wouldn't need any foresight or organization at all.

Robusto

When people don't know how to do something, they fall back on what they do know and just do it harder. Even though it doesn't work.

RegDwigнt

Now before there's a misunderstanding, obviously, I would never suggest that for something like Ebola.

But a mutated flu, why not.

Robusto

Well, if you don't mind saying good-bye to a lot of old people.

RegDwigнt

The old people can very much stay in their homes and wait it out. Like they're doing already. Except they would have to wait out for a couple weeks rather than a couple years.

If anything, that gains them time.

Robusto

I'm not qualified to render an opinion on that.

RegDwigнt

9:38 PM

Neither am I. Which is why I'm wondering.

Maybe someone is.

It'd be interesting to hear some data.

Robusto

BTW, I was going to invite you over for coffee but Trump just banned travel with the EU.

RegDwigнt

I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon anyway, because my passport has expired and I'm too lazy to renew it.

Robusto

Well, not all of it. He leaves out countries that have Trump properties

RegDwigнt

Orange hair?

Robusto

I'm shocked—SHOCKED—that he would place his personal interests before the health of the citizenry.

RegDwigнt

9:40 PM

Oh golf courses.

Well, just so he knows, every country has them.

Robusto

But not his. His are special. Because they make him money.

RegDwigнt

Well he should build more. That'd only make him more money.

Anyway, smarter people than him enforce travel restrictions now, but all are laughable at this point.

Either close down the entire world, day one, or what's even the point.

Robusto

Being human is harder if you're an idiot.

RegDwigнt

Literally every country has cases now. And literally every restriction does not include this or that place, or this or that group of people. Military, diplomats. Doctors, for that matter. Businessmen.

Robusto

Well, how about China doesn't keep coming up with a new pandemic every few years.

RegDwigнt

9:44 PM

Really all we're targeting at this point is people who were finally going to go on that vacation to France they've been saving up for the last ten years.

Regular folk.

Everyone else is too important to be targeted.

Robusto

Yeah. And I was thinking of going to France this year.

RegDwigнt

More to the point, everyone only targets foreigners, but nobody targets their own people. As well they can't because it's against all kinds of laws.

But your own people returning is how you get all this shit in the first place.

It's not me coming to your country. It's you coming back home.

Anyway. Why am I Cerberus now. Why am I talking about this nonsense.

How about some music or something.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt Good question. Maybe it's a symptom of the coronavirus.

RegDwigнt

I'd buy that virus for a dollar.

One that turns you into a helldog from hell.

J.S.Bach - BWV 639 Choral Prelude in F Minor

►

Robusto

BTW, the reason @Cerb likes you is the owl thing. You are Athena's familiar.

Cerberus

9:49 PM

I never said that!

Robusto

I can't prove it, I just know it's true.

RegDwigнt

That is so gay. Then again, the math checks out.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt BTW, I'm looking at that bridge while listening, and it just makes me realize how much engineering ordinary builders and even laborers (craftsmen) had to know in those days. Unlike now when people just take the wrapping off this or that component and bolt it to some other component.

RegDwigнt

It's amazing, all the foresaken structures you come across in the middle of the woods somewhere.

All the time and effort put into them. And they're still here to show for it.

Robusto

That is why they're still here.

Now we destroy sports stadiums that are a couple decades old because they're falling apart.

Pontiac Silverdome

The Pontiac Silverdome (also known as simply the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, the first use of the architectural technique in a major athletic facility. With a seating capacity of 82,666+, it was the largest stadium in the National Football League (NFL) until FedExField in suburban Washington, D.C. expanded its capacity to over 85,000 in 2000. It was primarily the home of the Detroit Lions of the NFL from 1975 to 2001 and was also home...

Looked like shit and lasted like it too.

Now you see an old bridge in the woods and you just marvel at what a fine thing it is.

RegDwigнt

9:55 PM

People still drive around in Pontiacs from the 50s.

Nobody drives around in a Honda from yesteryear anymore.

Robusto

My house in St. Louis had been built during the Depression, but workmen who knew what they were doing. It was finished exquisitely, and even the chain pull on the light in the closet was a perfect little brass acorn. Down to that level of detail.

@RegDwigнt Wait. I drive a Honda from yesteryear (2018), and Pontiac has been dead for more than a decade.

RegDwigнt

Look at an old postbox sometime. An old phone booth. An old street fixture. A lantern.

People liked beauty back then.

The most functional of things still had to have grace.

Robusto

Yeah. And they took pride in their work.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto haha. Well. You've been warned.

Your Honda won't outlast what Streamliners are still left.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt We'll see. They still make the best engines.

RegDwigнt

9:59 PM

You can't ride an engine to work.

It gets rather hot.

Robusto

So I've been told.

But compared to Fiat-Chrysler or Nissan or Volkswagen? Please. I'll be driving long after those are all in the scrap yard.

The only possibly better car is a Toyota, and my wife drives one of those, so we're covered either way.

Anyway, I need to go and see about putting dinner together. CYA later!

RegDwigнt

Depends on what Volkswagen we're talking about. Keep in mind Porsches and Lamborghinis and Bentleys are theirs, too.

They're like the Nestle of cars.

Just when you thought you bought a fresh apple directly from the local farmer, you take a bite and there's a VW inside.

That Chrysler isn't dead as a whole is a shame tho.

Can they swap with Boeing please? I'd rather keep the Boeing.

Færd

@RegDwigнt Umm it's just what it says? Days from the first reported case(s) of Coronavirus.

@Mitch Oh damn my jokes are coming true.

RegDwigнt

@Færd So the first reported case in the US was a mere week ago, and Norway had a hundred cases before China did?

That can't possibly be it.

Færd

Yeah I'm puzzling over that at the moment. Trying to find the some records.

RegDwigнt

10:13 PM

Also, why did Greece and Norway and Switzerland stop having any cases at all after less than two weeks.

As I said, every which way you try to look at it, some thing some where just doesn't add up.

And where's Germany anyway.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt No, it is days after the first case was reported in that country.

Færd

Right.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus explain.

Cerberus

So the different lines are not synchronous.

Færd

So the numbers start to pile up at different paces in different countries.

Cerberus

10:15 PM

When you look at the graph for Spain, the number of days is: number of days since the virus was first reported to have infected someone in Spain.

When you look at the graph for China, the same number of days will be months before Spain.

RegDwigнt

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Færd

You've got different curves that start at different points on the X axis.

RegDwigнt

The line for Spain starts at exactly 26. What, exactly, does the "26" stand for.

26 days since when.

Færd

Shift them all back so they all start from the same day.

@RegDwigнt Since the first case was reported in Spain.

RegDwigнt

@Færd exactly, so why are some of them already shifted, and others are not.

Cerberus

10:18 PM

I'm not looking at the graph now, inventing numbers: Suppose the first infection in Spain was on March 1, the first infection in China on 1 December. Now, when you look at day 10 in the image, that is 11 December for the Chinese line, but 11 March for the Spanish line.

RegDwigнt

I understand that.

Cerberus

Oh, OK.

RegDwigнt

What I do not understand is how you can be saying that while not looking at the graph.

Because if you looked at the graph, you'd see that that is clearly not the case.

Cerberus

I have looked at it.

Færd

@RegDwigнt They are all shifted okay. They don't rise at the same pace.

As if some of them have latent phases after the first report.

Cerberus

10:19 PM

@RegDwigнt What do you mean?

Færd

And then it starts to spread. Or they start to test for the virus. Or something of the sort.

Cerberus

If you mean how the lines start out flat for many countries, that will be because have only 1 or 2 cases for a long time.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus if that is true, all lines would have to start at day 1 by definition. Because that is the day the first case is reported. Day one.

Cerberus

Yeah, it could be testing, or quick isolation of the first patient.

@RegDwigнt Look at the y axis. It is cut off at 0.02.

RegDwigнt

Oh.

Well. See. Why didn't you say that instead.

Cerberus

10:21 PM

I didn't know which part you didn't understand.

Færd

Having six eyes pays off.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus all of them.

Cerberus

So, for America, the lower bound of visibility is ca. 66 cases.

RegDwigнt

Yeah. Fuck America!

66 people more or less, who cares.

Cerberus

Yeah.

The Chinese mentality.

RegDwigнt

10:22 PM

So how high is the bound of visibility for Germany then?

Is it because of all the nazis?

Cerberus

0.02*(80,000,000/100,000).

RegDwigнt

I can't read that.

Cerberus

16.

RegDwigнt

Well, there's like three or four people dead already.

What was the mortality rate? 100%?

Cerberus

But, as you can see, not all countries are in the the graph.

RegDwigнt

10:23 PM

Indeed that is very much my complaint.

Cerberus

Complain away.

RegDwigнt

You include Switzerland but not the biggest country in all of the EU.

Cerberus

Punishment for the War of 1870?

RegDwigнt

Not sure. Too many wars to pick from.

Færd

China's performance is the most impressive btw.

Cerberus

10:25 PM

So there are.

Yes, China's draconic measures have paid off.

RegDwigнt

Well of course. They just don't count the cases.

Færd

I doubt that.

Cerberus

But I think Taiwan has done best of all.

In addition to Singapore and Hongkong.

Færd

@Cerberus You're suggesting they overreacted? Or it was too brutal?

RegDwigнt

@Færd sorry let me rephrase. Someone, somewhere in China, does count the cases, but he doesn't figure you important enough to be informed.

Cerberus

10:27 PM

@Færd I don't know about "over". But they did take draconic measures there which would not be possible here, didn't they?

RegDwigнt

Like since when do we suddenly believe statistics about deaths coming from China?

They won't even tell you how many people they executed last week.

And that's a more manageable number, I should think. Or is it.

Færd

@Cerberus I suppose. They also reacted with directing the economy towards the fight against the virus. Building hospitals, what have you.

Stalin style, in WWII.

Cerberus

Heh.

At least those things might be possible in other countries.

Færd

@RegDwigнt I suppose the WHO is overseeing that process now?

RegDwigнt

Watch the US build exactly nothing and just bicker instead.

Cerberus

10:28 PM

@RegDwigнt Yearly, probably not.

@Færd How is life in Tehran?

tchrist

@Færd Even the US bent the gears of industry towards the war effort during WW2.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus fake. Where's the caravan car?

Cerberus

It broke down under the weight of all the sacks of potatoes.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist well they sent us a couple thousand tanks, for starters. However, something tells me this time they won't.

2 mins ago, by RegDwigнt

Watch the US build exactly nothing and just bicker instead.

Where's my tank, Mr Trump. Where's my hospital. For fuck's sake, at least build me a golf course.

Færd

@Cerberus The streets and the shops look too empty for this time of the year (before Noruz).

Cerberus

10:32 PM

Hmm.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt I'm thinking we just might needs all the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation tanks we can build just for ourselves this time around.

Cerberus

@Færd Is that all?

Færd

Some businesses are suffering more, like those that counted on Noruz sales.

Some hospitals are boiling over with corona patients.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist what, all three of them?

Cerberus

Any drastic measures? Empty supermarkets?

tchrist

10:32 PM

@RegDwigнt Thank heaven our state governors are given a remarkable degree of sovereignty in these times.

@Cerberus Yes.

Cerberus

Today, for the first time I found that the loo paper was sold out at my supermarket.

Færd

@Cerberus Nah not much. Some loose travel restrictions.

Cerberus

Oh, OK.

tchrist

@Cerberus Bummer.

Færd

They were too slow to act.

Cerberus

10:33 PM

@tchrist I heard about that happening weeks ago in Germany.

Færd

@tchrist Oh yes that's true. You used to be much more socialist back in those days.

tchrist

A week ago all the rice and pasta was gone. Now all the hygenic paper.

Cerberus

They still won't even close the schools here.

Nor forbid all private air travel.

tchrist

Define "private" air travel?

Færd

That's a big mistake.

Cerberus

10:34 PM

@tchrist Have the rice and pasta returned?

tchrist

@Cerberus Only the little bags.

Cerberus

@tchrist Anything passenger flights the government cannot directly control.

tchrist

@Cerberus I don't know what that means. The FAA can ground everybody.

Cerberus

@tchrist Aww poor little bags, without their big parents.

tchrist

And did so on the 11th of something.

Cerberus

10:35 PM

@tchrist I mean, control individually who goes on any planes.

tchrist

@Cerberus Like Carlos Ghosn? :)

Færd

@Cerberus How many cases have you had so far?

tchrist

The TSA doesn't have to let anybody through who smells funny.

Færd

Any visible changes to people's daily lives?

RegDwigнt

On the plus side, the film industry will finally see a boom.

They say you should avoid any crowd of more than five people.

The last ten times or so that I went to the cinema, there were less than five people there.

tchrist

10:38 PM

Iran has 60x the cases after normalization that Holland has had.

RegDwigнt

Safest place on Earth.

tchrist

Iran has 120 cases per million populace, Holland perhaps 5.5

Færd

And that's only the official number.

tchrist

America is at 5.0, and we were 2.0 two days ago.

@Færd I know. I've seen the satellite imagery of Qom's mass burial sites.

Færd

The real estimate might be hundreds of times more.

tchrist

10:40 PM

Damn it, I was thinking 6-8, maybe 10.

Færd

@RegDwigнt You can lie on the front row.

tchrist

Off by one errors are less tolerable in orders of magnitude.

Færd

You mean ten per million in the US?

10 and 5 are of around the same order of magnitude, you know.

tchrist

@Færd No, me saying you guys might have 10x worse and you saying hundreds of times worse.

Færd

Uh. Yeah. I've seen different estimates using differnt methods. But let's not speculate. It's depressing.

tchrist

10:44 PM

washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/…

Færd

I've resigned myself to never knowing the exact number.

tchrist

That's https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/iran-coronavirus-outbreak-graves/

Færd

Pepole around the world should demand their governments take drastic precautions.

Close schools, quarantine infected areas.

Those in power are not willing to move until it threatens them.

RegDwigнt

Færd

I've heard Bolsonaro is still in the mock and scoff phase.

RegDwigнt

10:46 PM

That's one obscenely clever ad campagn.

I wonder if it's run by an AI.

Or if an actual human had the idea.

Færd

That's a hard jigsaw puzzle to solve.

RegDwigнt

It's the latest article on what the Germans plan to do in the next couple weeks.

No images anywhere, except this one. A map. Colored different shades of red.

So naturally you're drawn to click on it.

Except it's an ad. A map of housing prices.

tchrist

@Færd In a war whose stakes are literal life and death, polite ideologies and Socratic dialogues seem of piddling exigency.

Færd

@RegDwigнt Ugh. Nothing to do with the news piece above.

RegDwigнt

Yeah well, that's typical of any ad.

Cerberus

10:49 PM

@Færd 600 or so?

RegDwigнt

But in this case it's especially perfidious. Because it's a map. Colored red.

tchrist

@Færd Bolsonaro is just a highly paid cutpurse. It's even in his name.

Cerberus

@Færd Not until today. Now we have sold-out loo paper. And people cancelling birthday parties.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Perfidy should be the color of Albion: white.

Færd

@tchrist You could argue we're in a similar state of affairs right now.

RegDwigнt

10:50 PM

@tchrist well the white bits on the map are where all the neonazis live.

tchrist

@Cerberus Give it time, the virus will cancel more birthday parties than just those.

@Færd I am.

That was my point.

Færd

@Cerberus Better than non-action.

RegDwigнt

Nobody's cancelling piano lessons yet. But our choir rehearsal just earlier today was cancelled.

Lots of older folk there.

Cerberus

@Færd I've heard he might be infected...

@tchrist Heh.

RegDwigнt

Children's birthday parties should be fine. And those are the only ones I ever go to anyway.

Færd

10:52 PM

@Cerberus Yeap. The foreign minister or whoever it was had had a meeting with Trump too.

IIRC

tchrist

Unless we are very, very, very lucky, millions of people will die of this around the world. Maybe just here alone, per the CDC's Dr Fauci, if we don't get our act together. In which case every single one of us who survives will know some who did not.

Cerberus

@Færd Well, the loo paper isn't necessary.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist well none of you die, then. I don't really know too many other people. And they're all safe.

Cerberus

@Færd Right! We'll see what happens...

Færd

@Cerberus I hope the panic is helpful.

Cerberus

10:53 PM

I think I've said this before, but it would be interesting if Trump and Khamenei should be infected both.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Not feeling so well, actually. We'll see.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist well neither am I. But it could be the lifestyle.

Haven't felt too well for ages.

tchrist

Yep.

Cerberus

@Færd Perhaps a little bit. Today we have seen the first real measures taken nationally. All museums, theatres, etc., closed (but not amusement parks!). And all planned gatherings of 100+ people forbidden.

Færd

@Cerberus I know so many who are wishing for just that.

Cerberus

10:55 PM

nods

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus 1000+ here.

tchrist

@Cerberus I intend to attend no gatherings.

Cerberus

@tchrist What are you feeling?

@RegDwigнt Losers.

RegDwigнt

As I joked earlier about cinemas, likewise museums could be the safest places actually.

Who the fuck goes visit a museum.

tchrist

@Cerberus I just have a normal upper respiratory infection, but it's wearing on me is all.

Cerberus

10:56 PM

@tchrist My friend asked what he should do about Saturday's birthday party. It is to be a party of 8, having drinks in a bar.

RegDwigнt

Well, I do. And that's how I know that absolutely nöone else does.

tchrist

@Cerberus Stand six to eight feet apart from each other.

RegDwigнt

Just move it to a later date.

Cerberus

@tchrist I can imagine it must be awful especially at this time.

RegDwigнt

It's a party. Not a work order you have to fulfill.

tchrist

10:57 PM

Colorado is the #5 in the plague leaderboard.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Still many, many bus loads of tourists here.

tchrist

The one between the states.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Yes, that is what I have suggested.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus well there's your problem. Forbid tourists.

tchrist

WA, NY, CA, MA, CO.

Cerberus

10:57 PM

@RegDwigнt !!

RegDwigнt

I thought that was the first step, not the last.

Cerberus

I have always wanted to forbid tourists from entering the city!

Færd

@tchrist Stay home and get lots of rest.

Cerberus

I thought terrorism might do it, but this is 'better'.

tchrist

Trump has forbidden European tourists.

RegDwigнt

10:58 PM

What point in forbidding birthday parties but not a busload of Russians.

tchrist

@Færd I work from home.

Færd

All I'm focused on right now is not getting the damn virus and not passing it on to my parents.

Cerberus

Although the city was still overly crowded today, as usual.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus and I have always complied with your wish.

tchrist

@Færd I'm terrified of that. And I can't do anything about it, as they're now a kilomile away from me, and I wouldn't want to fly back.

Færd

10:58 PM

@tchrist Good. I am too, these days.

RegDwigнt

And that is why you won't get corona from me. See. We are smart.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Birthday parties aren't forbidden yet. But, yes, tourism should have stopped immediately.

@tchrist And he is right for once.

@Færd Same here.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus well your measly party isn't forbidden. I was going to invite 20000 people to mine.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Well done!

tchrist

@Cerberus Like the stopped clock that's right 1 to 3 times a day.

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