The Reading Room

2:19 AM

0

Q: Where are the conjunctions and prepositions here?

In "The Markenmore Mystery" (1922) by J. S. Fletcher, the author was talking about a solicitor who was summoned to an ancient house, Markenmore Court, where an inquest was to be held after the death of one of its people. Two days later, Mr. Fransemmery summoned to discharge the functions of a ju...

bobble

3:31 AM

Would this question be more cultural-context than historical-context?

bobble

4:43 AM

Rand, am I correct to conclude that SF&F is okay with questions being only in the title? (Meta.SE reference, rejected suggested edit along those lines).

I specifically edited there because the body makes no sense without the title; there's no question in it.

(Not the best meta-reference, and I could swear I read a more explicit one, but it's past 9PM here so oh well)

verbose

5:19 AM

@Tsundoku Yes, I created an account. I couldn't figure out a way to access those books without an account either.

verbose

5:40 AM

:57393751

Bookworm

7:47 AM

0

Q: Origin of the story of Gilbert and the Saracen maid

A popular legend about the parents of Thomas Becket (1118–1170), Archbishop of Canterbury, is retold by Charles Dickens in A Child's History of England: Once upon a time, a worthy merchant of London, named Gilbert À Becket, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and was taken prisoner by a Saracen ...

history-of-literature biography

Rand al'Thor

11:16 AM

@bobble I don't think SFF has any site-specific policy on questions being in title vs body, but my interpretation of the general network policy is that it's preferable for the body to be self-contained including the actual question, but an edit which just does that would be a very minor improvement so don't be too surprised if it gets rejected.

Then again, my personal edit review policy may not always be in line with network norms. I'd also reject an edit which just removes e.g. "Thanks in advance" from a question, as too small an improvement to be worth an edit.

(The SE company has been making noises in the last year or two about rethinking their policy against putting things like "Thanks in advance" in questions. I'd be one of those supporting them if they did decide it's OK to include those things.)

Rand al'Thor

11:35 AM

@Bookworm With three upvotes on verbose's answer in the last half an hour, this just managed to go HNQ after the 8-hour threshold.

Bookworm

12:25 PM

0

Q: Nuts and Super-Nuts

In Saki's Beasts and Super-Beasts (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/269/269-h/269-h.htm) he refers to "Nuts" and "Super-Nuts". For example, we have “You are not going to be what they call a Nut, are you?” she inquired with some anxiety, partly with the idea that a Nut would be an extravagance whi...

saki

b_jonas

1:08 PM

@Randal'Thor good ieda

I support that

Soyuz42

1:48 PM

Finished Emma.

Rand al'Thor

@verbose Following links from your answer, TIL about the Goa Inquisition.

I gotta say, wow. I didn't realise that Christianity (let alone Catholic orthodoxy) was so strictly enforced even in colonies of Portugal (and Spain?)

I suppose I'd sort of assumed, given the predominance of non-European religions in India even today, that the colonists there had allowed some level of religious freedom to the native Indian people.

But maybe that depends on exactly which European colonial power we're talking about. I've heard that, for example, France made a lot more effort than Britain to "francify" its colonies - hence why even today, for example, the culture of Algeria is much more "French" than that of Nigeria is "English".

I guess if Spain and Portugal were even more bent on trying to make their colonies culturally homogeneous with their homeland, in terms of language and religion and so on, that'd explain the demographics of Latin America.

bobble

4:47 PM

Finally posted that The Lusiads question I've been delaying.

Now back to homework

Bookworm

5:02 PM

1

Q: What's the significance of the "Invocation to the muses of the Tagus"?

In the fourth stanza of Book I of an English translation of Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads), the narrator speaks to the "fair nymphs of Tagus" And you, fair nymphs of Tagus, parent stream, If e’er your meadows were my pastoral theme, While you have listen’d, and by moonshine seen My footsteps wander o...

portuguese-literature the-lusiads luis-vaz-de-camoes

verbose

6:12 PM

@Soyuz42 one of my favorite novels. Have you watched Clueless?

@Randal'Thor I have a question to ask about Os Lusíadas that is tangentially relevant to that. Will probably ask tomorrow

bobble

Hello, dearest verbose!

verbose

@Randal'Thor I don’t know about Spain, but Portugal and France (unlike Britain) claimed their colonies weren’t “colonies” but “overseas territories.” So the inhabitants had full citizenship rights, for example. This also led to a greater drive for assimilation into the metropolitan culture. Hence the large number of Goan Catholics. The Portuguese also encouraged settlers to intermarry with the natives, something explicitly discouraged by the Brits

@bobble good morning ☀️

bobble

'tis approaching lunch-time for me

I got another acceptance, and another rejection

Sorry if I'm being annoying with the application updates ^^

Soyuz42

@verbose Good novel, but I must say I liked Pride and Prejudice better. I haven't watched Clueless though.

verbose

6:41 PM

@Soyuz42 I used to like P&P better than Emma until I re-read them both. And go watch Clueless 🙃 it’s an Emma remake

@bobble congratulations on your third acceptance! 🎉

bobble

uh, did I forget to announce all of them here? it's my fourth

Soyuz42

7:03 PM

@verbose There was a lot more going on in P&P, so I could probably impute my preference to my short attention span. And I read the Wikipedia synopsis of Clueless before I could stop myself. oops

Rand al'Thor

@verbose I knew France did that (and indeed still does, for its remaining "territories" like French Guiana, New Caledonia, etc.), but I didn't know so much about Portuguese colonisation.

Hence the surprising answer "France" to the quiz question "Which is the closest country to New Zealand?"

Soyuz42

@Randal'Thor There were French trading outposts in India too, like Pondicherry.

Actually, I think that was the only one.

Rand al'Thor

And I'm pretty sure from my own family history that Britain also gave citizenship rights to inhabitants of at least some of its colonies, during at least some period of time.

@Soyuz42 Seems like nearly all the European colonial powers had a piece of India at some point. Although Britain left the biggest mark.

I often joke with Indian friends IRL that the biggest cultural exchange between India and Britain was curry and cricket.

Soyuz42

@Randal'Thor Cricket, something else my attention span can't handle. I would say football was a much better import.

Rand al'Thor

Indians have taken over cricket to such an extent that I've met people (not in Britain) who thought it's originally an Indian sport not a British one.

Mithical

7:17 PM

@Soyuz42 Football as in American football or as in soccer football?

Rand al'Thor

And all over Europe it seems that "Indian restaurants" are mostly patronised by curry-consuming Brits.

bobble

I am an ignorant American who only knows of cricket through references in book and poetry

Soyuz42

@Mithical Soccer ~~of course~~

Rand al'Thor

@Mithical Football football, I assume. The American version wouldn't have been spread from Britain to India.

John Cleese rants - Soccer vs Football

►

Tsundoku

7:34 PM

@verbose Inhabitants of French colonies definitely did not have full citizenship rights unless they were French citizens who migrated there. The indigenous population enjoyed only nominal citizenship. See for examples this question about French Algeria.

@bobble So you got two rejections and three acceptances?

Soyuz42

@Randal'Thor For quite some time, I believed that American football descended from a game of football in which a player, deranged after suffering a concussion, clutched the ball and made for his team's goal while fending off his teammates. I read this somewhere.

Tsundoku

@Soyuz42 "se non è vero, è ben trovato"

verbose

@bobble oh sorry, I must’ve missed one

@Soyuz42 also Chandarnagar (now in West Bengal), Karaikal, Yanam, and Mahé though of course maybe you are including those last three under Pondicherry

@Tsundoku true, sorry for misstating. My point was that they claim that those territories are not colonies but an integral part of the country

@Soyuz42 I’ve been meaning to ask a question on English SE about why 🇺🇸 🏈 is called football

@Soyuz42 the definitive ranking of Austen novels: (1) Emma (2) Persuasion (3) P&P (4) Lady Susan (5) Sense and Sensibility (6) Northanger Abbey (7) Mansfield Park

Rand al'Thor

7:50 PM

@verbose Be careful asking on English Language & Usage, they close an awful lot of stuff. Then again, your questions are always so detailed and researched, so you'll probably pass mustard there.

There's also a Sports SE, FWIW. Dunno if they do terminology/history questions, but they might also have the expertise you need for that question.

Oh, there we go:

25

Q: Why is American football called football?

Why is American football called "football" even though the players play with their hands more than their feet? It seems to be very similar to rugby, and doesn't have the name "American Rugby". What might be the reason for it to be called "Football" even though it is more similar to Rugby?

american-football history terminology

verbose

@Randal'Thor I’m aware of ELU’s meanness. They are just not very nice to users.

@Randal'Thor ah thanks!

Rand al'Thor

@verbose I was trying to put it nicely, but ... yeah ;-)

Tsundoku

And they don't like having it pointed out to them.

-1

Q: Why is this community so elitist?

Every question you ask gets showered with people pointing and berating. This is the most toxic Stack Exchange community I've experienced. Better chances on Reddit.

discussion

verbose

Well, the only answer across the network where I have a negative score is one where I replied to a question when someone else had VdTC as a duplicate. The question was not yet closed and I didn’t yet have enough rep to even see close votes. Some asshole downvoted my answer with the comment that I “didn’t respect the rule about not having duplicates”

I left the answer up just on principle.

Tsundoku

I have been in a similar situation. The mod who closed the question downvoted my answer, referring to the close reason in a comment below my answer.

Rand al'Thor

8:05 PM

I once answered a single-word-request question on ELU, which went HNQ and attracted a bunch of answers, and a mod went around leaving a stock comment on every answer saying the answerer should explain why that answer was more right than all the others, along with a stock phrase about needing 50 reputation to leave a comment instead of posting an answer if it isn't the single correct one.

... and apparently debating with me in comments on that thread was that user's last public action as a moderator (they're not any more).

Napoleon Wilson

8:35 PM

@Tsundoku With such a meta post, who on god's green earth does?

Tsundoku

Oh, it's not a great post. But I think it's just a tip of the iceberg. There must be many other users who just leave without posting a meta question.

@Bookworm Nuts and Super-Nuts: HNQ and super-HNQ.

Bookworm

0

Q: Where does Tomyris promise to retreat? (Herodotus, Histories 1.208)

I'm trying to understand this passage in Herodotus's Histories (Book 1 chapter 208): So these opinions contended; and Cyrus set aside his former plan and chose that of Croesus; wherefore he bade Tomyris draw her army off, for he would cross (he said) and attack her; so she withdrew as she had pr...

meaning

verbose

9:09 PM

@NapoleonWilson haha one of the answers to that post is from the ass who downvoted my answer because he had VdTC the question as a duplicate.

Napoleon Wilson

@verbose o_O

verbose

@Tsundoku also, people in Pondicherry at any rate had the right to seek French citizenship when Pondicherry was turned over to India. The descendants of people who chose French citizenship still hold French citizenship

Bookworm

10:55 PM

0

Q: Encargo by Julio Cortazar - English translation

Is there any translation of the poem? I've not been able to find one online.

poetry translation

Bookworm

11:21 PM

0

Q: Incerto by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - What is the Sixth Book?

Some search results show Amazon displaying Incerto by Nassim Nicholas Taleb as a six book series. However, following the links indicates that Incerto is now a five book series. I believe I have seen the title of the additional book in the past, but I cannot recall it, and the Wayback Machine do...

identification-request incerto nassim-nicholas-taleb

bobble

Do we need a tag for a specific essay?

In any case, that tag's question needs essays added, but I want to know if I should clean up the work tag at the same time

Tsundoku

@bobble It's a book-length essay, so the existence of the tag is justified.

bobble

Does essays still apply, then?

Tsundoku

Yes, it makes sense to add that tag.

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