English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2011-04-04 (page 1 of 3)

« first day (144 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4763 days later) »

1:12 AM

@Cerberus — Well, now, that's not quite cricket, is it?

@Billare — Are you really asking about what people do after they have sex in real life?

2 hours later…

2:47 AM

@Robusto Not after sex -- the set-up to the whole thing. Do people really light many candles to create a mood? Other questions in that vein I've wondered are whether women really bathe in baths with rose petals and drip loofas over themselves to sponge off.

@Billare It's kind of hard (read: logically impossible) to prove a negative, but I know I've never taken a bath while accompanied by vegetation. Doesn't seem particularly, what's that word, efficient, you know?

As far as a bunch of candles... I'm afraid that it's such a cliche that about all it'd put me in the mood for would be giggling. But there is something undefinably romantic about a few groups of candles strategically placed & lighted.

3:51 AM

Congratulatoins @nohat for your Fanatic badge.

2 hours later…

5:37 AM

@Billare Thanks I should have gotten it in December but I was traveling in Europe and neglected to log in for a full 24 hour period. I've been kicking myself since

3 hours later…

8:17 AM

@nohat I'm 16 days away from it, and I'm going to a remote place with dial-up-but-only-when-it-wants-to-work internet access next week :(

1 hour later…

9:32 AM

@RegDwight: Can we remove a bunch of these starred chat posts? Someone did a drive-by starring of unexceptional commentary.

hi @Robusto

Hi.

don't you live in the US? you seem to wake up fairly early!

Cat.

Makes sense, cats sleep during the day, do other activities at night

though if you're a cat, typing on a keyboard must be hard

9:35 AM

Me no cat. Me have cat. Or me wife have cat.

how's that for animal car!

This is weird. I can't upvote a question on the board but it doesn't tell me I'm out of votes (which I'm not).

this happens to me if the internet connection is flaky

the page loads, but the javascript thingies don't work (voting, drop-down profile on top, etc.)

I went to another page and back and it works now.

Weird.

and please accept the approximation (or flat-out error) in identifying the issue as "JS thingies", as I know you work in that domain :)

9:41 AM

Well, to be precise, you would refer to JS scripts.

Looks like the invisible hand of @RegDwight must be removing stars from the ordinary posts.

@Robusto I saw this request, so I went through the list and deleted the stars from everything that ① had only a single star and ② was posted in the last 24 hours. If you wanted something starred in that timeframe, you'll have to re-do it. Hope that works for y'all…

@Dori good

Thanks. I didn't know you were a moderator.

0

A: Gay (homosexual) and gay (happy)

The development is actually quite straightforward once it has been pointed out. As your question indicates that you already know, 'gay' originally meant 'carefree' and 'happy'. Over time, the liberalness of 'carefree' increased and by the 1600s, it was used to describe someone of promiscuous se...

@Robusto I guessed you missed this:

Stack Overflow Blog: Welcome Valued Associate Dori Smith

Posted by Robert Cartaino on February 25th, 2011

With forty-three sites and counting, there’s no shortage of communities needing attention. Thank goodness there’s also no shortage of enthusiastic users willing to volunteer their time to help their communities. But once in awhile a user stands out as truly exceptional. That’s why I am really excited to announce that Dori Smith has joined us as a full-time member of our community management team.

You may have seen Dori in her role as moderator of Ask Different, the Apple Stack Exchange, but she is also actively involved in the Programmers Stack Exchange, as well as Super User, English Language & Usage, and our own meta Stack Overflow. …

9:47 AM

“the word 'gay' has taken on a negative connotation (since many oppose homosexuality) and can now be used almost interchangeably with the word 'bad'”

@Dori: Well, congrats.

How come there is no Valued Associate icon?

Thank you! :-D

@Robusto Because not enough people have voted this up:

34

Q: Differentiate between employees and moderators

My understanding of who has diamonds: All moderators have diamonds on the sites they moderate Trilogy moderators also have diamonds on MSO SOIS employees have diamonds everywhere they're needed Right now, there are a lot of new diamond moderators across the network, with more being added in...

feature-request stackexchange-2.0 stackexchange moderators

@Robusto: maybe you can protect the "gay" question?

(oh wait, that's me too… — really, I can reply with things that aren't all about me, honest!)

I just upticked you, @Dori. Mine should represent the tipping point, I think. Years from now people will point to my vote and say, "Yep, that was the point where she really started to gather momentum."

9:51 AM

@Robusto only because I upvoted it at the same time, but didn't do it so publicly, so the effect was wrongly attributed to you

@Robusto FWIW, I made that suggestion before becoming an employee.

Thank you both.

@F'x: Stop trying to take credit for my obviously superior upvote.

@F'x: You know in your heart that mine shines like a golden beacon of truth and goodness, while yours skulks about like Caliban, consorting with drunkards and simply looking to cause trouble.

@Dori — So how has your life changed now that you get the big bucks? I notice your gravatar isin here nearly 24/7. Do you monitor all the boards all the time? Is there like a whole wall of your office devoted to viewing every single SE site?

@RegDwight: Too late. Your job has been done already by a goddess from on high.

@Robusto Sorry, I was (and still am) struggling to do my job on the main site.

JS just won't load on certain pages.

And here I thought you'd make it look easy. That's why I voted for you. I figured you would bring grace and aplomb to the job.

I can't even spell grace.

9:59 AM

@Robusto Just because my gravatar is here doesn't mean I always am, but in general, putting @dori in a chat message causes me to show up.

@RegDwight - Do any ELU mods ever hang out in the Teacher's Lounge?

Kind of like with @badp.

@Dori So you're the Kibo of the 21st century?

@Dori I do, quite regularly.

@Robusto Yes, I got that reference (damn, I'm old)

James Parry (born July 13, 1967), commonly known by his nickname and username Kibo (), is a Usenetter known for his sense of humor, various surrealist net pranks, an absurdly long .signature, and a machine-assisted knack for "": joining any thread in which "kibo" was mentioned. His exploits have earned him a multitude of enthusiasts, who celebrate him as the head deity of the parody religion kibology, centered on the humor newsgroup alt.religion.kibology. Background James Parry grew up and lived in Scotia, New York. He showed early computing skills, such as being able to open up and repr...

10:01 AM

@RegDwight I take it then that you missed rebecca and I griping about some site that never clears their flags?

@Dori — Nothing wrong with being old, said Rob wistfully.

@Robusto Beats the alternative

Hey, that's my line!

@Dori Very much so.

I think you used your Valued Associate status to plagiarize me!

10:02 AM

@RegDwight Y'all have more than most of the SE sites put together. Do you just like the way they look? ;-)

@Robusto I assure you, no special mind-reading powers came with the job (tho' they were required to begin the application process…)

@Dori: Well, let's make you feel older: "Who was that masked woman?"

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in a radio show conceived either by WXYZ radio station owner George W. Trendle or Fran Striker, the show's writer. The show proved to be a huge hit, and spawned a equally popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, as well as comic books and movies. The title character was played on radio by George Seaton, Earle Graser, and most memorably Brace Beeme...

Now, if you get that reference, you can legitimately feel old.

I was born after that went off the air, but not by much.

@Dori Well, when I became a mod, there were like 15 legacy flags, on stuff that got viewed by several mods. I figured that if a flag is not immediately acted upon, it is left for future reference or something. I dunno. Nobody ever advised me what the "correct" course of action would be.

I check all flags every single day.

It's preferable to clear them out. If you want to leave notes, put annotations on specific users.

@RegDwight — Legacy flags? Really? Are you EL&U.SE mods just a bunch of pack rats? Or is there an art to it, and you're some kind of connoisseurs of old flags?

10:07 AM

@Dori Okay.

Part of the problem is that if you don't say valid/invalid, people's mod flags don't go up, and they think they're doing something wrong.

@Robusto I can't even spell connoisseurs.

@Dori That did cross my mind.

@RegDwight Isn't spelling what computers are for?

BBL. @RegDwight forced me to go make some coffee. Blame him.

and I need to go get some sleep before it's time to start another day. ttyl

10:10 AM

hey, don't leave me all alone with RegDwight

CUall.

@RegDwight: hi, stranger!

@Fx I'm not alone with you, I'm alone with flags.

R u in2 Mahjongg now or what?

21 hours ago, by F'x

anyway, it's a Mahjong green dragon

Doesn't answer my question.

I do see that it's a Mahjong tile, and I do see which tile it is.

Hence the question.

10:12 AM

I'm pointing you to the relevant point in the transcript

21 hours ago, by F'x

it's my present to myself for reaching 10k :)

Ah.

Sorry.

See, I haven't even read the transcript yet.

Because I am still struggling with the JS.

and I just dig the green dragon tile :)

anyway, I'll leave you with your flags, and come back to see how my flag weight has evolved in an hour!

I will try to decrease it as much as possible!

you can't get back my deputy badge anyway!

oh, precious, shining silver

@Fx Well, I think I can destroy users.... Mwuahahahahahahaha!

10:47 AM

I think the site is having trouble vending the JS scripts. I can't add a comment on one question.

@F'x: Stop starring @RegDwight's evil rants.

Awwwwww! We lost our Valued Associate™!

@RegDwight: You experiencing the script glitches?

@Robusto Yes, all the time, at least in FF.

I'm seeing it in Safari (Mac) and FF (Mac).

Konqueror is a bit better.

But I still have to reload all the time.

Safari is based on Konqueror & Webkit

Well, Safari is Webkit, Konqueror is KHTML.

They've branched like a decade a go.

But anyhow, I think the problem is on the server side.

Way to say, "clear all flags" on the one day when clearing flags is technically impossible, @Dori.

11:04 AM

Hehe.

A real connoisseur would know a way to clear those flags without Javascript.

Well, we're down from 30+ to 10-. But I still can't spell cumoiseaur.

I think you Russians spell it Commissar.

Mar 10 at 2:21, by RegDwight

I knew that was coming.

You're getting predictable.

I knew you knew that was coming. You've been predictable all along.

11:09 AM

Your predictability is over 9000!

But if you prefer a fresh answer, Russians couldn't spell it Commissar even if they wanted to, because not a single one of those letters is in the Russian alphabet.

And yet you spelled it in English. Point Robusto!

TTYL

11:31 AM

every time I read you two bicker, it's like I'm watching a rerun

Repetitio est mater studiorum.

11:42 AM

The only Latin I know is “veni, vedi, visa”

I came, I saw, and I did a little shopping

but I would say Repetition est mater radendo studiorum — repetition is the mother of boring lessons

12:23 PM

Hi folks, is it OK to use Firstly, ... Secondly, ... Thirdly, ... when quickly naming some points within a paragraph?

in a formal argumentative essay

@Tom yes, it's quite common

@Fx ok great, thanks

@Fx do you reckon there are people who'd like to check an academic argumentative essay that cannot be made public?

Of about 1000 words.

@Tom you could ask at writers.se. If you want it to remain public you can't post it as a crit request, but you might be able to raise a flag in chat. if anyone's there.

12:41 PM

@Tom there are, but those I know want some form of payment :)

Ah alright

@Tom — I would not use the adverbial there. It is sufficient to say first, second, and third.

@Fx — How can you describe the process of @RegDwight being wrong and me correcting him as bickering?

Another way to describe it would be @RegDwight making lame, useless observations (or quoting himself), and me totally and completely pwning his ass.

@Robusto Easy. First, he types a B. Then, he types an I. Then,..

@Robusto Haha, you misspelled "owning". You non-native speaker.

@RegDwight — Pwned.

@RegDwight — Uh ...

23 secs ago, by Robusto

@RegDwight — Pwned.

Mar 4 at 17:10, by RegDwight

Don't make me go ABBA on your poor ass.

12:56 PM

@RegDwight — What, are you studying chiastic structure now?

Whaddayamean, "now"?

@RegDwight — Then?

Than.

Pretty thin, if you ask me.

Kate Moss?

12:57 PM

Is she even still alive?

I thought heroin chic was so passé.

Well, nobody knows whether she's alive or not, as she's thin to the point of being invisible.

She might be standing right behind you this very moment, you wouldn't know.

That clip makes me want to take some heroin with freedom fries.

Both are available in the Capitol cafeteria, I believe.

I wonder if its name is "Cafitol".

1:02 PM

I didn't understand that one. Whoosh!

Actually, that clip reminds me of *Le monde parfait*

A Perfect World

A Perfect World is a 1993 drama film directed by Clint Eastwood, and starring Kevin Costner as an escaped convict who befriends a young boy (T.J. Lowther), and ends up embarking on a road trip with the child. Eastwood co-stars as a Texas Ranger in pursuit of the convict. Plot In 1963 Texas, convicts Robert "Butch" Haynes and Terry Pugh escape from the state penitentiary in Huntsville. Fleeing from the clutches of the law, the pair stumble into the kitchen of a house where eight-year old Phillip Perry lives with his devout Jehovah's Witness mother and two sisters. Needing a hostage to a...

That one, dubbed into French?

Almost.

Un Monde parfait

"Un Monde parfait" ("A Perfect World" in English) is a 2005 song recorded by French young artist Ilona Mitrecey. Based on a traditional Neapolitan song, it was the first single from her debut album Un Monde parfait and was released in February 2005. It was immediately a very big hit in France and Belgium (Wallonia), where it remained for several months atop of the chart, thus becoming one of the biggest-selling singles there. It was also released in many other European countries and achieved success, in Switzerland, Austria, Portugal and Germany where it was a top three hit. Background a...

OK, now I think I understand why The Dandy Warhols hated that video.

Well, to be fair, have they seen any of their own?

1:09 PM

I'm saying they hated their own video, the one I just linked.

Ah.

They thought their record company at the time, Capitol, was trying to market them as insipid mainstream pop.

Well, that's the only marketing that works.

You want to be underground, stay underground.

You can't be underground in the mainstream.

So one would think.

An excellent documentary about the band and their conflict with another band is Dig!

DiG! is a 2004 documentary film directed by Ondi Timoner, and produced by Ondi Timoner, Vasco Nunes and David Timoner. Compiled from seven years of footage, it contrasts the developing careers of the bands The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the bands' respective frontmen Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Anton Newcombe. It won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The production company that created DiG! was Interloper Films, Palm Pictures and Celluoid Dreams. Newcombe argues that the documentary was unfair in its portrayal of him. On the ban...

Highly recommended.

Kewl. Never heard of it.

1:12 PM

I like both bands, btw.

Very salmonic.

High in Omega-3 fatty acids too? Bonus!

2

Q: Different grades of friendship in English

Hi! In English there is only one word for grade of friendship: friends. All of you agree that friends are different: with some of them you just drank beer few times, other you know for many years and you build strong bonds to them. There should be different words for that! In Russian there are ...

so now, this is RL&U?!

@Fx It always has been.

I did try to gently push him into the general direction of removing the Russian-related stuff, but I think I was pushing too gently.

@RegDwight — You coddle your compatriots. If he'd been American you'd have given him the bum's rush.

1:17 PM

No, that's only if he'd been you.

@RegDwight — Lies! Bias! Perfidy! Jack-in-office unpleasantness!

@Robusto I like how those Russians always admit to being wrong by saying "I am right". They also like to point out how they are native speakers, without checking if anyone else is.

@RegDwight — Soviets never admit they're wrong. What's the Russian phrase meaning "Not one step backward"?

@Robusto "Ни шагу назад!" But that was because if you did a step backward, Mr Stalin's friendly minions would shoot you dead.

He had "friendly" minions?

1:23 PM

That's a litotes.

I think you misspelled fiendly.

I would call it irony, not litotes. Litotes is deliberate understatement.

Anyways, the more I look at the "friendship" question, the more it becomes about translation.

@Robusto That was my point, d'oh!

1 min ago, by Robusto

I would call it irony, not litotes. Litotes is deliberate understatement.

Your point was that you should have called it irony?

No.

Javascript is screwed now on Chrome too.

1:26 PM

My point was to mis-use litotes on purpose, in a hopefully funny twist.

@RegDwight — Wow, way too subtle for a Monday morning.

But thanks for playing the game.

2 mins ago, by RegDwight

Anyways, the more I look at the "friendship" question, the more it becomes about translation.

I mean, he's now commenting on answers that they are close but not quite.

If this question is about English, then there is no "close" or "not close".

Well, he is asking if there are degrees of friendship. I think there are, but they involve qualifiers.

My point is that English is perfectly close to itself.

Whether or not it is close to Russian is off-topic.

Some people think there is a continuum: stranger > acquaintance > friend > lover > soulmate ... or some such garbage. But honestly, those are all different things, not different aspect of the same thing.

1:29 PM

Is there anybody else that have problems expanding the list of comments for an answer/question?

yes

3 mins ago, by Robusto

Javascript is screwed now on Chrome too.

@kiamlaluno Yes. JavaScript is broken today.

that, and voting, commenting, etc.

Reload, reload, reload.

1:30 PM

Reloading doesn't help. Sometimes navigating around the site and coming back will help, though.

How strange, it works on other sites using the same software revision.

Oh well, I opened a "bug report."

Careful. People around here get tetchy if you call something a "bug" ... you could label it a "feature request" though: "Proposed new feature: make the Javascript work all the time instead of only intermittently."

Uhmmm... that is a big feature request.

Does that mean I should not call ladybug a ladybug?

Ladybird.

Yes. It is properly called a "lady feature request". Let's not be indelicate.

1:34 PM

Birds are feature requests now? I fail to see the connection.

Those are feather requests.

Lady Bird Johnson

Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that her major initiative as First Lady. After leaving the White House in 1969 and her husband's death in 1973, Lady Bird became an entrepreneur, creating the $150 million LBJ Holdings Company, and was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the C...

@Robusto No way!

Way.

3

A: Why "ladybird"?

Etymonline says: ladybug1690s, from lady + bug. The "lady" is the Virgin Mary (cf. Ger. cognate Marienkäfer). In Britain, now usually ladybird beetle (1704), through aversion to the word bug, which there has overtones of sodomy. As to Lady Bird Johnson, that nickname was given to her by her...

1:36 PM

Claudia Alta... I guess she was tall.

There's even a picture of the nurse.

lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/AV.hom/images/ladybird/B9790/…

Is there a less frequently used and more formally sounding alternative to "for example" ?

0

Q: difference between licence and license

What's the difference between licence and license?

differences american-english spelling indian-english

Time to bring the hammer down. 4 close votes.

The next, you will tell me that you don't say B.C. and A.D.

@kiamlaluno @RegDwight uses ABBA to express those concepts. In fact, his whole life sounds like a Mamma Mia! YouTube mash-up.

1:38 PM

Why is everybody ignoring @Tom?

Who?

Who is ignoring who?

I can understand since I asked like two questions already. :)

Yeah, that's too much, thank you! (^_^)

There must be a daily limit.

1:40 PM

We have a Tom-Tom club here. Serves 'em right for not going for a unique key.

Seven, count 'em, seven Toms.

I see somebody else went on the "clone the gravatar" fever rush.

Plus Tom Ravenscroft, who had the decency to differentiate himself.

Tom is Russian for "volume". As in, book.

As in "tome"?

Really? :o

1:41 PM

As in "slice"?

@Robusto That wouldn't be anywhere as funny, would it?

@RegDwight: That is amazing: In Italian we say tomo.

Then again...

@kiamlaluno That's Japanese, not Italian.

@RegDwight — Depends on whether you have a Soviet sense of humor I guess.

Tomo arigato, mista roboto.

1:42 PM

Tomo?

Yes, as in Tomato, but without the at.

@RegDwight — You're a flaming tomo, you know that? Ease up.

That seems a recipe title.

Or perhaps you're a major-tomo ...

@Robusto I am a major pomo d'ore.

1:44 PM

@kia thinks you're merely a minor pommo d'oro.

Certainly no higher than lieutenant.

I still like how helpful we have been in answering Tom's question.

:)

I compensate that with my height. Oh well...

I thought we made many examples.

I reckon if I spend an hour a day in this channel my English is going to improve significantly. :)

I better make sure I am welcomed!

@Tom That, or it will do the other thing.

1:46 PM

@RegDwight To go in the English channel?

@kiamlaluno That's called La manche.

Yes yes... That's what I thought too. It was hilarious when I referred to that as "The Sleeve."

@RegDwight the other thing?

@Tom Yes. As in, deteriorate.

@Tom As in, the opposite of improving.

1:49 PM

Right, I get it. :)

Just look at @RegDwight. A year ago he could speak English perfectly. Now he's reduced to quoting @Robusto.

Sad, isn't it.

But me still quote his perfectli, wright?

@Rhodri Besides, whaddaya know about my year ago? Us no friends then!

@RegDwight "Quoat" ...

@Robusto Thank you. Much approachiated.

Your will come.

1:51 PM

Surtenly.

Also, your king be done.

Maybe you'll be more interested in this question. Is the use (usage?) of "money" in a formal essay okay, or should one use currency or liquidity (or do those count as economic terms that should first be explained etc.)?

Liquidity?

No?

It depends. There is nothing wrong with using "money" in formal writing.

I thought those were drinks.

1:53 PM

@Tom Well, if you mean "money", then say "money". If you mean "dollars", say "dollars". If you mean "liquidity", I would go with "liquidity".

@RegDwight I mean money, but it doesn't sound very academic to me. ^^

Unless you specifically mean liquidity, which is the ratio of cash or fungible assets to other less liquid assets.

But I got it, thanks.

@Tom — Don't try to sound academic. Seriously.

How could you be paid for writing a formal essay, if you cannot talk of money in a formal essay?

1:54 PM

What about "cash"? Is that bad?

@Robusto Don't dream it. Be it!

Be the nightmare?

Fanfare/Don't Dream It, Be It

"Fanfare/Don't Dream It, Be It" is the fourteenth song in the The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. It is featured directly after the first section of the Floor Show, "Rose Tint My World". The song was written by Richard O'Brien especially for the stage play, whilst other Rocky Horror songs were written without intention of using them in any type of production. Origin The name denotes from a magazine featured in Richard O'Brien's home town which claimed boldly on the back of each cover "DONT DREAM IT, BE IT!" The fanfare section of this song denotes to admiration of Hollywood film st...

Bet it!

Fanfare?

@kiamlaluno Are you like trying to be the dyslexic brother of Weird Al Yankovitch?

1:55 PM

@Robusto yet most scientific articles published in well respected journals appear to sound quite academic

@Tom again, it depends. If you mean bank notes and coins, "cash" is the right word to use. If you mean money in general, it might be a bit slangy for a formal essay.

@Rhodri alright, thanks.

I'll go with money.

@RegDwight No way. It's him who tries to be my dyslexic twin. I was dyslexic before him.

@Tom — But it's done effortlessly. Those people actually think like that. You, on the other hand, risk coming off as a poseur. Those academicians, they can detect poseurs, and if they smell poseur blood in the water they will rip you apart. Be warned.

@Tom If nothing helps, just say Jacksons or Monkeys.

1:57 PM

Anyway, what fun is there in fanfare?

8

Q: Informal terms for money amounts

What informal terms are used in English as money amounts? I know the following US terms and I'm curious about the rest: a grand: 1000 dollars a buck: 1 dollar

vocabulary formality finance

@kiamlaluno There is no fun in fanfare. There are two fans, though.

Hey.

But two fans don't make fun.

@Tom Scientific articles are usually trying to use the most correct word so that their meaning isn't misconstrued. They aren't being fancy for the fun of it.

But the second one lost one of its legs.

1:58 PM

I see, I shall try not to be fancy. :)

Or was that "two swallows don't make spring?"

No, that's "two swallows don't make a pint."

Is there any fun on fancy?

Two swallows don't make a paint, too.

« first day (144 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4763 days later) »

Transcript for

Apr '114

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…

Not for the faint of heart or those easily triggered by Englis...

phrase-requests pronunciation single-word-requests synonyms

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile