Mr. Weeks ?? (@MrDane1982) Tweeted:
Nancy Pelosi literally blew shit up today with a few words, “obstructing justice in plain site and is engaged in a coverup.”
She said Nixon’s third article of impeachment was for contempt of Congress & for obstructing Congressional probes.
@TenguPhule: NPR this afternoon, “How can Pelosi expect Trump to work with him after she said he’s leading a cover up? Doesn’t he (Trump) have a point?” Just no, how can they take him seriously after all this time? Idiots. Of course, I may be an idiot for listening to them in my car, but some segments and shows are ok.
It’s been a weird day for headlines and I’m glad someone else noticed. I also saw one that said something like, “Clarence Thomas says States Can Declare their Own Official Religions.”
I’m beginning to worry they’re tangling with that Hadron Collider again.
24.
chris
JFC, talk about the Best People! Here’s a handy, and long, list of Brexiteers. No further comment as it would be an insult to swamps.
25.
Steve in the ATL
Mr. Weeks ?? (@MrDane1982) Tweeted:
Nancy Pelosi literally blew shit up today with a few words, “obstructing justice in plain site and is engaged in a coverup.”
I don’t who Mr. Weeks is, but he used the word “literally” when he literally meant the exact opposite of “literally.”
I wondered the same thing. “Literally blew shit up”, wouldn’t that require, like, lighting a fuse or operating a detonating device, something like that?
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
#Impeachment isn’t about convicting Trump and removing him from office before an election, it’s about laying bare his crimes before the American people and convicting him in the court of public opinion for misusing his power and violating the constitution. https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1131182463206559744?s=17
30.
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
Using “literally” to mean “figuratively” is a minor offence compared to misspelling “sight”.
David D’Ag – Gun Control Now (@jackjonesbabe) Tweeted:
Nancy Pelosi and women led the blue wave that flipped red states, not incurious, entitled twitterbros or candidates from dem +30 districts. If she hadn’t led the movement to take back the house, these arrogant, incurious pricks would be screaming “impeachment” at a fucking wall. https://twitter.com/jackjonesbabe/status/1131252940751216643?s=17
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom has quit the cabinet, saying she no longer believes the government’s approach will deliver Brexit.
Her resignation comes amid a backlash against Theresa May’s Brexit plan from Conservative MPs. Several cabinet ministers have told the BBC that the PM cannot stay, with one saying it is “the end of the line”.
Mrs Leadsom previously ran for Tory leader but withdrew, clearing the path for Mrs May to become prime minister. As Commons leader, she was in charge of organising government business and had been due to announce when the prime minister’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill would be introduced to Parliament.
Her resignation is the 36th by a minister under Theresa May – 21 of them over Brexit – and comes a day before the UK votes in the European elections.
37.
Percysowner
@rikyrah: I know and I hate to sound like this, but I AM progressive, heck I’m a bleeding heart liberal and I’m a white woman. I phonebanked for Hillary, I registered voters and of course, I voted for Hillary. So yeah, blame the Bernie Bros and the Green Party, but most of us knew and worked to stop this. I mean she did WIN the popular vote.
@MrDane1982
27 Oct 2018
More
I know for a fact, I’m tired of saying, Hillary Clinton was fucking right, but I will continue to remind you stupid ass people, that Hillary Clinton was right about every thing.
You booed throughout her convention. You booed Elizabeth Warren so that she could barely finish her speech. You booed a Marine general who was expressing his support for her.
@LuciaMia: So, years ago I was tasked with documenting the history of why our students throw tortillas at graduation, to determine if it was intended to be a racist statement or not. Adding to the mystery, they were only thrown during outdoor ceremonies and not indoor.
Turns out the students thought this through. Tortilla are cheap and biodegradable. No harm done if they aren’t cleaned up outside (and why they weren’t thrown inside). They are aerodynamically sound, so you can cover quite a distance with them (the students even knew which brands and sizes worked best) and if you hit someone, it doesn’t hurt. And push come to shove, you have something to snack on during the entirely too long reading of names. Plus they’re easy to smuggle into the ceremony.
I would argue milkshakes are similarly well thought through. They’re cheap, offered almost everywhere, and come in a very throwable package. The lid usually stays on until impact, but will never survive impact. The contents aren’t harmful, but it is sticky and will get smelly if you don’t clean it up. Plus it creates a good visual, particularly if you explore the flavor options, of the politician walking away humiliated. And, if your opportunity to make a political statement doesn’t materialize, you have a fucking milkshake to drink. You can’t lose.
I know. Being a stickler for correct grammar and spelling is such a hangup for olds. I might like the way he writes if he could use language correctly.
47.
Steve in the ATL
@Amir Khalid: I respectfully disagree, old bean. Using a word that means literally the opposite of what you are trying to say creates more confusion that using a homonym, and is therefore a greater offense.
@zhena gogolia: Clearly, we need an Académie française-type institution to prevent such atrocities in the future.
Being a stickler for correct grammar and spelling is such a hangup for olds.
Joe Biden constantly uses the word “literally” this way.
50.
LC
@danielx: Being a stickler for obsolete grammar and usage is a hangup for olds.
51.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: normally I’m the second shift pedant, but today the union keeps “caucusing” so I have some free time. Blog lord will make me stop pedanting later this evening so he doesn’t have to pay me overtime.
I’m thinking men are too emotional to be in positions of leadership.
I wouldn’t say we’re necessarily emotional (rage, yes, but generally lacking in the beneficial emotions), but we are fragile. I think Margaret Atwood had it right. The focus is put on the latter statement, but the former is equally observant:
Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.
Trump is being laughed at by Pelosi. She’s calling him a loser. That’s pretty much the worst possible thing to him, and Pelosi knows it. I’m beginning to think Pelosi is slow walking impeachment because she thinks she can tilt Trump bad enough that she and her caucus won’t need to make the argument – it’ll be obvious to all.
All of this fuckery could’ve been avoided by simply voting for a Lawyer, Professor, First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the United States of America, Senator, Secretary of State, Activist, Humanitarian, author Hillary Clinton but through her emails we found out she had a vagina
55.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Lapassionara: Man, we men are never going to live Trump down. (Probably a useful societal correction, though.)
#notallmen
56.
Immanentize
There is a great new style/grammar book out that I recommend -+ Dreyer’s English. It’s subtitled, “An utterly correct guide to grammar and style.”
Obviously, when people are using the word “literally” in the ways so offensive, they are using it as a soft emphasizer. Dreyer has a great rule which I now force onto my students when writing briefs — no soft emphasizers ever. Including, of course, the “ever” at the end of my last sentence.
57.
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: dude, that was cold. We all know that meanings can evolve over time, but I don’t accept that the ignorance of some tween girls can qiockly change a word’s meaning to its literal opposite.
58.
zhena gogolia
“Good” grammar and vocabulary are important in formal writing, but Twitter is not formal writing. It is more about phrasing and rhythm. Not everyone can master it. I myself would not be able to. But Mr. Weeks appears to be a virtuoso.
Anyway, about my washtub. I’d just used it that morning to wash my turkey, which in those days was known as a walking-bird. We’d always have walking-bird on Thanksgiving, with all the trimmings: cranberries, injun eyes, yams stuffed with gunpowder. Then we’d all watch football, which in those days was called baseball…
Very much so. You think the Russians and Saudis are the only ones who profiled this guy and gameplayed a plan or two?
64.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Am whatever 1/expert means but believe it’s likely 1. there will be no negotiated separation deal with the EU prior to the new longer deadline and 2. they will hold a second referendum in which people vote on a detailed Brexit.
Item the third is May is gone as PM, soon.
65.
Martin
@Immanentize: One of Stephen King’s rules for writing is to never use adverbs unless the content is lost without it. That seems simpler.
66.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: I’m not using the book in class, just a bunch of his insights. It’s clear but progressive in terms of grammatic evolution. But I really like the ban on soft modifiers — very, really, obviously, etc.
67.
Immanentize
@Martin:
I pretty much feel the same way about adjectives.
ETA. There is no way S. King follows that rule himself. He would never be able to get to 600 pages if he did.
68.
Martin
@Sebastian: Don’t forget the North Koreans. They won their game last year and Trump still doesn’t even realize it, because, well, Trump’s in love and love makes you blind.
69.
Gelfling 545
@Steve in the ATL: when I brought a similar situation up on FB a friend who is as fussy as I about usage pointed me to an actual dictionary entry showing that besides its traditional meaning literally now means, well, not actually literally. Soon we won’t be able to converse at all because everyone will choose their own meanings.
@Sebastian: Heck just look at Mar-A-Lago. Dolt45 LOVES his HB-1 visa holders. How many spies do you think are doubling up as waitstaff at his resort now? Hell how many do you think weren’t at first but then got offers of dosh by their home governments to do a little listening around his table and room? And that’s just the one resort he spends time at.
I confess Brexit has me baffled. Where is it headed?
Towards chaos and confusion?
On one hand, it appears to be stumbling toward a “no deal” BREXIT, if Theresa May cannot get votes for her agreement. And it looks as though no one wants it, even though she has pretended to make minor adjustments. Also, some of her proposed adjustments either make no sense, contradict each other, or would never be acceptable to the EU.
May (and a lot of other people) wanted to get things wrapped up before the European Commission elections, which begin tomorrow. The UK must vote to select Members of the European Parliament (MEP). But if BREXIT happens before June 30, I think, none of the people chosen will take their seats, because they will no longer represent Britain in the EU.
In addition, the other Conservatives in May’s government are putting forth a half ass effort to replace her. If they reject her BREXIT plan and then dump her, I think that there will be an attempt to push the country toward a no deal BREXIT. This will make hard liners and Trump happy.
The conservatives making the most noise to replace May are dopes like Boris Johnson.
Of course, I might be wrong about all of this. So yeah, it is baffling.
And Your Humble Obedient Servant takes great pleasure in “obsolete” yet correct grammar, because it reduces ambiguity. Sloppy use of language is characteristic of the individual currently occupying the Oval Office. If someone want to Be Like Donald, he or she is welcome to do so.
That being said, I completely agree with the sentiment expressed.
77.
Steve in the ATL
@zhena gogolia: it’s not just about good grammar and vocabulary, it’s about conveying meaning clearly. While I am occasionally accused of being a pedant, I am not a hardliner on everything. Example: I am not bothered by split infinitives (because the prohibition against them was created by one dude for bullshit reasons) or ending sentences with prepositions. And while using “decimate” to suggest total destruction rather than 10% destruction bothers me, I accept that it doesn’t bother most people.
But I don’t accept using words to mean their opposites because (1) then the reader/listener has to analyze whether the use is correct or ironic, and (2) the reader/listener may draw the wrong conclusion, thereby rendering the statement useless at best and harmful at worst. And I won’t even mention (3), which, if I mentioned it, would be the damage to communications in general as words lose their meanings.
ETA: Gelfling 545 made the same point while I was typing my totally unnecessary screed!
EATA: as did danielx. And perhaps dozens of others, so I’m going to stop now.
That’s fine, and generally I agree with you, but the “literally” battle has been lost. No one is confused by his saying that she literally blew up shit. Really, no one.
I would correct it in a student paper, but twitter is more of a poetic medium.
Unless one is writing advertising copy for either a mattress or for toilet paper.
National chain bought out a very successful regional mattress chain here a few years ago and when I read it was called “Mattress Firm” I asked “Who would be stupid enough to combine mattress and firm in a store name?”
It would be professional malpractice not to. I mean, the most powerful person in the world is a 2-bit idiot that can be manipulated like a toddler? Fuck, of course you try!
By the way, the number of false cellular cells in DC has exploded. Everyone is trying to catch unsecured cellphones.
I don’t accept that[…] tween girls can qiockly change a word’s meaning
Young women are actually one of the strongest forces behind semantic drift in American English. Citation not handy but this is a real thing.
83.
Gin & Tonic
I see that the ruling in the Deutsche Bank subpoena case went as well for Trump as the ruling in the Mazars case.
84.
Litlebritdifrnt
So Twitler holds a presser in the Rose Garden today where he displays a pretty poster board proclaiming that the Mueller report cost 34 million. Just now he posted on twitter that the report cost 40 million. Just how stupid or short memoried does he think people are?
85.
divF
@Princess: I’m waiting for “Pope to Declare Elvis a Saint.”
I think the Saudis took the price though. Orb and all.
87.
Betty Cracker
Been meaning to post a thread about pedantry one day to explore the motivations behind it and discover what goals, if any, pedants hope to accomplish. Despite being an old English major who has made a living as a writer and editor for decades and who silently frowns at typos on restaurant menus, I am rarely tempted to provide writing critiques online for free.
@Steve in the ATL: It’s really easy to get tangled up sometimes. In the fantasies I write, can I say “Adam’s apple” if there’s no bible? Can I say “mesmerize” if Mesmer never existed? I don’t do either thing and I’m probably the only one who cares.
93.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia:
Same with “nonplussed.” It has been caught in semantic drift. Which is natural!
94.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: et tu, Imm? First M4 and now you. Rough day here at the union hall.
95.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
Oddly enough, the law is pretty damn clear and luckily (surprisingly?) judges are upholding the law
an actual dictionary entry showing that besides its traditional meaning literally now means, well, not actually literally. Soon we won’t be able to converse at all because everyone will choose their own meanings.
Many years ago I was taking a Sanskrit class, and the professor said there’s an old ‘joke’ along the lines of “Sanskrit is hard because every word means what it means, and also the opposite of that, and also is an alternative name of at least one deity.”
…I am rarely tempted to provide writing critiques online for free.
True. The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) is available at Barnes and Noble for $70.00, plus whatever taxes may apply.
98.
oatler.
@Immanentize: I think it was Safire who condemned “slather”, a term which is all the rage for millennials writing serious think-pieces about Taco Bell.
99.
Immanentize
@Litlebritdifrnt:
He is also forgetting (ignoring) that the Mueller investigation has already brought in over 22 million in fines and forfeitures.
when I brought a similar situation up on FB a friend who is as fussy as I about usage pointed me to an actual dictionary entry showing that besides its traditional meaning literally now means, well, not actually literally.
Elvis was a hero to most
Elvis was a hero to most
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Mother fuck him and John Wayne
I am rarely tempted to provide writing critiques online for free.
I’m getting paid right now, even if not for this!
104.
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
He tried that with me the other day, I implored him to please be fucking himself.
Hasn’t spoken to me since.
105.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: That said,
“Green grocer’s apostrophe”
Was one of the greatest lines ever, B.C.
106.
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
Misusing a homonym suggests carelessness/ignorance/both on the writer’s part, which makes me think I am wasting my time by reading them at all. I suppose deciding which bad writing habits to hate more dearly is a matter of personal taste.
That’s fine, and generally I agree with you, but the “literally” battle has been lost. No one is confused by his saying that she literally blew up shit. Really, no one.
The battle over “literally” was lost centuries ago. But a few poor souls just refuse to surrender.
Is it ever okay to use literally to mean “figuratively”?
F. Scott Fitzgerald did it (“He literally glowed”). So did James Joyce (“Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet”), W. M. Thackeray (“I literally blazed with wit”), Charlotte Brontë (“she took me to herself, and proceeded literally to suffocate me with her unrestrained spirits”) and others of their ilk….
The use of literally in a fashion that is hyperbolic or metaphoric is not new—evidence of this use dates back to 1769. Its inclusion in a dictionary isn’t new either; the entry for literally in our 1909 unabridged dictionary states that the word is “often used hyperbolically; as, he literally flew.” We (and all the other “craven dictionary editors”) have included this definition for a very simple reason: a lot of people use it this way, and our entries are based on evidence of use. Furthermore, the fact that so many people are writing angry letters serves as a sort of secondhand evidence, as they would hardly be complaining about this usage if it had not become common.
We understand that many have chosen this particular issue as the one about which they choose to draw a line in the sand, on the grounds that a word should not mean one thing and its opposite (a fairly common thing in English). But a living language is a language that is always changing; this change may be lovely, and it may be ugly. As lexicographers we are in the business of defining language, rather than judging it.
@Steve in the ATL: If you think about it, we’ve used “really” as an intensifier for many years, when it actually should mean (according to the literal semantics) “in reality”.
“He was really mad. He was really about ready to literally explode.”
That sounds odd to my ears but it’s customary usage these days.
Less than the cost of his Mar-a-lago sojourns over the same period.
118.
The Moar You Know
Just how stupid or short memoried does he think people are?
@Litlebritdifrnt: The man knows his base cold. He could…ahem…literally change the number to 100 billion tomorrow and every single member of the Asshole America Party would believe that was the true cost without even thinking twice.
How many spies do you think are doubling up as waitstaff at his resort now?
Does no one here remember the fun all the writers here (pro and aspiring) had piecing together a story of all the foreign agents discovering and interacting each other as they infiltrated Mar-a-Lago? It came together shortly after the impromptu dining room briefing he took after an NK missile test, iirc.
That’s fine, and generally I agree with you, but the “literally” battle has been lost. No one is confused by his saying that she literally blew up shit. Really, no one.
Does using a word to mean its literal opposite make you think that the writer/speaker is an idiot? That’s the reaction I have, and perhaps @Amir Khalid: feels the same.
Also, “literally” is used so often that it no longer has any power in speech.
I confess Brexit has me baffled. Where is it headed?
EU is beyond the point of tolerating the UKs shit. A deadline has been extended. It likely will not be extended a 2nd time. If that destroys the UK economy with a hard exit, with violence along the Irish border and Scotland seceding, so be it. We all reach the point where we tell the drama queen to STFU.
127.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
One can acknowledge that a disliked locution is well-established in use, and still have good reason not to accept it.
128.
Immanentize
@Ruckus:
I wanted to thank you for the link to the log benches yea these so many days ago. That was some cool work and gave me lots of ideas. Watcos it is! Thanks
129.
WhatsMyNym
Of course…
Los Angeles lawyer Michael Avenatti was indicted Wednesday on charges of stealing from his former client Stormy Daniels by skimming money from her deal to write a memoir detailing her alleged sexual affair with Donald Trump.
@Martin: @Brachiator: So crash out into a hard exit? Wow. That’s going to hurt.
133.
Steve in the ATL
@The Moar You Know: yes, I’m joking. I even had dinner with him in LA last year!
134.
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
I do indeed feel that way. Qualifiers — adjectives, adverbs, intensifiers — can be weakened by overuse and misuse, and it’s good writing to avoid them unless they are strictly necessary to convey meaning.
Just how stupid or short memoried does he think people are?
Extremely. He will happily contradict himself within the same sentence and expect nobody to notice.
137.
rp
I’m not a language pedant, but IMO, the misuse of “literally” is a little different from other misuses and malapropisms because the new meaning isn’t at all clear. Language is all about expressing thoughts and ideas, and it evolves because people find different ways of making themselves understood over time. So while “irregardless” isn’t a real word, it’s perfectly clear what someone means when they use it. But if someone says that smoke was literally coming out of his ears, is he using it to mean figuratively? Something in between literally and figuratively? I have no idea; I guess it’s just a generic term of emphasis. So I think there are sound reasons for insisting on the original meaning of literally.
1) Don’t ask voters to choose between goals when you have no plans to achieve them.
2) If your argument is that you respect the will of the voters, then don’t spend years acting as though their decision isn’t binding, and that some unicorn will descend from Saturn and save your ass. Refusing to accept the voters will is the opposite of respecting the voters. You might as well at that point come out and say ‘we don’t believe you’ and do what you want anyway.
140.
TomatoQueen
Yes, but why a milkshake?
I have been instructed by my Geordie friends, denizens of that long-standing bastion of labor activism, to proclaim to the world:
The Revolution Will Be Pasteurised.
Now gimme another 405 error, FYWP.
141.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
May seems fixated on one particular plan which everyone else in Britain* hates, and keeps frittering time away trying to get it approved.
*and elsewhere
142.
Gelfling 545
@Steve in the ATL: Merriam Webster, I believe and even the OED is entertaining some pretty flexible definitions these days.
How many spies do you think are doubling up as waitstaff at his resort now? Hell how many do you think weren’t at first but then got offers of dosh by their home governments to do a little listening around his table and room?
One can acknowledge that a disliked locution is well-established in use, and still have good reason not to accept it.
I find it amusing that some get so hung up on these matters. English usage changes constantly. And there are tons of words that no longer “mean” what they originally meant. When someone starts chewing tenaciously on a particular word, I wonder why they ignore so many others that might easily merit an exhalation of pedantic fury.
“The pronunciation in the Proto-Indo-European was probably ‘lox,’ and that’s exactly how it is pronounced in modern English,” he says. “Then, it meant salmon, and now it specifically means ‘smoked salmon.’ It’s really cool that that word hasn’t changed its pronunciation at all in 8,000 years and still refers to a particular fish.”
@Brachiator: I will never be reconciled to “gift” as a verb. “He gifted us a plant.” I cringe just typing that.
154.
PJ
@Immanentize: What bugs me about “nonplus” is that it is primarily journalists who misuse it to mean “unfazed.” (And they usually spell “faze” as “phase.”) In fact, journalists seem to be some of the worst writers one encounters; I am guessing this is because editors were jettisoned with the spread of the internet.
155.
mrmoshpotato
@LuciaMia: Why milkshakes? Because the whole cow was too heavy.
I. Throw. My. MILKSHAKE! At. Fascist. Farage! I throw it all!
156.
Amir Khalid
@rp:
In certain circumstances, I believe, it is physically possible to have smoke pouring out of one’s ears. When you say/write “smoke was literally pouring out of his ears”, I am compelled to stop (however briefly) and work out whether you literally mean that literally: a needless and avoidable impediment.
@zhena gogolia: I sometimes find myself having to clarify “actually literally,” but I can’t say this has ever bugged me.
158.
joel hanes
Having been strongly chided in this very forum for pedantry, I have taken a vow to apply my pedant’s standards to the writing of my own comments, and to remain silent about other people’s diction.
Natalie Andrews (@nataliewsj) Tweeted:
After Trump walked out, Pelosi talked to Dems. Kellyanne Conway asked her if she had a response forthe president.
Pelosi told Conway: I’m responding to the president, not staff.
Los Angeles lawyer Michael Avenatti was indicted Wednesday on charges of stealing from his former client Stormy Daniels by skimming money from her deal to write a memoir detailing her alleged sexual affair with Donald Trump.
I have taken a vow to apply my pedant’s standards to the writing of my own comments, and to remain silent about other people’s diction.
You, sir, are clearly not B-J material!
175.
rp
@Amir Khalid: Exactly. There’s a 99.999% chance that smoke isn’t actually coming out of the person’s ears, but it clouds the meaning, even if just for a split second.
Another problem with this misuse of the word is that it now has two meanings that are diametrically opposed. There are other english words like this (cleave, dust), but it’s not ideal.
176.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
If it’s included in the price, it’s not free and it’s not a gift.
I don’t do either thing and I’m probably the only one who cares.
You might be surprised; I notice that kind of thing when the author includes it and occasionally when they come up with some circumlocution to avoid it. My personal pet peeve in works of fantasy is archers being commanded to fire their bows; the actual command would be “loose” rather than “fire”.
It contradicts what people used to say/believe–that women maintained traditional language usage and preserved the language against change.
185.
Sebastian
I am warming up to the idea of the milkshake being the perfect response to fascists. It is intimidating, perfectly deniable threat of “violence” in the form of instant ridicule (the worst that can happen to these 2nd tier blowhards).
Milo, Shapiro, Spencer, d’Sauce, … Lots of people this side of the Atlantic deserving of splatter.
@Ladyraxterinok:
Well that all changed with the 19th amendment, didn’t it?
My Grandmother and many of her female relatives were (post-)Victorian teachers in primary and secondary education. My goodness did they keep the flame of grammar regularity burning!
Elections, new referendum or Hard Brexit. Clock is ticking, last deadline is All Hallows Eve.
New referendum with the clear explanation of what Brexit would mean. Too many of the deluded were sold a bill of goods. Don’t give them an excuse. Tell them what Brexit REALLY means, and see if they vote for it again. I’ve told you – especially after they found out the shady shyt behind Brexit, why a re-vote wasn’t the obvious choice….
189.
Immanentize
@Ladyraxterinok: It is, but I am trying to be conservative in this discussion and not just make up numbers like Trump and Giuliani.
I am warming up to the idea of the milkshake being the perfect response to fascists. It is intimidating, perfectly deniable threat of “violence” in the form of instant ridicule (the worst that can happen to these 2nd tier blowhards)
I like it too..just enough mockery to be hilarious and on point.
Much gnashing of teeth ensues whenever “free gift” is encountered
It’s not a gift if you pay for it. Duh!
193.
germy
1) We do not forget @MichaelCohen212 who is currently serving his sentence and away from his family and friends. Lets remind him we are grateful for his bravery, as he has been the only person to stand up and tell the truth in this entire matter – in contrast to @realDonaldTrump— Lanny Davis (@LannyDavis) May 20, 2019
Are you fucking kidding me!? While I appreciate Cohen coming clean (eventually), he's NOT the honest one in this story. He wouldn't know bravery if it kicked him in the teeth. This is the most insulting thing I've read on Twitter which is saying a lot if you read my timeline. https://t.co/e8ekJrckn9— Stormy Daniels (@StormyDaniels) May 20, 2019
194.
TomatoQueen
@NotMax: Or stottie, which I hear tends to be somewhat heavy.
Using a word that means literally the opposite of what you are trying to say creates more confusion that using a homonym, and is therefore a greater offense.
Horsefeathers. Anyone who would understand the word “literally” enough to even think it’s being used incorrectly is almost certainly also literate enough to know from context when it’s being used in its literal sense or merely as hyperbole. And in fact, Merriam-Webster has said for over a century now that the word is “often used hyperbolically; as, he literally flew.”
You know, Buttigieg’s statement about us not being able to look away from the grotesque made me think. All these assholes are grotesque to a varying degree. Milo, Trump, Spencer, Shapiro, Dobbs, Hannity, … all of them. But TV or a set stage gives them some sort of halo or image and attraction that is hard to describe. It’s almost like a spell.
Throwing milkshake at it breaks that spell in a way that doesn’t work when done to a serious person and it immediately resets perception to reality.
English words change their part of speech. It’s a way we do things; get used to it.
199.
Wapiti
@zhena gogolia: Does smoke ever come out of anyone’s ears in real life?
That reminds me of a horrifying story I heard in the Army, from guys back from Haiti. Where they tried to get help for some poor guy who got run over by an Army truck and when they called the medics saying the guy was wrapped around the axle, the medical unit wanted to send a psychiatrist to talk the guy down. “No, no, listen to me, he’s literally wrapped around the axle.” Yeah, saying “literally” still didn’t get the message though.
The war against nouning verbs and verbing nouns* was lost centuries ago. (Read your collected works of Shakespeare: Will was doing it back in the 16th.) We all do it now, much more often than we realise. It’s the newer examples that our ears and eyes find jarrng. I try to avoid doing that to a reader/listener, but the reality is that some of the new coinages will inevitably become widely accepted, and protesting them would then make one an old person scolding the clouds.
*See what I did there?
203.
TomatoQueen
@Brachiator: That one were lovely. I always think of Stephen as a canny lad & once again wonder whether he’s playing along or actually tripped.
Heck just look at Mar-A-Lago. Dolt45 LOVES his HB-1 visa holders.
I sincerely doubt the workers at Mar a Lago have H-1B visas, which are for professional workers in fields where a job requires a bachelors degree or higher. Most of the immigrants at Mar a Lago who actually have legal working papers are probably H-2B (seasonal non-agricultural workers).
Shades of meaning are important. Also too, pedantry is fun and gratifying for the pedant.
218.
germy
The bank’s decisive improvement in its processes in the autumn enabled employees in the Anti-Financial Crime department to notice that a software program was not working properly. Deutsche Bank is working hard to rectify the error as swiftly as possible https://t.co/ymLHp13mdz
— Deutsche Bank ❤️?? (@DeutscheBank) May 22, 2019
Yes, I always use the Greater Than the F***ing Oxford dictionary too! //
220.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother (Shut your mouth)
But I’m talkin’ about Shaft (Then we can dig it)
221.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
The modern “milkshake” is not shaken inside the machine; it is stirred. This, I believe, is why you will never see James Bond ordering one.
Unless made with Fox’s U-bet brand syrup and seltzer, it’s a wanna be egg cream.
225.
Barbara
@germy: Germany has a lot to answer for in working so hard to protect DB from the natural consequences of its greed, dishonesty and incompetence. Just another day in the life of a bank its national government won’t let fail.
Explaining May’s NotReallyBrexit would take up about 1500 words to explain the effects and consequences,
With another 1500 words spelling out what would have to be negotiated with the EU in the future, ( the can kicked down the road),
A 500 word, several paragraphs long explainer that as far as the EU is concerned, the only deal on the table,
Another 1500 word section on the consequences and effects of a hard Brexit, and how a vote to leave + Parliement means May’s NotReallyBrexit is DOA and Hard Brexit is the result.
Then explaining Remain, and that no, this does not allow the EU to “dictate” to the UK, instead the UK has always dictated to the EU,
And then another explainer that none of the Brexiteers Rainbow Skittles Farting White Flying Unicorn fantasies are real.
Basically what some of the MSM and what Remain has been trying to explain to the voters for years now, to no avail.
Ain’t gonna work.
Simpler proposal:
[_] Leave- Fuck Up Britain and it’s People Forever.
[_] Remain- Forget all this happened and let’s go back to 6% growth.
231.
Ladyraxterinok
@Amir Khalid: 1)’that’s a real tell’ 2) ‘this book is a good read’
Misusing a homonym suggests carelessness/ignorance/both on the writer’s part, which makes me think I am wasting my time by reading them at all. I suppose deciding which bad writing habits to hate more dearly is a matter of personal taste.
Your sew write!
233.
TenguPhule
Proposed HUD rule would strip transgender protections at homeless shelters
The change would allow federally funded shelters to deny people admission on religious grounds or force transgender women to share bathrooms and sleeping quarters with men.
I see Pence had a quiet word with Ben Carson that he’s been holding down the Trumpster average when it comes to crimes against the American public.
[_] Leave- Fuck Up Britain and it’s People Forever.
[_] Remain- Forget all this happened and let’s go back to 6% growth.
Sadly, nobody trusts the British public to pick option two by a decisive margin.
236.
ThresherK
@NotMax: You mean I spent all that time making chocolate syrup from scratch for nothing?
237.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: But the word “mentir” means “to lie” in French. Does that help?
238.
Ladyraxterinok
@germy: Or a black cow. Mom (1913-2005)grew up in St Louis where she learned to like these–pour root beer over vanilla ice cream. Also peanut butter- sliced banana sandwiches.
Some of us (raises hand) go through Purina Peeve Chow by the barrelful.
;)
240.
Jay
“A web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz.
Facebook, which is struggling to clean up the platform and salvage its reputation, has already taken down accounts with about 6 million followers before voting in the European elections begins on Thursday. It was still investigating hundreds of other accounts with an additional 26 million followers, Avaaz said.
In total, the group reported more than 500 suspect groups and Facebook pages operating across France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Poland and Spain. Most were either spreading fake news or using false pages and profiles to artificially boost the content of parties or sites they supported, in violation of Facebook’s rules.
The networks were far more popular than the official pages of far-right and anti-EU populist groups in those countries. The pages taken down by Facebook so far had been viewed half a billion times, Avaaz estimated.”
Explaining May’s NotReallyBrexit would take up about 1500 words to explain the effects and consequences
As a Californian, I laugh at your 1500 words. My most recent ballot pamphlet was over 200 pages. Considering Brexit is likely to be the most important thing any British voter ever votes on, they should be willing to muster the effort to read a few pages.
243.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Not quite sure why it’s confusing that it makes no sense. It’s conservative “think.” There is need to make sense, actually if it made sense, it couldn’t be a conservative idea/ideal.
244.
Aleta
The oreo thing pisses me off bc after he misheard/got confused/whatever, it seems to me like the GOP handlers/PR people probably had the stupid racist idea to turn it around w/ a joke. I bet they told him to stand out there with a package of oreos for the laugh. I doubt it was his idea and no matter how bad he is, to me it’s an ugly racist image that Repubs are also laughing about. But just my opinion.
@zhena gogolia:
“Mentee” makes me think of an aquatic mammal. One mentors (or is mentor to, if one disapproves of verbing a noun) a protege(e). It also bugs me that some are unaware of the difference between a protege (male) and a protegee (female), or between a fiance and a fiancee.
251.
mrmoshpotato
@tokyokie: How would you know the bonus was added if they didn’t tell you? ?
@NotMax: @tokyokie: I’m particularly irked by “PIN number” (“Personal Identification Number number”), “ATM machine” (“Automatic Teller Machine machine”), “IRA account” (“Individual Retirement Account account”), and the like. (My current job is finance-adjacent, and I hear the latter dozens of times every day I work. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.)
Regarding “literally”, my choice to clarify my meaning is “literally, not figuratively”, which doubles as a nice Archer reference.
@Aleta: I thought exactly the same thing. At first, I felt sympathetic to Carson because I am sure he has heard “Oreo” a lot in a mean way. But then his photo op with Oreos? Mother Fuck him.
Pelosi told Conway: I’m responding to the president, not staff.
Pelosi is right though. She’s not Trump’s employee. Trump met with Pelosi. Pelosi responds to Trump, not Conway. I realize the big crybaby ran out to tell the NYTimes that she was mean to him and didn’t whine to Pelosi directly, but that doesn’t change how it’s done on Pelosi’s end.
The low quality hires have been on the public payroll a while now. One would think they would have figured some of this out.
I have to leave for my writers crit group meeting any minute, and the restaurant here had Mexican night, and there were margaritas. Holy moly. I have no body mass. All it takes is one. I can always tell people to get rid of the soft modifiers.
It’s the bullying game playing bullshit that these people think is a big tough power play. What did they gain by disrespecting her? They really think she’s intimidated by Trump sending the staff in demanding a response? That puts her in a lesser position?
Why don’t they just figure out how to do their jobs properly and do them? Why are they all so silly and petty?
274.
Aleta
The redesign of the $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman will no longer be unveiled in 2020, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says.
The unveiling had been timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Mnuchin said that the design process has been delayed, and no new imagery will be unveiled until 2028.
What is the constitutional procedure for citizens to follow in throwing a cabinet member off the back of an ocean freighter?
I can always tell people to get rid of the soft modifiers
Excellent advice. Pass the salt shaker….
279.
Barbara
@debbie: “I am not required to subjugate myself like you do.” Conway is a nasty piece of work.
280.
Immanentize
@Aleta:
I prefer the Czech version, defenestration.
281.
Sebastian
Speaking of headlines and mad libs I have a confession to make. My guilty pleasure is to read the Palmer Report. Yes yes, I know.
But BP just brought up something very interesting. Remember the call from Blocked Number that Jr did after the Trump Tower meeting? It was assumed that he called Sr but then an inkcloud of facts was squirted and turned into two phone calls. One to some Nascar guy and another one. But no call to Sr.
But today in the Rose Garden Trump babbled about THREE phone calls.
I will never be reconciled to “gift” as a verb. “He gifted us a plant.” I cringe just typing that.
Ugh! Yes! That one makes my teeth itch. The usage perversions that most annoy me are ones that substitute something clankingly pretentious for a perfectly good English word, the meaning of which has not drifted, so that nothing – no nuance, no shade, NOTHING – is gained. Another such is “visioning,” now coded into many public planning documents that blither on about the “visioning process” and “the outcome of community visioning efforts.” Vision. Is. Not. A. Verb.
They’re still struggling with the whole feminism concept. They think it means all women are the same. Like how we would all vote for Sarah Palin because we are girls and she’s a girl.
Asking them to combine “equality” with the norm that the two leaders speak directly to each other and not to intermediaries and to hold both of those ideas at the same time is too hard.
Like you can have a girl boss and you are a girl and she’s still your boss and you both can be feminists, and you still can’t order her around. Everyone else got this in 1921 but conservatives are still struggling to navigate these concepts and hold two ideas at once.
Muscle memory from occasionally filling in part-time behind the soda fountain at relatives’ bungalow colony in the Catskills when I was still in single digits. Hershey’s (if present at all) was for topping, Fox’s for mixing.
290.
Steve in the ATL
Are we deep enough into this thread for me to mention the flagrant and indefensible misuse of “due to” where “owing to” is the proper phrase?
Completely unrelated to this discussion, I just tasked the flight attendant with bringing me another glass of wine.
291.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
Hey, that was my mortal sin yesterday! Give her a break, blame me.
ETA. HR girl?! Really?
292.
Immanentize
@NotMax:
OMG. The Catskills? Near the bouncing ball? Or Liberty dinner?
Joe Biden constantly uses the word “literally” this way.
Don’t you mean “Joe Biden LITERALLY uses the word “literally” this way, constantly.”
;-)
Also, Nancy Pelosi did literally blow shit up today when she spoke of Trump’s coverup, if “shit” means the Oval Office meeting, and “blow up” is metephorical…. ;-) again.
Without pinpointing it further, close to and above Harriman. Trips to and from the Catskills included a mandatory rest stop at the Red Apple Rest.
Bungalow colony still in business, although things got shaky for a while as the clientele aged out and/or moved to Florida. Now many descended from those choose to escape Florida during the summer.
@Immanentize: my parents divorced in the early seventies and I racked up boocoo (is that the right spelling?) frequent flier miles before I hit double digits in age. Sadly, the memory of smoke-filled cabins is far stronger than that of killer stewardess outfits.
As long as we’re dealing with redundancies, “due to the fact that” is quite an unwieldy way to say “because”, but people use it all the time. I’m probably guilty of it myself, largely because I hear it so often (again, finance-adjacent job, and finance people use this kind of unwieldy speech all the time).
@NotMax: “Also, too” is at least a good way to clown on Sarah Palin, so I will confess to my share of using that one.
@Immanentize: Defenestration is really a word that deserves many more usages than it gets. A rather large number of Dump administration* officials are in need of good defenestrations, at least figuratively.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: “Gift” as verb seems to originate from law and finance, where it has a specific definition as shorthand for the legal process of transferring property or cash, which amongst other things can have tax consequences. Gift as verb is generally associated with a specific, strategic planning process regarding tax incentives (which is generally a fairly pernicious one on a societal level). I’ve given up on fighting this particular usage, though, like so much other financial jargon, it still grates on my ears. However, it’s also drifted well beyond that particular usage, and I will fight any other such usage vigorously.
@Immanentize: That one too! Of course, if we were to get into redundancies born of Americans’ ignorance of foreign languages, we could be here awhile.
Proposed HUD rule would strip transgender protections at homeless shelters
The change would allow federally funded shelters to deny people admission on religious grounds or force transgender women to share bathrooms and sleeping quarters with men.
I hate these people. If I was religious, I would hope that they burn in hell.
This administration specializes in cruelty. They have been cruel to immigrants. They are being cruel to transgender people, under cover of religious freedom.
And as another poster has noted, Trump and his goons are determined to erase transgender people by insisting that their identity is an illusion or an error. They insist that there is only biological sex determined at birth based on genitalia.
We have to vote all these people out of office and cleanse federal agencies of their stink.
317.
Sab
I have been chortling here for hours. My husband thinks I have lost my mind. What is so funny? Grammar and puns. Meanwhile he’s watching Family Guy ( I do love Brian and Meg.)
318.
Steve in the ATL
@Sab: I had to quit watching after I realized that one of the voice actors was a college mate. Guy was funny but a real asshole.
319.
Sab
@Steve in the ATL: I can relate to that. I briefly dated Caleb Carr in college. He had a crush on me from afar. One of the more unpleasant people I have met in my life. Two weeks and we both came to our senses.
320.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sab: Apparently the most common thing yelled at Mila Kunis by fans is “Shut up, Meg!”
321.
Sab
@Omnes Omnibus: I love Meg. I was the middle sister. My big sister loved my baby brother. Then ther was me.
Does smoke ever come out of anyone’s ears in real life? Outside the context of a tragic accident?
Yes. Executions using the electric chair often cause smoke to come from the person being executed in odd places, ears being one. Disgusting but true… thanks, Thomas Edison!
…“He gifted us a plant.” I cringe just typing that.
Yes, partly because there’s a much shorter word for that act, “He GAVE us a plant!”
326.
minachica
@(((CassandraLeo))): Count yourself lucky if you haven’t heard people calling ATMs time machines.
//Sconnie lingo; all the ATMs were operated by Tyme when I moved here 25+ years ago
327.
TerryC
@PJ: “Oh, yes, editors were jettisoned fast by the Internet. But not after I once had business cards printed up with the title ‘Net Editor. Cool, or what?
328.
Martin
@Gravenstone: Flour. Corn isn’t elastic enough to hold up. They’re good, but low tensile strength.
I rage whenever I hear “curate” being misused. And it’s misused quite a lot.
That, and everything is “sourced” now — not just “bought” or “picked up” or even “obtained.” A really blatant eye-roll is pretty much the only response. And don’t even get me started on “iconic,” which has reached the point of total meaninglessness.
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TenguPhule
I hate to tell you this John, the writers all quit.
This is the live action Survivor sequel we all never wanted.
MattF
So, what you’re suggesting… is that this isn’t The Good Place.
TenguPhule
Clearly, Trump owes Pelosi and Schumer $390,000.
Baud
Now I’m hungry.
Martin
I’ll take ‘What happens when you put incompetent people in charge of stuff’ for $1000 Alex.
Cacti
Ben Carson and Oreos?
I’m not touching that one with a 10 foot pole.
Martin
@TenguPhule: I don’t know, seems like Pelosi is renting a fuckton of Trumps head right now.
Martin
@Cacti: It’s okay. But that was my first reaction as well. You get to watch my congresswoman in full Property Law 101 teaching mode.
LuciaMia
I understand throwing food at politicians. But why milkshakes?
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@LuciaMia: Why not milkshakes?
Wag
@LuciaMia:
Because they “splat” so satisfyingly and make a bigger mess than tomatoes?
rikyrah
@LuciaMia:
A protester threw one at him the other day. These people were building upon that.
rikyrah
Wakandan War Dog (@Kennymack1971) Tweeted:
I guess my patience with anguished progressives particularly the white ones is this…in 2016…
We fucking told you.
Warned you. Implored you.
And now that the very thing we told you would happen is happening now your hair is on fire.
Go sit your anguished ass in the corner. https://twitter.com/Kennymack1971/status/1131247598042525698?s=17
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Wag: Yes, but what a waste.
rikyrah
Mr. Weeks ?? (@MrDane1982) Tweeted:
Nancy Pelosi literally blew shit up today with a few words, “obstructing justice in plain site and is engaged in a coverup.”
She said Nixon’s third article of impeachment was for contempt of Congress & for obstructing Congressional probes.
Finished him with Thoughts & prayers. https://twitter.com/MrDane1982/status/1131256859053174785?s=17
Tazj
@TenguPhule: NPR this afternoon, “How can Pelosi expect Trump to work with him after she said he’s leading a cover up? Doesn’t he (Trump) have a point?” Just no, how can they take him seriously after all this time? Idiots. Of course, I may be an idiot for listening to them in my car, but some segments and shows are ok.
@rikyrah: Yep.
Betty Cracker
I won’t rest until the term “cryptocurrency” is replaced with “Dunning-Krugerrands.”
rikyrah
Mr. Weeks ?? (@MrDane1982) Tweeted:
Nancy Pelosi is a fucking gangsta.
She made Trump say he’s the most transparent president.
Now he will have to eat those words.
IRS says Trump must hand over his taxes over to Congress.
This is why I never doubt the chessboard player Nancy Pelosi.
I like quiet leaders. https://twitter.com/MrDane1982/status/1131238954613792770?s=17
Yutsano
@Betty Cracker: If you agree with me to also work on making the plural of fox foxen, we got some English to bend.
Omnes Omnibus
@LuciaMia: I can teach you, but I have to charge.
No One of Consequence
@Betty Cracker: This is some Grade A cleverness right here.
Citizen Kane clap.
Bravo Betty,
– NOoC
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus:
…
You’re fired.
(Also I LOLed.)
Princess
It’s been a weird day for headlines and I’m glad someone else noticed. I also saw one that said something like, “Clarence Thomas says States Can Declare their Own Official Religions.”
I’m beginning to worry they’re tangling with that Hadron Collider again.
chris
JFC, talk about the Best People! Here’s a handy, and long, list of Brexiteers. No further comment as it would be an insult to swamps.
Steve in the ATL
I don’t who Mr. Weeks is, but he used the word “literally” when he literally meant the exact opposite of “literally.”
Is he a 14-year old girl?
danielx
@Steve in the ATL:
I wondered the same thing. “Literally blew shit up”, wouldn’t that require, like, lighting a fuse or operating a detonating device, something like that?
danielx
Headlines shown above: word salad, but real.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
I just bookmarked this guy. I like the way he writes.
rikyrah
????
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
#Impeachment isn’t about convicting Trump and removing him from office before an election, it’s about laying bare his crimes before the American people and convicting him in the court of public opinion for misusing his power and violating the constitution. https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1131182463206559744?s=17
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
Using “literally” to mean “figuratively” is a minor offence compared to misspelling “sight”.
rikyrah
David D’Ag – Gun Control Now (@jackjonesbabe) Tweeted:
Nancy Pelosi and women led the blue wave that flipped red states, not incurious, entitled twitterbros or candidates from dem +30 districts. If she hadn’t led the movement to take back the house, these arrogant, incurious pricks would be screaming “impeachment” at a fucking wall. https://twitter.com/jackjonesbabe/status/1131252940751216643?s=17
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL: @danielx:
In the lingo kids speak today, “literally” is just an intensifier. Plus, Twitter. Anyway, I like the way this guy writes.
Citizen Alan
@Steve in the ATL:
Ahem.
Major Major Major Major
Unfortunately they’ve hired the Game of Thrones showrunners.
Betty Cracker
@Yutsano: Done and done!
@No One of Consequence: Wish I could take credit, but that belongs to some long-forgotten wag on Twitter.
trollhattan
@chris:
Brexit is headed about where we figured Brexit would head, only it’s taking a lot longer.
Percysowner
@rikyrah: I know and I hate to sound like this, but I AM progressive, heck I’m a bleeding heart liberal and I’m a white woman. I phonebanked for Hillary, I registered voters and of course, I voted for Hillary. So yeah, blame the Bernie Bros and the Green Party, but most of us knew and worked to stop this. I mean she did WIN the popular vote.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL: @danielx:
this is his pinned tweet:
Sheer poetry.
zhena gogolia
@Percysowner:
You booed throughout her convention. You booed Elizabeth Warren so that she could barely finish her speech. You booed a Marine general who was expressing his support for her.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
If so, where are my fvcking dragons? C’mon folks!
Martin
@LuciaMia: So, years ago I was tasked with documenting the history of why our students throw tortillas at graduation, to determine if it was intended to be a racist statement or not. Adding to the mystery, they were only thrown during outdoor ceremonies and not indoor.
Turns out the students thought this through. Tortilla are cheap and biodegradable. No harm done if they aren’t cleaned up outside (and why they weren’t thrown inside). They are aerodynamically sound, so you can cover quite a distance with them (the students even knew which brands and sizes worked best) and if you hit someone, it doesn’t hurt. And push come to shove, you have something to snack on during the entirely too long reading of names. Plus they’re easy to smuggle into the ceremony.
I would argue milkshakes are similarly well thought through. They’re cheap, offered almost everywhere, and come in a very throwable package. The lid usually stays on until impact, but will never survive impact. The contents aren’t harmful, but it is sticky and will get smelly if you don’t clean it up. Plus it creates a good visual, particularly if you explore the flavor options, of the politician walking away humiliated. And, if your opportunity to make a political statement doesn’t materialize, you have a fucking milkshake to drink. You can’t lose.
zhena gogolia
@Martin:
Is it a reference to Daniel Day-Lewis?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@trollhattan:
I confess Brexit has me baffled. Where is it headed?
Lapassionara
@Tazj: Pelosi can expect Trump to work with her because he is President and working with Congress is part of his job.
I’m with Emptywheel. I’m thinking men are too emotional to be in positions of leadership.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
I see you clocked in as the Pedantic Police again. When is your shift over? I’ll buy you a regular and a cruller at Dunkin….
danielx
@zhena gogolia:
I know. Being a stickler for correct grammar and spelling is such a hangup for olds. I might like the way he writes if he could use language correctly.
Steve in the ATL
@Amir Khalid: I respectfully disagree, old bean. Using a word that means literally the opposite of what you are trying to say creates more confusion that using a homonym, and is therefore a greater offense.
@zhena gogolia: Clearly, we need an Académie française-type institution to prevent such atrocities in the future.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL:
Well, we ain’t got one.
zhena gogolia
@danielx:
Joe Biden constantly uses the word “literally” this way.
LC
@danielx: Being a stickler for obsolete grammar and usage is a hangup for olds.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: normally I’m the second shift pedant, but today the union keeps “caucusing” so I have some free time. Blog lord will make me stop pedanting later this evening so he doesn’t have to pay me overtime.
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: I see you’re channeling your old buddy Scalia: “words have meanings and those meanings don’t change.”
Martin
@Lapassionara:
I wouldn’t say we’re necessarily emotional (rage, yes, but generally lacking in the beneficial emotions), but we are fragile. I think Margaret Atwood had it right. The focus is put on the latter statement, but the former is equally observant:
Trump is being laughed at by Pelosi. She’s calling him a loser. That’s pretty much the worst possible thing to him, and Pelosi knows it. I’m beginning to think Pelosi is slow walking impeachment because she thinks she can tilt Trump bad enough that she and her caucus won’t need to make the argument – it’ll be obvious to all.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL: @danielx:
I submit, this guy is a brilliant writer:
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Lapassionara: Man, we men are never going to live Trump down. (Probably a useful societal correction, though.)
#notallmen
Immanentize
There is a great new style/grammar book out that I recommend -+ Dreyer’s English. It’s subtitled, “An utterly correct guide to grammar and style.”
Obviously, when people are using the word “literally” in the ways so offensive, they are using it as a soft emphasizer. Dreyer has a great rule which I now force onto my students when writing briefs — no soft emphasizers ever. Including, of course, the “ever” at the end of my last sentence.
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: dude, that was cold. We all know that meanings can evolve over time, but I don’t accept that the ignorance of some tween girls can qiockly change a word’s meaning to its literal opposite.
zhena gogolia
“Good” grammar and vocabulary are important in formal writing, but Twitter is not formal writing. It is more about phrasing and rhythm. Not everyone can master it. I myself would not be able to. But Mr. Weeks appears to be a virtuoso.
Martin
@LC:
Steve in the ATL
@zhena gogolia: he does have his moments!
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize:
How about “incredibly”?
I got Dreyer’s English and starting reading it. I tend to agree with him about most things, but I’m having trouble envisioning using it in class.
Immanentize
@Martin:
And hang onions on our belts….
Sebastian
@Martin:
Very much so. You think the Russians and Saudis are the only ones who profiled this guy and gameplayed a plan or two?
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Am whatever 1/expert means but believe it’s likely 1. there will be no negotiated separation deal with the EU prior to the new longer deadline and 2. they will hold a second referendum in which people vote on a detailed Brexit.
Item the third is May is gone as PM, soon.
Martin
@Immanentize: One of Stephen King’s rules for writing is to never use adverbs unless the content is lost without it. That seems simpler.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: I’m not using the book in class, just a bunch of his insights. It’s clear but progressive in terms of grammatic evolution. But I really like the ban on soft modifiers — very, really, obviously, etc.
Immanentize
@Martin:
I pretty much feel the same way about adjectives.
ETA. There is no way S. King follows that rule himself. He would never be able to get to 600 pages if he did.
Martin
@Sebastian: Don’t forget the North Koreans. They won their game last year and Trump still doesn’t even realize it, because, well, Trump’s in love and love makes you blind.
Gelfling 545
@Steve in the ATL: when I brought a similar situation up on FB a friend who is as fussy as I about usage pointed me to an actual dictionary entry showing that besides its traditional meaning literally now means, well, not actually literally. Soon we won’t be able to converse at all because everyone will choose their own meanings.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Unless one is writing advertising copy for either a mattress or for toilet paper.
;)
Immanentize
@Gelfling 545:
Steven Pinker suggests your brain wants you to get over that attitude.
Immanentize
@NotMax: or Trump’s tweets.
Yutsano
@Sebastian: Heck just look at Mar-A-Lago. Dolt45 LOVES his HB-1 visa holders. How many spies do you think are doubling up as waitstaff at his resort now? Hell how many do you think weren’t at first but then got offers of dosh by their home governments to do a little listening around his table and room? And that’s just the one resort he spends time at.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL:
He has many, many moments, most of which would not pass muster in standard English grammar. Another gem:
Poetry.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Towards chaos and confusion?
On one hand, it appears to be stumbling toward a “no deal” BREXIT, if Theresa May cannot get votes for her agreement. And it looks as though no one wants it, even though she has pretended to make minor adjustments. Also, some of her proposed adjustments either make no sense, contradict each other, or would never be acceptable to the EU.
May (and a lot of other people) wanted to get things wrapped up before the European Commission elections, which begin tomorrow. The UK must vote to select Members of the European Parliament (MEP). But if BREXIT happens before June 30, I think, none of the people chosen will take their seats, because they will no longer represent Britain in the EU.
In addition, the other Conservatives in May’s government are putting forth a half ass effort to replace her. If they reject her BREXIT plan and then dump her, I think that there will be an attempt to push the country toward a no deal BREXIT. This will make hard liners and Trump happy.
The conservatives making the most noise to replace May are dopes like Boris Johnson.
Of course, I might be wrong about all of this. So yeah, it is baffling.
danielx
@LC:
And Your Humble Obedient Servant takes great pleasure in “obsolete” yet correct grammar, because it reduces ambiguity. Sloppy use of language is characteristic of the individual currently occupying the Oval Office. If someone want to Be Like Donald, he or she is welcome to do so.
ETA:
@zhena gogolia:
That being said, I completely agree with the sentiment expressed.
Steve in the ATL
@zhena gogolia: it’s not just about good grammar and vocabulary, it’s about conveying meaning clearly. While I am occasionally accused of being a pedant, I am not a hardliner on everything. Example: I am not bothered by split infinitives (because the prohibition against them was created by one dude for bullshit reasons) or ending sentences with prepositions. And while using “decimate” to suggest total destruction rather than 10% destruction bothers me, I accept that it doesn’t bother most people.
But I don’t accept using words to mean their opposites because (1) then the reader/listener has to analyze whether the use is correct or ironic, and (2) the reader/listener may draw the wrong conclusion, thereby rendering the statement useless at best and harmful at worst. And I won’t even mention (3), which, if I mentioned it, would be the damage to communications in general as words lose their meanings.
ETA: Gelfling 545 made the same point while I was typing my totally unnecessary screed!
EATA: as did danielx. And perhaps dozens of others, so I’m going to stop now.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL:
That’s fine, and generally I agree with you, but the “literally” battle has been lost. No one is confused by his saying that she literally blew up shit. Really, no one.
I would correct it in a student paper, but twitter is more of a poetic medium.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
National chain bought out a very successful regional mattress chain here a few years ago and when I read it was called “Mattress Firm” I asked “Who would be stupid enough to combine mattress and firm in a store name?”
Well, joke’s on them.
Sebastian
@Yutsano:
It would be professional malpractice not to. I mean, the most powerful person in the world is a 2-bit idiot that can be manipulated like a toddler? Fuck, of course you try!
By the way, the number of false cellular cells in DC has exploded. Everyone is trying to catch unsecured cellphones.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
You heart William Saffire, don’t you.
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL:
Young women are actually one of the strongest forces behind semantic drift in American English. Citation not handy but this is a real thing.
Gin & Tonic
I see that the ruling in the Deutsche Bank subpoena case went as well for Trump as the ruling in the Mazars case.
Litlebritdifrnt
So Twitler holds a presser in the Rose Garden today where he displays a pretty poster board proclaiming that the Mueller report cost 34 million. Just now he posted on twitter that the report cost 40 million. Just how stupid or short memoried does he think people are?
divF
@Princess: I’m waiting for “Pope to Declare Elvis a Saint.”
Sebastian
@Martin:
I think the Saudis took the price though. Orb and all.
Betty Cracker
Been meaning to post a thread about pedantry one day to explore the motivations behind it and discover what goals, if any, pedants hope to accomplish. Despite being an old English major who has made a living as a writer and editor for decades and who silently frowns at typos on restaurant menus, I am rarely tempted to provide writing critiques online for free.
Gravenstone
@zhena gogolia: I think you misread her comment.
Gravenstone
@Martin: Flour or corn?
trollhattan
@Litlebritdifrnt:
“Yes.” :-)
Steve in the ATL
@Martin: SPLIT INFINITIVE!
Wait, never mind. That’s a bullshit rule!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steve in the ATL: It’s
reallyeasy to get tangled up sometimes. In the fantasies I write, can I say “Adam’s apple” if there’s no bible? Can I say “mesmerize” if Mesmer never existed? I don’t do either thing and I’m probably the only one who cares.Immanentize
@zhena gogolia:
Same with “nonplussed.” It has been caught in semantic drift. Which is natural!
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: et tu, Imm? First M4 and now you. Rough day here at the union hall.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
Oddly enough, the law is pretty damn clear and luckily (surprisingly?) judges are upholding the law
Major Major Major Major
@Gelfling 545:
Many years ago I was taking a Sanskrit class, and the professor said there’s an old ‘joke’ along the lines of “Sanskrit is hard because every word means what it means, and also the opposite of that, and also is an alternative name of at least one deity.”
danielx
@Betty Cracker:
True. The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition) is available at Barnes and Noble for $70.00, plus whatever taxes may apply.
oatler.
@Immanentize: I think it was Safire who condemned “slather”, a term which is all the rage for millennials writing serious think-pieces about Taco Bell.
Immanentize
@Litlebritdifrnt:
He is also forgetting (ignoring) that the Mueller investigation has already brought in over 22 million in fines and forfeitures.
Steve in the ATL
@Gelfling 545:
Which dictionary? OED or GTFO!
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
YEAH!!!
Immanentize
@divF:
Steve in the ATL
@Betty Cracker:
I’m getting paid right now, even if not for this!
Ruckus
@Immanentize:
He tried that with me the other day, I implored him to please be fucking himself.
Hasn’t spoken to me since.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: That said,
“Green grocer’s apostrophe”
Was one of the greatest lines ever, B.C.
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
Misusing a homonym suggests carelessness/ignorance/both on the writer’s part, which makes me think I am wasting my time by reading them at all. I suppose deciding which bad writing habits to hate more dearly is a matter of personal taste.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
The battle over “literally” was lost centuries ago. But a few poor souls just refuse to surrender.
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: Uproar as OED includes erroneous use of ‘literally’
Richard Wesson
@Steve in the ATL: If you think about it, we’ve used “really” as an intensifier for many years, when it actually should mean (according to the literal semantics) “in reality”.
“He was really mad. He was really about ready to literally explode.”
That sounds odd to my ears but it’s customary usage these days.
danielx
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Very.
He also thinks (hopes?) nobody notices or remembers how much his golfing trips cost, which is considerably more than the Mueller report.
trollhattan
@Steve in the ATL:
Honest Abe built fences using them.
chopper
@Immanentize:
it was the style at the time. back then nickels had pictures of bees on ’em…
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
Oh, I pedant when the writing gets serious. But even then, bending for effect is powerful.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I love your subtraction of the soft emphasizer.
SRW1
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
Didn’t some dude once say “You throw the drink you have, not the drink you wished you had”?
Ruckus
@Martin:
That sounds a lot like Nancy. She does know how to play the game about as good as anyone ever has.
NotMax
@Litlebritdifrnt
Less than the cost of his Mar-a-lago sojourns over the same period.
The Moar You Know
@Litlebritdifrnt: The man knows his base cold. He could…ahem…literally change the number to 100 billion tomorrow and every single member of the Asshole America Party would believe that was the true cost without even thinking twice.
Gravenstone
@Yutsano:
Does no one here remember the fun all the writers here (pro and aspiring) had piecing together a story of all the foreign agents discovering and interacting each other as they infiltrated Mar-a-Lago? It came together shortly after the impromptu dining room briefing he took after an NK missile test, iirc.
Chyron HR
@Major Major Major Major:
“Am I so out of touch? No, it’s the dictionaries who are wrong.”
Immanentize
@danielx: golfing trips now total over a million balloons of hard earned tax payer do-re-mi
zhena gogolia
@Gravenstone:
Nope. I read it again. She was asking for absolution for Bernie bros. It’s not forthcoming from me, at least.
Timill
@danielx: Sorta like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOwven0Rt94
(Blaster Bates – The Shower Of Shit Over Cheshire)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: It’s a tribute to you. :-)
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: my life no longer has meaning.
@Ruckus: I don’t recognize this nym. Are you a new Russian troll or our old comrade BiP?
@zhena gogolia:
Does using a word to mean its literal opposite make you think that the writer/speaker is an idiot? That’s the reaction I have, and perhaps @Amir Khalid: feels the same.
Also, “literally” is used so often that it no longer has any power in speech.
Martin
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
EU is beyond the point of tolerating the UKs shit. A deadline has been extended. It likely will not be extended a 2nd time. If that destroys the UK economy with a hard exit, with violence along the Irish border and Scotland seceding, so be it. We all reach the point where we tell the drama queen to STFU.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
One can acknowledge that a disliked locution is well-established in use, and still have good reason not to accept it.
Immanentize
@Ruckus:
I wanted to thank you for the link to the log benches yea these so many days ago. That was some cool work and gave me lots of ideas. Watcos it is! Thanks
WhatsMyNym
Of course…
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: …a reason, certainly.
The Moar You Know
@Steve in the ATL: hope you’re joking, Ruckus has been here for years.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Martin: @Brachiator: So crash out into a hard exit? Wow. That’s going to hurt.
Steve in the ATL
@The Moar You Know: yes, I’m joking. I even had dinner with him in LA last year!
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
I do indeed feel that way. Qualifiers — adjectives, adverbs, intensifiers — can be weakened by overuse and misuse, and it’s good writing to avoid them unless they are strictly necessary to convey meaning.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
“Resistance is literally futile.”
– Locution of Borg
:)
Roger Moore
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Extremely. He will happily contradict himself within the same sentence and expect nobody to notice.
rp
I’m not a language pedant, but IMO, the misuse of “literally” is a little different from other misuses and malapropisms because the new meaning isn’t at all clear. Language is all about expressing thoughts and ideas, and it evolves because people find different ways of making themselves understood over time. So while “irregardless” isn’t a real word, it’s perfectly clear what someone means when they use it. But if someone says that smoke was literally coming out of his ears, is he using it to mean figuratively? Something in between literally and figuratively? I have no idea; I guess it’s just a generic term of emphasis. So I think there are sound reasons for insisting on the original meaning of literally.
Steve in the ATL
@Litlebritdifrnt:
He speaks only to his base, and you know how stupid they are
Martin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yep. Preventable in two ways:
1) Don’t ask voters to choose between goals when you have no plans to achieve them.
2) If your argument is that you respect the will of the voters, then don’t spend years acting as though their decision isn’t binding, and that some unicorn will descend from Saturn and save your ass. Refusing to accept the voters will is the opposite of respecting the voters. You might as well at that point come out and say ‘we don’t believe you’ and do what you want anyway.
TomatoQueen
Yes, but why a milkshake?
I have been instructed by my Geordie friends, denizens of that long-standing bastion of labor activism, to proclaim to the world:
The Revolution Will Be Pasteurised.
Now gimme another 405 error, FYWP.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
May seems fixated on one particular plan which everyone else in Britain* hates, and keeps frittering time away trying to get it approved.
*and elsewhere
Gelfling 545
@Steve in the ATL: Merriam Webster, I believe and even the OED is entertaining some pretty flexible definitions these days.
TenguPhule
@Yutsano:
All of em, Katie.
NotMax
@TomatoQueen
Tactic began a few weeks ago. Presumably less cumbersome to carry around than is a pie?
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
I find it amusing that some get so hung up on these matters. English usage changes constantly. And there are tons of words that no longer “mean” what they originally meant. When someone starts chewing tenaciously on a particular word, I wonder why they ignore so many others that might easily merit an exhalation of pedantic fury.
OTOH, here’s a small example of constancy:
The English Word That Hasn’t Changed in Sound or Meaning in 8,000 Years
Lox.
zhena gogolia
@rp:
Does smoke ever come out of anyone’s ears in real life? Outside the context of a tragic accident?
I don’t use “literally” this way, but I don’t think anyone is in doubt about what it means. It’s an intensifier.
TenguPhule
@Litlebritdifrnt:
How much time have you got?
Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Elections, new referendum or Hard Brexit. Clock is ticking, last deadline is All Hallows Eve.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m guessing a second referendum before that happens.
If an up/down on a detailed Brexit plan it becomes a no vote.
If a more than two-choice vote, who the hell can guess?
Brachiator
@TomatoQueen:
I loved this little bit from the program QI:
Stephen is defeated by a Newcastle Accent
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: You poor son of a bitch.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL:
You should like this one!
https://www.justsecurity.org/64145/when-is-a-literally-true-statement-false-and-a-crime/
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Brachiator: I will never be reconciled to “gift” as a verb. “He gifted us a plant.” I cringe just typing that.
PJ
@Immanentize: What bugs me about “nonplus” is that it is primarily journalists who misuse it to mean “unfazed.” (And they usually spell “faze” as “phase.”) In fact, journalists seem to be some of the worst writers one encounters; I am guessing this is because editors were jettisoned with the spread of the internet.
mrmoshpotato
@LuciaMia: Why milkshakes? Because the whole cow was too heavy.
I. Throw. My. MILKSHAKE! At. Fascist. Farage! I throw it all!
Amir Khalid
@rp:
In certain circumstances, I believe, it is physically possible to have smoke pouring out of one’s ears. When you say/write “smoke was literally pouring out of his ears”, I am compelled to stop (however briefly) and work out whether you literally mean that literally: a needless and avoidable impediment.
Major Major Major Major
@zhena gogolia: I sometimes find myself having to clarify “actually literally,” but I can’t say this has ever bugged me.
joel hanes
Having been strongly chided in this very forum for pedantry, I have taken a vow to apply my pedant’s standards to the writing of my own comments, and to remain silent about other people’s diction.
Omnes Omnibus
@TomatoQueen: I told you once.
joel hanes
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
hard exit? Wow. That’s going to hurt.
Yes. Yes it is.
But like our Republicans, the Brexiteers will blame everyone but themselves for their pain.
PJ
@Dorothy A. Winsor: And “ask” is now a noun.
joel hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
I told you once.
I told you twice.
Any time of year is nice
For sipping chicken soup with rice
Martin
@zhena gogolia:
Yes.
Electric chair. Literally not an accident.
joel hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
I told you once.
What I tell you three times is true
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Much gnashing of teeth ensues whenever “free gift” is encountered
Ladyraxterinok
@Gelfling 545: Hunpty Dumpty in Through the Lookingglass (right Alice book?). Doesn’t he say ‘these are my words, they mean what I want them to mean’
rikyrah
Man….I wish that trick would ???
Natalie Andrews (@nataliewsj) Tweeted:
After Trump walked out, Pelosi talked to Dems. Kellyanne Conway asked her if she had a response forthe president.
Pelosi told Conway: I’m responding to the president, not staff.
As everyone was leaving, Conway told Pelosi: “that’s really pro-woman of you”
-per source familiar https://twitter.com/nataliewsj/status/1131263435449262085?s=17
Steve in the ATL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I still refuse to accept “loan” as a verb. Sorry loan, that job is already held by lend.
joel hanes
@Ladyraxterinok:
There’s glory for you!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Yutsano:
That’s just good business sense on Trump’s part, foreign spies work cheep /Fox and Friends.
boatboy_srq
@Steve in the ATL: Newspeak 2.0.
rikyrah
@WhatsMyNym:
He didn’t stay in his lane.
boatboy_srq
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Try “ask” and “spend” as nouns.
/kids-these-days
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: my therapist says I’m making progress
@zhena gogolia: that is an excellent discussion. Delete the link before Raven shows up, though
@joel hanes:
You, sir, are clearly not B-J material!
rp
@Amir Khalid: Exactly. There’s a 99.999% chance that smoke isn’t actually coming out of the person’s ears, but it clouds the meaning, even if just for a split second.
Another problem with this misuse of the word is that it now has two meanings that are diametrically opposed. There are other english words like this (cleave, dust), but it’s not ideal.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
If it’s included in the price, it’s not free and it’s not a gift.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Or borrow.
mrmoshpotato
@Steve in the ATL:
Well, don’t keep us in suspenders! Tell us which one. I’m partial to GTFO. So many volumes!
Immanentize
@boatboy_srq:
Itch and scratch? The confusion of those two made my wife mad
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: Friends, Romans, countrymen, borrow me your ears!
Immanentize
@rp:
Look, I’ve seen the Three Stooges and smoke literally comes out of their ears.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: that’s another hot button issue for me!
@mrmoshpotato: lol
@rp: there’s an 8 pm thread scheduled for “flammable” versus “inflammable”
Roger Moore
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
You might be surprised; I notice that kind of thing when the author includes it and occasionally when they come up with some circumlocution to avoid it. My personal pet peeve in works of fantasy is archers being commanded to fire their bows; the actual command would be “loose” rather than “fire”.
Ladyraxterinok
@Major Major Major Major: I’ve read that.
It contradicts what people used to say/believe–that women maintained traditional language usage and preserved the language against change.
Sebastian
I am warming up to the idea of the milkshake being the perfect response to fascists. It is intimidating, perfectly deniable threat of “violence” in the form of instant ridicule (the worst that can happen to these 2nd tier blowhards).
Milo, Shapiro, Spencer, d’Sauce, … Lots of people this side of the Atlantic deserving of splatter.
Ladyraxterinok
@Immanentize: Read it was more than that.
Immanentize
@Ladyraxterinok:
Well that all changed with the 19th amendment, didn’t it?
My Grandmother and many of her female relatives were (post-)Victorian teachers in primary and secondary education. My goodness did they keep the flame of grammar regularity burning!
rikyrah
@Jay:
New referendum with the clear explanation of what Brexit would mean. Too many of the deluded were sold a bill of goods. Don’t give them an excuse. Tell them what Brexit REALLY means, and see if they vote for it again. I’ve told you – especially after they found out the shady shyt behind Brexit, why a re-vote wasn’t the obvious choice….
Immanentize
@Ladyraxterinok: It is, but I am trying to be conservative in this discussion and not just make up numbers like Trump and Giuliani.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
And he has been a regular at LA area meetups, so there are plenty of us who can vouch that he’s an actual person who lives in the LA area.
rikyrah
@Sebastian:
I like it too..just enough mockery to be hilarious and on point.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
It’s not a gift if you pay for it. Duh!
germy
TomatoQueen
@NotMax: Or stottie, which I hear tends to be somewhat heavy.
Citizen Alan
@Steve in the ATL:
Horsefeathers. Anyone who would understand the word “literally” enough to even think it’s being used incorrectly is almost certainly also literate enough to know from context when it’s being used in its literal sense or merely as hyperbole. And in fact, Merriam-Webster has said for over a century now that the word is “often used hyperbolically; as, he literally flew.”
mrmoshpotato
@boatboy_srq:
I’d rather not, and you can’t make me.
Sebastian
@rikyrah:
You know, Buttigieg’s statement about us not being able to look away from the grotesque made me think. All these assholes are grotesque to a varying degree. Milo, Trump, Spencer, Shapiro, Dobbs, Hannity, … all of them. But TV or a set stage gives them some sort of halo or image and attraction that is hard to describe. It’s almost like a spell.
Throwing milkshake at it breaks that spell in a way that doesn’t work when done to a serious person and it immediately resets perception to reality.
Roger Moore
@PJ:
English words change their part of speech. It’s a way we do things; get used to it.
Wapiti
@zhena gogolia: Does smoke ever come out of anyone’s ears in real life?
That reminds me of a horrifying story I heard in the Army, from guys back from Haiti. Where they tried to get help for some poor guy who got run over by an Army truck and when they called the medics saying the guy was wrapped around the axle, the medical unit wanted to send a psychiatrist to talk the guy down. “No, no, listen to me, he’s literally wrapped around the axle.” Yeah, saying “literally” still didn’t get the message though.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
Would you like to join the Society to Stamp Out and Eradicate Unnecessary Pleonasm?
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: We’re gonna reignite the Oxford comma debate aren’t we?
Amir Khalid
The war against nouning verbs and verbing nouns* was lost centuries ago. (Read your collected works of Shakespeare: Will was doing it back in the 16th.) We all do it now, much more often than we realise. It’s the newer examples that our ears and eyes find jarrng. I try to avoid doing that to a reader/listener, but the reality is that some of the new coinages will inevitably become widely accepted, and protesting them would then make one an old person scolding the clouds.
*See what I did there?
TomatoQueen
@Brachiator: That one were lovely. I always think of Stephen as a canny lad & once again wonder whether he’s playing along or actually tripped.
Brachiator
@PJ:
As is “tell.”
TomatoQueen
@Yutsano: I’mma stand right here in support of the Oxford comma, with arms folded, and mallets toward none.
Amir Khalid
On the subject of milkshakes: If you obtained yours at McDonald’s or a similar establishent, it wasn’t made with milk.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: I blame Biden.
cckids
@Ladyraxterinok: “When I use a word, it means exactly what I want it to mean. Neither more, nor less.” – H.D.
Amir Khalid
Many a jackal describes themselves as an “old”, and thus nouns an adjective.
Roger Moore
@Yutsano:
I sincerely doubt the workers at Mar a Lago have H-1B visas, which are for professional workers in fields where a job requires a bachelors degree or higher. Most of the immigrants at Mar a Lago who actually have legal working papers are probably H-2B (seasonal non-agricultural workers).
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
Sure, why not?
germy
(Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary)
jl
@Amir Khalid: Thomas Jefferson said English should adopt that kind of grammar. So, it’s the patriotic thing to do.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
I’ve rarely seen a milkshake shaken anymore.
Actually or literally.
CapnMubbers
@TomatoQueen: Back to back with you, we’ll hold ‘em off!
germy
Does anyone remember Egg Cream?
An egg cream is a cold beverage consisting of milk, carbonated water, and flavored syrup (typically chocolate or vanilla).
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Shades of meaning are important. Also too, pedantry is fun and gratifying for the pedant.
germy
“Your patience at this time is appreciated.”
Chris T.
@Steve in the ATL:
Yes, I always use the Greater Than the F***ing Oxford dictionary too! //
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother (Shut your mouth)
But I’m talkin’ about Shaft (Then we can dig it)
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
The modern “milkshake” is not shaken inside the machine; it is stirred. This, I believe, is why you will never see James Bond ordering one.
joel hanes
Verbing weirds nouns.
TenguPhule
@Steve in the ATL: Do we need to stage an intervention?
NotMax
@germy
Unless made with Fox’s U-bet brand syrup and seltzer, it’s a wanna be egg cream.
Barbara
@germy: Germany has a lot to answer for in working so hard to protect DB from the natural consequences of its greed, dishonesty and incompetence. Just another day in the life of a bank its national government won’t let fail.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Milkshimmy.
;)
Gin & Tonic
@germy: Of course I do. Used to always be able to get one at Gem Spa, on the corner of 2nd Ave and St Mark’s.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: In RI, the drink made with ice cream, flavored syrup and milk is called a “cabinet.” In Mass it’s called a “frappe.”
Amir Khalid
@germy:
I think I read somewhere that the “egg” in that name actually comes from echt, the German (or maybe Yiddish) for “real”.
Jay
@rikyrah:
That would be quite the Referendum.
Explaining May’s NotReallyBrexit would take up about 1500 words to explain the effects and consequences,
With another 1500 words spelling out what would have to be negotiated with the EU in the future, ( the can kicked down the road),
A 500 word, several paragraphs long explainer that as far as the EU is concerned, the only deal on the table,
Another 1500 word section on the consequences and effects of a hard Brexit, and how a vote to leave + Parliement means May’s NotReallyBrexit is DOA and Hard Brexit is the result.
Then explaining Remain, and that no, this does not allow the EU to “dictate” to the UK, instead the UK has always dictated to the EU,
And then another explainer that none of the Brexiteers Rainbow Skittles Farting White Flying Unicorn fantasies are real.
Basically what some of the MSM and what Remain has been trying to explain to the voters for years now, to no avail.
Ain’t gonna work.
Simpler proposal:
[_] Leave- Fuck Up Britain and it’s People Forever.
[_] Remain- Forget all this happened and let’s go back to 6% growth.
Ladyraxterinok
@Amir Khalid: 1)’that’s a real tell’ 2) ‘this book is a good read’
tokyokie
@Amir Khalid:
Your sew write!
TenguPhule
I see Pence had a quiet word with Ben Carson that he’s been holding down the Trumpster average when it comes to crimes against the American public.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
How about “mentee”? That’s my latest pet peeve. There is no verb “to ment.”
TenguPhule
@Jay:
Sadly, nobody trusts the British public to pick option two by a decisive margin.
ThresherK
@NotMax: You mean I spent all that time making chocolate syrup from scratch for nothing?
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: But the word “mentir” means “to lie” in French. Does that help?
Ladyraxterinok
@germy: Or a black cow. Mom (1913-2005)grew up in St Louis where she learned to like these–pour root beer over vanilla ice cream. Also peanut butter- sliced banana sandwiches.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Some of us (raises hand) go through Purina Peeve Chow by the barrelful.
;)
Jay
“A web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz.
Facebook, which is struggling to clean up the platform and salvage its reputation, has already taken down accounts with about 6 million followers before voting in the European elections begins on Thursday. It was still investigating hundreds of other accounts with an additional 26 million followers, Avaaz said.
In total, the group reported more than 500 suspect groups and Facebook pages operating across France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Poland and Spain. Most were either spreading fake news or using false pages and profiles to artificially boost the content of parties or sites they supported, in violation of Facebook’s rules.
The networks were far more popular than the official pages of far-right and anti-EU populist groups in those countries. The pages taken down by Facebook so far had been viewed half a billion times, Avaaz estimated.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/22/far-right-facebook-groups-spreading-hate-to-millions-in-europe
Uncle Cosmo
@TomatoQueen: The woman leaves an order with the milkman for 30 gallons of whole milk.
Milkman notes that that’s a lot of milk for someone who lives alone.
Woman replies that she intends to bathe in the milk as a beauty treatment.
Milkman says OK, do you want that pasteurized?
Woman replies No, just up to my armpits** will be fine.
/rimshot
** Not the original but I ain’t going there.
Roger Moore
@Jay:
As a Californian, I laugh at your 1500 words. My most recent ballot pamphlet was over 200 pages. Considering Brexit is likely to be the most important thing any British voter ever votes on, they should be willing to muster the effort to read a few pages.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Not quite sure why it’s confusing that it makes no sense. It’s conservative “think.” There is need to make sense, actually if it made sense, it couldn’t be a conservative idea/ideal.
Aleta
The oreo thing pisses me off bc after he misheard/got confused/whatever, it seems to me like the GOP handlers/PR people probably had the stupid racist idea to turn it around w/ a joke. I bet they told him to stand out there with a package of oreos for the laugh. I doubt it was his idea and no matter how bad he is, to me it’s an ugly racist image that Repubs are also laughing about. But just my opinion.
Jay
@TenguPhule:
It’s a stark choice they would have to make on the ballot, as opposed to fantasies,
Might narrow the vote a little.
Roger Moore
@Ladyraxterinok:
Isn’t that what most of us call a root beer float?
Jay
@Roger Moore:
They havn’t bothered to read a few pages in the past two years.
tokyokie
@NotMax:
“Added bonus” is the usage that irks me.
chris
@Amir Khalid:
I did! Very impactful.
Amir Khalid
@zhena gogolia:
“Mentee” makes me think of an aquatic mammal. One mentors (or is mentor to, if one disapproves of verbing a noun) a protege(e). It also bugs me that some are unaware of the difference between a protege (male) and a protegee (female), or between a fiance and a fiancee.
mrmoshpotato
@tokyokie: How would you know the bonus was added if they didn’t tell you? ?
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
I had to sit through a meeting where the word “mentee” was shouted over and over by the chair. I just wanted to curl up and die. literally //
NotMax
@Roger Moore
A root beer float put through a milkshake blender is a Black Cow. Either root beer or cola, plus syrup for an original Black Cow.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Aleta:
So it’s case of House N***er privilege? Sort of like Rape Enablers?
0o,…
America can sure show some diversity in it’s racism.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@NotMax: @tokyokie: I’m particularly irked by “PIN number” (“Personal Identification Number number”), “ATM machine” (“Automatic Teller Machine machine”), “IRA account” (“Individual Retirement Account account”), and the like. (My current job is finance-adjacent, and I hear the latter dozens of times every day I work. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.)
Regarding “literally”, my choice to clarify my meaning is “literally, not figuratively”, which doubles as a nice Archer reference.
joel hanes
@Ladyraxterinok:
Or a black cow.
Obligatory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzrDs_Vaho4
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Troops of the Roman empire were imperatees.
:)
Immanentize
@Aleta: I thought exactly the same thing. At first, I felt sympathetic to Carson because I am sure he has heard “Oreo” a lot in a mean way. But then his photo op with Oreos? Mother Fuck him.
NotMax
@(((CassandraLeo)))
All those also too as well.
;)
rikyrah
@Jay:
Works for me ?
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
All Pence
Jackie
Has anyone mentioned “those or these ones?” ??♀️
Immanentize
@Brachiator:
A milk shake in Boston at any worthy Spa is still milk shook (or blended) with flavor — no ice cream. That would be a frappe.
Immanentize
@germy:
Lou Reed — Egg Cream
Immanentize
@NotMax:
I knew you would be all over the egg cream issue.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Pelosi is right though. She’s not Trump’s employee. Trump met with Pelosi. Pelosi responds to Trump, not Conway. I realize the big crybaby ran out to tell the NYTimes that she was mean to him and didn’t whine to Pelosi directly, but that doesn’t change how it’s done on Pelosi’s end.
The low quality hires have been on the public payroll a while now. One would think they would have figured some of this out.
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia:
Mentos?
The fresh maker?
Immanentize
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Rio Grande river?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Yeah, the co-equal branch of government is kind of basic.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t cringe, I rage whenever I hear “curate” being misused. And it’s misused quite a lot.
Jay
#DonJrBookTitles is killing it on Twitter.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I have to leave for my writers crit group meeting any minute, and the restaurant here had Mexican night, and there were margaritas. Holy moly. I have no body mass. All it takes is one. I can always tell people to get rid of the soft modifiers.
Kay
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
It’s the bullying game playing bullshit that these people think is a big tough power play. What did they gain by disrespecting her? They really think she’s intimidated by Trump sending the staff in demanding a response? That puts her in a lesser position?
Why don’t they just figure out how to do their jobs properly and do them? Why are they all so silly and petty?
Aleta
What is the constitutional procedure for citizens to follow in throwing a cabinet member off the back of an ocean freighter?
debbie
@rikyrah:
Nancy should have responded, “It takes more than being female to be pro-woman.”
Jay
@Aleta:
Constitutional rules require that you throw him straight off the bow of a moving freighter,
Sab
@Jackie: Or less v fewer.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Excellent advice. Pass the salt shaker….
Barbara
@debbie: “I am not required to subjugate myself like you do.” Conway is a nasty piece of work.
Immanentize
@Aleta:
I prefer the Czech version, defenestration.
Sebastian
Speaking of headlines and mad libs I have a confession to make. My guilty pleasure is to read the Palmer Report. Yes yes, I know.
But BP just brought up something very interesting. Remember the call from Blocked Number that Jr did after the Trump Tower meeting? It was assumed that he called Sr but then an inkcloud of facts was squirted and turned into two phone calls. One to some Nascar guy and another one. But no call to Sr.
But today in the Rose Garden Trump babbled about THREE phone calls.
Oops.
I can’t believe this is all real.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/confession-white-house-lawn-trump-russia/18154/
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Ugh! Yes! That one makes my teeth itch. The usage perversions that most annoy me are ones that substitute something clankingly pretentious for a perfectly good English word, the meaning of which has not drifted, so that nothing – no nuance, no shade, NOTHING – is gained. Another such is “visioning,” now coded into many public planning documents that blither on about the “visioning process” and “the outcome of community visioning efforts.” Vision. Is. Not. A. Verb.
NotMax
@debbie
Yeah, TCM has become especially vexing when it comes to that. One might even say “indocent.”
;)
Kay
@debbie:
They’re still struggling with the whole feminism concept. They think it means all women are the same. Like how we would all vote for Sarah Palin because we are girls and she’s a girl.
Asking them to combine “equality” with the norm that the two leaders speak directly to each other and not to intermediaries and to hold both of those ideas at the same time is too hard.
Jay
https://www.muellerbookclub.com
Kay
@debbie:
Like you can have a girl boss and you are a girl and she’s still your boss and you both can be feminists, and you still can’t order her around. Everyone else got this in 1921 but conservatives are still struggling to navigate these concepts and hold two ideas at once.
Steve in the ATL
@Sab:
I step away for a minute and am beaten to the punch!
@TenguPhule:
Probably. I almost kicked the HR girl out of the bargaining room today for saying “between” rather than “among” when talking about multiple parties.
debbie
@Kay:
LOL, right. I almost hemorrhaged every time I heard Sarah Palin declare she was a feminist and then insist only true feminists were pro-Life.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Muscle memory from occasionally filling in part-time behind the soda fountain at relatives’ bungalow colony in the Catskills when I was still in single digits. Hershey’s (if present at all) was for topping, Fox’s for mixing.
Steve in the ATL
Are we deep enough into this thread for me to mention the flagrant and indefensible misuse of “due to” where “owing to” is the proper phrase?
Completely unrelated to this discussion, I just tasked the flight attendant with bringing me another glass of wine.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
Hey, that was my mortal sin yesterday! Give her a break, blame me.
ETA. HR girl?! Really?
Immanentize
@NotMax:
OMG. The Catskills? Near the bouncing ball? Or Liberty dinner?
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Extra brownie points if you said “Wine me.”
:)
Immanentize
@NotMax:
So fine
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: @NotMax: hey, I thought I was doing good (lol) to say “flight attendant” rather than “waitress in the sky”
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize:
You know I did that intentionally. And with malice aforethought.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
You are not old enough to be living in the 70s. Southwest Go Go.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
He says in his deposition….
wasabi gasp
SPEEDWAGON!!! SPEEDWAGON!!! SPEEDWAGON!!!
J R in WV
@zhena gogolia:
Don’t you mean “Joe Biden LITERALLY uses the word “literally” this way, constantly.”
;-)
Also, Nancy Pelosi did literally blow shit up today when she spoke of Trump’s coverup, if “shit” means the Oval Office meeting, and “blow up” is metephorical…. ;-) again.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Without pinpointing it further, close to and above Harriman. Trips to and from the Catskills included a mandatory rest stop at the Red Apple Rest.
Bungalow colony still in business, although things got shaky for a while as the clientele aged out and/or moved to Florida. Now many descended from those choose to escape Florida during the summer.
Aleta
@Steve in the ATL: Ouch. I get it though. Safer to plagiarize.
Immanentize
@wasabi gasp:
Are you referring to Journey-o Styx Wagon?
mrmoshpotato
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Take it up with the Department of Redundancy Department!
Immanentize
@NotMax:
I may do a retro trip with the Immp. Catskills. Niagra Falls. Poconos.
You aren’t suggesting it was a Red Camp? (where a bunch of my friends spent their summer singing songs of resistance.)
Steve in the ATL
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Moi aussi!
Aleta
@Immanentize: OMG you busted him.
Everyone’s switching to emojis anyway.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: my parents divorced in the early seventies and I racked up boocoo (is that the right spelling?) frequent flier miles before I hit double digits in age. Sadly, the memory of smoke-filled cabins is far stronger than that of killer stewardess outfits.
(((CassandraLeo)))
As long as we’re dealing with redundancies, “due to the fact that” is quite an unwieldy way to say “because”, but people use it all the time. I’m probably guilty of it myself, largely because I hear it so often (again, finance-adjacent job, and finance people use this kind of unwieldy speech all the time).
@NotMax: “Also, too” is at least a good way to clown on Sarah Palin, so I will confess to my share of using that one.
@Immanentize: Defenestration is really a word that deserves many more usages than it gets. A rather large number of Dump administration* officials are in need of good defenestrations, at least figuratively.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: “Gift” as verb seems to originate from law and finance, where it has a specific definition as shorthand for the legal process of transferring property or cash, which amongst other things can have tax consequences. Gift as verb is generally associated with a specific, strategic planning process regarding tax incentives (which is generally a fairly pernicious one on a societal level). I’ve given up on fighting this particular usage, though, like so much other financial jargon, it still grates on my ears. However, it’s also drifted well beyond that particular usage, and I will fight any other such usage vigorously.
@Immanentize: That one too! Of course, if we were to get into redundancies born of Americans’ ignorance of foreign languages, we could be here awhile.
(((CassandraLeo)))
…stuck in moderation. I think i replied to too many other people’s comments. halp plz kthx
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
You don’t want your Ingrid Bergman cabernet sauvignon curated? What’s wrong with you?
Roger Moore
@Steve in the ATL:
Beaucoup. It’s from French.
Steve in the ATL
@Roger Moore: thank you. I had no idea.
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL:
You’re cracking me up, because my half-brother used to say “boocoo” all the time. I haven’t heard it in many years.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
Are you a good man? Why no, you are a bad man?
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
I hate these people. If I was religious, I would hope that they burn in hell.
This administration specializes in cruelty. They have been cruel to immigrants. They are being cruel to transgender people, under cover of religious freedom.
And as another poster has noted, Trump and his goons are determined to erase transgender people by insisting that their identity is an illusion or an error. They insist that there is only biological sex determined at birth based on genitalia.
We have to vote all these people out of office and cleanse federal agencies of their stink.
Sab
I have been chortling here for hours. My husband thinks I have lost my mind. What is so funny? Grammar and puns. Meanwhile he’s watching Family Guy ( I do love Brian and Meg.)
Steve in the ATL
@Sab: I had to quit watching after I realized that one of the voice actors was a college mate. Guy was funny but a real asshole.
Sab
@Steve in the ATL: I can relate to that. I briefly dated Caleb Carr in college. He had a crush on me from afar. One of the more unpleasant people I have met in my life. Two weeks and we both came to our senses.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sab: Apparently the most common thing yelled at Mila Kunis by fans is “Shut up, Meg!”
Sab
@Omnes Omnibus: I love Meg. I was the middle sister. My big sister loved my baby brother. Then ther was me.
Captain C
@germy: I had one today, in fact.
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
OMG!! You too?~!!~?
WOW! We do that too. And wild apostrophe’s (sic) !!! ;-)
J R in WV
@zhena gogolia:
Yes. Executions using the electric chair often cause smoke to come from the person being executed in odd places, ears being one. Disgusting but true… thanks, Thomas Edison!
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes, partly because there’s a much shorter word for that act, “He GAVE us a plant!”
minachica
@(((CassandraLeo))): Count yourself lucky if you haven’t heard people calling ATMs time machines.
//Sconnie lingo; all the ATMs were operated by Tyme when I moved here 25+ years ago
TerryC
@PJ: “Oh, yes, editors were jettisoned fast by the Internet. But not after I once had business cards printed up with the title ‘Net Editor. Cool, or what?
Martin
@Gravenstone: Flour. Corn isn’t elastic enough to hold up. They’re good, but low tensile strength.
TomatoQueen
@Uncle Cosmo:ohhhh b’dum and tish to you.
Tehanu
@debbie:
That, and everything is “sourced” now — not just “bought” or “picked up” or even “obtained.” A really blatant eye-roll is pretty much the only response. And don’t even get me started on “iconic,” which has reached the point of total meaninglessness.