| Author | Thread |
|
|
12/05/2008 02:37:48 PM · #51 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
So, actually, a "moot point" is something important enough that it's worth arguing about, or ought to be,anyway :-)
R. |
But important only when the "moot court" arrives. I hear that circuit hasn't been ridden lately. |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:38:56 PM · #52 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Your point re: the evolution of language is a valid one, but nevertheless rearguard actions are not without merit. Some corruptions of usage are just plain dismaying to me, because wonderful, useful words get corrupted and what's to replace them? A good case in point would be the current denaturing of the terms "awesome" and "epic" to the status of generic praise.
R. |
Chalk me up as a person that is so unbelievably tired of the over-use of the word "epic". It wouldn't annoy me so much if there was something else to fall back on, but there isn't. What is an epic tale these days? A toddler's board-book of first words? |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:39:31 PM · #53 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
So, actually, a "moot point" is something important enough that it's worth arguing about, or ought to be,anyway :-)
R. |
Originally posted by fir3bird:
But important only when the "moot court" arrives. I hear that circuit hasn't been ridden lately. |
Judging from some of the tangents our threads have embarked upon, that's a shame!..........8>)
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:40:23 PM · #54 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Your point re: the evolution of language is a valid one, but nevertheless rearguard actions are not without merit. Some corruptions of usage are just plain dismaying to me, because wonderful, useful words get corrupted and what's to replace them? A good case in point would be the current denaturing of the terms "awesome" and "epic" to the status of generic praise.
R. |
Originally posted by K10DGuy:
Chalk me up as a person that is so unbelievably tired of the over-use of the word "epic". It wouldn't annoy me so much if there was something else to fall back on, but there isn't. What is an epic tale these days? A toddler's board-book of first words? |
Anything by Michener or Pat Conroy......
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:40:49 PM · #55 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Aren't you glad I told you this? Jejeje�
R. |
Since we had to read through it to get here, it's a moot point.
I also like words which mean their own opposite:
"The NCAA today issued sanctions against ABC U, preventing them from entering any NCAA-sanctioned events for the next two years."
Inflammable also means flammable ... |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:42:03 PM · #56 |
Originally posted by DrAchoo:
Originally posted by scarbrd:
I hate when people visit East Carolina University and think East Carolina is a state, right Doc? |
East Carolina is a state we don't hear nearly enough about! |
One of the 57 states Obama campaigned in. |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:43:03 PM · #57 |
Originally posted by NikonJeb:
Originally posted by K10DGuy:
Chalk me up as a person that is so unbelievably tired of the over-use of the word "epic". It wouldn't annoy me so much if there was something else to fall back on, but there isn't. What is an epic tale these days? A toddler's board-book of first words? |
Anything by Michener or Pat Conroy...... |
Don't forget Leon Uris :-) "Exodus", now THAT was "epic"!
R.
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:43:44 PM · #58 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by scarbrd:
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Actually you CAN have the cake and then eat it.
The correct way to say it.
You can't eat your cake and have it too.
Once you've eaten it, you can't have it anymore.
But everyone thinks I'm crazy on this one. ;-) |
You're crazy :-) If you want to "have" your cake, you can't consume it, because once it's eaten it's gone. I think it works fine either way :-) It's like saying "You can't save your money and spend it too."
R. |
See what I mean? ;-)
You CAN save your money and then spend it. You CANNOT spend your money and then save it.
It makes perfect sense, to me anyway. But then I'm crazy! |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:46:22 PM · #59 |
Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
Originally posted by DrAchoo:
Originally posted by scarbrd:
I hate when people visit East Carolina University and think East Carolina is a state, right Doc? |
East Carolina is a state we don't hear nearly enough about! |
One of the 57 states Obama campaigned in. |
Joey from Friends, right?
He also had a good bit about "moot"
It's not "moot", it's "moo". It's like a cow's opinion, it just doesn't matter. It's moo. |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:53:13 PM · #60 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Don't forget Leon Uris :-) "Exodus", now THAT was "epic"!
R. |
You're a Nor'Easter......ever read any of the Castle Rock stuff?
My favorite are the mirror novels, Regulators/Desperation.
ETA: Phor Phat Ph*cking Phingers.....
Message edited by author 2008-12-05 14:57:27.
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:53:15 PM · #61 |
Originally posted by scarbrd:
See what I mean? ;-)
You CAN save your money and then spend it. You CANNOT spend your money and then save it.
It makes perfect sense, to me anyway. But then I'm crazy! |
But you're changing the logical structure of the proverb when you insert the word "then". I concede that, as you have written it, your quibble is valid: But that's not the proverb!
If you want to change it to clarify its meaning, then this would be the most accurate: "You can't keep your cake and eat it too." Indeed, the word "have" can correctly be used in this sense, and is, or at least was, commonly used that way if Britain, where the proverb originated.
R.
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 02:54:51 PM · #62 |
Originally posted by NikonJeb:
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Don't forget Leon Uris :-) "Exodus", now THAT was "epic"!
R. |
You're a Nior'Easter......ever read any of the Castle Rock stuff?
My favorite are the mirror novels, Regulators/Desperation. |
I used to read a lot of Stephen King, but I eventually stopped enjoying him. I think the nearlier work was much more interesting.
R.
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:00:40 PM · #63 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by NikonJeb:
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Don't forget Leon Uris :-) "Exodus", now THAT was "epic"!
R. |
You're a Nior'Easter......ever read any of the Castle Rock stuff?
My favorite are the mirror novels, Regulators/Desperation. |
I used to read a lot of Stephen King, but I eventually stopped enjoying him. I think the nearlier work was much more interesting.
R. |
Before the cloying narcissism. I picked up the latest collection of short stories, "Just After Sunset", hoping that maybe, just maybe, he'd found a way out of the "Everything is about me" rut he's been in.
Nope. |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:01:33 PM · #64 |
Originally posted by NikonJeb:
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Don't forget Leon Uris :-) "Exodus", now THAT was "epic"!
R. |
You're a Nior'Easter......ever read any of the Castle Rock stuff?
My favorite are the mirror novels, Regulators/Desperation. |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
I used to read a lot of Stephen King, but I eventually stopped enjoying him. I think the nearlier work was much more interesting.
R. |
He had some schlock in the middle, i.e. Cujo, Firestarter, but then he got back into some pretty decent stuff.
Lisey's Story is good, I love the Dark Tower series......It and The Tommyknockers were good.
You ever read James Lee Burke?
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:05:28 PM · #65 |
Originally posted by NikonJeb:
He had some schlock in the middle, i.e. Cujo, Firestarter, but then he got back into some pretty decent stuff.
Lisey's Story is good, I love the Dark Tower series......It and The Tommyknockers were good.
You ever read James Lee Burke? |
Cujo was a masterpiece. Other than It, it was one of the few Stephen King novels that kept me awake at night.
The Dark Tower was only good until Song of Susannah, then it went into King Narcissism Land and never recovered. The last book was like he was writing with a gun pointed to his head by someone yelling, "FINISH THIS NOW!!!"
Lisey's Story was enjoyable, Tommyknockers would have been better with 300 pages knocked off of it. The Stand is the only other 'epic' worth mentioning for me. Oh, no, The Talisman was fantastic as well.
/end hijack |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:09:00 PM · #66 |
Originally posted by NikonJeb:
He had some schlock in the middle, i.e. Cujo, Firestarter, but then he got back into some pretty decent stuff.
Lisey's Story is good, I love the Dark Tower series......It and The Tommyknockers were good.
You ever read James Lee Burke? |
Cujo is a truly terrifying tale, IMO. I've read a lot of James Lee Burke. I really like Dave Robicheaux :-)
R.
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:10:55 PM · #67 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Some corruptions of usage are just plain dismaying to me, because wonderful, useful words get corrupted and what's to replace them? A good case in point would be the current denaturing of the terms "awesome" and "epic" to the status of generic praise. |
I am mortified every time I hear a kid describe his new cell phone/laptop/ as "epic". Truly, truly dismaying. I was just bitching about this to (the ever patient) Alex the other day, bemoaning this kind of usage, punctuating my sadness at the end, Jeff-Goldblum-in-Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers style, with words like, "Where's Homer?! Where's Virgil?! What have we done to these kids?!" |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:13:53 PM · #68 |
Originally posted by Louis:
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Some corruptions of usage are just plain dismaying to me, because wonderful, useful words get corrupted and what's to replace them? A good case in point would be the current denaturing of the terms "awesome" and "epic" to the status of generic praise. |
I am mortified every time I hear a kid describe his new cell phone/laptop/ as "epic". Truly, truly dismaying. I was just bitching about this to (the ever patient) Alex the other day, bemoaning this kind of usage, punctuating my sadness at the end, Jeff-Goldblum-in-Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers style, with words like, "Where's Homer?! Where's Virgil?! What have we done to these kids?!" |
Try hanging out on gaming forums.
One day, a new trailer for a new Sonic the Hedgehog game came out. The headline? "Sonic returns in new Epic Trailer!"
Had I the ability to find, go to, and meet the person that wrote that headline, I would have tied him/her to a school desk and forced them to copy dictionary pages until their hands bled. |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:14:02 PM · #69 |
Originally posted by K10DGuy:
Before the cloying narcissism. I picked up the latest collection of short stories, "Just After Sunset", hoping that maybe, just maybe, he'd found a way out of the "Everything is about me" rut he's been in.
Nope. |
Damn, I just bought that. :-/ "Everything's Eventual" has a few absolutely brilliant shorts in it. Positively beautiful. I'm thinking mainly of the one of the guy in the motel room thinking about suicide. After reading that, I actually thought King was some kind of writer, and that his books didn't have to be merely a guilty pleasure. |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:15:11 PM · #70 |
Originally posted by Louis:
Originally posted by K10DGuy:
Before the cloying narcissism. I picked up the latest collection of short stories, "Just After Sunset", hoping that maybe, just maybe, he'd found a way out of the "Everything is about me" rut he's been in.
Nope. |
Damn, I just bought that. :-/ "Everything's Eventual" has a few absolutely brilliant shorts in it. Positively beautiful. I'm thinking mainly of the one of the guy in the motel room thinking about suicide. After reading that, I actually thought King was some kind of writer, and that his books didn't have to be merely a guilty pleasure. |
Everything's Eventual occupies a place of honor on my bookshelf. It is, indeed, full of some wonderful writing.
Message edited by author 2008-12-05 15:15:55. |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:16:32 PM · #71 |
Originally posted by Louis:
I am mortified every time I hear a kid describe his new cell phone/laptop/ as "epic". Truly, truly dismaying. I was just bitching about this to (the ever patient) Alex the other day, bemoaning this kind of usage, punctuating my sadness at the end, Jeff-Goldblum-in-Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers style, with words like, "Where's Homer?! Where's Virgil?! What have we done to these kids?!" |
I can answer that question: as a society we have become more and more self-centered and self-indulgent, lowering our own personal standards so low that it is actually reasonable to say we have become less civilized than we were, say, 100 years ago. I place the responsibility squarely in our perversion of "democracy" into the concept of lowering standards to the least common denominator, so nobody will be left behind. We have robbed our children of their potential by lowering our expectations of them. We are in a sad state...
R.
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:18:08 PM · #72 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by Louis:
I am mortified every time I hear a kid describe his new cell phone/laptop/ as "epic". Truly, truly dismaying. I was just bitching about this to (the ever patient) Alex the other day, bemoaning this kind of usage, punctuating my sadness at the end, Jeff-Goldblum-in-Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers style, with words like, "Where's Homer?! Where's Virgil?! What have we done to these kids?!" |
I can answer that question: as a society we have become more and more self-centered and self-indulgent, lowering our own personal standards so low that it is actually reasonable to say we have become less civilized than we were, say, 100 years ago. I place the responsibility squarely in our perversion of "democracy" into the concept of lowering standards to the least common denominator, so nobody will be left behind. We have robbed our children of their potential by lowering our expectations of them. We are in a sad state...
R. |
Entirely agreed. This is also reflected in mini-societies, such as *cough* DPC |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:24:34 PM · #73 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by Louis:
I am mortified every time I hear a kid describe his new cell phone/laptop/ as "epic". Truly, truly dismaying. I was just bitching about this to (the ever patient) Alex the other day, bemoaning this kind of usage, punctuating my sadness at the end, Jeff-Goldblum-in-Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers style, with words like, "Where's Homer?! Where's Virgil?! What have we done to these kids?!" |
I can answer that question: as a society we have become more and more self-centered and self-indulgent, lowering our own personal standards so low that it is actually reasonable to say we have become less civilized than we were, say, 100 years ago. I place the responsibility squarely in our perversion of "democracy" into the concept of lowering standards to the least common denominator, so nobody will be left behind. We have robbed our children of their potential by lowering our expectations of them. We are in a sad state... |
Holy crap, and here I was too afraid to actually say something like that. That's pretty spot-on.
There's another issue. With the lowering of our collective intelligence comes the dilution of civility (including civil discourse). Yesterday, I was listening to an ancient CBC correspondent in Ottawa who was fairly aghast at the way Parliament is being conducted these days. Twenty-five years ago, during Question Period, bitter political enemies still called each other "Men of the Commons" in an honourable recognition of their public service. (It was mostly men in those days, and such terminology did not carry the gender-divisive connotations it does now.) Now, it's commonplace to hear Members yell insults across the aisle. In the last session, some Members openly called another a "seditious traitor", publicly calling his patriotism into question in the meanest way. A sad day, and apparently the lesson our leaders don't mind sending to the kids watching. |
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:29:54 PM · #74 |
Originally posted by Louis:
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by Louis:
I am mortified every time I hear a kid describe his new cell phone/laptop/ as "epic". Truly, truly dismaying. I was just bitching about this to (the ever patient) Alex the other day, bemoaning this kind of usage, punctuating my sadness at the end, Jeff-Goldblum-in-Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers style, with words like, "Where's Homer?! Where's Virgil?! What have we done to these kids?!" |
I can answer that question: as a society we have become more and more self-centered and self-indulgent, lowering our own personal standards so low that it is actually reasonable to say we have become less civilized than we were, say, 100 years ago. I place the responsibility squarely in our perversion of "democracy" into the concept of lowering standards to the least common denominator, so nobody will be left behind. We have robbed our children of their potential by lowering our expectations of them. We are in a sad state... |
Holy crap, and here I was too afraid to actually say something like that. That's pretty spot-on.
There's another issue. With the lowering of our collective intelligence comes the dilution of civility (including civil discourse). Yesterday, I was listening to an ancient CBC correspondent in Ottawa who was fairly aghast at the way Parliament is being conducted these days. Twenty-five years ago, during Question Period, bitter political enemies still called each other "Men of the Commons" in an honourable recognition of their public service. (It was mostly men in those days, and such terminology did not carry the gender-divisive connotations it does now.) Now, it's commonplace to hear Members yell insults across the aisle. In the last session, some Members openly called another a "seditious traitor", publicly calling his patriotism into question in the meanest way. A sad day, and apparently the lesson our leaders don't mind sending to the kids watching. |
We've gone way off-topic here, but it's a great new topic don't you think? Since youasked the question, why don't you start it? Then we can paste these posts in to get it rolling. I suggest "What have we done to our children?" as then topic title :-)
R.
|
|
|
|
12/05/2008 03:39:55 PM · #75 |
Originally posted by Louis:
In the last session, some Members openly called another a "seditious traitor", publicly calling his patriotism into question in the meanest way. A sad day, and apparently the lesson our leaders don't mind sending to the kids watching. |
... I do earnestly believe that you would be very hard pressed to find very many kids crammed around a television, mesmerized by the House of Commons debates. :O)
Ray |
|
