#65413
04/13/2002 9:12 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 184
member
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member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 184 |
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#65414
04/13/2002 10:14 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Ewein: Tea ceremonies can be so complicated, I can almost imagine bathing your knees with tea having some special symbolic significance. The trick is to keep your face straight so the wisenheimers can't
tell whether you are joking or not. Good to see you posting. Bill
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#65415
04/15/2002 2:32 AM
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 833 |
I KNEW we had more in common! Yeah, I take things very literally too. Can't think of a specific example now....but it sure can get you into trouble....  O wait, I just thought of one: this had as much to do with youth and ignorance as taking things literally, I think. My parents and I were at some historical village (one of those history re-created places) and were listening to a talk being given about the different beauty marks that people of the time period used to sport, and where they placed them on their faces. The man giving the talk told us that men would wear a certain spot in a certain place to indicate that they were lady-killers. I said, "But why would anyone advertise the fact that he killed women?" Yeeeess. (Wish blokes wore those now. Save me a lot of grief.  )
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#65416
04/15/2002 11:07 PM
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 184
member
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member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 184 |
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#65417
04/15/2002 11:19 PM
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
I, too, find I am a very literal person. I take things too seriously, especially when I meet someone new and before I get to know their sense of humor. I manage volunteers, and I recall this one gentleman whom I trained about two years ago. He came back from his first route and made a comment about how tough it was to do the job. I hadn't prepared him well enough he said. Then he left with not another word said. About a week later, he walked in out of the blue, wanting to know why I never called him to work again. I told him I thought it was too difficult and didn't want to push him, trying to spare both our feelings. He burst out laughing and said that he wished all the jobs he had been given in life were that "hard". Now he works for me four or five days a week and still snickers about how I misunderstood him that first time.
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#65418
04/16/2002 2:45 AM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
You say you are a literalist, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Had your friend said she had to pour *hot tea on her knees, yours would have been the literalist's response. And perfectly appropriate, I might add. Instead, however, you chose to embellish the image. If cause and effect is the stuff of linear thinking, you are rectiliear -- not literally ;)
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#65419
04/16/2002 4:35 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
As a youngster I learned in school the song I heard the Bells on Christmas Day (Longfellow's poem, I believe. ) One line is "God is not dead nor doth [pause] He sleep".
I always wondered what it meant to be "doth".
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#65420
04/16/2002 5:28 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
"I always wondered what 'doth' meant.
But isn't that to missunderstand the grammar here, or am I mistaken? If "nor" were conjoining terms in a list, wouldn't the phrase be 'neither dead nor does he sleep;' whereas here it conjoins independent clauses.
Or?
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#65421
04/16/2002 8:23 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
i think nor like or can stand on its own.
but its bad form to pair nor with either or neither with or.
(and it changes the meaning!)
It was neither fish nor fowl... is fine as is
it was not fish or fowl.........or
It was not fish nor fowl...
the different forms do have sublely differences.. in any case, what ever it was, it sound pretty foul!
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#65422
04/16/2002 9:52 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
It was neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring.
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#65423
04/16/2002 9:53 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
Can anyone help me recall what children's book this came from?
I pledge a lesson to the frog
Of the United States of America
And to the wee puppet for witch's hands.
One Asian, under God, in the vestibule
Will liver tree and just juice for all.
Note to non-US'ns: school children here learn this pledge to the flag:
I pledge allegiance to the flag
Of the United States of America,
And to the republic for which it stands:
One nation, under God, indivisible,
With liberty and justice for all.
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#65424
04/16/2002 11:45 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I pledge a lesson to the frog of the United States of America.
And to the wee puppet for witch's hands.
One Asian, in the vestibule, with little tea and just rice for all.
ìWalking in Lucky Shoesî
(Her recital of the pledge as a free 3 year old girl
learning english in USA after escaping from China)
Bette Bao Lord
American writer
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#65425
04/17/2002 7:00 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear ewein: I finally remembered a "literalist" anecdote. Not one I committed, I'm still trying to remember one of those. Fifty years ago a stalled car with a stick shift could have engine cranked by being pushed with clutch out, then letting clutch in. Cars with automatic shift had to be pushed faster. So a guy with stalled automatic shift car told a woman who offered to help him that he had to be pushed at 35 mph. She backed way up and rammed into him at 35 mph.
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