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[quote=Zed]a very good point! now to find him a parking lot so he can start cutting some cookies! Cutting some cookies? What do you mean?
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Around here we don't cut cookies we do donuts. Skid around so that your tire marks make a big circle in the snow.
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yup. cookies and donuts are synonymous when it comes to driving!
formerly known as etaoin...
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I was thinking of laws that limit action in an attempt to 'save' citizens from themselves. Banning trans-fats from restaurants, for example, which implies that restaurants are to blame for the porcine rear-ends rather than the over-indulgant mouths feeding them. If people demonstrate that they are generally inherently incapable of making decisions for themselves that will benefit them (such as not eating trans fats), then isn't law obliged to intervene? After all, the government ends up spending billions on people who's (whose?) health is failing after a lifetime of making such decisions. Less federal intervention seems to work only if the people being governed have the ability to govern themselves. Our high rates if diabetes and heart disease speak for themselves; most Americans (I include myself in this assessment) seem incapable of making responsible decisions about what they put in their bodies. I agree with you that it's ridiculous that we need such laws. But until we are a nation of educated, self-respecting, health and integrity oriented, law-abiding individuals (which will not happen so long as we continue to widen the abyss between those who have and those who have-not), I believe that we need laws like the one banning trans fats For anyone who wishes to make my post more word-related, I'm sure that I made a conjunction-related mistake somewhere or misused a word. 
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>make my post more word-related
well, okay. regarding it's and who's then.
if you truly have this problem with possessive pronouns, and aren't just having us on, try this: would you put an apostrophe in hi's or her's?
-joe (meeting one's* expectations) friday
*thereby satisfying the 'there's an exception to every rule' rule
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Sorry, I know this is not word related, but it's such an interesting topic!
*****Indeed it is Porc but be careful as you're treading on very dangerous ground
***...tho I sense you're a much nicer guy than I and so maybe they won't come down on you so hard
dalehileman
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oh, and Porc? I don't think anyone here really came down on dahil until he started bubbling back up his political posts, claiming all the while that he just couldn't help himself due to the onset of senility(!?).
-joe (another irresistible impulse satisfied) friday
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...or even Alzheimer's for heaven's sake
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has any really come down on Daleh at all?
have his posts been deleted? (only 1 to my knowledge)
has he been banned (even just for 24 hours?) from making posts?
has he been warned he will be be banned?
no, no, no.
has he made it clear he KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS DOING? (in spite of his claims of "senility"
and his mocking claims of "OH, i must be terrible"?
yes. at this point, it's pretty clear, Dale is low level troll who is, like a two year old, has no sense of boundries or polite behavior.
and he thinks himself too clever by half. He finds a nice place, and isn't happy till he has proved he can make it it mess.
(and then pats himself on the back and tell himself "what a good job I've done)
and eventually, he will be banned here, just has he has been banned else where.
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Sorry, I know this is not word related, but it's such an interesting topic!
*****Indeed it is Porc but be careful as you're treading on very dangerous ground
***...tho I sense you're a much nicer guy than I and so maybe they won't come down on you so hard I am most definitely NOT a nicer guy than you, Dale, as I am not a guy at all. And tsuwm (?), I'm afraid I'm not putting you on; I really do have a slight problem with possessives. In fact, I generally prefer to follow my own rules regarding punctuation. I especially like to use the three consecutive periods...though I think they are meant to imply that time has passed...I like their continuity and how they imply that there is something unknown or undefinable...and that they can make unrelated sentences seem related...and also to imply that the thought or concept lingers even after the sentence has ended... And I love to use commas to construct ridiculously long run-on sentences, connecting one thought to another, without the finality of a period, as I have never been one to be sparing with words or succinct for that matter, and while brevity, if used in an intelligent manner, can be as persuasive as a long-winded sentence, it is just not my style.
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Porc you must be careful about exactitude as I have been roundly condemned and raked over the coals with the utmost acrimony at this and other such boards for that very practice, especially omitting terminal punctuation and alas, for run-on sentences as well
But stick with me and in time they will come around to our way of thinking when they realize how much time is wasted in unnecessary keystrokes
Already I love you
Sorry about my misconception as I suppose I should read the new participants' biographies but after all the day is just so long and I am becoming a rabid screen-sucker. But I like talking to girls but so as not to waste further WS disk space, I am
dalehileman@verizon.net at your service
No Jackie, that means being addicted to Internet activity
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..........................
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Bran than you for that most pertinent link. Join Mel, Porc, and I in our quest to not only save keystrokes but also for more witty threads in less judgmental boards
Bran I love you too
But watch out for omitting the verb lest they get together in their otherwise spotless SUV's plastered with bumper imprecations calling for More Decorous Behavior and descend upon your house shouting slogans of Correct Phraseology whilst brandishing rolled-up Books of Protocol
dalehileman
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I am most definitely NOT a nicer guy than you, Dale, as I am not a guy at all.
And tsuwm (?), I'm afraid I'm not putting you on; I really do have a slight problem with possessives. In fact, I generally prefer to follow my own rules regarding punctuation. I especially like to use the three consecutive periods...though I think they are meant to imply that time has passed...I like their continuity and how they imply that there is something unknown or undefinable...and that they can make unrelated sentences seem related...and also to imply that the thought or concept lingers even after the sentence has ended...
And I love to use commas to construct ridiculously long run-on sentences, connecting one thought to another, without the finality of a period, as I have never been one to be sparing with words or succinct for that matter, and while brevity, if used in an intelligent manner, can be as persuasive as a long-winded sentence, it is just not my style. HA! I know what you mean about the periods, Porcupine. I've got got watch myself with that all the time. (Oh, and I was also thought to be a gent when I first joined, but when I realized this, it was just a matter of letting everybody know that I had protuberances, not dangly bits. It's the not-sexually-evident monikers we've adopted, I think.) For the possisive bit, I found it easier to remember by keeping in mind that it's is really a contraction of "it is" just like don't is a contraction of do not.
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bel thank you for that post. For the sake of posterity I have copied and pasted it elsewhere before the Thought Police get on your posterior (no pun intended) or delete it entirely
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the language used in those contracts, carefully chosen by the lender, is enough to obfuscate anyone. not to turn this into a word thread, but does this use of 'obfuscate' bother anyone? - joe (it's probly just me) friday Yes; used to it being applied to something looked at vice a looker [like Bel perhaps].
Last edited by Aramis; 02/07/2008 9:22 PM.
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Porky's a girlie? Odd for one to have trouble with anything possessive-related. 
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Very funny. I'm no ordinary girlie. Nor is there such a thing...  There I go with the periods...anyone know if that particular punctuation (the three periods) has an official name?
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Very funny.
There I go with the periods...anyone know if that particular punctuation (the three periods) has an official name?
of course.. it's called an ellipsis
pl. ellipses
1a. The omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction but not necessary for understanding. b. An example of such omission. 2. A mark or series of marks (... or ***, for example) used in writing or printing to indicate an omission, especially of letters or words.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin ellpsis, from Greek elleipsis, from elleipein, to fall short. [AHD4] there's actually an ANSI character "…" which is *not three separate periods, but is rather printed as a group. [note the difference in spacing] it is also a recognized practice to use just two dots to show such omission (thus three at the end of a sentence to show following omission from a para.) the OED, e.g., uses this convention in its citations.
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I'm a big fan of ellipsis...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Is it really an ellipsis if it's not indicating deleted text? It's like the floating lazy colon, variously known as diaresis (if it indicates separate pronunciation of the vowel it is over, as in naïve) or umlaut (if it indicates a sound shift, as in Fräulein). There is a generic term for that character in some languages, trema.
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>Is it really an ellipsis if it's not indicating deleted text?
the AHD def'n indicates an "omission," which is rather different from a deletion -- as in an incomplete...
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perhaps a bit (at least in my case) of a nocturnal omission...
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A floating lazy colon...that sounds like a nasty affliction.
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ah, the things left unsaid...
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tsu: So am I addicted. Usu as ***** in the reply to an email where I want to distinguish my comments from my correspondent's...
...reason being that in Windows/Outlook etc Bill Gates has left us with a legacy in which unconventional means are required; because in transmitting an email he removes all semblance of your identity such as font, color, paragraphing, indentation, etc etc with everything shoved up together among dozens or hundreds of <<<<<<<'s (or is it >>>>>>'s)
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>Is it really an ellipsis if it's not indicating deleted text?
the AHD def'n indicates an "omission," which is rather different from a deletion -- as in an incomplete... OK, omission, Mr. NitPickwick. Same difference.
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It is often used on Fake World but not per the ellipsis definition. The intent is to convey a pause for emphasis, or more often, de-emphasis. Example:
T: Where are you?
D: Uhmm... You don't want to know.
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It is often used on Fake World but not per the ellipsis definition. The intent is to convey a pause for emphasis, or more often, de-emphasis. Example:
T: Where are you?
D: Uhmm... You don't want to know. I think Faldo's point applies here.. this isn't, by definition, an ellipsis, but something else entire. but what should we call it then, F?! - ron (not so) o.
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I usually call it dot-dot-dot, but that's a little inelegant.
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I had an Aunt Dot, but she wasn't married to Bob.
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Céline used to call them his three little dots, but, of course, he said it in French. Les fameux points de suspension ( link)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Good heavens--I didn't even notice till the third line that that link was in French! And once again I think with gratitude of Dr. Bill, who told me about the Find-on-this-page trick: ... notamment par l'utilisation de phrases courtes, très souvent exclamatives, séparées par trois points de suspension. (Notably {his style} for using short phrases, very often exclamatives, separated by three ... dots.) {From his 1936 novel Mort à crédit.}
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Oh,Jackie, that's serious. Time is near when you will find yourself thinking in French one morning and next your husband coming into the room with café - croissant. Céline used to call them his three little dots, but, of course, he said it in French. Les fameux points de suspension (link) I don't even know if we have a word for 'puntje puntje puntje'. I was trying to find out but only found blogs in which the dots were used in a hilarious way. Sorry I can't transmit, as it was very funny. Voyage au bout de la nuit, very impressive.
Last edited by BranShea; 02/16/2008 5:17 PM.
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If you can find it check out "Audible Punctuation" by Victor Borge.
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Voyage au bout de la nuit
Two quick thoughts.
1. I was trying to find where Céline refers to his "three little dots". I'm sure he picked this up from criticism of his pre-war novels (Death on the Installment Plan and Voyage to the End of the Night), but I can't find it. (I had thought it was in his final novel, Rigadoon, but I don't see it in the first couple of chapters.)
2. Cf. au bout de la nuit and cul de sac. English butt as a euphemism for ass / arse. Is English buttock a diminutive of butt, as hillock is of hill, or something else? In English proper names -cock is a diminutive suffix: e.g., Hitchcock.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Yeh...but...what the ' hill' the second thought 's got to do with the subject? Zed :  If you can find it check out "Audible Punctuation" by Victor Borge. Do you think I would find the Dutch word for the three-dot thing ( sorry, suspense dots ) in an English book? Sorrry, I think I'm making a mess of this.
Last edited by BranShea; 02/16/2008 6:40 PM.
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