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Joined: Mar 2011
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obihave Offline OP
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Before I ask this question, I must preface by saying I am married to an amazing woman and have two ridiculously cute daughters. So, in advance, know that I respect women and mean no offense by this.

I’m working on my blog in which my two main purposes are vocabulary and humor. I’m writing content for a page with the top ten reasons why people should follow my blog. They’re not very good reasons; I’m just going primarily for laughs. One of my “reasons” has to do with communication between men and women. As a man, it is my duty to poke a little fun at the ladies.

While I think it is fine to do some good-natured ribbing between the sexes, realistically I know there are lines that one shouldn’t cross. So my question is: If you read the following paragraphs, would they offend you or turn you off to my blog?

-------------

Quote:
Rephrazer helps men communicate with women.

It is said that a woman on average speaks 20,000 words on a given day, while a man will use somewhere around 7,000. My personal feeling is that men in general are more efficient speakers than women... but most ladies will try to contend that using more than the necessary amount of words to convey a message makes them superior communicators.

Whatever. We'll agree to disagree, but one thing that everyone can agree on is that it's no fun to argue with a lady. So we'll let them have this one. If they insist that using more words means better communication, we'll just go with it.

This is how Rephrazer can help. We take normal everyday words and obfuscate them by using more words... longer words... thus creating a phrase with the same meaning but using up to four times more syllables. For example, why say "day" when you could use the phrase "diurnal course"? Why underachieve with the word "cow" when you can dazzle with the words "lactating ungulate"? See what I did there? More syllables... more letters... more communication!

Obfuscating your words will also produce a secondary effect leading to even more communication. Chances are, if you use the phrase "lactating ungulate" in a conversation, your acquaintance will ask, "What is a lactating ungulate?" to which you can reply, "It’s a cow." As a result, you've added eight more words to your conversation and left her impressed with your communicative prowess.

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old hand
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I think its a fun way to learn new and interesting terms. No offense here, then again, I'm a grunter.

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obihave Offline OP
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Thank you olly. Normally I wouldn't worry about something like this but since it's a new blog and I'm trying to attract followers I'm trying to be careful...at first.

Ah...

...grunter...

...yep.

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A hydrocarbon transfer techninian is otherwise known as a .......???

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Carpal Tunnel
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techninian??

Keep at it obi...sounds like fun.


----please, draw me a sheep----
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I'm turned off by the first line. There is absolutely no evidence that it is true that women speak more words in a day than do men, much less three times as many. Language Log has covered this but I don't have time right now to hunt it down.

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Originally Posted By: LukeJavan8
techninian??


Looks like I'm the ninian.

A Hydrocarbon transfer technician is a ...... petrol pump attendant!

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I thought that might be what you were saying, but so often
here, I ask a question and I get the YCLIU or some
other anagram, that I am made to be stupid or something,
so I just thought I'd ask. No, you are not the ninian.
I was just confused, it was on me.


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Well, I thought it was cute. And in something like a personal blog, esp. if you're writing humor, I say you're allowed to use whatever "facts" you need to make your point. This is not a doctoral thesis.

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I think the statement is poppycock, but the preface "It is said…" carries no claim of scientific accuracy (nor does my belief), and may be anything from a universally-held opinion to pure baloney made up by the author. I have a daughter who would resent the stereotype, but I think that in general the context makes it clear that your purpose is to entertain and to provoke vocabularic (vocabularious?) thought. Case by case, I think.

Peter

Edit: I have another daughter who would probably go right along with you and take no offense. I wish I could ask my wife, but she's asleep.

Last edited by Tromboniator; 03/30/11 07:35 AM. Reason: Oh, by the way…
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