IntenseDebate - John von Doe

10 years ago @ Crasstalk - Tuesday Open Thread · 1 reply · +3 points

The nike move ad:
[youtube VP4C0XCJpmg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP4C0XCJpmg youtube]

So good, almost makes you buy sneakers and go running. Almost.

10 years ago @ Crasstalk - Saturday Open Thread · 0 replies · +3 points

My restraining order does not allow much of either.

10 years ago @ Crasstalk - Saturday Open Thread · 25 replies · +23 points

Greetings, fair people!

I come bearing legal tender issued by the government of the United States of America.

Please take me to the woodworking interwebs page of lastcigaretteme where I may exchange this tender for high-quality, handcrafted receptacles and furniture at a reasonable price.

Should you fail to comply, I will not buy anything.

(pretty pretty please, esp. SteveHoltsMtr?)

11 years ago @ Crasstalk - Wednesday Open Thread · 0 replies · +10 points

Yes, you did. It was either Ross announcing going into surgery and people wishing him luck or him coming out of surgery.

I don't remember any comments that hit 69 fonzes and stayed there though. Sad.

11 years ago @ Crasstalk - Saturday Open Thread · 3 replies · +19 points

I hate to break this to you but your comments often read as mean and spiteful with no constructive saving grace. I do grant that you are often funny.

"But it's far more pleasant for everyone when we don't run around playing Hall Monitor with the comments of those we don't like." - Pot, kettle, log in your eye.

11 years ago @ Crasstalk - QOTD: Who Should Be Fi... · 0 replies · +5 points

But where? Down your mouth that looks so much like a sphincter?

11 years ago @ Crasstalk - QOTD: Who Should Be Fi... · 2 replies · +4 points

My two rules on determining correctness of some usage

1. Is it clear?
2. Do enough modern, educated people use it?

If "yes" to both, I assume the usage is correct.

I ignore what language mavens prescribe and go by how they use it, because the so called "mavens" get it wrong themselves too often to count. One example (a stylistic guide, but still) I particularly like is the injunction against passives in Strunk & White. Pullum has a good take down of how Strunk&White misidentify passives then states rules about not using passives http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-G... . It's kind of like telling someone not to commit larceny when you have no idea what larceny is.

11 years ago @ Crasstalk - QOTD: Who Should Be Fi... · 4 replies · +2 points

I have no language peeve except for excessive use of "like" in conversation so personally I'm not bugged when people modify "unique"

And resorting (or copy/pasting) to OED as the authority, some notable people/publications have used "unique" with modifiers so your rage should be directed at these people as well:
1908 K. Grahame Wind in Willows viii. 168 ‘Toad Hall,’ said the Toad proudly, ‘is an eligible self-contained gentleman's residence, very unique.’
1912 G. K. Chesterton Manalive i. iii. 86 Diana Duke..began putting away the tea things. But it was not before Inglewood had seen an instantaneous picture so unique that he might well have snapshotted it.
1938 Burlington Mag. June 259/1 Ingres was..too unique to be a chef d'école.

11 years ago @ Crasstalk - QOTD: Who Should Be Fi... · 9 replies · +5 points

BBQ, I love you as a lurker, but I literally can't keep my dander down when people bring up the "literally" canard.

According to an editor of the Oxford English Dictionary ( http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/... ) some extremely notable people who have used "literally" as an intensifier and offend our modern sensibilities: Jane Austen, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Charles Dickens.

If "literally" as an intensifier is good enough for these people, it's good enough for me.
There's a name for this dander getter-upping and it's called the recency illusion ( http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archiv... ) a language specific version of "get off my lawn".

And since I"m figuratively bored, here's another one people knot their thongs over. The original meaning of "disinterested" used to be "uninterested" and "uninterested" used to mean "disinterested". Then they swapped places in America ( href="http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=511 ). So if you want to correct people misusing "disinterested", you might be right according to modern usage in the US, but don't bring up historical usage to back you up and say that it's an instance of language deteriorating or people being stupid.

11 years ago @ Crasstalk - Sunday Open Thread · 0 replies · +4 points

Digby has deleted his account before and then come back (at least twice by my count). I asked him about this and he said he needs to take a break once in a while and deleting his account makes it easier.

So it's not your fault. But if you want to make it your fault, I'll toss gawker's latest snafu and the breaking border skirmish between north and south Sudan at your feet as well. You're equally culpable of all those things.

IntenseDebate Comment System

Description

Connect with John von Doe

My blogs/sites

People I'm following

John von Doe