Fashion Board 6-9-04 to 7-13-04

[Atticus Grinch]

Handy guide to SWAT team hand signals.

[Diane_Keaton]

So much for the media hype of Courtney becoming a demure hollywood starlet.

Then:

Today:

Story here

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
Courtney preggers, or maybe was

In a sort of related item, notme just showed back up at PB and claims to have been on her HONEYMOON. Any of you guys who've been nice, trying to get your 3 months in, time to move on.

[Diane_Keaton]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
In a sort of related item, notme just .

Related because they both have supposed implants? Or because they are both really men?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
Related because they both have supposed implants? Or because they are both really men?

A drunk Hank would have used this as a "string theory" opening.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Jell-O. Vanilla. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I like rice pudding.

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
I like rice pudding.

Me too. Especially from Greek restaurants. I don't think anybody makes rice pudding as well as the Greeks.

[ltl/fb]

Some of this may be fucked-up British crap. And shouldn't it be "as if it were" rather than "as if it was"? Or am I overcorrecting, like people who say "between you and I"? And when hasn't pole dancing been around?

To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited
site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk

Where to stick grocer's apostrophe
John Ezard, arts correspondent
Thursday July 08 2004
The Guardian


We have finally got the hang of the grocer's apostrophe. But we still have little clue how to defuse, or diffuse, our other hang-ups about the correct use of words - and computer spellcheckers only make our task harder.

This is today's (not todays) verdict from Oxford University Press. It reports evidence from its 300m-word database of "a new kind of problem" among otherwise relatively literate people.

One of the epidemic errors of the past 30 years - unnecessary, misplaced or omitted apostrophes in the words "its"and "it's" - has dwindled to only about 8% of people, possibly because the mistake has drawn so much ridicule. It was dubbed "the grocer's apostrophe" because of its unnecessary use in plural words on shop signs or placards (Price's Slashed).

But it has been replaced by misuse of "diffuse" or "defuse" (as in "A coach can diffuse the situation by praising the players").

Research for the new Concise Oxford English Dictionary, published today, found that this word crime was committed in some 50% of examples on the database. It is now rated as the commonest in the language.

Second commonest is uncertainty over when to use "rein" or "reign", found in 26% of examples, as in "A taxi driver had free reign to charge whatever he likes".

Third most frequent (21%) is "tow" instead of "toe", as in "Some pointed to his refusal to tow the line under Tony Blair". Fourth (12%) is "pouring" instead of "poring", as in "He spent his evenings pouring over western art magazines".

Other common confusions include pedal and peddle, draw and drawer, compliment and complement and their, there and they're.

Angus Stevenson, of OUP dictionaries, said yesterday: "This seems to be something of a new situation. These errors are occurring in texts that are otherwise quite well spelt, possibly because of the increasing use of spellcheckers. Spellcheckers can tell you whether a word is correctly spelt - but not whether it is properly used.

"Also, we find that people are picking up words and phrases from the media and bolting them together into fully formed sentences."

The OUP database contains mainly written word usages. To measure speech, it used to include recordings from radio but now takes examples from the internet instead.

"People are increasingly writing on the internet as if it was a spoken rather than a written medium, with all the mistakes which arise through doing that," Mr Stevenson said.

Newly coined, or revived, words and phrases printed for the first time in the latest Concise dictionary include metrosexual (used about David Beckham and others), sex up, congestion charge, health tourism, pole dancing, speed dating and threequel (a second sequel).

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited

[the Spartan]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
I think the below post from the PB captures the essence of board persona development. I repost it here out of fear that it will be lost in the noise on PB, where presently we are debating the laughable assertion that homophobia is equally distributed between GOP and Democratic voter bases.

• The Intervention
  
  
  
  Ah, shit.
  
  Hank, I knew this day would come, I just didn't think it would come so quickly. I've not had time to prepare you. Here, have a seat.
  
  Here's the thing. Most poster personas lead lives of quiet desperation, where their meager contributions to the fray get slapped down, laughed at, or worst, ignored. They slink away from the community until their self-esteem has recovered sufficiently to bear more punishment. Think Not Me.
  
  There's a small group of posters, though, who through some combination of wit, smarts, talent or simply moronic bullheadedness break through the noise barrier and soar above it for some period of time. You've had your moment in the sun, and had time to spread your wings and see what you can do.
  
  The arc of the poster's career travels along a few signposts:
  
  1. Arrival on the scene. Usually it involves insulting Slave, picking a fight with Paigow, flirting with Fringe, or licking MR's butt. All risky moves, no doubt, and I can't remember which one you chose, but whatever- you're here.
  
  2. Ground in the persona. Obviously, scatalogical humor is your goal. The hit-miss ratio is imposing to many but not you, my friend. Don't listen to TM's shit about a plus/minus ratio. When you swing for the fences, one can't be held to some Mendoza line as a barometer of success, right?
  
  3. Get props from the peers. It's rare, sure, but from the right person they can be golden. This is the kind of thing that you'll talk to your grandkids about it someday. Hell, do it today, if you want.
  
  4. Hit, and struggle through, your blue period Sometimes the scatalogical is, well, just scatalogical. There are too many sample to choose from here, so let's just say that the little drinkie-poo turns the posting into poo too. Fortunately, we're all glad that those days of involuntary confinement at Trembling Hills paid off, and though it appears that you've fallen off the wagon every other day or so, at least your wagon has a ladder to which you can hang on, get dragged for a few yards, and eventually pull yoursef back up.
  
  5. Become your own catchphrase. The truest sign that You've Arrived. Sure, it might be unfortunate for your name catchphrase to carry connotations of mental instability, but it could be worse. At least you're not the name of a cable soft porn series.
  
  Unfortunately, the shooting star too often leads to delusions of grandeur, which takes us to ...
  
  6. Lose all tethering to reality, as self worth ascends like a blimp. And here we are. Last person who felt that the board could not possibly continue without em was Paigow.
  
  You've noticed what's happened in that case, right? She's disappeared, and now become a mere figment of Penske's imagination, and there are few worse hells than that.
  
  So, even though the maneuver may be challenging, jump back over that shark. Find that humility you left on the floor, pick up the broken trumpet and play a few notes, and get back into the game.
  
  Gattigap

Original post with links.

To this, I can only add in my humble fashion:

Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.
--- Jean Cocteau

Nice post, reading between the lines, it certainly underscores my status as the board's most beloved metro turned lesbian.

[the Spartan]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
I have to say that while I am not a Rush fan, their version of "Summertime Blues" kicks fucking ass!

Megadittoes!


eta: oops, i thought you meant Rush Limbaugh

[notcasesensitive]

NCS Defeats Orange County's Finest in Hamptons Drinking Marathon. OC finalist still "reeling" from the loss.

The City is next on the tour. Watch out all those of unsound tolerance.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by notcasesensitive
NCS Defeats Orange County's Finest in Hamptons Drinking Marathon. OC finalist still "reeling" from the loss.

The City is next on the tour. Watch out all those of unsound tolerance.

So much for "what happens at the Hamptons Drinking Marathon stays at the Hamptons Drinking Marathon." I seem to notice a pattern emerging. Have you no discretion?

[tmdiva]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Some of this may be fucked-up British crap. And shouldn't it be "as if it were" rather than "as if it was"? Or am I overcorrecting, like people who say "between you and I"? And when hasn't pole dancing been around?

I don't know nuthin' 'bout pole dancing, but the quoted sentence above certainly requires the use of the subjunctive.

tm

[tmdiva]

Did you catch the review of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" in The New Yorker? It was in the June 28 issue (I'm a bit behind in my periodical reading), which apparently is no longer available online.

That reminds me of my all-time favorite (hand-painted) sign, which I saw recently while on vacation, posted on a mailbox on a residential street:

Flie's
HANDTIED FLIES

Beautiful. I thought briefly about knocking on the front door and inquiring after Mr. or Ms Flie.

tm

[dtb]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
And shouldn't it be "as if it were" rather than "as if it was"?

Yes.

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Or am I overcorrecting, like people who say "between you and I"?

No.




This must be the source of TM's pole...er, I mean poll.