OT: Taxidermy and pets

[rbowman]

What is a British snowblower? A Scot with an Irish banjo?

(Obscure US jargon Irish banjo: a short D-handled shovel)

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

Never used one, I assumed they were just big leafblowers. So they're not really blowers then, they actually cut it up first.

In Scotland we don't get much snow, when we do we ether use a shovel, drive through it, or just wait till it melts. Some people take great pride in clearing a path from their front door to the road. Fuck knows why as it takes them a couple of hours, but it takes me 30 seconds to just wade through it. It'll melt in a week anyway.

[rbowman]

Move to Finland. There isn't a future tense. Or much of a past tense either although there is a perfect and pluperfect.

'Han' means he, she, or it, or maybe it is he, she, and it. Can't go wrong anyway and you don't have to slur der, die, and das hoping for the best.

Or as the renowned linguist Kris Kristofferson said 'yesterday is dead and gone and tomorrow's out of sight.'

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

English has things missing too. I can say "he mowed the lawn". I can say "she mowed the lawn". But there is no word to mean "a man or a woman". So if I don't know the sex of whoever mowed the lawn, I have to say "he or she mowed the lawn", which sounds clumsy, or "they mowed the lawn" which sounds like there were at least two people, or "it mowed the lawn" which implies the dog did it for them.

[Rod Speed]

Nope, just bits of it.

[rbowman]

When you've got a foot or two of snow, a leaf blower doesn't help.

Around here it doesn't melt in a week; it just accumulates. I use a shovel and start off the season by clearing well back from the driveway. Depending on the year that gives me plenty of room to build berms without busting my ass throwing snow over a 3' high wall.

I'll walk through an inch or two but it's easier to shovel 4" than wait for another 4 or 5" to fall the next day and have to shovel 9" at once.

[rbowman]

The people who apparently are confused about their apparatus are trying to invent non-sexual pronouns to match their personal confusion. I prefer the portmanteau of she, he, and it; shit mowed the lawn.

[Mark Lloyd]

The teacher said "forms of be". I think I've also heard them called "articles" but I'm not sure.

I never understood that one either.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

There's no shortage of words for that (possibly including 'zi'), although they're seldom used and I expect a lot of people to not recognize them.

You could say "someone mowed the lawn" (which is probably what I'd do)..

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

I assumed snowblowers just had a bigger fan.

Why shovel at all? One foot falls, you drive the car out and back in, and make tracks. Another foot falls and you repeat.

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

I filled in a survey the other day. The first two things I was asked were my age and my sex. I was surprised to see that there were not 2 choices for sex, but about 8. FFS, if you have a c*ck you're male, if you have a pussy you're female. End of story.

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

"Forms of be" makes no sense at all to me.

[rbowman]

How cis male of you. You need some sensitivity training about gender fluidity.

I'm starting to think the best thing we can do is transport Generation Z to Van Diemen's Land for a session of Hunger Games and try again.

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

Have you been smoking weed?

[rbowman]

No although I sometimes think it might make the world look like a happier place. No, I take that back. Mostly the shit just made me paranoid. Whites and wine, there's the ticket. Skip the weed.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Didn't make sense to me either, but that's what the (4th grade?) teacher called them (words like is,are,am,was,were).

Also, I read a novel where people used words like 'thee' a lot. It was explained that 'thee' was not a synonym of 'you', but a singular form ('you' was plural). A distinction that has been lost from English.

[snip]

[Vir Campestris]

Nilsen died last week. Must be the Speed touch!

Andy

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

Strange. A small amount makes me happy, pretty similar to alcohol. It also makes me have a better imagination and think more clearly. A little too much makes me think a lot, and distracts me. Everything reminds me of something else and I interrupt myself and can't get things done. Way too much makes me want to sleep. All in all, it's almost exactly like alcohol, but without making my stomach feel bad.

[rbowman]

I recall being at a friend's house. Their dog had some sort of flea device, not a flea collar but a round black thing about an inch in diameter that hung from his collar like a dog tag. At some point I became convinced it was a secret microphone planted by the FBI.

At the height of COINTELPRO in the '60s that wasn't a completely off the wall thought. It was a lot less imaginative than some of the theories stoners would reel off.

I'm not against the stuff but it's something I choose not to use. Should I come down with some sort of lingering terminal disease I'll revisit the options.

[Jimmy Wilkinson Knife]

The word "surveilling" always amuses me. Opera agrees with me that it should read "surveying".

Some people need it/alcohol some don't. Just like some people need an alarm clock and some don't. I envy people who can get up early and never need alcohol.