Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
42 – Pope Francesca? Didn’t know they let women do that job now…
So Pope Francis (Francesco) is Argentinian. Apparently he won the vote with the Hand of G-d… (Joke made more in hope of someone getting it than expectation…)
ICOT – Thanks!
Health – notasheep doesn’t have a maths/science brain and has always been a writer. When it comes to writing, notasheep doesn’t do ‘runner-up’.
yichusdik – More than their kol d’momo dako? :-p
Personally I’m a classical-music man myself so strictly speaking I’d choose a favourite piece of music rather than a favourite song per se. But I won’t tell what it is, so nyer.
I didn’t know Nanny Ogg posted here….
notasheep – It’s not about his lack of talent, or the fact that he tries too hard (frankly, he doesn’t try at all). I like his pragmatic cowardice, the fact that he knows he’s rubbish and doesn’t bother trying to hide it, the fact that he has pride in his rubbishness but decides that, despite it all, he’s still a wizzard because that’s the only definition he has for himself. And the fact that at the end of the day it’s ridiculous, cowardly Rincewind who saves the skins of all the talented stuck-up lot by pure accident.
What’s with the Rincewind hate? He’s one of my favourite recurring characters… Other favourites include Ridcully, Granny Weatherwax and DEATH (and his extended family, including Death Of Rats)
I never lose my mind – I keep it in a jar under my bed so I know where it is at all times.
Some of my favourite quotes:
“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”
“It was a small village, and wouldn’t have shown up on a map of the mountains. It barely showed up on a map of the village.”
“It was all very well going on about pure logic and how the universe was ruled by logic and the harmony of numbers, but the plain fact of the matter was that the Disc was manifestly traversing space on the back of a giant turtle and the gods had a habit of going round to atheists’ houses and smashing their windows.”
“I’ve seen excitement, and I’ve seen boredom. And boredom was best.”
“The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort.”
“The truth isn’t easily pinned to a page. In the bathtub of history the truth is harder to hold than the soap, and much more difficult to find…”
I always grin and bear it…. (That’s for notasheep…)
notasheep – as opposed to an old poster whose screen-name was sheep without a spleen.
Okay, so I’ve read all of them multiple times. First one I ever read was Eric and I still have a bit of a soft spot for it even though it’s not my favourite by a long way. I loved Thief of Time for it’s Top Gear references, and Soul Music/Moving Pictures?Maskerade for their pop-culture references. But my all-time favourite is Jingo – it captures quintessential Englishness so well. It’s a tough call though. I do have a least favourite – Thud! just tries too hard for me.
As for what is and isn’t canonical, good question. For me TAMAHER is not as it is simply a story on Discworld, not about it. Although with that criterion Monstrous Regiment would also fail without the shoehorning in of Vimes. The Tiffany Aching books are a tough one as they are clearly about Discworld but apart from the Nac Mac Feegle there is very little bleed-through between them and the rest of the Discworld series, which do have a fair bit of cross-pollination internally despite the general stand-alone structure of each book and indeed each mini-series. The Last Hero most definitely is, despite its format.
shnitzy – Nope, missed it. Again.
I’ve lived in England all my life (except the 2 1/2 years I spent in the Mir) and I don’t recognise the England you describe.
As for the Geordie accent, as both myself and TGC pointed out, the Jews in Gateshead don’t have it.
OOM – I know, I know. I was just being pedantic. It’s a hobby of mine. BTW, I thought you of all people would have appreciated the infinite Baconian monkeys…
OOM –
Definition of plagiarism
noun
[mass noun]
there were accusations of plagiarism [count noun]:
it claims there are similar plagiarisms in the software produced at the university
(source: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/plagiarism)
Like I pointed out before, neither of my entries contained any content that could be said to be plagiarised. So you couldn’t plagiarise the plagiarised plagiarism as there was no plagiarism to start with…
shnitzy – I think you’ve missed the joke twice now… I’m not claiming the works of Shakespeare or Bacon as my own (which would be plagiarism), I am playing on the general theme of infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters and the works of Shakespeare, so in the first entry without the infinite time, they’d only be able to produce selected quotes. The second one played on the Bacon = Shakespeare conspiracy theory (so infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters would produce the works of Francis Bacon, not Shakespeare, again, selected quotes given finite time). And that, I think even you would have to admit, is an original idea (all the quotes in that entry, FYI, were from Bacon). The content may not have been mine but I credited the source (therefore no plagiarism) and the construct was most definitely original (and therefore also not plagiarism). The infinite Baconian monkeys idea is most definitely mine and totally original (but, hey, I thought that about the infinite monkeys with limited time producing selected quotes idea so what do I know?). More thought and originality went into my entries (which received a 🙁 and an accusation of plagiarism) than into one which simply involved turning someone else’s post upside down (which merely received a warning). I’m genuinely interested in learning the reasoning behind these umpiring decisions.
As far as entries goes…
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. However: Knowledge is power and a prudent question is one-half of wisdom. But then again, it is impossible to love and to be wise.
Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God and God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.
By: The infinite Baconian monkeys with infinite typwriters (also, unfortunately, with limited time).
P.S. The Shakespearian monkeys never wrote a thing, that was us too…
Aha, so DY gets a warning and not a 🙁 for copying something that already got a 🙁 (with no warning I might add…) and simply turning it upside down. Is it just me, or is that a little illogical?
DY – These monkeys have internet access on their typewriters?!
Two, Gateshead is English-speaking (not Yiddish). And plenty of Israelis and other non-English-speaking people go to both Gateshead sems and all the yeshivos. The OP’s level of English sounds like she’ll get along fine from reading the post.
Three, Gateshead is in Tyne and Wear, not Northampton. Geordie is the specific dialect of the Newcastle/Gateshead area of Tyne and Wear. Residents of Sunderland, also in Tyne and Wear (about 15 miles from Gateshead), are ‘Mackems’ and will probably inflict serious bodily harm upon you if you call them Geordies. Although, yes the Geordie accent is a bit difficult to get to grips with. But honestly, you go to sem for the sem not for the local wildlife. And the Rabbonim in Gateshead speak a perfectly comprehensible, unaccented (for the most part) English.
OOM and shnitzy – It was the tag-line that was the joke. If infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters with infinite time can do the complete works then they should be able to do selected quotations in limited time. I was unaware this idea had been done before….
shnitzy – Why?
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
Out, out, brief candle!
Is this a dagger I see before me?
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.
All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.
Beware the Ides of March!
To be, or not to be–that is the question: whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them. To die, to sleep– no more–and by a sleep to say we end the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep– to sleep–perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub, for in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause.
If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh?
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
By: Infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters (unfortunately time wasn’t infinite so we couldn’t do the complete works…)
sammy16 – They could save Buckbeak because they had already done so. That is, they could go back in time because back in time they had already gone back in time. They never did so with Harry’s parents or Sirius. It is a bit circular and paradoxical but that is how it’s explained in POA (Harry can do the patronus to save his past self because when he was his past self he saw his future self doing it). It’s a narrative device, that’s all….
Gamanit – Ta! Do you know when this interview was and who it was with?
Luna – Aderaba, Arithmancy assumes prior knowledge of maths, is optional and only at a higher level, in other words NOT the ‘magic equivalent’ of maths.
Gamanit – mekor? The muggle-borns definitely go to muggle schools, but the rest?
DY – R’ Elchonon in Kovetz Maamarim, I think the maamar is called Teshuva L’bachur Harotze Laleches L’gymnasia or something along those lines.
Toi – Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between pastiche and serious….
Toi – Why assume mdd is chiloni? That’s dumb. Dumb and bad.
In the HP universe (which is what was being discussed…) they don’t appear to have any formal education before the age of 11 and all the subjects they learn in Hogwarts seem to assume knowledge of basic maths etc. Hence the question. And the insult was appreciated, thanks.
Where do witches and wizards learn maths?
That people should drive more carefully?
Syag – True but efshar l’kayem shneihem.
16 Benedicts down, 2 more makes shmone ersrei, 3 makes v’lamalshinim…
Toi – Skimmed?!?! There were two lines, one of which was just the abbreviation with the clarification… And I would not expect an English site to delete a post containing the word bloody as, frankly, it isn’t considered a bad word.
Health (and, agav, PBA)- Guess what? Some of us aren’t American. I know it may seem strange to you but many people don’t actually live in America – why should we assume that my abbreviation stands for your American profanity? We haven’t heard of it just as much as you haven’t heard of our abbreviation. That’s why the mods don’t assume that people reading would think it means yours anymore than ours. They, unlike you, can appreciate the fact that Americans are but a minority of the population of planet Earth, and Americanisms but a minority of colloquialisms within the English language.
Having said that, had I known before I posted that your version existed then I wouldn’t have used the abbreviation knowing that Americans may not be aware of the English usage as opposed to the American one.
Toi – If you didn’t see my clarification post, how comes in your reply you told me what cleats were, a question I asked in that very post, and in no other post?
“jbaldy22: For every 1 good thing that comes out of Facebook there are at least 10 BAD things. Speak with Rabbi Wallerstein, speak to other Rabbonim that are involved in the Klal, don’t take my word for it!Why are you so in denial?
POSTED 21 MINUTES AGO #”
Debating trick No. 47 – Denial: Make a claim without providing evidence. When challenged, simply accuse your opponent of being in denial.
Debating trick No. 3 – The Appeal to Authority: “I don’t have evidence, but they do – ask them…”
Mod – I had clearly indicated what I had used the abbreviation for (yesterday) before Toi’s reply (6 hours ago) so assumed he must have had a problem with the phrase. Anyhow, I am unaware of another use for the abbreviation (at least here in the UK).
I don’t know which mod deleted your comment, but I don’t see what they (or Toi) found objectionable, so I’m going to put it back up.
Toi – Having googled it myself I found no improper meaning to the phrase I used.
the abbreviation.
Toi – The expression I used is a very commonly used one here in the UK and simply means that the comment is meant facetiously. I am unaware of any improper meaning.
Previous post should read “your” not “you’re”. Predictive whatsits on phones are not really conducive to grammatically correct posts.
Yageir – I wasn’t ch’v calling you a kofer, in fact I was trying to tell the others that you weren’t one…
And guys, see where you’re unfounded attacks got you – last I checked lo sonu es hager was a lav d’oraysa…
abcd2 – I know of the various versions of the Clovis legend, however the predominant one at the time was the purely secular one. Yes, the fleur is and has been used as a religious symbol but, as your own citations prove, it is much more commonly used in a secular context. I understand your general point but I don’t think it’s worth finding how something someone is doing might possibly have a heicha timtza of issur just to make people aware of what is essentially not much of an issue. And in any case, mutav sheyehe shoggegin…
abcd2 – Nice of you to be sorry about disagreeing but just saying so really doesn’t prove a thing. Its widespread use is entirely secular in nature (as a heraldic symbol) and has been since before the Crusades. The existence of the entirely secular legends lend proof to this; in a violently religious society the religious connotations would be stressed not entirely ignored in place of a nice story of a bloke putting a flower on his hat.
DY – aha, thanks!
abcd2 – I think I got the point entirely, and realize exactly what you’re trying to say. The names of the days of the week are around entirely because Norse and Roman ovdei avoda zoro attributed significance to them. Anyway, as far as the fleur de lys goes, the lily in and of itself was the religious symbol (it symbolised the ‘purity’ of Mary), the fleur de lys (being a stylised lily) was a variation on it which had, even by the time of the First Crusade, lost all religious meaning and was purely a heraldic symbol used by the Royal Houses of France and (after the Norman Conquest) Britain. In fact, it is only very recently that scholars decided that there was ever any religious meaning behind the fleur to begin with. By the time of the Crusades it had left its religious roots so far in the dust that entirely secular legends about its origins had already passed into accepted wisdom. One legend has the first Frankish king, Clovis I, picking a lily from the banks of the River Luts (hence Luce, hence Lys) and wearing it in his helmet as he rode into battle. The widespread use of the fleur de lys symbol has, therefore, more to do with its heraldic use than its religious symbolism.
Toi – TFIC = tongue firmly in cheek…
Also, excuse my ignorance but what are cleats?