Emperor Devon Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 I see you failed your Will save with the NWN2 Siren, too. You shoulda seen the DC... Whew, that's a relief, then. I'm not plain nuts. I only had 11 years of college. I might take as long. It's not the most uncommon of things, though it certainly isn't the norm. Let's see--macroeconomics or researching health conditions that affect millions or billions? Macroeconomics. It's affected just as many, if not far more people. (Though the two are loosely related.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDJOHNNYMIKE Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 *weeps for LF* There's nothing more we can do...they have absolutely no life... nurse, the syringe... Don't you see, grammar is just another form of oppression, an attempt to violate my right to freedom of speech. This angers myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallucination Posted January 3, 2007 Author Share Posted January 3, 2007 I might take as long. It's not the most uncommon of things, though it certainly isn't the norm. Do you know what else it isn't? Cheap. Macroeconomics. It's affected just as many, if not far more people. (Though the two are loosely related.) When was the last time a quarantine was put in place because some folks forgot about the rising price of potatoes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igyman Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Don't you see, grammar is just another form of oppression, an attempt to violate my right to freedom of speech. This angers me. Fixed. -GP acting Chief Just so this isn't a spam post I'll say that grammar has absolutely nothing to do with freedom of speech, it's about respecting a language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth InSidious Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 *weeps for LF* There's nothing more we can do...they have absolutely no life... nurse, the syringe... Don't you see, grammar is just another form of oppression, an attempt to violate my right to freedom of speech. This angers myself. ALLAMERAINE! Ahem. Ignorance is strength? Oh, and here's a question: Where did the phrase 'oh, the humanity!' originate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallucination Posted January 3, 2007 Author Share Posted January 3, 2007 Where did the phrase 'oh, the humanity!' originate? I believe it was said by Herbert Morrison, a reporter for WLS Radio, while he was doing a story on the Hindenburg and he saw it explode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igyman Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 I just thought of one: origins of the popular 'OK'. Who knows this one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabish Bini Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 OK is the short way of writing "Okay". And for my question, Dark Lady and Jae win. Here is a question which i hope no-one will get: Find the spelling/punctuation errors in this paragraph and re-type properly: As eye walkd down tha street' i noticet thet their were lots of peeple around. I hurried down tha street until eye saw a grate, big. turkey, It waz teh most mind-bogling expiriance evar! Teh funni thang is. that i imediately ran up too it and kiked it in the shin. It falled over and dead. YAY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 As I walked down the street, I noticed that there were a lot of people around. I hurried down the street until I saw a great big turkey. It was the most mind-boggling experience ever! The funny thing is that I immediately ran up to it and kicked it in the shin. It fell over and died. Yay! (some might also include a comma between 'great' and 'big'. And why would you kick a poor turkey in the shin? You'll never make the ranks of PETA now. ) I thought 'OK' came from the OK corral, but I'd have to go investigate that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabish Bini Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Ok, well done. And by OK Corral, do you mean the movie "Gunfight at the OK Corral" or the famous tombstone in Arizona? Here is another question: A man walked up to the Pope and said "I am the greatest person in grammar, none can match me!" The Pope asked him to "Say any sentence he could think of." So the man said "Elephants, it's grey and the biggest land animal." Upon hearing this, the Pope knew he was not as good at grammar as he claims to be, can you figure out why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoffe Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 That reminds me about this old thing (which I don't remember where it comes from originally): Eye halve a spelling chequer It came with my pea sea It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea. Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh. As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long And eye can put the error rite Its rare lea ever wrong. Eye have run this poem threw it I am shore your pleased two no Its letter perfect awl the weigh My chequer tolled me sew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabish Bini Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Cool. That's actually pretty funny stoffe, nice find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Lady Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 "Elephants, it's grey and the biggest land animal." This is not a grammatically correct sentence. The singular possessive pronoun "it's" can not have a plural antecedent (which "Elephants" is attempting to be). "Elephants" fills no grammatical function in the sentence whatsoever. This could be corrected to read: 1) "Elephants are grey and the biggest land animals." 2) "An elephant is grey and the biggest land animal." The corrected sentences merely try to stick as closely to the original wording as possible, while maintaining the basic structure and keeping to a single sentence. A more readable version could be produced by breaking the sentence into two or more different sentences, or rearranging the words. 3) "Elephants are grey. They are also the biggest land animals." 4) "Elephants, which are grey, are the biggest land animals." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emperor Devon Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Do you know what else it isn't? Cheap. There are student loans, scholarships, or having a rich family. Not quite as good as what some European countries do (college is free), but it's certainly possible. When was the last time a quarantine was put in place because some folks forgot about the rising price of potatoes? Not quite related to potatoes, but ever heard of Soviet Russia's Collectivization policy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igyman Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 None of you has got it right about OK yet, but I'm going to give you a little more time to try to figure it out before I tell you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boba Rhett Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 There have been numerous attempts to explain the emergence of this curious colloquial expression, which seems to have swept into popular use in the US during the mid-19th century. Most of them are undoubtedly pure speculation. It does not seem at all likely, from the linguistic and historical evidence, that it derives from the Scots expression 'och aye', the Greek ola kala ('it is good'), the Choctaw Indian oke or okeh ('it is so'), the French aux Cayes ('from Cayes', a port in Haiti with a reputation for good rum) or au quai ('to the quay', as supposedly used by French-speaking dockers), or the initials of a railway freight agent called Obediah Kelly who is said to have written them on lading documents he had checked. The oldest written references to 'OK' result from its adoption as a slogan by the Democratic party during the American Presidential election of 1840. Their candidate, President Martin Van Buren, was nicknamed 'Old Kinderhook' (after his birthplace in New York State), and his supporters formed the 'OK Club'. This undoubtedly helped to popularize the term (though it did not get President Van Buren re-elected!). During the late 1830s there had been a brief but widespread craze in the US for humorous misspellings, and the form orl korrekt which was among them could explain the initials 'OK'. Such a theory has been supported by more than one distinguished American scholar, and is given in many dictionaries, including Oxford dictionaries. The only other theory with at least a degree of plausibility is that the term originated among Black slaves of West African origin, and represents a word meaning 'all right, yes indeed' in various West African languages. Unfortunately, historical evidence enabling the origin of this expression to be finally and firmly established may be hard to unearth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igyman Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 True, true. A point for you. Though you didn't mention the World War II usage where it meant 'zero killed'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabish Bini Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Dark_Lady wins again. I'm starting to think my questions are too easy. Tell me, did you figure it out quickly or did you have to think about it? And here's a question which took me ages to figure out: How quickly can you find out what is unusual about this paragraph? It looks so ordinary that you would think nothing is wrong with it at all - and, in fact, nothing is wrong it's just distinctly odd. Go to work on it and try your skill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogue Nine Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 It possesses no instances of the letter 'e', the most commonly used letter in the English language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabish Bini Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 BAHAHAHA. Well done. Here's another one: Most English words are quite short, although words of 15 letters or more aren't impossible. What is the longest word in the English language? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Lady Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 If you don't count specialized terms, antidisestablishmentarianism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth InSidious Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Hall gets the cookie for answering my question correctly, and Dark_Lady for the win on Akuma/Pingu's latest. So here's one for y'all: Which is the grammatically correct plural of 'forum' in English? Forums or fora? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samuel Dravis Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 It's supposed to be "fora" but everyone uses "forums," even LF. I guess either word is okay since the language has changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jae Onasi Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 American Heritage Dictionary lists both 'fora' and 'forums' as being acceptable plurals of the singular forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth InSidious Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Nope, 'fraid both are wrong The Fowler's Modern English Usage lists the following "um" plurals that have been naturalised or require special use in English: albums antirrhinums asylums begums conundrums delphiniums Elysiums factotums forums harmoniums laburnums lyceums museums nasturtiums nostrums panjandrums pendulums premiums quorums variorums vellums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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