Random Thoughts

[1995hoo]

If I recall correctly, I think the photo used in that image above was from somewhere in the Raleigh area, though I don't remember which snowstorm it was.

Regarding pizza, I plan to do the grocery shopping tonight and frozen pizza is on my list precisely because of the delivery issue. Our neighborhood having a hybrid plowing arrangement—VDOT plows some streets, including the one leading in and out, but the HOA is responsible for the overwhelming majority of the streets where the houses are—sometimes produces the peculiar result that the HOA streets are plowed quite well and quite thoroughly while the VDOT streets have barely been touched. If we get as much snow as they're predicting, this storm might be different in that respect if the snow is deep enough to make it difficult for the HOA plows to negotiate the VDOT streets, especially any hills.

[kphoger]

Some guys with a 4wd vehicle do food delivery on the side to earn some extra income, and they absolutely LIVE for snowstorms.  More orders coming in, and fewer drivers able to handle the conditions.  They can really rake in some cash that way.

[ZLoth]

If I recall correctly, I think the photo used in that image above was from somewhere in the Raleigh area, though I don't remember which snowstorm it was.

From North Carolina Rabbit Hole:

The Short Story of Raleigh's Greatest Snow Picture
Is there a winter storm coming? Then it's time to re-live a really rough day in 2014.

This particular shot was taken on February 12, 2014 on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh, just up the street from the Angus Barn. The snow started at noon and came down hard, and eventually was coated by freezing rain. Eventually, about 3 1/2 inches of snow came down. Things got really slick, really fast. Schools let out early. People tried to rush home before things got worse. Everyone was out on the roads at the same time. It was so bad that the Duke-North Carolina basketball game in Chapel Hill was postponed.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[1995hoo]

.... It was so bad that the Duke-North Carolina basketball game in Chapel Hill was postponed. ...

Heh, that's how you know it was really serious. I remember during the "Blizzard of 1996" I went to the Duke–Georgia Tech game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, walking the roughly 1.5 miles from my apartment. I was kind of surprised Georgia Tech's team managed to get there. Smallest crowd I've ever seen at Cameron, possibly even smaller than for the law school "hooding ceremony" held in there the night before I graduated. Most of the undergrads were not back for the spring semester yet and the overwhelming majority of the season-ticket holders didn't attempt the roads (as I have noted elsewhere, Durham County's lone snowplow broke down, although the university had its own equipment for clearing its own roads). The Duke pep band only had three members present—a drummer, a flautist, and one other whose instrument I don't recall—yet they played all the usual songs anyway. Their renditions were bizarre enough that during one stoppage even the referees couldn't help but burst out laughing.

It was absurd that they didn't postpone the game, but it underscored how in North Carolina, basketball takes precedence over everything else.

[mgk920]

With the severe weather that is being forecast for this weekend, I wonder how many... people... will being doing this...

(someone from central or northern Alaska) "Hold my hotbags!"



Mike

[Max Rockatansky]

With the severe weather that is being forecast for this weekend, I wonder how many... people... will being doing this...

(someone from central or northern Alaska) "Hold my hotbags!"



Mike

The first year I moved back to the west coast in 2016 I went up to Yosemite during February.  The weather wasn't great, but it wasn't snowing until around 5,500 feet above sea level approaching on Wawona Road approaching Glacier Point Road.  All the trucks, CUVs and cars were pulled over at the rest area at the Wawona/Glacier Point junction.  I kept just driving past all of them in my rinky dink 2014 Chevy Sonic.  The snow let up after about three miles and had Yosemite Valley to myself for most of the day.

FWIW, I did have chains in my car.  I absolutely loathe putting chains on and generally will just keep going unless there is something like a checkpoint. 

[JayhawkCO]

FWIW, I did have chains in my car.  I absolutely loathe putting chains on and generally will just keep going unless there is something like a checkpoint. 

I forget. Are auto-socks permitted in CA? They're much easier than chains.

[Max Rockatansky]

FWIW, I did have chains in my car.  I absolutely loathe putting chains on and generally will just keep going unless there is something like a checkpoint. 

I forget. Are auto-socks permitted in CA? They're much easier than chains.

I'm honestly unclear on that.  A lot of companies who sell them say they are but I've seen CHP out of Truckee making an example of someone who had tire socks via their Facebook account.  The commenters were wildly against the CHP Facebook person that day.

[1995hoo]

My wife uses the brand name "Kleenex" as a generic term to refer to any brand of tissues (we typically buy Puffs). I found myself wondering whether the plural of that word should be "Kleenices," similar to how the plural of "index" is "indices."

[Rothman]

My wife uses the brand name "Kleenex" as a generic term to refer to any brand of tissues (we typically buy Puffs). I found myself wondering whether the plural of that word should be "Kleenices," similar to how the plural of "index" is "indices."

I've heard Kleenex has had to do some legal gymnastics to hold onto their trademark because of this practice.

[1995hoo]

My wife uses the brand name "Kleenex" as a generic term to refer to any brand of tissues (we typically buy Puffs). I found myself wondering whether the plural of that word should be "Kleenices," similar to how the plural of "index" is "indices."

I've heard Kleenex has had to do some legal gymnastics to hold onto their trademark because of this practice.

I've often wondered whether a court might rule that the term has become genericized, similar to the way the term "Thermos" was found to be generic in reference to insulated drink bottles (though not as to other products that company sells) and "Aspirin" was found to be generic (originally a trademark belonging to Bayer). It's why the company named Xerox used to run ads about how "you can't Xerox something, but you can make a great copy on your Xerox photocopier"; it's also why Johnson & Johnson changed the Band-Aid jingle to "I am stuck on Band-Aid Brand" (the word "Brand" being the new addition). I've never seen any sort of advertising from Kimberly-Clark along those lines, so I wonder what sort of steps they take to try to protect the "Kleenex" mark.

(Makes me think of the Seinfeld episode where George wondered whether he had a girlfriend and Jerry asked, "Are there any Tampax in your apartment?" 🤮)

[mgk920]

My wife uses the brand name "Kleenex" as a generic term to refer to any brand of tissues (we typically buy Puffs). I found myself wondering whether the plural of that word should be "Kleenices," similar to how the plural of "index" is "indices."

I've heard Kleenex has had to do some legal gymnastics to hold onto their trademark because of this practice.

Trademark law in the USA is very like that, 'use it (and/or defend it) or lose It.  (Just ask the Bayer guys about 'Aspirin' or White Castle about 'Sliders').  Trademarks in the USA do not expire on fixed schedules like patents or copyrights, but . . .

Mike

[kphoger]

My wife uses the brand name "Kleenex" as a generic term to refer to any brand of tissues (we typically buy Puffs). I found myself wondering whether the plural of that word should be "Kleenices," similar to how the plural of "index" is "indices."

In our house, the plural of Kleenex is Kleenex.

We're about to run out of Kleenex.
Would you please get me a couple of Kleenex?

But I do like making weird plurals out of people's last names.  For example, we took to calling the Harcus family "the Harci".  And sometimes I call the Pankratz family "the Pankraces" (pronounced pank-ruh-sees).  But then I call the Shores family "the Shoreseseses".

[1995hoo]

....

But I do like making weird plurals out of people's last names.  For example, we took to calling the Harcus family "the Harci".  And sometimes I call the Pankratz family "the Pankraces" (pronounced pank-ruh-sees).  But then I call the Shores family "the Shoreseseses".

My mother and I have a longstanding disagreement about that last issue. Our last name ends in "s." I say the correct form is to add "-es" to the end if you are referring to us as a group—for example, "the Hugginses" in a well-known children's novel (and indeed the author spelled it just that way when referring to them as a group). "The Hugginses got in the car." My mother says the plural is the same as the name—in that example, then, "the Huggins," which makes no sense to me and sounds bizarre. "The Huggins got in the car" would only work if the family's name were "Huggin." Our name isn't Huggins, of course, but functionally the issue is the same.

(Which, in turn, makes me think of how certain rappers in the 1980s thought the word "Adidas" was plural, so you wore one Adida on your left foot and another Adida on your right foot. "Random Thoughts," indeed.)

[kphoger]

My mother and I have a longstanding disagreement about that last issue. Our last name ends in "s." I say the correct form is to add "-es" to the end if you are referring to us as a group—for example, "the Hugginses" in a well-known children's novel (and indeed the author spelled it just that way when referring to them as a group). "The Hugginses got in the car." My mother says the plural is the same as the name—in that example, then, "the Huggins," which makes no sense to me and sounds bizarre. "The Huggins got in the car" would only work if the family's name were "Huggin." Our name isn't Huggins, of course, but functionally the issue is the same.

I tend to agree with your side of the argument.  But I've found it intellectually satisfying to accept the other side by interpreting "the Huggins" as really being "the Huggins family", just with the last word implied rather than spoken.

[1995hoo]

My mother and I have a longstanding disagreement about that last issue. Our last name ends in "s." I say the correct form is to add "-es" to the end if you are referring to us as a group—for example, "the Hugginses" in a well-known children's novel (and indeed the author spelled it just that way when referring to them as a group). "The Hugginses got in the car." My mother says the plural is the same as the name—in that example, then, "the Huggins," which makes no sense to me and sounds bizarre. "The Huggins got in the car" would only work if the family's name were "Huggin." Our name isn't Huggins, of course, but functionally the issue is the same.

I tend to agree with your side of the argument.  But I've found it intellectually satisfying to accept the other side by interpreting "the Huggins" as really being "the Huggins family", just with the last word implied rather than spoken.

I might feel that way except that my mother was an English teacher and is therefore a stickler for grammar. It annoys me when she gets it wrong.

[kphoger]

I might feel that way except that my mother was an English teacher and is therefore a stickler for grammar. It annoys me when she gets it wrong.

Maybe that means she's right and we're wrong.

Actually, I'm kind of serious.  Enough people make the plural of an -s ending name by not adding -es, that perhaps you and I should just admit that that's the correct way of doing it.  Or, at the very least, to admit that there is more than one correct way of doing it.  (Just as long as there's no apostrophe involved...)

[Scott5114]

My mother and I have a longstanding disagreement about that last issue. Our last name ends in "s." I say the correct form is to add "-es" to the end if you are referring to us as a group—for example, "the Hugginses" in a well-known children's novel (and indeed the author spelled it just that way when referring to them as a group). "The Hugginses got in the car." My mother says the plural is the same as the name—in that example, then, "the Huggins," which makes no sense to me and sounds bizarre. "The Huggins got in the car" would only work if the family's name were "Huggin." Our name isn't Huggins, of course, but functionally the issue is the same.

In "goose", the double vowel is changed to the second vowel preceding it in the alphabet, so the plural is "geese".

In "Huggins", there is no double vowel, but there is a double consonant, so if you use the second consonant preceding it, the plural of "Huggins" is "Huddins".

[webny99]

It was absurd that they didn't postpone the game, but it underscored how in North Carolina, basketball takes precedence over everything else.

Everything except for building new interstates, of course.

[1995hoo]

My mother and I have a longstanding disagreement about that last issue. Our last name ends in "s." I say the correct form is to add "-es" to the end if you are referring to us as a group—for example, "the Hugginses" in a well-known children's novel (and indeed the author spelled it just that way when referring to them as a group). "The Hugginses got in the car." My mother says the plural is the same as the name—in that example, then, "the Huggins," which makes no sense to me and sounds bizarre. "The Huggins got in the car" would only work if the family's name were "Huggin." Our name isn't Huggins, of course, but functionally the issue is the same.

In "goose", the double vowel is changed to the second vowel preceding it in the alphabet, so the plural is "geese".

In "Huggins", there is no double vowel, but there is a double consonant, so if you use the second consonant preceding it, the plural of "Huggins" is "Huddins".

That's pretty funny. It doesn't resolve the issue in my case, though, because my last name doesn't have any double letters.

[hotdogPi]

Persson → Peopple
Pearson → Peaople
McPherson → McPheople

[kphoger]

Persson → Peopple
Pearson → Peaople
McPherson → McPheople

Childress → Childrenress

[vdeane]

It was absurd that they didn't postpone the game, but it underscored how in North Carolina, basketball takes precedence over everything else.

Everything except for building new interstates, of course.

Designating, not building.  We're not getting more of I-26 or I-87 for at least a decade at the rate they're going (and I-26 has already been stalled for more than a decade).  It feels like NCDOT has bitten off more than they can chew.

[LilianaUwU]

It was absurd that they didn't postpone the game, but it underscored how in North Carolina, basketball takes precedence over everything else.

Everything except for building new interstates, of course.

Designating, not building.  We're not getting more of I-26 or I-87 for at least a decade at the rate they're going (and I-26 has already been stalled for more than a decade).  It feels like NCDOT has bitten off more than they can chew.

I'd argue I-26 in Asheville is good enough to drop the FUTURE banner. At least it's a freeway, unlike I-180 in Cheyenne...

[vdeane]

It was absurd that they didn't postpone the game, but it underscored how in North Carolina, basketball takes precedence over everything else.

Everything except for building new interstates, of course.

Designating, not building.  We're not getting more of I-26 or I-87 for at least a decade at the rate they're going (and I-26 has already been stalled for more than a decade).  It feels like NCDOT has bitten off more than they can chew.

I'd argue I-26 in Asheville is good enough to drop the FUTURE banner. At least it's a freeway, unlike I-180 in Cheyenne...

I mean, Québec will sign an autoroute on a two-lane road with at-grades (even driveways don't seem to be a disqualifies) but not a freeway with 11' lanes and 9-10' shoulders (that I would have rather kept its prior lane count if it had meant the autoroute designation could stay; I'm not convinced that the widening was needed).  Figure that one out.