Random Thoughts

[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...

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.

I'm still baffled at the decision to re-sign A-720 as QC 136. First off, the new number is already in use, and of course, there's the issue of double standards. I mean, A-20 on the same corridor has a boulevard section!

[kkt]

....

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.

I agree with you and Ms. Cleary.

[kkt]

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...)

Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, supports adding -es to form the plural of a proper name ending in -s.  He uses the example of the plural of Jones is Joneses.

Of course people can do it whatever way if they are going after special effects or just like being wrong.

[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".

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

In that case, it's grammatically incorrect for you to congregate with others with the same last name.

[kphoger]

Fowler

Henley → Fowley
Cowley → Cattley
Hoger → Swiner
Elkins → Elkins

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Persson → Peopple
Pearson → Peaople
McPherson → McPheople

Heck, this reminds me of that Plurals thread many years ago, with things like an explosion, a battle full of explosia, and an entire war worth of explosiae.

[kphoger]

In 2024, a couple of mathematicians from Australia decided to see if the Infinite Monkey Theorem is correct:  if given an infinite amount of time, would a monkey eventually type the complete works of Shakespeare?

They assumed an average of one keystroke per second—which, in my opinion, grossly overestimates the attention span of monkeys—and a worldwide monkey population of 200,000.

Based on that, they found that, even if all the monkeys in the world were employed to type, it's nearly certain that the experiment would not produce Shakespeare's works before the heat death of the universe—which they assumed would take place 1 googol years from now.

Within a single monkey's lifetime—estimated at 30 years—there is only a 1 in 20 chance that it would type the word "bananas".  And there's about a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance that it would type a short English sentence.

According to one of the mathematicians:  "We did the [math] from one monkey to the scale of infinity monkeys and we can say categorically it's not going to happen.  If every atom in the universe was a universe in itself, it still wouldn't happen."

As part of the report, they determined that monkeys with typewriters will never be a "viable tool for developing written works of anything beyond the trivial".

[Rothman]

So, you're saying there's still a chance?

[Max Rockatansky]

The mandatory awareness training videos at work this year are resembling the Vault—Tec corporate scenes in the Fallout TV show.  The only difference is that the videos at work aren't trying to be ironic and sarcastic.

[PColumbus73]

The mandatory awareness training videos at work this year are resembling the Vault—Tec corporate scenes in the Fallout TV show.  The only difference is that the videos at work aren't trying to be ironic and sarcastic.

But the poor scripting makes for its own fun, sometimes

[Max Rockatansky]

The mandatory awareness training videos at work this year are resembling the Vault—Tec corporate scenes in the Fallout TV show.  The only difference is that the videos at work aren't trying to be ironic and sarcastic.

But the poor scripting makes for its own fun, sometimes

The Workplace Emotional Intelligence video narrator sounded vaguely like the voice actor for Frieza in Dragon Ball Z Abridged.

[1995hoo]

We are constantly getting a TV commercial in which some girl imagines she is a figure skater in front of a room full of stuffed animals. "She's a Rainbow" (Stones song, overdubbed with a female vocalist) plays during the ad. It was just on now and I found myself thinking it would be funny—to Americans who hear that ad, anyway—if one of the Olympic figure skaters next month were to use that song.

[vdeane]

The abbreviation GF for gluten free always throws me through a loop.  I keep seeing things like "GF pizza" and think it means "girlfriend pizza".

[kurumi]

"Loanword" is a word borrowed whole from another language, like "shampoo" (Hindi)

"Calque" is a word borrowed part by part and jammed together, like "potsticker" (Chinese)

However, "loanword" itself is a calque from German

And "calque" is a loanword from French

[Beltway]

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."

Using "Kleenex" as a generic word for tissues is the same linguistic phenomenon as using "Hoover" as a verb for vacuuming: both are brand names that became everyday language. But they behave differently in grammar. Hoover easily turns into a verb ("hoovered," "hoovering"), while Kleenex stays a noun and is usually treated as a mass noun ("We're out of Kleenex"). If you ever need a plural, the normal English form is Kleenexes, not a faux‑Latin "Kleenices," because the word has no Latin roots. In short, both are examples of brand names becoming generic, but English adapts them in different ways.

In the UK especially, "to hoover" simply means "to vacuum," regardless of the actual machine. That's classic verbification: "I need to hoover the carpet" and "Can you hoover the stairs?"

[Scott5114]

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."

Using "Kleenex" as a generic word for tissues is the same linguistic phenomenon as using "Hoover" as a verb for vacuuming: both are brand names that became everyday language. But they behave differently in grammar. Hoover easily turns into a verb ("hoovered," "hoovering"), while Kleenex stays a noun and is usually treated as a mass noun ("We're out of Kleenex"). If you ever need a plural, the normal English form is Kleenexes, not a faux‑Latin "Kleenices," because the word has no Latin roots. In short, both are examples of brand names becoming generic, but English adapts them in different ways.

In the UK especially, "to hoover" simply means "to vacuum," regardless of the actual machine. That's classic verbification: "I need to hoover the carpet" and "Can you hoover the stairs?"

I'm quite happy that it was decided at some point to hoover the Colorado River.

[gonealookin]

The abbreviation GF for gluten free always throws me through a loop.  I keep seeing things like "GF pizza" and think it means "girlfriend pizza".

I always think of the corporate logo:



Among many products that logo was on was the jars of Tang powder.  I'm pretty sure that stuff was absolutely loaded with sugar, which was why I liked it, more than because it was "what the astronauts drink".

[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."

Using "Kleenex" as a generic word for tissues is the same linguistic phenomenon as using "Hoover" as a verb for vacuuming: both are brand names that became everyday language. But they behave differently in grammar. Hoover easily turns into a verb ("hoovered," "hoovering"), while Kleenex stays a noun and is usually treated as a mass noun ("We're out of Kleenex"). If you ever need a plural, the normal English form is Kleenexes, not a faux‑Latin "Kleenices," because the word has no Latin roots. In short, both are examples of brand names becoming generic, but English adapts them in different ways.

In the UK especially, "to hoover" simply means "to vacuum," regardless of the actual machine. That's classic verbification: "I need to hoover the carpet" and "Can you hoover the stairs?"

I'm quite happy that it was decided at some point to hoover the Colorado River.

But during the early-mid 20th century it was renamed to the 'Boulder Dam', before it was renamed back.

Mike

[Scott5114]

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."

Using "Kleenex" as a generic word for tissues is the same linguistic phenomenon as using "Hoover" as a verb for vacuuming: both are brand names that became everyday language. But they behave differently in grammar. Hoover easily turns into a verb ("hoovered," "hoovering"), while Kleenex stays a noun and is usually treated as a mass noun ("We're out of Kleenex"). If you ever need a plural, the normal English form is Kleenexes, not a faux‑Latin "Kleenices," because the word has no Latin roots. In short, both are examples of brand names becoming generic, but English adapts them in different ways.

In the UK especially, "to hoover" simply means "to vacuum," regardless of the actual machine. That's classic verbification: "I need to hoover the carpet" and "Can you hoover the stairs?"

I'm quite happy that it was decided at some point to hoover the Colorado River.

But during the early-mid 20th century it was renamed to the 'Boulder Dam', before it was renamed back.

Mike

This was 100% due to FDR having a stick up his ass about his predecessor.

Interestingly, the company town that was created to keep dam workers from having to sully their reputations by being seen in, of all places, [shudder] Las Vegas still bears FDR's preferred name.

[cockroachking]

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."

Using "Kleenex" as a generic word for tissues is the same linguistic phenomenon as using "Hoover" as a verb for vacuuming: both are brand names that became everyday language. But they behave differently in grammar. Hoover easily turns into a verb ("hoovered," "hoovering"), while Kleenex stays a noun and is usually treated as a mass noun ("We're out of Kleenex"). If you ever need a plural, the normal English form is Kleenexes, not a faux‑Latin "Kleenices," because the word has no Latin roots. In short, both are examples of brand names becoming generic, but English adapts them in different ways.

In the UK especially, "to hoover" simply means "to vacuum," regardless of the actual machine. That's classic verbification: "I need to hoover the carpet" and "Can you hoover the stairs?"

I'm quite happy that it was decided at some point to hoover the Colorado River.

But during the early-mid 20th century it was renamed to the 'Boulder Dam', before it was renamed back.

Mike

This was 100% due to FDR having a stick up his ass about his predecessor.

Interestingly, the company town that was created to keep dam workers from having to sully their reputations by being seen in, of all places, [shudder] Las Vegas still bears FDR's preferred name.

I guess Hooverville, NV, just wasn't the right fit...

[LilianaUwU]

Moses parted the Red Sea.

Robert Moses parted neighborhoods.

[kphoger]

Moses parted the Red Sea.

Robert Moses parted neighborhoods.

I feel like that's the setup for a bunch of really inappropriate things to say.  Let's not wonder too much about who the chosen people are in the second scenario.  Or the Egyptians.

[1995hoo]

Moses parted the Red Sea.

Robert Moses parted neighborhoods.

I feel like that's the setup for a bunch of really inappropriate things to say. ....

And then you have Bruce Springsteen's song "Leap of Faith." Partial lyrics (recall his wife is a redhead):

Now your legs were heaven, your breasts were the altar,
Your body was the holy land.
You shouted "jump" but my heart faltered.
You laughed and said, "Baby, don't you understand?"

It takes a leap of faith to get things going.
It takes a leap of faith, you gotta show some guts.
It takes a leap of faith to get things going.
There in your heart, there you must trust.

Now you were the Red Sea, I was Moses.
I kissed you and slipped into a bed of roses.
The waters parted and love rushed inside.
I was Jesus' son sanctified.

[PColumbus73]

Facebook keeps recommending reels of AI-snow-car accidents. I don't seek them out, but they make me laugh at how they're obviously nonsensical they are and how people believe they're real.

[kphoger]

Halfway around the globe is 180°.  Go either direction from 0° longitude (the Prime Meridian), and one ostensibly switches from one side of the globe to the other after 180° of travel.  The halfway point heading west, then, would be the 90th Meridian West.  That line of longitude runs right through the US state of Illinois, which is arguably the most Midwestern of all states.

Coincidence?  I think not.