Chickens and Oxalis

Oh Thank YOU, your Gargantuan Rectitudarianess. Your Probity knows no bounds.

(See--snivel--I made up a word just for you...your most obedient servant, Catscan.)

The Spelling Police accept the new word, with much gratitude, and hereby reverse your fine.

Your creativity has been noted to your file. This is a rare moment. Cherish it.

Ah, but Majesty, consider the most lamentable reduction in chocolatudarian comestible goods! One must not let one's mercy run away with one.

Yes, but my waistline is also lamentable, so there is a balance to be struck, no?

Not if her majesty allowed her humble minister of pastries to oversee the collecting of those most just fines...

Ah! A solution indeed. Well, Jay still owes on her ticket...

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Is there any way y'all can flag the headers for the threads that degenerate into grammar or language discussions? I love it when that happens! I don't have time to read EVERY thread on the forum to keep up, though. : )

David

LoL, David!!

With sufficient waistline, Majesty, balance becomes a moot point...

Other English major-esque issues --get

There is a significant difference of nuance between "getting finished" and "finishing." The first is an achievement, the second is merely an action. The reason get sounds better than obtain in many instances is that the use of obtain implies a greater degree of complexity: It takes a lot less energy to get a license than it does to obtain one. When we want to imply greater effort, magnitude or importance we choose the Latin derivatives.
In other words it sounds pretentious to obtain a free egg because it really shouldn't be that difficult...unless [one] intends to make it so. And who but a pretentious twit would do that?! [end harangue]

ps. whatever happened to the chickens and the oxalis?

It's not that I have issues with "get." Rather, I have issues with "got."

I would prefer "being finished" rather than "getting finished." I find it tricky to think of a good sentence for this though. My term paper is not presently being finished because I am on DG. I will be finishing it later.

David - what exactly do you mean by "degenerate" in that context? Discussion of language can hardly be called a "degenerated" thread. Tsk tsk!

My oxalis are all dead because I live in zone 5. My chickens are fine.

Both my oxalis and chickens yet live.

In order to identify degenerate language discussions, look for those posters most likely to exhibit such degenerate tendencies. I name no names.

Shall we discuss the use of the pronoun "one"? There are sharp differences between what is acceptable in Anglo English vs American English.

And the spelling of the color "grey/gray". A topic of bitter contention. I myself will take sides. It should be "grey".

(Moxon--I don't have spell check at work--so be kind.)

Not to be confussed with "Finnish"? hehehe

Degenerate: 1 a: having declined or become less specialized (as in nature, character, structure, or function) from an ancestral or former state b: having sunk to a condition below that which is normal to a type ; especially : having sunk to a lower and usually corrupt and vicious state c: degraded 2
2: being mathematically simpler (as by having a factor or constant equal to zero) than the typical case
3: characterized by atoms stripped of their electrons and by very great density ; also : consisting of degenerate matter
4: having two or more states or subdivisions
5: having more than one codon representing an amino acid ; also : being such a codon

do any of those fit? LOL

I think the color is grey, and my third grade teacher was Mrs. Gray.

I myself have been know to exhibit "very great density." So I vote for # 3.

Are you missing electrons? I misplaced mine. (again)

They are never where you think they are--I blame Heisenberg.

Catscan. You meant me. And you. I can tell.

I do not think that I am familiar with the issues surrounding "one" so please do enlighten us.

As for grey, the colour (note Canadian spelling) of my new livestock trailer, I believe that is primarily a UK/US English issues, is it not? I use grey (now). I must say, moving here from Canada, and working in patent law, it was exceedingly difficult for me to transition from "defence" to "defense" and to drop all my u's.

Sewincircle, I most commonly use degenerate as definition number 5. Sometimes I use the word to refer to errant youth, which I suppose corresponds to meaning 1b.

Oh, did you want to see my new livestock trailer? I know you do. I know you have deep, unsatisfied desires to own one.

Number 5!!!??? I always think errant youth first. LOL and 1b. corrupt and vicious state.
That sure is a nice GREY trailer.
I did not realize the Canadian spelling was so differant. My DH and family was from Malone, NY up north. They all say "Ay" when they talk. ???

I truely would love to own one. (beautiful grey trailer) But then I would feel obligated to own livestock as well. hmmmm...

OK I will bring it back to oxlis. There is a fungus or something that attacks oxlis. It is yellow and can be spread by picking the infected leaves and placing them on uninfected plants. I have it on the plants in my yard. Doing the happy dance.

American English views the use of "one" as suspiciously elitist.

Thus if one is moved to use "one", one is encouraged to switch, in mid-stream as it were, to a less inflated pronoun--producing such hybrid monstrosities as: "If one is to be run over by a rhinocerous, she should first check her insurance policy for adequate coverage." Or, to re-word the sentence so as to avoid the offending "one": "Tourists should purchase adequate insurance before risking being run over by a rhinocerous."

Whereas an Engish English speaker would feel quite comfortable saying: "One should purchase adequate insurance if one is considering being run over by a rhinocerous."

Grey/gray is extremely contentious: http://www.bernzilla.com/item.php?id=232

I shall feed my chickens oxalis again tonight:0)

Wren, can you send me some?:0)

If one had oxalis would one feed it to ones chickens everynight? or just once? :/

I wish I could but I think the us postal would frown on it. Maybe I can get a scientist interested in growing it for gardeners.

You are all making me laugh out loud.

Sewin - Codon degeneracy is a critical aspect of DNA, and since my job involves writing patents about plant biotechnology (i.e. lots of stuff about DNA), I use degenerate on a pretty much daily basis when describing genes and variants that occur as a result of codon degeneracy. This is of course peculiar to me, and may not apply to anyone else in the forum. Who knows?

Also, it's "Eh" not "Ay." Just so as you know. No spelling police ticket because it's a regional thing.

I strongly encourage the ownership of livestock.

Catscan - I did not know it was so contentious! Goodness! I think one of the problems with "one" is that one is never sure if one is being offensive by using a feminine/masculine pronoun and so it is easier to use "one" and avoid the whole he/she issue. Of course, one could use "it" but that tends to be frowned upon. I have a bad habit of referring to other people's babies as "it" and they seem to dislike that. (i.e. It was crying so much I nearly stuffed a sock in its mouth, etc).

Please do not send me the oxalis fungus because I like mine, although i didn't plant any oxalis bulbs this fall so I won't have any in any event.

Shall we then degenerate to a discussion of ought and should?

Being finished and getting finished and finishing are all three different. Having been finished with that topic for some time now and having gotten it (nebulous!) all out of my system {I double dog dare you!!!} I shall take on the spelling Queen!! Grey and I keep my u and c where I don't have spell check policing my every keystroke...

Lovely stock trailer, much nicer than mine....:-(
And I do not covet my neighbour's oxalis!

Thank you for not slapping me with a ticket Eh. I really can't afford one right now with the chocolate economy in such poor repair. :D

ought and should! oh yes, I believe we should, or is it ought? hehehe

Oh, I much prefer ought.

As do I. Heh. Won't go there tonight. 'Night!!

Grownut, your presence (or more specifically, absence) has been noted on the thread about my lambs. We need family tree input regarding Luna and the reindeer.

There is a lovely site discussing the use of non-gender specific pronouns and whether or not languages that have them are less sexist. The answer is no--most Asian languages do not have gender specific pronouns and are not notably egalitarian when it comes to the sexes.

Enlighten us, grownut!

Moxon, I too refer to infants of unspecified gender as "its" and I have had the same outraged response by overly sensitive parents. I mean--unless they have stuck pink ribbons or John Deere onesies on it--how can one hazard a intelligent guess?

If one feeds one's chickens oxalis more than once a day, one is being heartless.

Working on a house. Be back to gender and Luna asap.

FABULOUS!

First, I just bought my granddaughter a pink John Deere onesie...

And another point of contention (with which this thread is frankly rife) -- is one OBLIGATED to buy livestock upon the purchase of a trailer? Or OBLIGED...? And more importantly, what is the import when one is completely understood no matter which verb form is chosen?

An Aggie went to Oxford for a semester. He asked another student, "Where's the library at?"
The student responded, "Here, we do not end our sentences with a preposition."
Aggie, "Okay. Where's the library at, a$$%*&#?"

I do believe one could refer to an infant's unkown gender with the etiquette; "the baby", or "your baby" as opposed to "it". Although, the image of Claire stating "it was crying so much I nearly stuffed a sock in its mouth" has caused me to aspirate a bit of my morning coffee. I realize I cannot contend with the brilliant intellect of Claire, Cat, et al. I have experienced a degeneration of my english prowess, due to regional dissociation. In other words; if you don't use it, you lose it. My neighbors do love the words git, got, ya'll, ain't, and a whole, what's that word, "mess"of other colorful and commonly used contractions, nouns, adjectives, and so on. Would someone be so kind as to discuss the pronouncing of either? I do mean the word either, not git, got, ya'll! : ) Edited to add "grammatical prowess" instead of english. Oh well. Around here it is said as "my english", not "my grammar".

This message was edited Mar 12, 2009 12:51 PM

ROTFL Brigidlily. Good one!
I am obligated to buy livestock now that I have my trailer. If you have any to sell, please oblige me with a phone call.

I say eee-ther, not eye-ther when speaking to my North American friends.
I say eye-ther when speaking to my British parents and my British relatives.
Same applies to neither.

Patch - it is possible my choice of sentence transmitted my intense dislike of small children, which may also explain my use of "it" when referring to them! Sorry about the coffee aspiration moment!

Oh, a new irritant, from the radio this morning. I was listening to an advert (which is odd, because I usually listen to NPR, but I didn't like the music they had on, so I was on another station). The announcer said that a certain product had "twice the fat-busting power than" the competitive product. This is so irritating. It is not, ever, "twice the _____ THAN" anything. It's "twice the ____ OF" or "twice the ____ compared to..."

I got all riled up and had to change the channel again.

Oh, I grimace whenever I see (I hate to even write it) "10 items or LESS" at the checkout. One store in this area says "10 items or FEWER."

And "different than" instead of "different from" is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. It's such common usage I suck it up.

I know, I know. But these things were beaten into me through school and college. That English degree can be capable of paralyzing the holder. They never announce those side-effects, though.

WoW!!! I am almost afraid to type. Fear of editing....hehehe!!! Edit away. I really never thought about 10 items or less!!! It is really true! Maybe the signs are charged by the letter and it fewer letters to write less. LOL