Not only residents of Scunthorpe, but also those of Milford, will be excluded. Discussion of cooking will be difficult if one may not mention spices. Perhaps "milf*", "spic*", and "hell*" (I just noticed) would be more correct entries, or am I misunderstanding how the pattern-matching is done?
Xopher #44: "Is Yog of no earthly color?"
Yup. And I'm pretty sure the tuneless infernal piping of hideous flutes figures in as well.
abi #12: "Yog has sanity?"
Of course Yog has sanity. It is those who have looked upon Yog who do not have sanity.
For what it's worth, I'm with the crowd on this. The guy is completely serious, and not someone I'd risk turning my back on.
I am so sorry to hear this. I knew Robert only slightly, but he was a heck of a good guy. My deepest sympathy to his family and friends.
#73: I blame Hillary for all the political calls I now get before an election. Her first senatorial campaign was the first time such calls were used around here.
Where is 'around here' for you? I'm in Manhattan, and I've gotten robocalls in every election since at least the early '90s. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard Ed Koch's recorded whine asking me to vote for a Republican...
Wanker wind, when wilt thou blow
The shit rain down can rain?
Christ, if my vowels were in my post,
And I in my thread again.
#60: I got that, I wanted to know where the word [cartooney] came from.
'Cartooney' originated in the anti-spam community. It's a portmanteau of 'cartoon' + 'attorney'. Imagine that the person making the bogus legal threat is being represented by Wile E. Coyote, Esq.
Publisher: Roval Publishing.
I first read this as "Ryoval Publishing", which explained everything.
Since it seems to be a day for the lurkers to come out and play, so I'll join in.
Marc at #224 -- I disagree. I don't think Zeborah's treatment has been genrally rude. She offered a reading of the thread that did not seem to be supported by the text, and people pointed this out. Unfortunately, in an online community of this size, when someone posts something that appears off-base, many people will respond. Mostly they will be making the same points, often without having yet seen the other responses. The cumulative effect is quite overwhelming, even if each individual response by itself is reasonable.
(For this reason, when I see a post that seems obviously wrong, I tend to leave it alone for a while and let someone else respond. If it just hangs there unrefuted, I can always post later.)
Lance at #231 -- Wikipedia is meant to be a public information resource, and its community norms are getting in the way of that purpose. Making Light is basically Patrick and Teresa's permanent floating room party, and _it's_ community norms are generally helpful for that purpose.
At #104, Michael Weholt suggests:
For "lame", incompetent, idiotic, stupid, arrogant, etc.:
That is so bush.
[...]
That one has the great advantage of already being a established piece of American slang meaning "amateurish or crude". (It's a shortened form of "bush league").
I must remember to use it more often.
Regarding "The Received Skiffy Future", I have to admit I would certainly buy a book called _Zeppelins Of Phobos_.
On an unrelated note, have you seen the Squid Blog?
-ed g.
ajay writes:
There's a little bit of yeshiva bucher in all of us.
(That was a really unfortunate way to put it, given this thread is about, inter alia, cannibalism.)
"Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancy brig,
And a bo'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captain's gig!"
"Fiendish Writer" asks: "Pray, what is the difference betwixt my lowly endeavor and that which you so recently acquired?"
Now, I haven't seen your book, so this is just a guess; but I am given to understand that using different words, and putting them in a better order, is usually the key.
I have this image in my mind now of a painting: "The Ascension of Roger Ebert into Heaven", with Ebert, looking happy but bewildered, being accompanied on his ascent by cherubs and seraphs in the likeness of Woody Allen and Orson Welles.
Kevin, B+N vs K is always winnable in less than 50 moves (maximum is 34 IIRC). There are lots of other endings that do require more than 50 moves before a capture or pawn move (though most are pawnless endings); many Queen vs two Bishops endings, for example.
FIDE has changed the 50-move rule at least twice, once to make some exceptions (I remember one was a very specific position with R+P vs B+P, with blocked rook-pawns), and again to remove the exceptions (once the computers had discovered large numbers of them).
There was quite a bit of minor fiddling with the 50-move and triple-repetition draw rules in the 19th century, mostly wording changes to make them more precise.
I think pre-chess is distinguished from Fischer Random by FRC-type variants using random selection of the starting position, while in pre-chess, the players alternate in placing the pieces.
to Jonathan Vos Post: The dice chess you describe upthread is actually very old, and derives directly from Indian chess (chaturanga). I remember playing chaturanga with dice in the early 1980s with a friend who was from Bangladesh, and who said it was still very common there; we also played three- and four-handed games, with half an army per player. I have read that some historians think the dice version was the original form of the game.
to Steve Miller: Like you, I'm not fond of the variation where the players place the pieces on their first ranks at the start of the game, but I have been enjoying playing Fischer Random Chess (aka "Chess 960") on FICS. In FRC, theopening setup, which is the same for both sides, is randomly chosen; bishops go on opposite colors, and the king is always between the Rooks, so castling is possible on either side.
to Dan Blum: I'm pretty sure that the two-square initial pawn move is about as old as Mad Queen Chess itself--I've never seen a game with the expanded Queen and Bishop moves but with pawns moving only one square, though the Oxford Encyclopedia of Chess Games has old games with various forms of the King's Leap (e.g., on his first move, the king could move like a knight), and Free Castling (on castling kingside, king could go to g1 or h1; Rook to f1 or e1; similarly for queenside). I think Free Rochade hung on in Italy until the 19th century.
This set of answers told me I was Hal Clement: 1) individuality vs tyranny 2) Fundamental Physics/Atsrophysics 3) Patriotism is foolish... 4) I try to practice common courtesy... 5) I'm happily married... 6) ...on a subject I care about, I'll surprise you 7) It's a craft... 8) Al 9) God gave us two ears... 10) I have some intriguing theories... 11) The glass is twice the necessary size.
The same answers, but with "martial arts and bullets" on #2 instead of physics, gives me Philip José Farmer. _Any_ other answer on #2 gives me William Gibson.
With #2 as "Physics", changing #3 to "The good old USA..." and #11 to "It's brimming full!" got me Heinlein.
Oh, yeah, I'm very reassured when a long-time Republican staffer tells me what a strong position the Democrats have in the Senate.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 7 |
| 2007 | 5 |
| 2006 | 2 |
| 2005 | 5 |
| 2004 | 1 |
| 2003 | 3 |
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