Discussions / Live Q&A’s

I was waiting for that portion, if only because I would love to have seen Mitt Romney's version of the McKayla Maroney face. 

*leaves chat, treks to wherever this is sold, buys 8 tins, stops returning calls*

This calls for fake health care reform!

But there are some other fictional problems that are just as pressing. We need that Death Star! And comprehensive fictional immigration reform, if only to keep people's memoirs from suddenly migrating over there without warning. 

The shadow government begins now! 

Dang it, I've been here and answering this whole time, I just omitted to click the LIVE button again! I blame the  Second Term post-apocalyptic world we live in.

Peter Marks joked on Twitter that Justice Scalia seemed to think he was Lord Capulet, and I can't think of a better way of putting it. 

+10

Nerd culture is mainstream culture now! Didn't you hear?

I am mildly alarmed by your use of the phrase "they make it WAY too hard to stalk you." Are you that van that keeps circling my house? 

Ha! +5!

As a sidenote, it is so cold in the office right now that I cannot feel some of my fingers. Now typing in gloves. We'll see how this goes.

Sorry I'm typing at this glacial pace! In my defense, I am also typing at a glacial temperature. A mammoth just walked past and complained of a chill. 

Link, please! 

They're a gateway drug. One day, you're trying e-cigarettes... the next, you're smoking an entire gate.

OH NO

OH THAT IS ONE OF MY LEAST FAVORITE THINGS

I love both of their writing so maybe, maybe the dictionary has finally caved and is admitting that usage? Maybe? 

I wish Ms. Halas the best and I think California made the wrong call. This does also showcase how long the process is for firing teachers though, from another angle! I wonder if anyone has contemplated combining her former and current professions before? speaking of things that I should probably not Google on my office computer. It could be a great way to learn units of measurement!

That I saw! That was quite the epic eye-roll!

Correct!

I assume, given all the dispiriting updates to dictionaries, that Dr. Johnson spends most of his days doing his best impression of a rotisserie chicken.

Enormity is supposed to be a big awful thing, not just a big thing, is I think what is riling us folks. 

I think there should be some way of crowdsourcing grammar/usage edits, because there are so many people on the Internet who feel so strongly about it, and otherwise we waste our energies fuming in these chats, when we could be forces for good!

See, we who found their usage grating were believers in the first two, since the last two are sort of kind of a little bit the product of attrition of the first two by people's desire to make enormity mean enormousness. It's like the irritate-aggravate-exacerbate slippery slope. Irritate used to be irritate and aggravate used to be 'make worse,' then aggravate became irritate and exacerbate was 'make worse' and now exacerbate is poised to fall as well. 

Ha! It's like the old saw that capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse, and, well...

We should retitle this chat the Old And Young Curmudgeons Hour Of Complaining About Terrible Things That Are Befalling The English Language. I think it would sell. Misappropriation of quotations -- the other day, I saw a card that said "It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." Guess to whom it was attributed?

The only problem with this rebranding would be that if I committed even a minor solecism I would have to go jump off a bridge Javert-style. 

I DO!

No, I think Lynne Truss, the author of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves should. I don't want that awesome responsibility. 

That's how I want every sentence to be. 

+50!

Also the bonus commas. The bonus commas are essential. 

Actually, a question I was pondering recently is: Is there an active ammo lobby? People who don't really care about guns but really value their right to own ammunition? The NAA, or something?

Well, if we're letting exclamation points into the ring, it's a whole different ballgame, to mix some metaphors into a thick soup. 

No, but Merriam Webster is one of those online tools that has a patina of pre-online respectability to it, right? That is a problem I always run into. I think, "Well, Britannica beats Wikipedia!" and then it turns out that actually having a vocal and attentive crowd constantly fighting over definition turf can actually prove more accurate in some areas.

They attributed it to ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

HA!

It wasn't! You were! 

That doesn't bug me as much, but that's because I'm fortunate enough not to hear it often. 

Hey, there we go! 

I still think NAA would be a better name...

And Einstein was pretty funny himself, so it wasn't as though this was desperation in the face of scarcity...

I'm impressed you can read on buses! I always get motion-sick! By all means, read away! 

Also, this glove-typing experiment is working pretty well, but I might wrap up soon both metaphorically and literally. 

Is it? I'm unfamiliar with the trend of hipsters wanting to punch people. I thought it was the inverse. 

I think you're both right, at least in terms of who the constituency is -- enthusiasts and sportsmen, even if the funding comes from people on the manufacturing end.

Yes, I am! I just wanted to stress the lack of obligation. But I can change...

I WILL PUNCH ANYONE WHO TALKS ABOUT THE ENORMITY OF THE MAMMOTHS

And on that note, have a glorious remainder of the week!

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