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Open thread 5/19/23

Members of the media are seen reflected in the eye of President Donald Trump as he answers questions on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, before boarding Marine One helicopter, Wednesday, April 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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  • SK May 19, 2023, 9:31 AM

    The laser eye that can explode heads and melt minds.

  • ghostsniper May 19, 2023, 9:43 AM

    knife should be spelled nyf

    I mean seriously. TWO silent letters?
    I know, I know. The e makes the i long, but if y is substituted as it should be no e is necessary, not that it ever was in the first place. Surely you’re not suggesting that in the absence of the e the word would be pronounced niff, are you? Of course not.

    Starting from this moment forth I am boycotting all silent letters.
    Yes, I am going to make all silent letters truly silent, as in, gone. Outta here.
    Think about it.

    You don’t have to use silent letters when speak words, but you have to use them when you write them? Isn’t there some sort of disconnect there? And how about consistency, doesn’t that matter?

    The way words sound is how they should be spelled. Just think how much easier life would have been in your early years when you were trying to stumble through all these reading and writing and speaking rules. Write it one way, read it another way, and speak another way. jeez…..

    When you read stuff you kinda speak it in your head. And when you do both you don’t use the silent letters. Do you? Do you sound out the silent e when you read? Course not. Nor should you when writing it. It’s like reading and writing two different words, at the same time! No wonder modern people don’t read. It’ll wear you out with all the rules. Ludicrous!

    • jwm May 19, 2023, 3:37 PM

      Well, y’know- Back in the good old days it was like that. Words were spelled how they sounded, and nobody saw any sense in using a letter that didn’t need using. Then the Inkmakers all got together with the printing press dudes. They came up with this scam to stick stupid, useless letters into words whether the words needed them or not. They sold the idea as sort of an affirmative action for underprivileged letters. People fell for the sad stories of poor unused letters turning to crime because of letterism. Being a letterist became as bad as… well, it was bad. It turned out to be nothing more than a sneaky way to sell more ink, and more paper, and make more work for printers. Like everything else, these days- It’s a freakin’ conspiracy.

      JWM

  • Mike Seyle May 19, 2023, 10:33 AM

    Shur enuf; to gud comentz abuv.

  • SK May 19, 2023, 10:43 AM

    Phonetic poetry – takes a bit of getting used to it,

    E.E. Cummings poem:
    poem II in ViVa,
    Oil tel duh woil doi sez:

    oil tel duh woil doi sez
    dooyuh unnurs tanmih essez pullih nizmus tash,oi
    dough un giv uh shid oi sez. Tom
    oidoughwuntuh doot,butoiguttuh
    braikyooz,datswut eesez tuhmih. (Nowoi askyuh
    woodundat maik yurarstoin
    green? Oilsaisough.)—Hool
    spairruh luckih? Thangzkeed. Mairsee.
    Muh jax awl gawn. Fur Croi saik
    ainnoughbudih gutnutntuhplai?
    HAI
    yoozwidduhpoimnuntwaiv un duhyookuhsumpnruddur
    givusuhtoonunduhphugnting

    Translated:
    I’ll tell the world I says
    do you understand me as he’s pulling his moustache,I
    don’t give a shit I says. Tom
    I don’t want to do it, but I got to
    break youse,that’s what he says to me. (Now I ask you
    wouldn’t that make your arse turn
    green? I’ll say so.)—Who’ll
    spare a Lucky? Thanks kid. Merci.
    My jack’s all gone. For Christ sake
    ain’tnobody gotnothin’toplay?
    HEY
    yousewiththepermanentwave and theukeorsomethingorother
    giveusatuneonthefuckin’thing

    • Anne May 19, 2023, 5:33 PM

      If you are going to post EE Cummings it must be the one about the car !

  • Bob Clark May 19, 2023, 5:35 PM

    Take it from someone who has taught more than a few classes of English – the “silent” e is a signal to the reader that the vowel sound ahead of it in the work is pronounced “long” as ghostsniper observes. What’s going to happen with “bit” and “bite”? What about “sit” and “site”? Maybe I’m wrong…

    • ghostsniper May 19, 2023, 7:10 PM

      bit and byt
      sit and syt
      kit and kyt
      dik and dyk
      etc.

  • Mike Seyle May 20, 2023, 4:23 AM

    “dik and dyk” – a fine way to begin Saturday. May laughter rule the day.

    • ghostsniper May 20, 2023, 7:01 AM

      Was wondering who’d pick up on that.
      Now I know. lol

      • Casey Klahn May 20, 2023, 2:07 PM

        Up on the Squamish Chief Wall, in BC, there is a fine climbing route called the Lesbian Dyke. It’s a bit of geological humor that may be actually gone from the guides nowadays.

        Among my favorite short routes in Washington is the enjoyable: “Groping for Oprah’s Navel.” You clip several fixed bolts and pad your way up dark rock, get a bit run-out, and just as you fear a long whipper, there is a marvelous big hueco, or round version of a chickenhead feature, that you grab and sigh a thank God sigh. One must wear sticky shoes for this kind of climbing.

        What? These are rock climbing terms. Wash your dirty mind out if you were thinking otherwise.

        BTW, it’s an innie. Just sayin’!

        • Mike Seyle May 22, 2023, 6:27 AM

          Some 50 years ago I got a phone call telling me a good friend I had served with in Germany – Bob Shepard – had fallen off a Mexican volcano he was ascending. His funeral was to be in West Texas, so I drove all night. He was an only child. Some things that make the adrenalin rush appealing, wind up devastating those left behind. I won’t even climb onto the flat portion of my roof, and the slope of my driveway is becoming a challenge. But don’t get me wrong; I admire those of you who go there, and come home.

          • Casey Klahn May 23, 2023, 8:06 AM

            I survived but have a handful of friends who died in the mountains, and I mourn them. A few others who I knew as acquaintances, who also carved their names in mountaineering history but did not die abed.

            I suppose if you don’t go up there you can never understand why we went, but my pride wont let me say things to make you think I’m right. it’s existential shit, for sure. Selfish, maybe, but your friends and climbing partners are closer than anyone else except maybe your siblings, your spouse, and your army buddies. Also, at the level where you’re climbing technical climbs, you have to adopt it as a lifestyle or else don’t go.

  • ghostsniper May 20, 2023, 2:44 PM

    If you compress the problems with the US gov’t down to one small thing, this is it.
    Nothing can survive when elements like this are part of it’s make up.
    This cannot be repaired.
    It can only be destroyed.
    ALL of it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pq6kenJwNY&t=1s

    • Thos. May 20, 2023, 9:39 PM

      Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the United States Senate – the “greatest deliberative body in the world”.

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