Couch 200: The Bicentennial Couch.

atisketatasket · Jul 17, 2019, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NP_Complete

I forget. What class are you teaching? It sounds intriguing. Word origins are interesting. The only thing I've learned recently is that the plural of octopus is not octopii, but octopuses because octopus is Greek not Latin. I hope I got that correct.

Greek and Latin roots of medical terminology. Octopuses is fine, though technically it’s octopodes. Octopi is used even if wrong, kind of like people say “ad nauseUm” instead of “ad nauseAm.”

ETA: two cats harnessed together would be octopussies.

unaluna · Jul 17, 2019, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

ETA: Okay, Couch poll: do you use a comma before a conjunction connecting two independent clauses? For instance, “I saw a Martian, but he ran away from me” or “I saw a Martian but he ran away from me”?

I would just say, "i saw Uranus."

I didnt think Martians had butts.

But we have different writing styles.

unaluna · Jul 17, 2019, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

That is my uneducated opinion as well.

I was going to agree, but thought i SHOULD vote for no comma.

NP_Complete · Jul 17, 2019, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

Greek and Latin roots of medical terminology. Octopuses is fine, though technically it’s octopodes. Octopi is used even if wrong, kind of like people say “ad nauseUm” instead of “ad nauseAm.”

ETA: two cats harnessed together would be octopussies.

The woman who wrote that octopus book I loved should have consulted you. Damnit, I was led astray. How would you pronounce that? Podes or Poh-dees? Or something else I haven't thought of?

atisketatasket · Jul 17, 2019, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NP_Complete

The woman who wrote that octopus book I loved should have consulted you. Damnit, I was led astray. How would you pronounce that? Podes or Poh-dees?

Two syllables, and the e is short in Greek but in English pronounce like Antipodes (from the same word).

The plural of cactus really is cacti, btw.

unaluna · Jul 17, 2019, 09:52 PM

Artie - when i was on weight watchers a few years ago, and also because of MKAC (remember her?

), i was looking at frosting cans in the grocery store. HAVE YOU EVER READ THE INGREDIENT LIST???!!! Regular or sugar free, doesnt matter. I couldnt put one in my cart. Its not food in there.

atisketatasket · Jul 17, 2019, 09:53 PM

So it’s like Cool Whip.

Omers · Jul 17, 2019, 10:08 PM

I have a container of cream cheese frosting with “no artificial flavor or color” but it doesn’t have to be refrigerated. I am creeped out to say the least seeing As I mostly cook from scratch, but it was a desperate moment.

I think couch 201 needs to be the grammatically incorrect couch or an edited couch.

WarmFuzzySocks · Jul 17, 2019, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NP_Complete

The woman who wrote that octopus book I loved should have consulted you. Damnit, I was led astray. How would you pronounce that? Podes or Poh-dees? Or something else I haven't thought of?

This is next up on my reading stack. I've been looking forward to reading it.

unaluna · Jul 17, 2019, 10:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

So it’s like Cool Whip.

Good point!

But cool whip only pretends to be one thing, which is questionable to begin with in my book. Whipped cream is airy tasteless white curly stuff.

Frosting otoh can be chocolate or darker chocolate, which is actual food.

or german chocolate. Or pink.

Anyway - i did not overheat today. It didnt get too hot, but even so, i think stayed cooler by actions i took or didnt take. So i am feeling better about the next few days heatwave. Friday is supposed to be the worst. Geez what have i become?

Omers · Jul 17, 2019, 10:14 PM

I keep checking my email for an email from T but I haven’t sent him anything to reply to. I am half tempted to send him an email letting him know I am obsessively waiting for a reply from him so can he please send something so I can stop checking. I am pretty sure his smart alic self would send a picture of the beach or something apporpriatly random.

Elio · Jul 17, 2019, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omers

I keep checking my email for an email from T but I haven’t sent him anything to reply to. I am half tempted to send him an email letting him know I am obsessively waiting for a reply from him so can he please send something so I can stop checking. I am pretty sure his smart alic self would send a picture of the beach or something apporpriatly random.

I've done something like this. It actually worked in addressing my obsessiveness and allowed me to go to bed. I wasn't snarky or smart-aleck about it. I said that I was emailing because I wanted to hear from her. That was all.

NP_Complete · Jul 17, 2019, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WarmFuzzySocks

This is next up on my reading stack. I've been looking forward to reading it.

I gushed about this book to my therapist while I was reading it. It made me cry when the female octopus was tending to her eggs that would never hatch (maybe hit a little close to home). Shortly after I read the book, I had a business trip to Boston and went to the aquarium there where the octopuses (or octopodes) in question lived. It's just a lovely book. (I think my therapist now thinks of me when he sees an octopus, that's how much I loved this book.)

Polibeth · Jul 17, 2019, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArtieSwimsOn

Warning rant ahead iammarriedtoa64yearoldchild he had a dr appointment today during the time i was out doing a social responsibility thing with a coworker. he called me from the dr's office mid-temper-tantrum because they wanted him to fill out new paperwork (like they do every few years, this is normal) oh, the horrors. so i had to walk him through filling out the paperwork over the phone so he didn't just cancel his appointment. then he came home and ate half a container of chocolate frosting (!) and now he has gone to bed moaning and groaning because he has a stomach ache. well duh, genius, what did you THINK would happen if you ate that much frosting?! I swear I just do NOT understand that man. Although there may be method to his madness. Since he is now in bed, that means I have to do all the packing for our trip. As usual. I have half a mind to pack nothing for him. Would serve his stupid *** right. Rant over.

I didn't realize your husband is my husband's twin. I have to complete any and all paperwork for any reason. My husband eats until he gets stomach aches too. ((hugs))

atisketatasket · Jul 17, 2019, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polibeth

I didn't realize your husband is my husband's twin. I have to complete any and all paperwork for any reason. My husband eats until he gets stomach aches too. ((hugs))

Make that triplets if you throw in 2ex.

Tolstoy was wrong—good husbands are good in different ways, but husbands behaving badly are all alike.

Omers · Jul 17, 2019, 10:48 PM

Ok, so I caved. I sent T an email with my self care project for this time away. Just about every time he goes away I make some kind of project during session time. This time seeing as infancy keeps coming up I made a replica of my baby blanket that became my security blanket as a toddler.

stopdog · 11:26 PM

I would probably leave an mds office rather than fill out paper work I had already filled out.
Of course, I wouldn't be in an mds office and thus wouldn't have filled it out in the first place.

I would not, in either case or any case at all, eat a container of icing. I don't even like homemade butter cream icing enough to eat a jar of it - let alone the canned goo.

atisketatasket · Jul 17, 2019, 11:10 PM

I have been known to write in big all caps on that kind of paperwork: “Nothing has changed.”

No one has objected yet.

Omers · Jul 17, 2019, 11:19 PM

I had to redo all my paperwork for a Pdoc to see her again. Knowing she has a sense of humor I just had fun with it. She got a good laugh out of it...
Like why are you seeking treatment at this time? Because you are awesome and I missed you too much.

feralkittymom · Jul 17, 2019, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by LonesomeTonight

Yes, I use the comma in this case. It's connecting two phrases that could stand on their own as sentences. Independent clauses, I think? (I know the rules but not the terms so much.)

No comma if, say, you said, "I saw a Martian but walked away."

Okay, so the comma coming before a conjunction indicates a change of subject in the next independent clause, but no comma if the subject of the second clause is the same as the first clause?

You were right the first time. It's not about the subject, the same or different.

Here, "but walked away" isn't a clause. Comma or not doesn't change that. The reason is that the meaning can't be determined: who walked away, I or the Martian?

Either would be correct for the same reason: 2 independent clauses joined by a conjunction:

"I saw a Martian, but I walked away."
"I saw a Martian, but he walked away."

But it can be argued that the first is grammatically correct, but pragmatically confusing because of the use of both the comma and the repeated subject.

This usage would say "I saw a Martian, but walked away" is correct grammatically only if the intent is to emphasize the negative action. It's not about the implied subject of walked, but about the intent of the first subject.

^One of the few things I learned from Transformational Grammar that I both understood and remember!

As far as octopodes, they have intelligence. They can use tools intuitively to complete an action, and they can teach other octopodes to use them.

That's why I can't eat them.

CantExplain · Jul 17, 2019, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by susannahsays

People, I'm worried. I have developed several raised bumps on my face, neck, and upper chest.
...
C went to urgent care yesterday. The baby doctor, who didn't look much older than the medical student accompanying him, said he didn't know what they are. He hypothesized that they are bug bites. Maybe C didn't explain well enough that they have appeared gradually.

C is an alter?

atisketatasket · Jul 17, 2019, 11:33 PM

This economics chapter is about internalizing externalities. I have just read a long example in which D i c k has a noisy dog who disturbs Jane. What price can Jane offer Dic k to take the dog to the pound? It has to exceed the price of the dog’s benefit to D ick.

And all I can think is, boy, why can’t Jane just buy some earplugs for $5 instead of offering Di ck $1000 to take the dog to the pound?

CantExplain · Jul 17, 2019, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

Two syllables, and the e is short in Greek but in English pronounce like Antipodes (from the same word).

The plural of cactus really is cacti, btw.

So the singular of "antipodes" is "antipus"?

CantExplain · Jul 17, 2019, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

This economics chapter is about internalizing externalities. I have just read a long example in which D i c k has a noisy dog who disturbs Jane. What price can Jane offer Dic k to take the dog to the pound? It has to exceed the price of the dog’s benefit to D ick.

And all I can think is, boy, why can’t Jane just buy some earplugs for $5 instead of offering Di ck $1000 to take the dog to the pound?

She should call Noise Control. Managing externalities is a job for the government.