HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
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Date:         Sun, 10 Jan 1993 12:30:24 +1100
From:         LNCJB@WOMBAT.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU
Subject:      Re: Famous horses
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

>Not me...I love happy endings.  One reason I sometimes read Harlequin
>Romances (yes, Susan, I admitted it publicly...try not to be too
>embarrassed)...I want happily ever after.
>ndh

I'm with you on that! I've only ever read one and a half Mills and Boon books
in my life... although I used to consume romantic novels by the bookcase in
pre-teenage years. I never was an 'evil little beastie' but I think I may have
become an 'evil big beastie' - that's what my kids tell me I am anyway.... I'm
glad they've got that well-known twinkle in their eyes when they say it though.

Carolyn
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Date:         Sun, 10 Jan 1993 13:47:39 +0100
From:         torkel@SICS.SE
Subject:      Re: Dual Croning on 19 March
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
              09 Jan 93 12:45:37 -0600. <9301091846.AA26154@sics.se>

   >A good translator needs to experience at least some of the
   >settings of the work he's translating.

  Yes indeed! That's why I made the trip to the edge of the galaxy when
I was translating "The left hand of darkness".
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
From: karsten@netcom.com (karsten)
Subject: Re: And then the naked ladies came
Organization: Karsten's Bit Bucket
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Distribution: world 
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 19:55:42 GMT

abh writes:
> ...men always get *sicker* than women.

Hmm.  Whenever a ladyfriend and I both get sick
I always play doctor.

--karsten
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Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 21:29:18 CST
From:         samant@CS.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject:      Re: bandwidth back to the trough...

>For some people they're not, but I am of the creative ilk and for me they are
>essential to my enjoyment and quality of life.

Another .sig from the keyboard of Carolyn! And a zeugma for mka.

tushar
From: ST402747@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU (blomberg cepeda)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Baseball
Date: 12 Jan 93 19:09:56 GMT
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Posted by Torkel

>  >Why am I trying to go mano-a-mano to the death with this guy? Is he
>  >worth it? Why don't I just serve him something really easy, and let
>  >him embarass himself?"
>
>  No, this doesn't fit the context. The alternative is "getting out of
>there without being seen". But self-respect requires, etc. Hence my
>question.

Okay, I'm 38 messages behind, so this has probably already been proposed, but:
instead of sneaking out without any self-respect, I'm going to let myself get
trampled or made a spectacle of, and just be a man about it. (Do something
really visible like serving up a gopher ball in front of 50,000 people.)

b.c.
From: MONTGOMERY@CAMINS.CAMOSUN.BC.CA (Peter Montgomery)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Wifty Explanation
Date: 10 Jan 93 22:14:30 GMT
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From: Natalie Maynor <maynor@RA.MSSTATE.EDU>

> > From: jodonnel@sas.upenn.edu (James J. O'Donnell)
> > Subject: wifty
> > Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 10:05:51 EST
> >
> > that it is *not* unprecedented, since I would love to take credit for a
> > good new word, but it does seem to have at least a little resonance in the
> > world.
> >

If I were a real word-hound instead of only a dilettante, I would
love to trace the source from which James got the word. It would
seem to be obsolete.

Another related word is WAFT. The idea of light, airy, flapping in the
wind, all connect with the use of WIFT as a name for a naval signal flag
indicating distress. I'll bet some lexicographer would love to do a
number on it.
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
From: karsten@netcom.com (karsten)
Subject: Re: Gathering at Emily's/Steve K Lives!
Organization: Karsten's Bit Bucket
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 07:18:23 GMT

IZZYOL9%UCLAMVS.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu (Emily Horning) writes:
> Karsten
> 
> Hey look - a capital K! This, by the way, is the LAST time I invite
> Mr. karsten over here, for anything. Huh...

It was line noise.  The most unusual line noise.  First it produced
a readable English sentence about surplus desserts and then it signed
my name, minus "--" but with an initial capital.

Pretty soon now we can expect the line noise generated works of
Shakespeare.  And they will include the name of the true author.

> I'm going to send karsten a crate <full> of avocados for his birthday.

After I peel away the worthless skin and soft flesh I'll plant the seeds
and grow some nice plants.

--karsten
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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 22:58:28 EST
From:         Entropy Warrior <AUSBROOK@UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: WORDS-L TP: Judge's decision and next question

>I suspect that the lady jogger didn't have a 5 mile long piece of string with
>her so she just guessed the distance. :-) Gorges are not uniform in their
>depth so some guestimations are allowable. In the case of the Grand Canyon -
>it's depth was given as 4,000 to 5,500 feet.... so on the same scale a gorge
>four times deeper would be in the range 16,000 to 22,000 feet and the figures
>Mka quoted have a narrower range than that.
>
>Carolyn

Holy Gorge, Batman.  The List Wombat's gonna save us from Harpin' Harminc and
his devilish sidekick Cyclops.

Yes, Robin, she is a <clever> wombat.

-K

-Mka
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Date:         Wed, 6 Jan 1993 21:30:01 -0600
From:         Doris Smith <dorisann@TENET.EDU>
Subject: Re: Silence...
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Comments: cc: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

I'm breaking the silence, in case anyone is listening.

That scream you hear is coming from me as I try to finalize stupid final
exams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Next year we're supposed to end the semester
before Christmas like normal people.

doris smith (dorisann@tenet.edu)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
From: tjl9@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Thomas J Lee)
Subject: Re: Nuclear
Reply-To: tjl9@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Thomas J Lee)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 22:15:09 GMT

Tony Harminc writes:

TH>I've heard nuculus many times from people who say nucular.  I've never
TH>heard nuculic acid, but it won't surprise me.

	How about the ever-popular teenage anti-zit medication, Cularisil?

Tom Lee
Phonological rule now!
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Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 10:03:00 EST
From:         Blue eyes cryin' in the rain <TRAVEN@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Gleanings (74)
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.EDU

        Welcome back, Akio!!  You've been missed.

>31) Bill Swerski (Neal)

        A recurring skit on Saturday Night Live, involving a group of rabid
        Chicago sports fans, always extolling 'Da Bearsss' or 'Du Bullsss.'
        These men are always stuffing polish sausages and beer into their
        faces, and recounting how many heart attacks they've suffered in the
        past week.

        Anyway, when Chicago sports icon Mike Ditka was fired as coach of Da
        Bearsss, I suggested that SNL would use the occasion for a Swerski
        skit.  I was right, but didn't get to see it myself -- I *think* they
        used it to open the show.  The only reason I know they did the skit is
        that George Wendt (Norm on Cheers, and a semi-regular Swerski
        participant) was wandering around the stage while Danny DeVito filled
        the last 15 seconds at the end of the show.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
neal    traven@pittvms                  Bitnet          412-624-0097 (office)
        traven@vms.cis.pitt.edu         Internet        412-624-0110 (fax)
                    "You're only young once, but you can be immature forever."
                                          -- Larry Andersen, relief pitcher
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Date:         Sun, 10 Jan 1993 15:20:11 CST
From:         Natalie Maynor <maynor@RA.MSSTATE.EDU>
Subject:      One More abh File
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

abh.arrives.london is now in the ftp collection.
   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)
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Date:         Tue, 5 Jan 1993 07:41:14 CST
From:         Natalie Maynor <maynor@RA.MSSTATE.EDU>
Subject: Re: {Operative Human Biological Interchange
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

> >> And is 'Peter fucks himself' a reflexive use?
> >Yes.  But the verb is still transitive.
> >   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)
> What the ...? You mean you are serious. Please explain that
> "intransitive" again, then. Never heard it like that.

What "intransitive"?  I don't understand what you don't understand.

> Anyway, let's get to the bottom of this. Just how frequently
> DO you use this word or hear it used? How accurate are your
> (descriptive) accounts of this word?

Is this question directed to me specifically?  (If everybody would
distinguish "you" from "y'all" consistently, communication would be
easier.)  How often do I use the word "fuck" or hear it used?  That's
hard to answer since I don't keep careful count of such things.  I hear
it more often than I use it.  A wild guess is that I hear it approximately
once every two or three days and use it maybe once every two or three
weeks.  That guess may be far from accurate, of course.  I didn't use
the word at all until I was over 30, btw.  Maybe older than that.  I'm
not sure whether my gradual addition of such words to my vocabulary was
a natural product of aging, was a sign of changing times, or was a result
of teaching in an English department.  It's widely known among people like
secretaries on our campus that English faculty are much more foul-mouthed
around the office than are faculty in other departments.  One of the
questions asked of applicants of secretarial positions is our department
is whether they are offended by hearing "fuck," "shit," etc. around the
office.  I have no idea why English faculty use those words more often
than other faculty.  If we were all linguists, I would say that maybe
it's because we realize that words are simply words.  But our department
is primarily literature, not linguistics.
   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)
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Date:         Wed, 6 Jan 1993 23:37:02 EST
From:         BGRISSOM@UKCC.UKY.EDU
Subject:      Re: WORDS-L TP: Brad's Entertainment Question
              6 Jan 1993 22:52:00 EST from <TRAVEN@VMS.CIS.PITT.EDU>

>>"Who named himself after Long John Baldry and Elton Dean?"
>
>        Do you think they're asking about this person's stage name or real
>        name?

   I hope the card says Elton John, because I sure don't remember
   the birth name.  Science and Nature next, Carolyn.

   brad
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Date:         Fri, 8 Jan 1993 00:58:34 EST
From:         Tony Harminc <EL406045@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Another bodily injury and plans for Thai food
Comments: To: English Language Discussion List <words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu>

Posted on 7 Jan 1993 at 15:57:03 by Anne 'Bandwidth Pig' Harwell

>Chapel at King's College. Late Gothic architecture. My first time inside a
>Gothic Church in person. Damp eyes, y'all. Overwhelming experience. As I
>write this, GT is suggesting a <worldly> metaphor for my reaction, but
>since I was in the House of the Lord, I will decline.

Stone *is* lighter than air after all.

Tony H.
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Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 06:14:03 -0600
From:         Anne Burton Harwell <harwell@TENET.EDU>
Subject:      Re: WORDS-L TP: Gilbert's Entertainment Question
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

On Mon, 11 Jan 1993, Ruth M. Hanschka wrote:

> >(And an ad for the "How to Female Ejaculate" video inside the front
> > cover)
> >
> Sounds interesting, actually.

Damn, I must be getting old. I took one look at that ad (the author of the
book is pictured wearing a satin teddie and smiling wickedly) and thought,
"Be afraid. Be very afraid."

-abh
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Date:         Sun, 10 Jan 1993 18:25:09 CST
From:         Natalie Maynor <maynor@RA.MSSTATE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Oh yeah Glasgow
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

> Bagpipe music is never appropriate, and is acceptable only if being played
> at the far end of a long glen.

I like it when it's down the street.  I enjoy sitting in my backyard and
listening to a neighbor practicing on his bagpipe.
   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)
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Date:         Tue, 5 Jan 1993 12:33:24 EST
From:         Elaine M Brennan <ELAINE%BROWNVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject: Boston Party Tomorrow? On or Off?

so ?   is there a Boston party tomorrow, and if so, where is it,
and would whoever is throwing their home open to the masses send
me directions so the Providence group, such as it is, can
get lost on our way thereto?

many thanks as always...

Elaine, with one of the easy Brown addresses ...
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Date:         Sat, 9 Jan 1993 07:14:19 CST
From:         Natalie Maynor <maynor@RA.MSSTATE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Famous horses
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

> >ndh (who used to spend every Saturday morning at the Ritz Theater watching
> >cowboy movies AND the weekly installment of the serial)
>
> It was Saturday afternoons for me... but I'll bet we saw the same movies and
> serials. One thing I noticed though when they ran some of those serials on

Me too.  (Me too for Saturday afternoons, and me too for betting we saw the
same movies and serials.)  Judith and I ate lunch Dec. 21 with two charming
primatologists (or primatology-related anatomists?) about a block from where
I used to spend Saturday afternoons watching Roy Rogers movies and Superman
serials.
   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)
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Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 21:04:58 GMT
From:         Graham Toal
              <gtoal%rachel.ibmpcug.co.uk%kate.ibmpcug.co.uk@KATE.IBMPCUG.CO.UK>
Subject:      Re: guff
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

:Can anyone tell me the etymology of this word? Also, though it probably
:couldn't be called a dialectal word (and the Dictionary of American
:Regional English doesn't list it) is there a geographic distribution to
:its *active* use?

Which guff is that?  Guff the rubbish or guff the fart?

G
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Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 06:21:35 -0600
From:         Anne Burton Harwell <harwell@TENET.EDU>
Subject:      Re: ankles
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

On Mon, 11 Jan 1993, Nancy Harwood wrote:

> Harwell, how is your ankle?  All better, I hope.  I'm particularly

It's all better, thank you. And it will remain that way until I do it
again. This happens to me from time to time, I am just grateful that I
didn't pick being in a countrty with socialized medicine to do any real
damage to myself in.

-abh
From: harwood@TENET.EDU (Nancy Harwood)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: A couple of easy ones?
Date: 6 Jan 93 01:01:21 GMT
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>
>   I've been struggling for some time now with a *really* difficult problem,
> namely how to translate "you should get away from him". However, you
> can't help me there, so here are a couple of questions.
>
>   What is First Cav?

The First Cav is the U.S. First Cavalry Division, an armored division.

>   What is a "Moe Howard account"?

Was Moe Howard the ringleader of the Three Stooges?

>   What is a Copenhagen can?

A can which contains, or has contained, a popular brand of snuff.  This is the
kind of thing that gets confiscated from high school boys in our school
all the time.
ndh
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Date:         Sat, 9 Jan 1993 10:30:42 -0600
From:         Nancy Harwood <harwood@TENET.EDU>
Subject:      London Bridge
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Since everybody on here knows something about almost everything, I have a
feeling somebody will have the answer to this.  My granddaughter Patricia
(unlike other members of my family) will allow me to sing to her, but only
certain songs.  She seems particularly taken with "Ten Little Indians" and
"Way Down Yonder in the Pawpaw Patch."  She also seems to like
"London Bridge," but I can't remember all the verses.  I remember "London
Bridge is falling down," of course, as well as "Build it up with iron
bars," "Iron bars will bend and break," and "Build it up with silver and
gold."  There are other verses, I *know*, but I can't remember.  Anybody
remember?
ndh (whose grandmother used to sing all of the above, plus the very
depressing "Go Tell Aunt Rhody")
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Date:         Wed, 6 Jan 1993 15:42:19 EST
From:         "Judith E. Schrier" <PRIMATE@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Re: And then the naked ladies came
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

>> the man because men always get *sicker* than women. This is one reason
>
>She's right.  I think that men do get sicker than women.

Nah. Men can just get away with it better...

judith
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Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 12:55:17 MST
From:         Dan Lester <ALILESTE@IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU>
Subject:      Re: The burning fiery furnace
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

On Mon, 4 Jan 1993 18:50:25 +0100 <torkel@SICS.SE> said:
>in the morning, he lights a fire in the fireplace but also "turns on the
>furnace". Later the heat from the "furnace vents" is mentioned. What type
>of furnace would this be? Not, I suppose, a big down-in-the-cellar thing.
>Is it more of a stove?

No, probably a furnace.  Usually they would fit in a small coat-closet
kind of space.  Probably forced air, gas fired.   The other possibility
since the 'furnace vents' is ambiguous would be a wall mounted furnace/
heater....though i'd use the word heater....those are usually gas fired
in the west, though can be electric....

cyclops
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Date:         Tue, 5 Jan 1993 16:14:44 -0600
From:         Doris Smith <dorisann@TENET.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Three-key Sequence Nonsense
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Comments: cc: Multiple recipients of list WORDS-L <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

> I was thinking later about the fact that I've never been intimate with an
> IBM (actual brand) keyboard.  Maybe when using them briefly on computers I
> didn't know well I didn't notice the superfluous keys.  The keyboards I've

Not all IBM (actual brand) keyboards are the same either.  This is being
typed on one that has 12 of the function keys but none of the PF keys.
doris
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Date:         Sun, 10 Jan 1993 22:08:19 +1100
From:         LNCJB@WOMBAT.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU
Subject:      Re: bandwidth back to the trough...
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

>When I was a small child I thought that people might be born with a fixed
>number of words to speak, and that once they had reached their limits
>they would become mute.  Sometime during grade school I rejected this
>notion.

I'm interested to know what your reason for rejecting this hypothesis was -
sounds as reasonable as some of the hypotheses I've read from supposedly
well-informed people recently.

>Now I find that I may have been wasting precious words and
>might end up as poor Graham, unable to communicate after unexpectedly
>reaching this limit at an early age.
>
>--karsten

Running out of words is not as devastating as running out of ideas.... I'm
sure there must be a limit on them.

Carolyn
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
From: karsten@netcom.com (karsten)
Subject: Re: bandwidth back to the trough...
Organization: Karsten's Bit Bucket
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 09:31:47 GMT

Graham Toal writes:
> abh is home in one piece, but has wimped out of posting because she has to

When I was a small child I thought that people might be born with a fixed
number of words to speak, and that once they had reached their limits
they would become mute.  Sometime during grade school I rejected this
notion.  Now I find that I may have been wasting precious words and
might end up as poor Graham, unable to communicate after unexpectedly
reaching this limit at an early age.

--karsten
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Date:         Sat, 9 Jan 1993 23:23:56 CST
From:         samant@CS.UCHICAGO.EDU
Subject:      Re: WORDS-L TP: Ruth's Science/Nature Question
Comments: To: words-l@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU

>>Evidently they are now! However, these words are much older than the systems
>>they now describe and were probably used in Ancient Roman days to describe
>>other things having X number of parts and were adopted for use in mathematics
>>(I guess) sometime last century or earlier when Latin was all the rage.
>
>It would be.:-/

In the interests of clarity, let me state three things.

1) It's not absolutely clear that the Babylonians didn't ever use the duo-
   decimal system. Probably even the Egyptians did. So the words may be
   more recent than the systems.

2) The simple point that Bayla attempted to make is that guessing the
   meaning of the "duodecimal" has nothing to do with mathematics. What
   prompted Bayla to try this will forever remain unknown, but I thought
   that she had asked for it when I observed, wonderstruck, Ruth turning
   it into a question of who got instructed in "new math" at what age.

3) The Romans, not being dumb, used only the word "decimal" for X number of
   parts.

tushar