HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Fri, 11 Dec 1992 21:43:21 GMT
From:         Graham Toal <gtoal@PIZZABOX.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject:      Re: Gleanings (71
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

:Posted by a santimonious twit (not Tushar, the other one)

:>No offence, but the people who did best the time I tried trivial pursuit
:>were dick-brained morons.  I know I shouldn't generalise, but it seemed
:>that knowledge of useless trivia was inversely proportional to intelligence...
:>
:>(Intelligence being to some extent a function of wide knowledge, but
:>in my humble opinion knowledge that has been filtered for content rather
:>than an accumulation of all trivia one is exposed to coupled with a
:>lack of discrimination in storing it)
:>
:>G

:coming from someone who would certainly qualify as a dick-brained moron under
:this definition, I find myself compelled to express my surprise that you would
:be so jejune as to believe that intelligence has only one definition. I have

"being to some extent" signifies to readers of intelligence that I
appreciate that there are many other facets grouped under the umbrella
of intelligence.

:discovered in my life that people who are insecure about something (well,
:everyone really, but especially them) are careful to define that something
:in terms as close as possible to their perception of themselves, trying to
:build up their own self-esteem by excluding as many others as possible.

But you're inferring a corollary that I didn't imply.  I didn't say anywhere
that failure to remember trivia was a sign of intelligence.  I meant most
positively that the ability to remember countless trivia (as typified by
being good at trivial pursuit, rather than say the more specialised
knowledge of Mastermind) might well be a sign of an empty vacuous and
indiscriminating mind.

:I have lost once in my life at TP. I would prefer having a brain that was less
:trivia-oriented and a bit better able to retain the <big picture>, but I still
:do a damn good job of that, thank you. And I suspect that having to arrive at
:the <big picture> via some sort of neural detour provides a greater ability to
:have a fresh perception of it than those who always take the trunk route in.

It isn't unreasonable that intelligent people can amass trivia too; just
that from my small observed sample the TPers I know were unquestionably
dick-brains, and Trivial Pursuit was the *only* thing they did well in
life.  I'm aware of the fallacy of making sweeping generalisations from
two data.  It was mean humourously, despite the lack of smileys for the
benefit of dick-brained morons...

:you really do have an amazingly blinkered view of the world sometimes, graham.

You ain't see *nuffin* yet!

:b.c.
G
From: bsinger@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Bayla Singer)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: I think we're alone now....
Date: 13 Dec 92 16:02:49 GMT


>What shall we talk about, now that the poor Internetters and Bitnetters can't
                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^

What's this?  Is an Internetter different from a Usenetter?  Then I must
look like a cross-eyed Venn diagram: I'm on Internet, reading words-l
on Usenet.

--bayla 



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Date:         Sat, 12 Dec 1992 12:45:30 +1000
From:         LNCJB@WOMBAT.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU
Subject:      Re: Trivial Pursuit
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

>I've never played so I don't know the rules.  I'm game for a game, though.
>
>By the way, who said,
>
>"You still don't get the big brain thing, do you?"
>
>* Alt-Brad *

I seem to have lost my rule sheet, but since they would have to be modified
anyway (how does one role a dice by email?), I think we should establish the
rules before we start playing.

I think the order of players should be the order I received the messages
indicating participation in the game (blomberg, first; evelyn, second; etc.....
.... me, last). There will be as many games running concurrently as there are
individual countries represented on the list.... at the moment this looks like
3 (or 4, if Tushar really does have an Indian version of the game; or 5 if
Graham joins in).... Canada, Australia and the US. As each persons turn comes
up he/she nominates which category of five (Geography; English; History; Art/
Literature; Science/Nature; Sports/Leisure) and then the next players from
different countries will post a question on that topic. For example, after
choosing his topic, blomberg will have two questions to answer - one from
Evelyn and one from me. If he gets both of them correct he then chooses
another topic, but if he misses out on one or both play passes to Evelyn who
chooses her topic and then has to answer a question from me and one from the
next American player. The winner is the first person who answers correctly
the 10 questions from the other countries.

Do you think this will work? Does anyone want to change anything? If not,
as soon as the list of players is completed and posted, we can begin.

Carolyn
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Date:         Fri, 18 Dec 1992 13:09:21 EST
From:         jc-s <GE777009@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject:      plans for salmon bake
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Ok. Lets get started here.  Is the salmon bake really
going to happen in portland or?

if so, i will mail to the owners of John Palmer House,
a great b&b the marine and i stayed at when we were out
in October.  They are just the sort of people who
will appreciate a words-l group. They also have a hottub.

i'm sure they will give us a special rate if we fill the
joint (they only have about 6 rooms, so it won't take much)
so, if you-all think its a good idea, i'll start working
on it.  There are also some other lovely places to stay,
if you're not into icky hotels.      I have a comprehensive
list at home, replete with stars, and notes compliments
of Dwayne and Tara Thomas (my friends out there)

Now, are we really gonna bake salmon? if so, is this something
that carol and clint are handling? If i should start calling
around someone should let me know.

How about a show of hands, so we'll know what we're working with.

I'm not sure how much legwork clint and carol have done, so
if i'm stepping on people's toes on this thing, let me know.
Politely, of course.

Jenna
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Date:         Wed, 16 Dec 1992 00:00:38 +1000
From:         LNCJB@WOMBAT.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU
Subject:      Re: <sigh>
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

>Arggggggh!!!!!  Tell me about it!  I'm dialed in through pure copper, and
>sometimes I get to hear *every* mile of it....  Screws up some of my local
>BBS calls no end.  It's even dropped carrier on me before.

Guess you know just how I feel then...... it's been dropping the carrier on me
at least once a day since this trouble started, which is why I have been late
with  many of my responses, since I have to pay for local calls, when it does
that to me I shutdown for a few hours and try again later. :-(

Carolyn
From: ap290@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ruth M. Hanschka)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Grammatical question...
Date: 16 Dec 92 21:40:42 GMT
Reply-To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, LNCJB@WOMBAT.NEWCASTLE.EDU.AU () says:

>>indoors *have* to be newbies here - the previous tenants are by now catfood.
>I've noticed that the mice our cat catches seem to be getting younger each year
>I hope this year he manages to catch them before they're born. :-)
>
Preggie mice?  Retroactive rodent abortions seem to work well enough...:-)
>
>I haven't let the cat passed the front door since it tried to trip me up in
>the kitchen one evening while I was cooking tea..... could have caused me a
>very nasty accident. He mainly stays out on the front verandah now, when he's
>not off chasing mice or 'annoying' the dog/s.
>
Ours won't go out!  At least, not this time of year, or not for very long
anyway.  I'm used to having cats under my feet in the kitchen - they move
when you shove them.:-)

>Said 'dumb dog' chomped both my cats when they were smaller..... killed the
>prettiest one, but somehow Socrates survived and very soon managed to get his
>own back...... ripped Cheetah's (or is that Cheater's) face open the next time
>he tried it and now he runs away every time the cat comes near him.:-)
>
THat sounds like my kind of cat!  If the enemy misses you the first time,
nail his a** before he can try it again....:-)  My cousin used to have a
dog that was terrified of my two cats, or kittens as they were then.  The
dog tried to cozy up to the kittens; they went for poor Varna's nose, and
succeeded in backing 30 kilos of german shepherd [give or take one or two
Ks] under the dining room table.  The kittens weighed about two K each
at the time....:-)
-- 
		###	Ruth Hanschka, the Nethead    ###
			- ap290@cleveland.freenet.edu
	      Where anything can happen, and it usually does
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Date:         Fri, 18 Dec 1992 13:56:54 -0600
From:         Anne Burton Harwell <harwell@TENET.EDU>
Subject:      Re: HEY....FROM THE NITEMAN
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

On Fri, 18 Dec 1992 HELP%Help%VMI@IST.VMI.EDU wrote:

I knew I was leaving something off my top 5 lowlights...

-abh
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Date:         Sat, 12 Dec 1992 07:42:28 -0600
From:         Anne Burton Harwell <harwell@TENET.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Grammatical question...
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>

On Sat, 12 Dec 1992, Graham Toal wrote:

> :weren't so <innocent> by the end of the play.  Lying, lusting, sex, murder
> :and mayhem will all tend to do that to a person....:-)  Or were you
> :referring to me?<heh>  <heh heh> <heh heh heh>
>
> Did you ever work out what <the love that dare not speak its name> was
> referring to, by the way?

Oscar Wilde, in "De Profundis." (I think)
BTW, why hasn't anyone yet repeated the 1970's rejoinder that now it's the
love that won't shut up?

Kids these days, I <swan>.

-abh
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Date:         Mon, 14 Dec 1992 21:33:05 EST
From:         Rashmi <rashmi%Spl3.ECE.Drexel.EDU@COE.DREXEL.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Gleanings (72)
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu
              Dec 14, 92 4:48 pm

> By the way, are foreign residents required to be fingerprinted in the
> United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden or any other
> places?

Not all foreign residents.  It wasn't required when I was a student, but I
had to be fingerprinted when I got my "Employment Authorization Card"
recently.

-rashmi
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Fri, 11 Dec 1992 16:57:31 EST
From:         Brad Baxter <BBAXTER@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject:      Trivial Pursuit

I've never played so I don't know the rules.  I'm game for a game, though.

By the way, who said,

"You still don't get the big brain thing, do you?"

* Alt-Brad *
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Date:         Fri, 18 Dec 1992 20:22:50 GMT
From:         Graham Toal <gtoal@RACHEL.IBMPCUG.CO.UK>
Subject:      Re: Vicious rumors....
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

        THEN I'll show him where I keep the plunger.

What???!!!  Ken playing 'hide the plunger' with Adam???!!!

I think we should be told :)

G
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Date:         Wed, 16 Dec 1992 19:39:33 EST
From:         ll23%nemomus@ACADEMIC.NEMOSTATE.EDU
Subject:      Re: Now for something completely anal-retentiv
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Posted on 16 Dec 1992 by Aaron Dickey
>Really?  That's odd...on boring spring days, one of my favorit e pastimes
>has been to go sit on the front steps of our dorm with my roommate and
>play "Guess Who's the Professor".  We enjoyed about a 90% success rate.

I will never forget my first Christmas party w/ our 'new' univ. president:
he thought I was one of the campus janitorial staff.

Karen
who sometimes wishes she were.
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Date:         Thu, 17 Dec 1992 23:22:06 -0800
From:         Peter Montgomery <MONTGOMERY@CAMINS.CAMOSUN.BC.CA>
Subject:      What the Sam Hill?
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

Anybody know what the saying "Sam Hill" or
"What the Sam Hill" means?

My father used to use it as an expression of anger, and my
 mother would always do her typically housewifely thing of
 chastising him for swearing in front of the children. Quite
 a funny little dance really, since we (the children) didn't
 have the slightest idea of what it meant.


*************************************************************
*  Peter Montgomery               Montgomery@camosun.bc.ca  *
*************************************************************
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Fri, 11 Dec 1992 14:36:00 EST
From:         CROSEN%BGSUOPIE.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu
Subject:      Re: Gleanings (71

Greetings,

Once you fellows get through calling each other dick-brained twits and
sanctimonious sophomorons, I hope someone will explain how knowledge and
intelligence fit together.  This humbly clueless twit thinks that one
kind of intelligence (good memory) supports one's ability to store data
that can be construed as "knowledge."  One might think "analytical"
ability is part of a more general package that might also be called
"intelligence."  In point of fact, I used to fare pretty well at Trivial
Pursuit, myself.  I often had to "reason" answers, though, rather than
simply recall them.  For instance, I recall a question (one that seems
strangely apropos at the present moment) asking for the name of a
person who invented a kind of flour thought to have felicitous health
properties.  After a half minute or so of intense reflection, it occurred to
me that "Graham" crackers might be made from this flour, and so they are;
prior to that moment, I had been unaware of the derivation of Graham.  Of
course, within the friendly confines of word-l, we are all too painfully
aware of the relationship between Graham and crackers.

Marty
From: ap290@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ruth M. Hanschka)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Gleanings (71)
Date: 11 Dec 1992 21:10:42 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, R3EJD%AKRONVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu (Evelyn Duncan) says:

>OK, I'm game!  WORDS-L Trivial Pursuit.
>
Let's do it!   

>
-- 
		###	Ruth Hanschka, the Nethead    ###
			- ap290@cleveland.freenet.edu
	      Where anything can happen, and it usually does
From: kieran@world.std.com (Aaron L Dickey)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Red Line Story
Date: 21 Dec 92 04:54:46 GMT
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA

gtoal@pizzabox.demon.co.uk (Graham Toal) writes:
      ^^^^^^^^
I hope this is just a coincidence...

>Don't go to Edinburgh then: Greasy Rizi does a wonderful deep-fried-in-lard
>pizza that's *soaked* in the stuff.  Cooked just like you'd cook french
>fries.

::urp::  Yeccch...let me guess, it comes standard with pineapple slices,
doesn't it?

--Aaron
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Original-From: Ken Wolman <mhwpa!ktw>
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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Thu, 17 Dec 1992 11:21:47 EST
From:         ktw@MHWPA.ATT.COM
Subject:      Re: Fiedler

> Today would have been Arthur Fiedler's 98th B'day. Whe he was in Syracuse
> in the late 70s to conduct the Symphony, the company I was working for
> had a reception for him and I was stunned to see how frail he looked
> and how slowly he moved. Later that evening, when he stepped out
> onto the stage, he was powerful and radiated youthful energy. I have
> never forgotten that contrast.
>                                               Br Paul

I had a similar experience watching Leopold Stokowski in 1961.  He
conducted a new production of Puccini's _Turandot_ at the old (real!)
Metropolitan Opera.  He had to be 80 if he was a day, his health was
already failing, and he'd broken his hip.  It took him about five
minutes to walk from the entrance of the orchestra pit to the podium.
The sound, however, that he drew from an orchestra that back then was
little better than a pick-up band was one of the most incredible
things I'd ever heard.
--
Kenneth Wolman                  |       I'm a Doctor, you're a Doctor
AT&T Bell Laboratories          |       He's a Doctor, she's a Doctor,
(201)564-2866                   |       Wouldn't'cha like to be
Kenneth.Wolman@att.com          |       A Doctor too??
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Date:         Sat, 19 Dec 1992 20:02:38 +0100
From:         torkel@SICS.SE
Subject:      Re: The Geometry of Boxes and Jugs
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
              19 Dec 92 12:12:14 -0600. <9212191818.AA07967@sics.se>

  >How 'bout "And pampered swells with one blood made of two"?  That sounds
  >kind of mathematical.

  It does? Natalie, yours is a twisted mind.

  >But of course!  The problem is that being round we don't fit the angles of
  >the corners as well as if we were cubes.

  It is quite possible for round entities to fit into corners. It's just
a matter of gently squeezing, of adopting a "think positive" approach.
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Date:         Sat, 19 Dec 1992 18:12:57 EST
From:         ll23%nemomus@ACADEMIC.NEMOSTATE.EDU
Subject:      Re: Camillemania
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Posted on 19 Dec 1992 at 17:53:59 by Aaron L Dickey
>>> Suprising.  Is she your hero in terms of her opinions, her personality, or
>>> both?
>>Yes.
>Amazing.  The inherent contradictions in this place never fail to surprise me.

Does this mean that you have FINALLY stopped making assumptions about people
you don't know well enough to?

Karen
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Date:         Sat, 12 Dec 1992 14:30:17 EST
From:         Rashmi <rashmi%Spl3.ECE.Drexel.EDU@COE.DREXEL.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Trivial Pursuit
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Carolyn proposes:
> >Why wait! With slight modification of the rules we could set up our own
> >international game right here..... it wouldn't be much different from reading
> >the 'Gleanings' and there seems to be a great deal of interest in them.
> >Anyone want to play?

Judith asks:
>How would this be any different from what goes on here all
>the time? (Except of course, that someone would be "keeping
>score"...something I disapprove of.)

Did I miss the answer to this, 'cos the same  question occurred to me.
Regular wordslers should have little difficulty in guessing someone's area
of expertise, STS - who knows *everything* about movies, TV trivia, arcane
songs, baseball stats, trains, whatever.

I didn't understand the rules - are onlookers permitted?  I'd like to watch.

-rashmi
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Date:         Fri, 11 Dec 1992 23:45:46 EST
From:         Tony Harminc <EL406045@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Was Wondering; tense
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

Posted on 11 Dec 1992 at 16:36:04 by Graham Toal

>I think the distinction is between people who talk on automatic and
>people who think about what they're going to say before they say it.
>It's the same difference between people who drive completely automatically
>and people who are *consciously* aware of everything that's going on
>around them.  The same difference between people who see someone throwing
>something at them and catch it by reflex and people who see something
>thrown at them and consciously evaluate whether it's likely to be
>painful to catch (like a bunch of keys) and *decide* whether to catch
>it or let it drop in the same space of time

Mixed examples here.  Being 'on automatic' is a necessity for decent
performance of any activity like driving or catching.  If I had to
devote conscious attention to every action involved in driving
from here to work I'd be a nut case.  The trick is in having the
automatic mode programmed to recognize exceptional cases and awaken
the conscious self (who is probably concentrating on the radio or
a conversation).  Obviously this works better with something done
often - I might well fall for the bunch of keys thrown at me
because I don't catch things very often.

These are useful skills.  Talking on automatic can be one too - I
spend quite a bit of time on the phone with my mother in law on
automatic.  I can read a book (or WORDS-L) at the same time,
confident that my conscious self will be notified if needed to
actually think about what needs to be said next.  Normal 'uh huh'
answers just run themselves.  There may indeed be people who
are on automatic when they *make* phone calls, however.

Tony H.
From: gtoal@RACHEL.IBMPCUG.CO.UK (Graham Toal)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Urbana cuisine
Date: 19 Dec 92 16:15:32 GMT
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Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu


        I wonder if they still offer their bigger burritos - the ones
        supposed to be much bigger than "as big as your head".

That must b... na, it's somebody else's turn...

G
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Date:         Sat, 19 Dec 1992 13:20:59 +0100
From:         torkel@SICS.SE
Subject:      Re: The Geometry of Boxes and Jugs
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
              19 Dec 92 06:01:03 -0600. <9212191204.AA26720@sics.se>

  A revelation from Natalie:

  >I briefly considered majoring in math because I always thought it was fun.
  >It was kind of like playing games for class credit.  But when I decided to
  >stick to English (since I found English majors more fun to party with than
  >math majors), I never took any more math.

  Do you remember just what made these math majors so boring? Alan Adler had
an interesting article in sci.math some time ago in which he reflected that
mathematicians lead boring lives, and can find nothing to talk to each
other about outside mathematics except the boring lives of other
mathematicians.
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Date:         Fri, 18 Dec 1992 11:45:18 EST
From:         Evelyn Duncan <R3EJD%AKRONVM.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu>
Subject:      Re: English?

A Natalie et Bernard:
  Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee!