HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 22:23:04 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         Tushar Samant <tushar%ZAPHOD.UCHICAGO.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: nouns

> if it prompts people to awful puns. (All puns are awful.) The binary
>operation should be called "binary operation" in a  non-mathematical
>forum.

Why, wanna hear sillier jokes about "binary operations" ?

tushar
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Date:         Fri, 17 Apr 1992 07:23:22 GMT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Comments:     Converted from OfficeVision to RFC822 by PUMP V2.2X
From:         "Don Moore (813) 974-4078 S/C 574-4078"
 <DBFABAK%CFRVM.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Reflections on the matter of language change

*** Resending note of 04/17/92 06:07

>You seem to have misunderstood quite a lot, such as the friendly cameraderie
>of this group for example.  Do you always try to wind people up when
>you first meet them?  Is this your standard psychological ploy for getting
>people to notice you when you arrive in a new group?  Rather childish
>I'd say.  Probably gets you beaten up a lot if you try it in bars...

Sounds like tropical fish.  Did/do any of you have such a hobby?  (They
ought to give you your first tank free - it's everything else that costs
a fortune).  Well, anyway, when son was young got him a fish tank and
variety of fish.  Soon found as fish grew, some became very aggressive.
So got second large tank for aggressive fish.  After a little in-fighting,
they settled down and got along quite well.  From time to time one of the
fish in the "peaceful" tank would become too large and aggressive so
would transfer fish to "aggressive" tank.  Well just about every fish
(even the same species - i.e. large Angel fish are not) in the tank jumps
on the newcomer.  IF the fish survives the first hour, that fish is usually
accepted and then becomes part of the group to attach the next newcomer.
So welcome newcomer fish, stay around, the water's fine!
From: gtoal@castle.ed.ac.uk (Graham Toal)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Subject: Re: Gleanings (38)
Date: 9 Apr 92 21:43:56 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

In article <9204091520.AA04033@Ra.MsState.Edu> maynor%RA.MSSTATE.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU (Natalie Maynor) writes:
:> Mark me as one of the ones who strongly dislike (my mother's euphemism, not
:> my preferred verb) it when I hear "assk" pronounced "aks', or "idea" as
:
:Ah, language change....  The metathesis occurred hundreds of years ago.
:I guess the s and k reversed because it's "better" to have the s first.
:In Old English the k preceded the s.
:   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)

Some more:   waps, bridd, thridda...  (wasp, bird, third)

Anyone suggest we should go back to the originals?

G
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Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 08:39:24 EST
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         BGRISSOM%UKCC.UKY.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU
Subject:      Re: Gleanings (39)
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

    37) Honda coma (Brad)

        This is what happens when you try to ride your motorcycle
        during a Bushmill's Haze.

        Actually, it was "Honda momma."  Mama Judith pointed
        out that her leatherware was borrowed from a Honda owner and
        not a Harley owner.

        bog
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Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 21:59:00 EDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         "Aaron Dickey, Jupiter University"
 <AXD7104%NYUACF.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: SHOUT-LAND...HELP!!

Problem solved.  Ronin just explained VMS's exquisite parsing system to me.

Crisis Ends, we now return your to your regular piggery.

--Aaron

PS-- Thanks to all who helped. :)
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Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 10:46:54 +0200
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         torkel%SICS.SE@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU
Subject:      Re: Isaac Asimov
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>
              08 Apr 92 01:05:45 -0400. <9204080508.AA07065@sics.se>

>Is it true that Asimov would not fly ?  I've heard this repeated many times,
>but it sounds like one of those UL things.

  It's accepted as true in fandom, and I think it's correct. Asimov has
been reported as saying that the one thing that would induce him to
fly would be winning the Nobel prize for literature.
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Original-From: hlwpk!ktw (Kenneth T Wolman +1 201 564 2866)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 14:04:00 EDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         ktw%HLWPK.ATT.COM@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU
Subject:      Gleanings 38 1) Louis Mayer/Pat Riley (Ken W.)
Comments: To: WORDS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU

[Talk about linking together unlikes!]

Pat Riley, besides being my 13-year-old son's hero, is coaches the New
York Knicks basketball team.  He won four NBA championships in nine
years coaching the LA Lakers, took a year off to earn big money in the
broadcast booth, and was lured back to coaching last summer when the
Knicks reorganized their entire front office.  Besides being a
motivational and basketball genius who has had the Knicks playing way
over their heads most of the season, he is also the sharpest dresser
among NBA coaches, and is famed for moussing his hair.  Hence the
comment about someone's hair being so slick that it made Pat Riley look
like he'd been in a wind tunnel....

Louis B. Mayer was founder and head of Metro Goldwyn Mayer studios for
many years.  I don't recall his exact relationship with Samuel Goldwyn,
but Mayer wielded immense power in Hollywood, and was a fantastically
crude man (the producer in _Barton Fink_ is a pretty good parody).  The
classic story about Mayer's vulgarity was told around John Gilbert's
engagement to Greta Garbo as the culmination of a torrid love affair.
The wedding date was set.  However, Garbo would not go through with it:
she literally left Gilbert standing at the church.  Gilbert was beside
himself with grief.  Mayer is supposed to have clapped him on the back
and roared, "What the hell's the difference?  You were fuckin' her
plenty, so what'ja wanna marry her for, anyway?"  Supposedly, Gilbert
punched Mayer: that blow, not his ordinary speaking voice, being the
reason his career in Hollywood came to a halt.

      9) IRT (Ken W.)

Interborough Rapid Transit, the oldest (1904) of the three original
New York City subway companies.  The other two were the BMT
(Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) and IND (Independent).  There was also
the SIRT (Staten Island Rapid Transit), which had charm that the other
three never approached.

     13) Emanuel Goldstein (Ken W.)

Emanuel Goldstein is the name of a man who runs a talk show on Pacifica
Radio's WBAI affiliate in New York.  It's about telephones, computers,
hacking, and privacy issues.  I suspect that "Emanuel Goldstein" is a
pseudonym, and that whoever he really is, he named himself after the
mythological insurgent in Orwell's _1984_.

     23) U.I.B. (Ken W.)

Unemployment Insurance Benefits.

     26) Alfred Jarry (Les)

So-called Dada-ist French playwright, late 19th century, whose most
famous work is called _Ubu Roi_.  It started a riot in 1896 because of
the title character's first word: MERDRE!

Ken
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Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 23:46:00 MDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         The Ronin <WHITERJ%MSCD.BITNET@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: CALLING ALL STUDENTS OF RUSSIAN

Sayeth        Lobstrosities Unite <CHRISS@CWU.BITNET>

>And a child doesn't internalize the rules so much as internalizing their
>understanding of the system. That's why children have grammatical
>inconsistencies: *doggses* and *feets* for instance. Their understanding of the
>system is incomplete.  And yet, to form plurals, using your rule-based (dare I
>say) system, they must have internalized some sort of "plural" rule. But the
>rule breaks down very quickly. If, on the other hand, they've absorbed a
>system, their system can self-correct instead of having to internalize yet
>another rule and maybe another until they finally get the correct rule.

     Your examples are part of English, but are they truly part of
grammar?  Never mind, because the same effect can be seen with
exceptions to how to form tenses ('goed' for 'gone').  Onward.

     This sounds like your rules have to be iron-clad and unbreakable,
in which case they will break frequently.  I have never seen this sort
of rule work outside of equally rigidly defined arenas, and not always
then.  Computer languages are *not* as fully defined as your system
would require.  Anyone doubting this has very little experience
porting software between competing vendors.  If one allows rules to
have exceptions built into them, or allows rules that have higher
relative priorities (i.e. the plural rule for feet overrides the
plural rule for adding a 's'), then these systems can be described to
the extent that they are recognized and described.  But the system
will always have a little niche that wasn't explored or that altered
while the description of the known system was being elaborated.  These
could well be likened to the 'laws' of physical science, which attempt
to cover that which has been seen and reported, but will fall short
when confronted with something 'new'.
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Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 21:53:55 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         Frank Peters <fwp%CC.MSSTATE.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: TV
Comments: To: words-l@uga.cc.uga.edu

   I missed the first part of the computer series because our stupid local
   tv listings were wrong!!  According to the local guide, it was on last
   night at 9.  I just put the tape in that I made last night of what I
   thought was about computers and found that it's about contaminated water!
   Nothing against the topic of contaminated water, but I wanted to see
   something about computers.  <dirty word>

I recorded it...my TV Guide (the real thing...accept no cheap newspaper
substitutes) listed it correctly.

Once again, Derek Jacobi does a brilliant job of stuttering to the
script.

--Fwp, who dug out his old GNUS manual and is trying to resurrect
       dead memories.
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Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 18:26:16 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         Tushar Samant <tushar%ZAPHOD.UCHICAGO.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      nouns

Forget about "to defense". Even "to reference" and "to critique" sounds
strange to me.

And now, here is an unbelievable noun I saw in a textbook : "to memoize".

tushar
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Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 19:56:00 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         "815 Stephen H. Karlson 753-6980"
 <TA0SHK1%NIU.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Tarmac rugrats

Aaron protests, while relating the story of his worst enemy now
serving as a meter reader (just above dean on the evolutionary
scale), "I certainly wouldn't want to be accused of gaining
happiness from other's suffering."

Yeah, sure.

Steve Karlson
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Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 11:52:45 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         Anne Harwell <aharwell%PANAM1.PANAM.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: List Coma
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

>Is it something I can do with my mail program?  Is it just a fad of the
>week?  Enquiring minds want to know.


It's just the fad of the week. Don't worry, we'll be onto something equally
inane by this time next week.

-abh
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Date:         Tue, 14 Apr 1992 18:28:00 MDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         The Ronin <WHITERJ%MSCD.BITNET@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: sad thought

Replieth     CGOODSON

>one (racial segregation) seems to me to be based on contempt, while the
>other (economic segregation) perhaps has a more pragmatic foundation:
>the sons and daughters of wealthier families, as the future leaders of society,
>could be presumed to need a different kind of education, suited to their future
>roles... for example, they would need French more than Shop...
>Meanwhile, I'm not sure I like having to defend this system either....just
>being the devil's advocate, keeping my personal views at bay../

     It is a good thing you added those last two lines, or else I
would have invited you to leave the South.  There was enough trouble
with the original carpetbaggers.

     Attacking the above is not much fun, as it is too easy.  The
French vs Shop example just shows how easy it would be to
differentiate based on birth, which is fundamentally what racism is.
In your 'defense' you are defending that power should be limitted to
the families that already have it and that there should be passwords
to identify who is among the elite and who isn't (like speaking
French), and seems to imply an effort to keep the 'lower' classes from
learning these passwords.  Not unlike keeping slaves illiterate.  I am
glad to see that you had trouble putting your heart into this.  I may
take a stab at attacking my position because it does have a couple of
flaws in it that I feel need to be exposed.

The Ronin
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Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 20:44:51 EDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         Tony Harminc <TONY%VM1.MCGILL.CA@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Gleanings 38 1) Louis Mayer/Pat Riley (Ken W.)

>>     13) Emanuel Goldstein (Ken W.)
>
>        Yes, it is a pseudonym.  I even know what his real name is.  As
> a matter of fact, I met him in DC a couple weeks back.  Interesting man..
>
>Rita

Isn't he one of the original Phone Phreaks from the Cap'n Crunch and Joe
Engressia era ?

Tony H.
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Date:         Fri, 10 Apr 1992 15:12:00 EDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         "Aaron Dickey, The Happy Spore"
 <AXD7104%NYUACF.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: TV

Actually, pencils should be banned, as they're discriminatory towards
left-handers such as myself.  It smears all over the place when we
write.  :)

--Aaron
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Date:         Thu, 9 Apr 1992 21:01:10 EDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         Rita Marie Rouvalis <rita%EFF.ORG@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: The People in Cambridge
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu
              92 7:47 pm

>
> So where's our detailed report of the goings-on???
>    --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)

	Hang on!  I'm composing it!  Just got back you know!

Czarina
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Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 08:14:00 PST
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         Lobstrosities Unite <CHRISS%CWU.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: sad thought

>Another view: I'm not 100% convinced that early reading is the best thing in
>all ways.  I learned to read very early, and devoured all sorts of things.
>I think I was about eight when I read the Narnia books.  The problem was
>that my reading skills were far ahead of my other reasoning - I completely
>missed the allegorical aspects of Narnia and read them as pure adventure
>stories.  When I reread them as a teenager I was appalled, both because I
>was embarassed at what I'd missed, and because I was annoyed at Lewis for
>trying to sneak such nonsense past an innocent child.
>
>Tony H.

I read them for the first time at about 8 years old, too.  I had no problem
with the allegorical aspects, though.  Perhaps it was my religious upbringing
or whatever, but it just never presented much of a problem.

As to the nonsense, that's personal opinion.  I found the allegorical stories
(mainly 1, 6 and 7) to be a unique way of approaching the crucifiction,
creation, and death (or judgement day or whatever).  I've read the whole series
at least 15 times now and I never grow tired of it, especially after reading
some of this other works, fiction and non-fiction alike.

Chris
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Date:         Fri, 10 Apr 1992 15:10:00 EDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         "Aaron Dickey, The Happy Spore"
 <AXD7104%NYUACF.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Ashe and AIDS

Anne--

The remark about the Constitution was DEFINITELY in jest.  The only
thing I really want to an Amendment for is something to prevent
"America's Funniest Home Videos" from being allowed on the air. :)

The fact that the reporter directly called Ashe didn't cause me
anguish, exactly...just a knawing feeling that there could have been a
better way to do it than cold-calling him like that.  The conecpt of:

*RING*

Ashe: Hello?

Reporter: Hi, I'm from USA TODAY.  Do you have AIDS?

Ashe: Uh...er...ah....

is really sickening to me.  I'm not saying USA TODAY should have ignored
the story, just that it could have been handled MUCH more humanely
toward Ashe and his family.  It seems instead that it was more of a
direct threat: "This is going in tomorrow's paper whether you help us
or not."  THAT's what bugs me.

--Aaron
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Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 13:12:00 MST
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         "Lisa J. Gilmore" <TSLGILMORE%CC.WEBER.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject: Re: words-l history
Comments: To: WORDS-L@uga.cc.uga.edu

>It doesn't seem too long ago that we often seriously apologized for being
>off topic or not WORDS related.  Most postings really did have something
>to do with words, grammar, etymology, and so on.  Then we went through a
>stage when pseudo apologies were popular - "just to keep this WORDS related,
>what *is* the meaning of ...?"  And now we really don't pretend any more.

I like the informal format...  LJG
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X-Prolog:     University of South Florida
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Date:         Mon, 6 Apr 1992 12:43:34 GMT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
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From:         DBFABAK%CFRVM.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU
Subject:      Degree-dropping (was: Re: A Modest Proposal)

*** Resending note of 04/06/92 12:32

>too.  Otherwise you can make the coffee....

Having no degree, and worse being a lowly enlisted person, many years ago
I was asked, make that orders, to make the coffee ..despite the fact I do
not drink coffee or had ever made coffee.  Well, this was a pot that you
put coffee in a container to perk.  Knowing nothing about coffee making,
but wanting to be sure they (Officers) had plenty of coffee, I filled the
container completely ...and maybe a little more.  I was never again asked
to make coffee.  (Sometimes it is a great benefit to be thought a lowly
and DUMB person).

PS.  Not all is well with WORDS-L - only *one* letter on Sunday's archives,
     and none for today.
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Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 22:35:18 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         Tushar Samant <tushar%ZAPHOD.UCHICAGO.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: econometrics

>Tushar confuses:
>
>[Lots of math talk deleted]

Look, I was not confusing. I was merely explaining in beautifully
constructed prose a difficult concept, in a style which is a model
of economy and elegance, yet not skimping on important details. In
short, it was an exhaustive but not garrulous account, in the inimitable
manner which everyone over the months has come to expect from me.



>    We can only think of math.
>    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>** PAH! **

Actually, I'd say it was worth it if only to hear a "pah", a word
which recalls the glorious Raj, so rarely heard in this strange
corner of the world.

Not that this needs explanation, but I must make clear that I was
spouting a pet metaphysical theory that human beings will always
turn to "math" as they delve deeper in analysing the physical world.
They can't help it. That's the only way in which they can reason.

tushar
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Date:         Sun, 12 Apr 1992 21:49:46 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         "Natalie Maynor" <maynor%RA.MSSTATE.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: List Moved: WORDS-L English Language Discussion G

> fact the listowner is not a sir.

Oh...  Check the list headers sometime.  One of the listowners is
Sir Bernard Chien Perro. :-)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
From: bayla@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Bayla Singer)
Subject: Re: Isaac Asimov
Organization: Independent scholar
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 03:55:09 GMT

How I got to meet the Good Doctor:  In the '80s, he chaired a series of
annual seminars in upstate New York, which one could attend simply by
payment of a reasonable fee (which included board and room for 5 days).
One year, the topic was "Biotechnology," and I was at that time preparing
an exhibit at the Franklin Institute on the same topic.  I managed to talk
my boss into letting me go as a business trip, with the rationale that all
those science fiction fans (who else would go to such a thing?) would have
marvelous ideas about what should go into the exhibit.  

As with most Truly Awesome people, I found him to be charming and gracious.

--bayla
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Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 06:08:03 CDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         "Natalie Maynor" <maynor%RA.MSSTATE.EDU@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: ODDS 'N' ENDS

> statement to object to. What would it mean to think that there is something
> wrong with linguistic change, if "linguistic change" is such a tenuous
> abstraction, carefully divorced from human culture and the uses of
> language?

I don't agree that linguistic change is an "abstraction" or is "divorced
from human culture and the uses of language."  If it's divorced from
human culture, why does it sometimes reflect cultural changes?  A simple
look at lexicon shows the clear connection between language and culture:
words are added when needed, die out when not needed.  I agree, however,
that the concept of "something wrong with linguistic change" seems pretty
meaningless.
   --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)
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