BS: Imponderables

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: CarolC
Date: 22 May 05 - 10:23 PM

Why is it that I can think of a gazillion of these things 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except when someone starts a thread about them, and then I can't even think of one?


"The opposite of gravity is levity"

--Eric Idle

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: John O'L
Date: 22 May 05 - 11:17 PM

So is levy stuff to make your roast potatoes dry?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: LilyFestre
Date: 23 May 05 - 12:14 AM

Does my blue look like your green?

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 23 May 05 - 03:24 AM

Does your bum look big in that?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: *Laura*
Date: 23 May 05 - 06:33 AM

LilyFestre - I've ALWAYS wondered that!?
What if the colour you see grass is the same colour as the colour I see the sky - but we've both learnt to call them green and blue (or grey depending where you live)!

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Splott Man
Date: 23 May 05 - 07:57 AM

Why was Thornton Wilder?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 May 05 - 08:05 AM

How can you possibly write there are three ways of spelling to
How can you possibly write there are three ways of spelling too
How can you possibly write there are three ways of spelling two

Bugged me for years...

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 23 May 05 - 08:29 AM

Witch way is rite?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Trevor
Date: 23 May 05 - 09:46 AM

Why do 'flammable' and 'inflammable' mean the same thing?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bill D
Date: 23 May 05 - 02:47 PM

Why do people not read the earlier posts before repeating the same ones? Now, that's imponderable!

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 23 May 05 - 05:44 PM

Have you ever met someone who was occuous.....an inoccuous question?

People can be obnoxious, or just plain noxious. What the hell is ob?

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 23 May 05 - 06:37 PM

Why do people keep asking hypothetical questions?

When it quite obvious that hypothetical is not going to answer?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 24 May 05 - 09:34 AM

Why am I the only person anwering these?


Ob- Latin prefix, meaning towards, so obnoxious is being noxious towards someone.

In- in words derived from Latin and Old English prefix, used to from verbs with the sense in. sometimes used as to from other parts of speech, sometimes used as an intensive or almost meaningless prefix, or to form a negative in words with latin roots.

im- same as in-, but used for words beginning b,m or p

il- same as in-, but used for words beginning l

ir- same as in-, but used for words beginning r

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 24 May 05 - 09:52 AM

"Why do people keep asking hypothetical questions?

When it quite obvious that hypothetical is not going to answer?"

Yeah S.....es, why do you?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 24 May 05 - 02:28 PM

"Inflammable" is the correct word."Flammable" is a made-up word, often put on trucks and such because it is believed that many people will translate "inflammable" to mean "not able to burn or explode."

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 25 May 05 - 02:48 AM

What is the difference between a hypothetical question and a rhetorical question?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 25 May 05 - 03:31 AM

Well, let's say we're for instance that we're asking a hypothetical question.....:-).

A hypotheitical question has some sort of hypothesis at its core, so it's not important that the situation the question sets up is not an actual situation. It is there as an example to serve the hypothesis. A typical beginning to a hypothetical questions is: "Let's say for the sake of argument that...."
A rhetorical question doesn't require an answer, and usually doesn't seek an answer. It's making a statement in the form of a question. I like this Jewish joke that illustrates a rhetorical question:

A man walks by a shop with clocks and watches exibited in the window. He walks in and asks the shopkeeper at the counter if he could fix his watch. The shopkeeper say's, "I'm sorry, you're in the wrong place. I'm a Moyel. I perform circumcisions." The man say's, "Then why do you have all those clocks and watches in your window?" The Moyel say's, "So, what should I put in my window?"

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 25 May 05 - 04:01 AM

What is the difference between a hypothetical question and a rhetorical question?

A rhetorical question is one you already know the answer to, (Is this laywer going to cost me alot of money?) whereas a hypothetical question is an impossible or meaningless one (what happened before time began?, what does yellow smell of? etc)

BTW, if flammable is a made up word to avoid confusion over what inflammable means, it was done a long time before the current safety and lawsuits culture. Inflammable seems to be 14th C(Oxford etymological dictionary), flammable is harder to find, but I have a feeling it's not modern.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: John O'L
Date: 25 May 05 - 05:04 AM

Why do people make posts without checking if that post has already been made?
Now THAT'S imponderable.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 25 May 05 - 05:12 AM

Because cross-posting is easy, especially when you spend some time composing a message as you're trying to find word origins....

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST,John O'Lennaine
Date: 25 May 05 - 05:27 AM

Bunnahabhain -

You missed my point. I wasn't having a go at you. See Bill D's post of 23 May 05 - 02:47 PM

Once again I'm reduced to having to explain my wit. A sad thing. I should give up.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 25 May 05 - 02:21 PM

Perhaps posting - simply to make judgements being encouraged - is the cause of all the resulting defensive twitchyness?

Or is that a judgement?

Or is that a rhetorical question?

Frankly my damn - I don't give a dear. Is that a Rhettorical statement or has it gone with the wind?

I'll get you Butler! Was Clark Gable ever in 'On The Buses'?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 25 May 05 - 06:21 PM

LOL on your 5:04am post, John O'Lennaine! Don't give up on us.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 25 May 05 - 06:54 PM

I didn't mean to sound defensive. It just came in as a reflex, as I'd been battling with dictionaries, and losing. I really do need to know how many centuries ago a word came into the language...

Why do dancers pick up two new injuries for every one that heals?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: John O'L
Date: 25 May 05 - 07:18 PM

The onus of apology is on me. (Good sentence eh?) I neglected to consider the possible relevance of my post to those immediately preceding it.

Anyway,

At what point does something ponderable become imponderable?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 25 May 05 - 07:28 PM

Zabriske point?

Match Point?

Boiling point?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: John O'L
Date: 25 May 05 - 07:33 PM

N by NE?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 25 May 05 - 07:54 PM

I don't believe anyone actually answered the West Virginia/East Virginia question. There was only one Virginia until just before the American Civil War. When Virginia decided to secede from the Union, the western part of the state, which did not want to secede from the Union, seceded from Virginia and became a new state.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Mr Happy
Date: 25 May 05 - 08:10 PM

Why do foopball supporters shout loudly at the players on big screen telly in pubs?

Our session tonight was ruined by a lot of prats in the other room yelling at the tops of their voices ' COME ON WHATSISNAME!' & other stuff.

Do they think if they shout loudly enough, the men on screen can hear them?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Mr Happy
Date: 25 May 05 - 09:18 PM

.........also the phenomenon of inappropriate apostrophe s's.........

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 25 May 05 - 10:37 PM

I think "East Virginia" is what philologists call a "back formation".

The mechanism of a back formation is that someone sees an expression with say a prefix or a modifier (in this case "West" in "West Virginia") and says to himself, "Well, if there's a West Virginia there must be an East Virginia," when actually it's not a symmetrical expression like that. "West Virginia" stands for that part of the old Virginia that was broken off at the time of "the late unpleasantness". Before that I suppose you'd say it was "Western Virginia", but the new state took the shorter form. But the Commonwealth of Virginia did not choose to change its name just because some upstarts wanted to side with the damnyankees, so it is still plain and unadorned "Virginia".

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST,Bunnahabhain
Date: 26 May 05 - 08:47 AM

It must be the Lagrange point. An object there can go in any direction, and so is clearly becoing inponderable,

Are the periodic changes in the North Atlantic current caused by, or do they cause, Glaciations?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: The Shambles
Date: 26 May 05 - 10:04 AM

It is pretty obvious now that the patterns of the ocean currents are as complicated as the movement of the air above. Which is dependent on the other or are they both dependent on something else?

Shall we allow this one to drift with the current whilst we ponder upon it?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 27 May 05 - 05:37 AM

G'Day Bunnahabhain,

My Shorter Oxford Dictionary says 1813 for flammable, but doesn't cite the actual phrase or author. (If I could afford the cost ... and space ... for a full Oxford, I might find out).

Anyway, this is the sort of date at which scientists and administrators are beginning to take the language away from pedants and lawyers ... 'nuff said?

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Kim C
Date: 27 May 05 - 10:55 AM

Just how much is a shit worth?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bill D
Date: 27 May 05 - 11:37 AM

Just how much is a shit worth?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Kim C
Date: 27 May 05 - 02:21 PM

Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 28 May 05 - 01:40 AM

Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 28 May 05 - 03:05 PM

Because the poor little buggers grow up watching the imported TV programs (from the US), that massacre the language so effectively that no amount of education ever eradicates the result.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 28 May 05 - 06:55 PM

Actually, my post was not a serious question. I was hoping someone would have recognized it as the first line in Henry Higgins first song in "My Fair Lady."

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 28 May 05 - 07:11 PM

OK, 'My Fair Lady' is a 'musical'. That doesn't mean people on a music-related website are going to recognise a word out of one of the songs in it.

But, sorry if you were disappointed.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 28 May 05 - 08:24 PM

Sorry Chanteyman, Kneejerk there. Seriously tho', it seems sometimes that the only TV fare available to kids over here is the stuff that's sold to UK TV because it's too bloody dumb for US kids.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: John O'L
Date: 28 May 05 - 09:14 PM

Same in Oz. It's the cheap stuff than doesn't even get aired in the USA.

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Bill D
Date: 28 May 05 - 09:38 PM

I got it... I 'almost' posted "the Greeks have learned their Greek"...but couldn't think of a way to make it a clever remark...

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 29 May 05 - 06:12 PM

No problem, Don, thanks. I should have remembered before I posted that there is some anti-British sentiment in Mudville that shows up on occasion; sentiments I don't share.

Chanteyranger


".....and the Hebrews learn it backwards which is absolutely frightening!"

Hope MG doesn't react to that one. *BG*

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Alba
Date: 29 May 05 - 08:02 PM

Now there is something I just have to do

UK. You have a Fringe
Us. You have Bangs
Bear with me now please:>)

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Alba
Date: 29 May 05 - 08:03 PM

with me yeah?

UK You have Pigtails
US You have Braids

with me....

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Alba
Date: 29 May 05 - 08:04 PM

Good...

In Glasgow you have Bottles of Ginger
In Maine US you have Bottles of Soda

and so.....

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: GUEST
Date: 29 May 05 - 08:05 PM

Why did ted miss the 100th?

Subject: RE: BS: Imponderables
From: Alba
Date: 29 May 05 - 08:05 PM

That makes this 100...yeah.........lol
First time folks so cut me some slack..
Thank you
Jude