A random thread of absolute randomness...

[just1-4all]

2 hours ago, dljbsp said:

 It's not just Frogs 

 

Frogs was meant as an example of brumation. 🙂

[CHecker]

Isn't it irritating when you have a fly in the house, a whole house, and all it'll do is fly in your face and light on you. It won't leave you alone! I have 2 and a nap is proving a lost cause 😅

[dljbsp]

17 minutes ago, CHecker said:

fly

 

Oh yes — that’s one of life’s smaller torments with wings. You can have an entire house, every open window, and still that fly acts like your personal orbit. It’s as if your face has its own gravity.

 

And when you finally start to drift off for that nap? Bzzzzzz… right past your ear.

 

Best quick fix: darken the room, leave one bright light on in another, and close the door halfway. Nine times out of ten, they’ll head straight for the light — and out of your life.

 

Two of them though? That’s a conspiracy.

[CHecker]

I'm convinced this one fly thinks he's my pet! He's relentless! I don't even have a fly swatter where I live. A consolation is that they only live a day or two. Never been so happy to lose a pet 😆

Edited October 25 by CHecker

[Ostria]

I have three cats….flies dont live long in my house

[CHecker]

26 minutes ago, Ostria said:

I have three cats….flies dont live long in my house

I remember when my Ragdoll Siamese cat ate so many flies he threw up! 😯

[MullumMiss]

At the 2019 International convention in Phoenix AZ Bro Herd had a fly buzzing around his face while he was giving a talk.  He kept trying to swat it without success.  He muttered, “I’m going to get that darn fly if its the last thing I do”.  

[kejedo]

Some fish can walk on land: 

 

[kejedo]

Mispronunciation can be catchy. Example: Dissection begins with the syllable dis, but many people say DI section. One brother pronounced every word that began with di as a long I + DI, as Discuss this was DEE -scuss this. 

Zo ology starts with ZO pronounce ZOE- olocy, but many insist on saying zoo-ology 

[Mike047]

Good point, Pauline. I believe that it may have been Oscar Wilde who said that the main difference between the US and the UK is language.

[dljbsp]

2 hours ago, kejedo said:

Mispronunciation

Interesting examples! Another common one is nuclear — many people say ‘nucular,’ and it’s become so widespread that dictionaries even list it as a variant. Language sure takes detours sometimes
 

 

[minister159]

Common misuse of words due to, I think, shortening or abbreviating so many words, especially among younger English-speaking people or perhaps people who speak English as a second language? For example:

 

Invitation is a noun, "I received an invitation" is correct grammar

Invite is a verb, "I received an invite" is incorrect grammar

 

Consultation is a noun, "I had a consultation with my doctor" is correct grammar

Consult is a verb, "I had a consult with my doctor is incorrect grammar

[kejedo]

Using the wrong or switched part of speech is common and some find it humorous, "hurt people hurt people." ( adj=j to verb)and then overuse it, Yikes! I was already nonplussed by "clowns taste funny." think I'll overspend some time wondering why people use heighth for height. Sorry, OT, even for a random thread.

Edited Friday at 09:28 PM by kejedo

[kejedo]

Earthworms are simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning worms have both male and female reproductive organs. During sexual intercourse among earthworms, both sets of sex organs are used by both worms. If all goes well, the eggs of both of the mates become fertilized. It still takes two.

[jdcarlson]

I am an unabashed child of the past century.

 

Many expressions common today make me cringe.

 

One that I hear more and more each day is using "I" when "we" would be the correct word. Such As:

 

"It came to you and I."

 

"This is for you and I."

 

In both cases it should be "you and me." 

 

"I" is proper when it is the action pronoun in a sentence. Such as:

 

"You and I can do this."

 

This apparently grew out of people receiving correction when the said something like "me and you can go."

 

In that case the singular first person pronoun is doing the action described. The proper singular first person word doing the action would be "I" as in "you and I can go."

 

But, when the first person pronoun is the object of the action (i.e. something is done to or for the person), then it should be "me."

 

The only way I am able to put up with this is to remind myself that English is a "developing" language. That is why the King James Bible is so hard to understand in the 21st century. It is written in late 16th century English.

 

To really confuse yourself, look up some words in The Oxford English Dictionary in it's full version (30 volumes) and note how some English words were used in the 12th century as the dictionary traces the history of how the word developed.

 

On the other hand, Latin is pretty much the same now as it was 2,000 years ago. The problem is, few people know it, and no one I know uses it.

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

 

P.S. An additional "irritation" is the trend to take a noun and use it as a verb.

Edited Friday at 10:47 PM by jdcarlson

[kejedo]

It took students lots of suggestions to understand that me is the objective form. Sorry for all the time it took for them to learn appropriate pronoun use. But those rules got them graduated. I have not seen tess with "new" pronoun use and understand it is different depending on the state or test. I'm retired now, and have not had to teach for updated test forms. 

[kejedo]

Rhythms is the longest English word to not contain any (regular) vowels i.e. a, e, i, o, u

[Mike047]

Great point, Pauline. It got me looking at words, and I came up with titin. It is a giant protein found in human muscle. It is a word used by biochemists, and in full, contains 189, 819 letters. Not sure how you say it though.

Edited Saturday at 09:51 AM by Mike047

[kejedo]

An Austrian village changed its name to fugging.

https://www.dw.com/en/austrian-village-of-fucking-decides-to-change-its-name/a-55740967

[kejedo]

Brother Carlson, I read that James is the most common name for males in this US continent. One of my two dads is James as is one of my brothers. He has two sons named James (two wives as mothers.) As for the noun verb switch: I am a bit nonplussed when people use replacement words for effect. Affect refers to the emotion and effect is like thee "e" in cause and effect, thus a noun.

[kejedo]

The American bison is the only animal in which both lungs share a common cavity. In every other animal the lungs are separated. What this meant is that when shot by an arrow, both lungs would collapse and the buffalo would suffocate quickly. (For other animals, being shot in the chest would only collapse one lung, and they would at least have a chance) That's why such a large animal could be taken down with relatively small weapons.

[kejedo]

 I watched an animal show featuring a vet surgeon who removed swallowed items from pets using endoscope. May be a different, but good example:https://vetmed.illinois.edu/pet-health-columns/foreign-body-removed-endoscopy/

[dljbsp]

32 minutes ago, kejedo said:

buffalo

There is a medical condition called “buffalo chest” (also called pleuro-pleural communication) in humans where both pleural cavities are connected, so a puncture of one lung can collapse both.

[kejedo]

Just now, dljbsp said:

There is a medical condition called “buffalo chest” (also called pleuro-pleural communication) in humans where both pleural cavities are connected, so a puncture of one lung can collapse both.

ouch.

[dljbsp]

36 minutes ago, kejedo said:

American bison is the only animal

In a study of eight American bison (Bison bison), fenestrations (holes) in the mediastinum connecting the pleural cavities were found in 4 of the 8 animals. So you have a 50 percent chance of taking down an American bison with just one arrow. The origin of this “reason” is prominently labelled as an anecdote rather than rigorous anatomy-based proof.

Edited Saturday at 11:34 PM by dljbsp