OFF TOPIC

[Bravus]

Aye - 'statistics' is a bad word for me: I'm teaching a research methods course right now, and lots of research methods courses are basically stats courses, but this one definitely ain't... <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

And Neil - Cookie Monster *used* to only eat cookies, but we're in the naughties, so he eats salad and fruit and vegies now too :rolleyes:

[cricket]

Cookie Monster eats cookies, plates, letters, veggies, fruits, and...numbers! I've seen him do it!

As for statistics, that makes 3 of us here at Club A. Any more?

[Naomi]

I wish I could find a really good hairdresser that I don't have to take out a second mortgage to pay the bill.

[Amelia]

I took stats and failed gloriously

[Bravus]

I'll probably end up auditing a stats course again at some point, just to get up to speed... I think I actually did pretty well in it when I did it, but that was... hmm, 20 years ago next year!

[Nan]

On an off topic -

The problem with stats is that they change the goal posts. I took a subject on research methods in psychology about 15 years ago and got thru - and in the medical journals they use a pile of different terms now. Odds ratios and confidence intervals etc.....why can't we go back to the good old black and white days when something was either true or false <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/Nixe_nixe02b.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/TGTurkey.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/oops.gif" alt="" />

[aldona]

I'd just like to say two things.

1. This is my 2001st post!!!

2. I've just realized that I can sing our national anthem (Advance Australia Fair) to the tune of the theme from Gilligan's Island. Boy, are my friends and I going to have some fun next Australia Day. <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/tongue1.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/icon_salut.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

There! How much further off topic can you get? <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/129933-offtopic2.gif" alt="" />

aldona

[Nan]

Congrats on getting to 2000 - and the AAF thing sounds a bit like the trouble I had trying to talk French to a patient in Karachi and all that would come out were the Urdu words!!

[Michelle]

When I was in American Literature, my AM Lit professor told us that almost all of Emily Dickinson's poetry can be sung to "The Yellow Rose of Texas." So now that's all I hear if I read her poetry.

The day after this, two of my classmates came in and sang Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" to the tune of Suicide is Painless (the M*A*S*H theme song). Another poem ruined!

M

[Amelia]

Rainy and cool today. Just right for cocoa. <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/coolhello.gif" alt="" />

[Michelle]

We haven't had any just right for cocoa days yet, though the boys are impatient waiting! More like, just right for iced tea! Homemade popsicles. Fruit smoothies.

M

[LynnDel]

Fallish weather is here. A sure sign: I had to wrap in a blanket while sitting at my computer this morning.

LD

[cricket]

How frustrating the English language is! One of my favorite quotes (from one of my favorite musicals):

Quote:

---

"Oh, why can't the English learn to set

A good example to people whose

English is painful to your ears?

The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.

There even are places where English completely

disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!"

---

They're, there, their: do you know the proper word to use? How about these: lay, lie, lain, laid? Further, for good measure, when are these spellings appropriate: or, are, our?

[LynnDel]

meet, meat, mete

[Fran]

LynnDel;

You be the teach! here, hear ........over there, over their (heads),(when) over, they're (happy).

Shoot, by gum, what’s be wrong with over yonder, down the crick? What about the Newfoundlander that says "I goes to the store".

I be understandin' whats them’uns be meanin.

How was that for chalk on the board?

My Spanish friends tell me that English will be spoken in heaven because we English speaking Americans could never learn Spanish! I personally believe we will all speak the language of heaven, whatever that is.

Now Chrys;

Expound on that lay, lie, lye, laid stuff to me. Maybe our 3rd person plural person can explain it, but I would love for you to tell us.

[Bravus]

Part of the problem is that in most North American accents it's impossible to distinguish by sound between 'our' and 'are', whereas with Aussies it's easy. Mind you, we have our own: When we say our friend 'Lorne' mows the 'lawn' it's almost indistinguishable in our accent. And Cassie gets some very odd looks when she tells people she's reading a book called 'Pawn of Prophecy'. <img src="/ubbtreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Similarly, for most North Americans there's no audible difference between 'due', 'do' and 'dew'. The Mountain Dew 'Do the Dew' slogan sounds completely different when Aussies say it: but at least I don't get students writing that they had to 'make due' with less than perfect conditions...

[aka]

would you all start making a list of every American dialect there is cross-country? I would so like to know. That has been a question in my mind for decades.

I believe when we talk about one speaking with an accent they are those who have come to the country and are using the country's main lanugage as their second tongue.

I would like to know of born and bred Americans who talk differently the Americanise from other Americans.

It's the drawls, or twangs of the southern Americans that bring the most variations, I believe. I have wondered if the Black people in Alabama or Georgia pronounciations differs from the caucasian people in those States. And if there is a difference between North Carolina folk talking over against the South Carolina folk.

Also if there is more than one type of Texas drawl.

I would sure be interested in a list made of all the east coast dialects as well. I would do such a search on Google but don't know how to formulate an effective search modus using the right string of words.

Turmeric

[Michelle]

One of my favorite names is from Wallace and Gromit, A Close Shave. The sheep goes through the machine that automatically sheers it and as he's standing there shivering, Wallace says, We'll name him Shawn. I roar every time I see that, because as an American, there is no rhyme, but in his lovely British accent, Shawn sounds much like shorn. Makes me laugh every time!

M

[Michelle]

Dialects: Hard question. I grew up with not much dialect, in Colorado, though there is a Western dialect in Colorado/Wyoming/Utah/Montana/etc, kind of a western twang. A farrier I had once had a very definite twang, and was born and bred in Colorado. I used to wonder if it were affected, but I think it was natural--just not something you might hear too much outside of the movies.

My personal gripe about usage errors is when (adjective deleted) copyeditors substitute reign for rein when talking about horses' bridles. I've seen this several times in Pacific Press books and it drives me up a wall! Come on, folks, don't rely on your spellchecker to do the job for you!!!!!!

Hens lay eggs. You lay something on a chair. You lie down. Laid is past tense of lay (chicken laid an egg). Lain is past participle of lie (he has lain down).

They're--abbreviation for they are. Their is possessive pronoun (that is their dog). "there" is most commonly used as an adverb, though can function as other parts of speech, less commonly.

I teach this stuff and do copyediting on the side, but I've discovered that even if a person knows grammar/usage/mechanics very well, it is hard to explain succinctly to EFL learners!

M

[fifiqueen]

I wish I hadn't drunk just before I ate, I usually don't and wait for at least an hour before I drink after food. But today I got it wrong

[LynnDel]

What does EFL mean?

I have a pretty good ear for regionalisms. When we moved from Colo Spgs to Tucson, I could hear differences that no one in my family noticed. However, with the all-invasiveness of radio and TV, and the tendency of various regions to hire TV and radio personalities who have "pure" speech without twisting the vowels in regional ways, there has been a great diminishing of regionalisms, even in my lifetime.

When we lived in Mississippi, I did notice that it was harder for me to understand black people than to understand whites, though that lasted only a short time, until my brain became layered with verbal expectations that fit my surroundings. Some from the south go to great trouble and expense to rid themselves of their drawl in order to qualify for certain jobs.

There are differences between Michigan, Maine, Boston, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Minnesota - all have distinct ways speaking. I would guess that there are fewer differences in the western US, because we don't have quite as along a history here, with most of us came from elsewhere within the last 100 years. That guess could be wrong, but it's my current theory until I actually research it! To contradict myself, I do admit there is a California "Valley Girl" lilt of speech that I don't recognize that well myself (being embedded in it), but when my daughter went SAU, they laughed at her Valley Girl sound. She was astounded!

Google American regional speech - you may find some interesting things to read. I did!

LD

[cricket]

Oh, joyous friend! Perhaps you can answer this question: as Advenists are we to expect a "Latter Rain", "Latter Reign", "Latter Rein"; or, maybe a "Ladder Rain" (ouch!), "Ladder Reign" ("All hail, Thee great Ladder on High"!), or "Ladder Rein" (I'm guessing thes would look something like a yoke for oxen?)?

[Paul Beach]

Mrs. Gray hasn't slept for ten days, because that would be too long.

She got her hair highlighted because she thought some strands were more important than others.

If you knew Morse code, a tap dancer would drive you crazy.

Mrs. Gray is against picketing, but she doesn't know how to show it.

Mrs. Gray doesn't own a cell phone or a pager. She just hangs around everyone she knows, all the time. If someone needs to get ahold of her they just say, "Mrs. Gray," and she says, "what" and turns her head slightly...

Why are there no during pictures.

The next time Mrs. Gray moves she hopes she gets a real easy phone number, something like 2222222. People will ask, "Mrs. Gray, how do I get a hold of you?" I'll say, "Just press two for a while, when Mrs. Gray answers, you'll know that you've pressed two enough."

Mrs. Gray thinks Bigfoot is blurry, that's the problem. There's a large out-of-focus monster roaming the countryside.

With apologies to Mitch Hedberg.

[cricket]

Mrs. Gray is funny sometimes!

[Gail]

Burp

Excuse me