Random non sequitur posts catch-all thread

I have never clicked on the creepy spider thread and never will.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I have never clicked on the creepy spider thread and never will.

It's really the cute spider thread these days. Dem pics are damn cute. As far as you can say that spiders are ever cute, that is.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

I have never clicked on the creepy spider thread and never will.

How many posts before a random spider pic would qualify as a non sequitur?

LarryC wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

I have never clicked on the creepy spider thread and never will.

It's really the cute spider thread these days. Dem pics are damn cute. As far as you can say that spiders are ever cute, that is.

That video of the tiny, colorful one doing its little mating dance is adorable.

Saw an ad for the new X-Men movie today, and am just amazed at how far, in this age of Comic Movies Uber Alles, one of the biggest properties in the medium has fallen off. I mean, I don't pay a lot of attention anymore, but the hype levels for Dark Phoenix are basically nil. Even the trailer feels like it's going "I mean, eh."

A package from a week or so ago got returned to me. UPS dropped it off at the wrong place. I figured that is what happen since I was home when I got the delivery notice but I know people also follow the trucks so someone could have been fast on the snatch. Faith in humanity restored.

Man, this company is really, really insistent on telling me that their baby power doesn't contain asbestos.

Me thinks the baby powder company doth protest too much.

No asbestos? How the hell am I suppose to adequately insulate my baby's arse?

My baby powder company's slogan is "Asbestos is da BESTest!" Should I be worried?

Higgledy wrote:

Me thinks the baby powder company doth protest too much.

Total aside (this is the non sequitur thread), but I'm fascinated by the way this line is used in common parlance.

In Shakespeare's time, and certainly in the context of Hamlet, the word "protest" meant to make a promise. When Queen Gertrude says, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks", she's saying that the woman in Hamlet's play is making an unreasonable and unrealistic promise. It's not an admission of anything but is instead a rebuke of Hamlet putting an impossible promise in the mouth of his fictional queen.

But with the shift in meaning in the word "protest", the meaning of the phrase changed to match the new definition: by objecting too much or too strenuously, one reveals one's guilt. Which is a useful concept to have, but it's not one that makes any sense at all in the context of Hamlet and Queen Gertrude.

ClockworkHouse, I don't know if it's from your work/training/school or just a hobby, but your lexicographic (?) knowledge is fascinating, and I always love reading these posts. Maybe I should learn more of this as a hobby for myself? I wouldn't even know where to start...

Didn’t know that. It is fascinating. Interesting that the meaning of the core word has shifted but the phrase still works only, as you say, with a different meaning.

BushPilot wrote:

ClockworkHouse, I don't know if it's from your work/training/school or just a hobby, but your lexicographic (?) knowledge is fascinating, and I always love reading these posts. Maybe I should learn more of this as a hobby for myself? I wouldn't even know where to start...

Thanks! It's just my nerdy hobby. Where other people will fall down a hole reading TV Tropes all day, I'll spend my time jumping from word to word on Etymonline.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
BushPilot wrote:

ClockworkHouse, I don't know if it's from your work/training/school or just a hobby, but your lexicographic (?) knowledge is fascinating, and I always love reading these posts. Maybe I should learn more of this as a hobby for myself? I wouldn't even know where to start...

Thanks! It's just my nerdy hobby. Where other people will fall down a hole reading TV Tropes all day, I'll spend my time jumping from word to word on Etymonline.

Does that mean sh*tposting is your job?

.

Clockworkhouse - I enjoy your posts diving into the history of words as well. It's nice when people post productive things to the site.

I too, like a Clocksplain post.

Jonman wrote:

I too, like a Clocksplain post. :)

Can I get a Clocksplain on c*ckswains?

Mixolyde wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I too, like a Clocksplain post. :)

Can I get a Clocksplain on c*ckswains?

I’ve always been stymied by “cockle”.

BushPilot wrote:

Maybe I should learn more of this as a hobby for myself? I wouldn't even know where to start...

Being into this stuff myself, you might check out Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way" as a popular introduction. It's overflowing with stuff like this - how "a napron" shifted into "an apron", how various things that the English consider "Americanisms" are actually just old usages that passed out of use in England after American usage had split off, stuff like that.

There's also a wonderful blog/newspaper column called The Word Detective, by Evan Morris. The kind of thing where people write in with word questions and a linguist writes up entertaining responses. I think it's now defunct (the author is battling MS) but there are tons of archives.

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:
Mixolyde wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I too, like a Clocksplain post. :)

Can I get a Clocksplain on c*ckswains?

I’ve always been stymied by “cockle”.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Do1uExP.jpg)

My Amazon Echo just got herself stuck in a infinite loop.

“To download the Alexa App... To download the Alexa App... To download the Alexa App... To download the Alexa App... To download the Alexa App...”

It’s usually pretty good at not listening to itself. Or me, half the time.

Mantid wrote:

My Amazon Echo just got herself stuck in a infinite loop.

“To download the Alexa App... To download the Alexa App... To download the Alexa App... To download the Alexa App... To download the Alexa App...”

It’s usually pretty good at not listening to itself. Or me, half the time. :P

You sure you didn't enable dad joke mode? It's just living up to its name.

BadKen wrote:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Do1uExP.jpg)

Speaking of...

IMAGE(https://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/1dd673631ce18a84c404641d22ee21cb/5D7A8AFA/t51.2885-15/e35/60508691_430120771119432_7617275921493140775_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com)

I haven't watched Game of Thrones, but I absolutely would watch whatever show this is.

Is that a vape?

Grenn wrote:

Is that a vape?

No, it's a tiny one handed ocarina that she uses to summon her steed.

Spoiler:

Yes, it's a vape :)

fenomas wrote:
BushPilot wrote:

Maybe I should learn more of this as a hobby for myself? I wouldn't even know where to start...

Being into this stuff myself, you might check out Bill Bryson's "The Mother Tongue - English And How It Got That Way" as a popular introduction. It's overflowing with stuff like this - how "a napron" shifted into "an apron", how various things that the English consider "Americanisms" are actually just old usages that passed out of use in England after American usage had split off, stuff like that.

There's also a wonderful blog/newspaper column called The Word Detective, by Evan Morris. The kind of thing where people write in with word questions and a linguist writes up entertaining responses. I think it's now defunct (the author is battling MS) but there are tons of archives.

Thanks! I'll check 'em out

Mixolyde wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I too, like a Clocksplain post. :)

Can I get a Clocksplain on Cockswains?

Cockswain, or coxswain, is from the Old French word coque meaning boat or canoe, and swain, a word for a young man attendant on a knight.

Wink_and_the_Gun wrote:

I’ve always been stymied by “cockle”.

That one's a bit of a mystery! Cockle comes from coccel, an Old English word for a flowering weed. Coccel is odd, though, because it doesn't appear in any other Germanic language, and its origin isn't known, either.

The use of the word "cock" in English is actually really interesting (and I know you boys all love talking about dicks!). Cock is derived from the older English word pillicock or pilkoc and is sort of the native English word for a penis. It wasn't originally a vulgar term like it is today. It was the proper word for that body part and no more controversial than hand or foot. (This is, incidentally, one of the ways in which the vulgar language of Game of Thrones is at least somewhat historically accurate.)

However, Puritanism and Romance snobbery conspired against the good old English cock. Various cultural influences, chiefly from France, pushed polite English society to prefer Latin words for various body parts but especially body parts that were considered sexual, like "penis" instead of "cock", "stomach" instead of "belly", etc. (Incidentally, I've had a lot of trouble finding out what word was used to refer to women's genitalia prior to this shift, as "vulva" is Latin and "p*ssy" wasn't widely used until the 1800's. "Pudendum" literally means "thing to be ashamed of" and was translated into Old English as scamlim, or "shame-limb", so there's another misogynistic word to drop from your vocabulary, like "hysteria".)

As "cock" began to be considered as a vulgar word for commoners, Puritans in America set about eradicating it from the language entirely, even when it was used in the non-genital sense of referring to a male bird. A "weathercock" became a "weather vane", a "haycock" became a "haystack", and a "rooster cock" became just a regular ol' "rooster". Surprisingly, cocking a firearm survived the Puritans, proving once again that guns are the only thing Americans will never censor.

Duh. The native English word for female genitalia was "{sexist slur}", as any proper Game of Thrones fan can tell you.

It was also spelled "quaint", so have fun with that trivia.