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17172. jayackroyd - 10/24/2005 5:30:38 PM It scarcely makes its way into American English. I had to read it three times before I understood the double entendre. 17173. judithathome - 10/24/2005 6:33:14 PM Ah....now it's funny. 17174. Max Macks - 10/24/2005 6:49:37 PM lurk 17175. jayackroyd - 10/24/2005 7:10:55 PM yeah, I was trying to get the tea and oranges thing to make sense, but it wasn't the tea and oranges that were being jerked, um, around there. 17176. thoughtful - 10/24/2005 7:49:22 PM oh I get it...a little slow, but also unfamiliar with that little phrase.
Like the time after a large restaurant dinner with a brit friend of ours I declared, "I'm stuffed." and he looked appalled. Heck, how did I know what i was saying.
I mean this is the country where they advertise pasties all over the place. 17177. thoughtful - 10/24/2005 7:49:54 PM little did i know about fanny packs either.
17178. jayackroyd - 10/24/2005 8:01:14 PM I think I've been a little too oblique. Folks, please note that wonkers letter to the editor to the NYTimes did indeed run today, and is linked in 17171. My congratulations. 17179. PelleNilsson - 10/24/2005 8:09:59 PM I still don't understand it.
Btw, Ralph is a variation of the fine traditional Norse name Rolf. It was a Rolf who colonized Normandie.
On renewed reflection, maybe I do understand, but I'm too shy to ask. 17180. Magoseph - 10/24/2005 8:17:40 PM I still don't understand it
I didn't, but luckily I have a friend in Fort Worth. Even though, it took a while before I got it.
Wonks, congrats on your fine article. 17181. Ms. No - 10/24/2005 8:46:16 PM For the timid:
pull you off = jerk you off
My work here is done. 17182. thoughtful - 10/24/2005 8:50:43 PM congrats wonks! not easy to get a letter to the ed in the nyt!
good job! 17183. judithathome - 10/24/2005 9:30:32 PM Yes, wonks, in the discussion of the joke, I forgot to comgratulate you on your letter. I'm impressed! 17191. Macnas - 10/25/2005 12:36:52 PM Hello Mago. 17212. jayackroyd - 10/25/2005 5:51:09 PM On an entirely different topic, I need some help. My wife is working on the second volume of a series of three novels. The first is called, in English, The Water Mirror, and I recommend it highly. It's by a German author named Kai Meyer, and, while written for kids, is really a great story.
In any case, the second book involves some seamonsters that the author coined a word for, klabauter. This word is similar to a german word for a sea sprite, but this creature is of a more evil disposition.
The translator wants to call it a "goblin" but the author objects to that, saying that would be a hackneyed solution.
I've poked around the internet, but haven't found anything suitable. There are a number of coinages associated with fantasy gameplaying, but none are really suitable. Best would be a name with some basis in some sea mythology.
The creature is of human form with a cold-blooded marine animal's head, not unlike the Creature from a Black Lagoon, although less cheesy looking.
Ideas for a name for these creatures that would work in English would be appreciated.
(Just keeping the german coinage is not acceptable for several reasons. The most aesthetically interesting objection is that it's a hard word to say or remember, even in german [the translator and I apparently share an overwhelming desire to type "klaubauter," which seems much more natural to me].)
I was hoping that Pelle or macnas might have some especially suitable ideas, living as they do in lands with seafaring traditions, and innovative linguists. 17215. judithathome - 10/25/2005 6:11:29 PM AC, Capricorn is half fish, half goat. What about something along those lines....caprishon. 17219. thoughtful - 10/25/2005 6:55:45 PM How about scylladon...a combo of poseidon and scylla. 17221. jayackroyd - 10/25/2005 7:08:05 PM Something related to "scylla" is good. scylleidon? The author proposed triton, but that has a gushing fountain context to us.
17222. wabbit - 10/25/2005 7:27:34 PM Since it's a made-up word anyway, why not combine the author's word with scylla ... klascyll, klascylla, scyllbauter, bauterscyll, that kind of thing. 17231. concerned - 10/26/2005 3:55:48 AM Back again with late breaking job related announcements:
Last week, the guy who 'masterminded' the latest generation redesign of our accelerator personnel (200% over budget & schedule, 30% of promised performance) safety system was trying to design warning signs for experimental station ingress/egress points. He had selected incandescent bulbs to light these signs. In all his genius, he had not once considered what a maintenance nightmare supporting a couple thousand of these glow bulbs would be once implemented. Better yet, he had miscalculated their current draw by a factor of 10. So he had to back off of that turkey. I didn't say anything. Not officially my project, although I had been talked about wrt implementing these things, thus giving me an official interest.
His next stunt was to propose $250 of electroluminescent backlights for each sign (although not publicly). When I found out, I could resist responding no longer. I pointed out in an email that I distributed to line management (of the fuckwit 'let's fire concerned' 'cause we don't like him much obsession) that I could design and implement, for a fifth of that cost an LED implementation that would last longer, be more reliable, be brighter and look much, much cooler, saving our allegedly cash strapped department $50,000 to $100,000. I have incontestible experience successfully designing complex circuitry that works on the first pass (as opposed to this fairly simple but redundant application).
It is a measure of the fucktard pighead mindset of the APS line management I report to that there has not been any interest expressed in my positive and proactive suggestion.
17233. concerned - 10/26/2005 4:13:42 AM I should note that I have just come off a completely successful demonstration of my latest design with the beamline user I had previously made reference to who has associations with Stanford and IIT. I was actually restraining his enthusiasm, reminding him that, although the design fully performed as promised on the first pass, there was still some parametric and stress testing, plus a few circuit tweaks that I wanted to explore to further enhance performance.
Keep in mind that this was the *first pass* of a one hundred component circuit design. IOW, it was virtually right out of my head and Digi-Key's order sheet onto a research beamline with millions of dollars riding on the result. Yes, I wanted to exercise due engineering care, regardless of the initial success of my design. Plus, the user claims that he will post the design on the research intranet, so I want to make sure I've put in some effort to optimize the circuit before officially releasing it.
So, there's an example of what I'm facing: calumny from those who are having difficulty designing lighting fixtures, praise from serious physicists and university and corporately funded research groups. I believe I have earned the right to be acerbic and critical of self aggrandizing fools.
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