I am a large, semi-muscular man. I can take it. Don't hide behind Mal 'cause you know he'll shoot it down for you. Tell me.

Wash ,'War Stories'


Natter 40: The Nice One  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


msbelle - Oct 31, 2005 5:49:51 am PST #193 of 10006
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

good lord! He should put up a sign at the bar.


Jesse - Oct 31, 2005 5:50:30 am PST #194 of 10006
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

This is what I'm saying. I would imagine the person called the bar when they woke up and realized they didn't have it.


msbelle - Oct 31, 2005 5:54:39 am PST #195 of 10006
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

exactly.

I have to call 3 different clients today and try to get stuff from them that is overdue. Not my favorite situation.


kat perez - Oct 31, 2005 5:55:05 am PST #196 of 10006
"We have trust issues." Mylar

Happy birthday/anniversary/Halloween! Use as needed.

So annoyed that co-workers have not given me what I need to finish the two projects I need to get done today. Instead, I will eat Halloween cupcakes and hang with the Buffistas. (They have little bats on them! So much fun.)


tommyrot - Oct 31, 2005 5:56:53 am PST #197 of 10006
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Why the White Sox aren't the White Socks.

They followed the fashion of the times. Many early baseball teams were named after their uniform colors. In the 19th century, there were clubs called the Red Stockings, Brown Stockings, and Blue Stockings. Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune often shortened these nicknames to "Sox." When Charlie Comiskey founded the American League's Chicago White Stockings in 1901, the Tribune wasted no time in dubbing them the White Sox. Boston's AL franchise seems not to have had an official name during its first few years. Reporters called them different names on different days, including the Americans (to distinguish them from Boston's National League team), the Bostons, the Plymouth Rocks, and the Beaneaters. In late 1907, the club's owner settled on Red Sox.

Why the love affair with the letter "x"? The formation of the modern baseball leagues coincides, more or less, with a broad movement to simplify English spelling. The father of the movement, Noah Webster, had pushed to create a "national language" a century earlier. Webster wanted to distinguish American English from British English by correcting irregular spellings and eliminating silent letters. Some of Webster's suggestions took—"jail" for "gaol"—while others haven't caught on—"groop" for "group."

Near the turn of the century, advocacy groups like the Spelling Simplification Board pushed for spelling reform with renewed vigor; they argued that millions of dollars were wasted on printing useless letters. The editor of the Chicago Tribune, Joseph Medill, supported the idea. Medill stripped final "e"s from words like "favorite" in the pages of his newspaper and even suggested more wholesale changes that would have made written English look something like e-mail spam. In 1906, Teddy Roosevelt ordered the government printer to adopt some simplified spellings—such as replacing the suffix "-ed" with "-t" at the end of many words—for official correspondence. Congress responded by passing a bill in support of standard orthography later that year.

...

I wonder what the Spelling Simplification Board is up to these days... maybe I can run unopposed for SSB president!

eta: I wonder if the Spelling Simplification Board is really the Simplified Spelling Board, as that produces more google hits.


sarameg - Oct 31, 2005 6:00:23 am PST #198 of 10006

OK, people on this floor and hallway are way too stepfordian or something activisty. I've put up with the goddamn mooing ghost in the hallway for 3 weeks now, dodging witch limbs, spiderwebs and plastic bats on my way to meetings, and now they are having a scavenger hunt, one item of which resides on my desk. Am not amused.


sarameg - Oct 31, 2005 6:00:50 am PST #199 of 10006

And I just slashed my finger open on a thumbtack.


msbelle - Oct 31, 2005 6:03:48 am PST #200 of 10006
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

contrary.

KAT PEREZ!!!! haven't seen you in so long. how goes it?


kat perez - Oct 31, 2005 6:09:00 am PST #201 of 10006
"We have trust issues." Mylar

It goes, it goes.

How goes your world? The DH and I want you to come and visit us now that we are livin' just enough for the city.

And contrary to other accounts from NYC, I am thoroughly enjoying the 70 degree weather today!


Jesse - Oct 31, 2005 6:12:07 am PST #202 of 10006
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

I am loving this weather too! Bare legs!!!!