Cato's Grammar Grumble

Started by Cato, February 08, 2009, 05:00:18 PM

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nut-job

Quote from: Florestan on March 18, 2009, 10:27:11 AM
Define "abnormal curvature" and "defect-free shape" of bananas.

It boggles the mind, besides being morally outrageous, that those bureaucrats in Bruxelles spend tax-payers' money to produce such monstrosities as trying to force nature in their narrow-minded standards and regulations.

I don't hate the EU idea as it was conceived by its Founding Fathers, i. e. Jean Monet, Alcide de Gasperi, Robert Schuman and the likes. But what we have now is a supranational bureaucracy which is not accountable to anyone except themselves --- the very contrary of the original intention.

It takes a very small mind to be "boggled" by something so innocuous. 

I looked up the regulation you cite is mainly concerned with requiring bananas to be free of fungal contamination, insect contamination, not rotted, not contaminated by foreign matter, not smashed, stem still intact, etc.  This is the sort of regulation which is necessary to facilitate trade and keep the food supply safe.  The part about abnormal curvature sound silly, until a food market in Germany orders bananas from one of the pseudo-medieval backwaters that are being admitted to the EU these days and received an unsellable shipment of deformed produce.  It is safe to assume that the US department of agriculture has similarly silly sounding regulations for produce.  It is the reason that buying food is safe and reliable in developed counties and gambling with your life elsewhere. 

Florestan

Quote from: nut-job on March 22, 2009, 09:35:49 AM
The part about abnormal curvature sound silly, until a food market in Germany orders bananas from one of the pseudo-medieval backwaters that are being admitted to the EU these days and received an unsellable shipment of deformed produce. 

Hogwash.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

nut-job

Quote from: Florestan on March 22, 2009, 10:08:37 AM
Hogwash.

What you use to clean bananas in your neck of the woods?

DavidRoss

Quote from: snyprrr on March 22, 2009, 08:22:57 AM
and "chick" comes from "shiksa"?

for me, dude is like n***** in derrogotationality. It's like calling your spouse b**** (in that terms of endearment way- roll of eyes). How sweet.

and the "yo boy" talk of ANY kind.  There's a movie called White Boyz? about some, sorry, no other term for it, wh****** living in Iowa.  It is so dead on and infuriating- Iowa boys talking like dey be down wit da homiez in da hood.  One day they go to the house of their black friend, and his mother asks the main charac. if he comes from New orleans because of his accent, and he says, no, jus livin in the hood...arrfff ::)

Another thing that bugs me is the tendency of said group to also appropriate their granny's "church sayings" and use them as if that is all it takes to be "spiritual"...what I call the "I KNOW that's right" syndrome.

then: "I'm jus gettin my ______ on"

then: when people say "oh reeeaaally?" in that faux snooty "Hamptons" accent. corollary to "dahhh-ling"

and: "go" for speak, as mentioned...extremely annoying

personally, I overuse "huh" as a sign of "who bout that?"

and yes: putting "izzle" at the end of a word. :-X
What are you?  12 years old?  This entire post is a suitable topic for this thread.
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

DavidRoss

Quote from: nut-job on March 22, 2009, 09:35:49 AM
It takes a very small mind to be "boggled" by something so innocuous. 

I looked up the regulation you cite is mainly concerned with requiring bananas to be free of fungal contamination, insect contamination, not rotted, not contaminated by foreign matter, not smashed, stem still intact, etc.  This is the sort of regulation which is necessary to facilitate trade and keep the food supply safe.  The part about abnormal curvature sound silly, until a food market in Germany orders bananas from one of the pseudo-medieval backwaters that are being admitted to the EU these days and received an unsellable shipment of deformed produce.  It is safe to assume that the US department of agriculture has similarly silly sounding regulations for produce.  It is the reason that buying food is safe and reliable in developed counties and gambling with your life elsewhere. 
Sounds generally correct, to me, except for the part about countries in banana-producing climes being admitted to the EU.  Has that actually happened?
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

nut-job

Quote from: DavidRoss on March 22, 2009, 12:43:58 PM
Sounds generally correct, to me, except for the part about countries in banana-producing climes being admitted to the EU.  Has that actually happened?

Bananas are grown in territories of European states, such as the Azores, a territory of Portugal, for instance.

Here's the text of the regulation:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31994R2257:EN:HTML


DavidRoss

Quote from: nut-job on March 22, 2009, 01:23:06 PM
Bananas are grown in territories of European states, such as the Azores, a territory of Portugal, for instance.
Duh! 
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Florestan

Quote from: nut-job on March 22, 2009, 01:23:06 PM
Here's the text of the regulation:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31994R2257:EN:HTML

The following gem is particularly brilliant:

III. SIZING

Sizing is determined by:

- the length of the edible pulp of the fruit, expressed in centimetres and measured along the convex face from the blossom end to the base of the peduncle,

- the grade, i.e. the measurement, in millimetres, of the thickness of a transverse section of the fruit between the lateral faces and the middle, perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis.

The reference fruit for measurement of the length and grade is:

- the median finger on the outer row of the hand,

- the finger next to the cut sectioning the hand, on the outer row of the cluster.

The minimum length permitted is 14 cm and the minimum grade permitted is 27 mm.



Translation: if nature doesn't conform to EU regulations, give it a finger!  ;D



Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

karlhenning

Quote from: nut-job on March 22, 2009, 09:35:49 AM
It takes a very small mind to be "boggled" by something so innocuous. 

I don't know.  I don't think lack of mental capacity is necessarily allied to bogglement.

snyprrr

Quote from: DavidRoss on March 22, 2009, 12:41:03 PM
  12 years old? 

a-ha! You too, sir, are guilty of using phrases as sentences! 0:)

snyprrr

how do I separate my reply from the "blue" quote?

DavidRoss

Quote from: Florestan on March 23, 2009, 01:07:11 AM
Sizing is determined by:

- the length of the edible pulp of the fruit, expressed in centimetres and measured along the convex face from the blossom end to the base of the peduncle,

- the grade, i.e. the measurement, in millimetres, of the thickness of a transverse section of the fruit between the lateral faces and the middle, perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis.

The reference fruit for measurement of the length and grade is:

- the median finger on the outer row of the hand,

- the finger next to the cut sectioning the hand, on the outer row of the cluster.

The minimum length permitted is 14 cm and the minimum grade permitted is 27 mm. [/b]

So are these EU sizing regulations suggesting that it's true what "they" say about the size of a man's hands?  And BTW--14 cm maximum?
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Dr. Dread

Quote from: snyprrr on March 23, 2009, 08:22:10 PM
how do I separate my reply from the "blue" quote?

Make sure your reply is after the "end-quote" indicator.

karlhenning

Quote from: Mn Dave on March 24, 2009, 04:27:35 AM
Make sure your reply is after the "end-quote" indicator.

I.e., after this bit of code:

[/quote]

Ten thumbs

Did I catch a new piece of jargon? Something about short-stemming? Is this because short-stemmed roses are half the price of long-stemmed ones?
A day may be a destiny; for life
Lives in but little—but that little teems
With some one chance, the balance of all time:
A look—a word—and we are wholly changed.

Cato

Quote from: Ten thumbs on March 24, 2009, 08:56:41 AM
Did I catch a new piece of jargon? Something about short-stemming? Is this because short-stemmed roses are half the price of long-stemmed ones?

"Short-stemming" from what I can tell is a term from quarry blasting for a fuse that is not long enough in a sequence of blasts.
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)

Kullervo

I've posted it once before, but it seems apt for this thread:

Common Errors in English

nut-job

#457
I'm just outraged to learn that in Europe, short an abnormally curved bananas are apparently lined up and shot by a firing squad, or worse.  It's an abomination!   :'(

DavidRoss

Quote from: Corey on March 24, 2009, 11:05:30 AM
I've posted it once before, but it seems apt for this thread:

Common Errors in English
Looks comprehensive!  I checked only one entry, to see how this source dealt with a common error the nature of which still escapes some posters here, even after one or two clear and accurate explanations appeared elsewhere on this thread:

QuoteONLY:
Writers often inadvertently create confusion by placing "only" incorrectly in a sentence. It should go immediately before the word or phrase it modifies. "I lost my only shirt" means that I had but one to begin with. "I lost only my shirt" means I didn't lose anything else. "Only I lost my shirt" means that I was the only person in my group to lose a shirt. Strictly speaking, "I only lost my shirt" should mean I didn't destroy it or have it stolen—I just lost it; but in common speech this is usually understood as being identical with "I lost only my shirt." Scrutinize your uses of "only" to make sure you are not creating unwanted ambiguities.
They got that one right.  Let's hope it's not the only one.
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Cato

A local TV reporter today regaled the audience, who usually just want to know if it will rain or snow or not, with a story about a robbery, during which the "victim was drug down the stairs to the basement and tied up."

"Drug" as the past tense of "drag" is no doubt a monster born by attraction from the German word tragen (carry), whose past tense is indeed formed with a "u", i.e. trug, in areas populated by the descendants of refugees from the Kaiser, Bismarck, or the constant smell of fermentation.   $:)

I also heard the word "boughten" today from a school principal, who said his school "hasn't boughten new textbooks yet."    ???

Vox clamans in deserto...   0:)
"Meet Miss Ruth Sherwood, from Columbus, Ohio, the Middle of the Universe!"

- Brian Aherne introducing Rosalind Russell in  My Sister Eileen (1942)