Meatbomb, I know where you're coming from. I'm completely goyisch on both sides as far back as can be traced (lots of Brits, Micks, and Norwegians, a little Cherokee and Welsh, but no Jews), but many friends and lovers have been Jewish all my life, I learned a little Hebrew from a cute sabra in high school and bought a Tanakh, and at one point I was so enamored of Yiddishkeit (I was reading Israel Zangwill and Mendele Moycher-Sforim and G-d knows what all) that I seriously thought of converting.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 2:46 PM on July 25, 2008

WWI: Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy, set in Britain; Solzhenitsyn's Red Wheel cycle, set in Russia.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 1:51 PM on July 21, 2008

I always thought the grocer was single in that phrase...as a parallel with, um, catcher's face mask or carpenter's level, for instance.

This is correct. (You know it's true because Miko agrees, and Miko is never wrong.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 2:28 PM on July 17, 2008

Annoyingly, neither Chicago nor AMA seems to address this issue. Chicago says that reference numbers are full-sized (16.25), but in 16.35, which discusses "Asterisks, daggers, and the like," it is ignored (similarly at 16.63). AMA (2.13.4, p. 62) says "Footnotes are indicated by symbols or letters, which should be set as superscripts before colons and semicolons and after commas and periods.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 12:36 PM on July 14, 2008 marked best answer

On non-preview:

Daggers and asterisks should not be superscript in either the text or in the note itself. ... the general expectation among style guides and typographic manuals will be that the symbol is not superscript in the text, so making it so in the note wouldn't be an issue.

This is not true. See above.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 12:38 PM on July 14, 2008

In the paper version, all of these symbols are full size inline with the text as well as in the example table linked as figure 16.10.

This is not true. I am looking at figure 16.10 right now, in the physical book, and the asterisk is clearly small and superscript. (The numbers are, of course, full size and aligned.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 12:41 PM on July 14, 2008

Yeah, a lot of it is coincidence (certainly the Afro-Asiatic/East Cushitic and Dravidian forms are). It's impossible to know whether the Sino-Tibetan, Hunnic, and Caucasian words are related; they could all be from the same source or borrowed, but there's no way of knowing after all this time. The Hungarian word is only attested from the 16th century, long after the Hungarians left Siberia, so that one is definitely a coincidence, and probably onomatopoeic. In general, coincidence is a far,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 10:06 AM on July 12, 2008

Salim Abu-Rabia and Linda S. Siegel, "Reading skills in three orthographies: The case of trilingual Arabic–Hebrew–English-speaking Arab children," Reading and Writing 16 (2003): 611-634 looks like it would be of great interest; unfortunately it's not free online, but you should be able to find a copy of the journal at a library. (Or maybe some nice MeFite has one and can report on the findings.)

Just a thought, but I bet... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 12:51 PM on July 10, 2008 marked best answer

It seems like this might be more difficult in a language like Arabic or Hebrew, which are typically unvowelled when printed, because the actual word's pronunciation and definition has to be decided based on context.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's just the reverse: because we read words as gestalts and there are fewer characters per word in Arabic and Hebrew, they are read more efficiently (as allfortheBoss says of Hebrew). I actually came here... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 5:11 PM on July 10, 2008

Asking Russians is like asking Americans which sports team to root for

I agree with this, and I would specifically suggest asking Americans who have taken courses in advanced Russian at either university. As fascinating as the cities are (I've been to both), you want to make sure the program is right for you, and general statements like "university X is the best" aren't really relevant.

Also, try to read as much as... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 3:55 PM on July 8, 2008

Whatever you do, don't buy the Ken Burns series. In my experience they are poorly selected and poorly engineered.

I disagree. Each album is a separate issue, and some of them (Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins) are extremely well chosen.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 3:48 PM on July 8, 2008

A quick glance through Chicago (which I use every day, as a copyeditor) confirms my immediate reaction, which is that you're not going to find anything there because it's about books and journals and citations, not formatting student papers. I think you want something like Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 11:01 AM on July 7, 2008 marked best answer

I wouldn't go to the Latin Quarter, I'd go where the North Africans are, for instance the Goutte d'Or district (east of Montmartre), where I had delicious briks for almost nothing some years back.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 2:31 PM on July 3, 2008

just pushing the cork back in is guaranteed to kill your wine if you leave it for more than a few hours.

This is absolutely not true. One of the best wines I ever had in my life was a Burgundy that had been sitting around for days, half-full, with just a cork in it.

Also, it is perfectly normal for two people to drink a bottle between them. I wouldn't want to do it every day, but I have done it many times in the past.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 7:33 AM on July 1, 2008

Maybe you just don't like wine that much

I like wine and am knowledgeable about it.

or maybe the wine wasn't very good to begin with.

It was a 1978 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche. I trust you'll accept that as a good wine.

letting a pinot noir stand around "for days", with just a cork in it, will have completely killed it, I can... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 2:12 PM on July 1, 2008

It is impossible to track down many supposed "quotes"; never trust attributions on the internet. See my answer here for more detail.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 6:59 AM on June 30, 2008

And when I do imbibe I prefer reds. Or a cold Zinfadel if I'm in a hurry.

Just to help you avoid a faux pas: people who like (real) wine think of white zin the way jazz lovers think of Kenny G. (What people who like wine think of as real) zinfandel is a red wine (and an excellent one—I always recommend it to go with Thanksgiving dinners).
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 6:20 PM on June 29, 2008 marked best answer

What mumkin said. I don't see what your cousin has to do with this; you want to give your child a family name that belonged to your great aunt, who you adored. Go right ahead.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 9:31 AM on June 29, 2008

merocet, Wikipedia is not what we call a scholarly source; it's just another website. I have been looking around at better sources, and it appears to be true that we do not know what happened to her after Caesar's death; Plutarch, our main source for the period, drops her after her prophetic dream. And yes, of course it's true that information is lost because it's not considered important.

For a magisterial takedown of Eco's pretensions to erudition, see here.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 8:36 AM on June 28, 2008

Sorry, didn't mean to come across as making a sniffy point about wikipedia's credibility. I thought the poster was looking for actual references, and figured he could find Wikipedia for himself. The question is, after all, "What happened to Calpurnia after Julius Caes[a]r's death?"

It's not a takedown of the man's actual knowledge or scholarship.

Well, it's hard to read that and take the man's knowledge and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 11:17 AM on June 28, 2008

If this group is in their thirties and still interested in partying and youth culture, it sounds like they still have a lot of growing up to do.

Yeah, and I don't agree that you should bother mentoring them. Make some new friends, and you might suggest to your husband that spending so much time around a bunch of fools "feebly grasping on to the last strands of their youth" (as C_D says) is perhaps not the best use of his time.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 8:08 AM on June 28, 2008

Seriously, most major advertised-on-TV brews in the US are just pee in a bottle.

Seriously. Stay away from them.

Lots of good advice here (and in the earlier thread LoMit linked to); I'll add that I didn't take beer seriously as a drink until I was introduced to the infinite variety of Belgian beer. Presumably there's a store with a wide selection somewhere in your fair city; try 'em till you learn what you like. And do... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 5:53 PM on June 22, 2008

I agree with those who say that both your ideas (iPhone, Campbell's) and many of the suggestions here are irrelevant to plagiarism. Furthermore, nasreddin's point is well taken. I think Gable Oak's link to the Laura story is the best idea so far—the only thing that might stop a would-be plagiarist who doesn't give a shit about "waah, the poor diligent student who put in all that work" is a vivid example of a plagiarist being publicly shamed (and probably expelled, though I'm... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 7:21 AM on June 20, 2008

The word "coches" must derive - as the English word "coach" does - from the town of Kocs (pronounced "coach") in Hungary,

Yup. OED:
[In 16th c. coche, a. F. coche (masc., in 16th c. occas. fem.). Found since 16th c. in nearly all European langs.: cf. Sp. and Pg. coche, It. cocchio, Wallachian cocie; Ger.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 6:57 AM on June 20, 2008

When I lived in Thailand, I never got bitten. Now, in the States, when the skeeters are biting I get bit along with everybody else. Don't know whether the difference is in me or the skeeters, but I thought I'd add a data point.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 10:28 AM on June 19, 2008

Wikipedia cites it as the source of the term "to blow smoke up the ass", although they don't have a citation for it either.

Wikipedia has a lot of linguistic misinformation. I'd say Cassell has it right.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 5:22 PM on June 17, 2008

In Russian: переигрывать (pereígryvat') for habitual action or something happening now; for a single occurrence: переиграть (pereigrát'). (Not my native tongue, but I trust that doesn't disqualify the answer.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 10:10 AM on June 16, 2008

Well, 岡田三郎助 is his name in Japanese, and here's a Google image search on it, if that helps. Good luck!
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 10:54 AM on June 14, 2008

I would probably tip them anywhere between $50-$120 as well as including lots of refreshments on both ends

Same here, and for chrissakes ignore the cheapskates. Movers should always be tipped.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 8:45 AM on June 13, 2008

You butted up against whatever that girl's "thing" was. This is a stretch from saying you were responsible for the Holocaust. People are touchy.

Yeah, exactly. While I sympathize with your having been upset at her reaction, this question is badly framed. Nobody accused you of being responsible for the Holocaust. If you had framed it as "A Jewish girl I met a while back exhibited what seemed an irrationally negative reaction when she... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 5:40 PM on June 10, 2008

Lot of wrong answers here. The poster is basically correct; re is a word on its own and not an abbreviation of anything, and it does not need a colon except in the separate context of a header (which the poster has already excluded from consideration). All you "I've never seen it that way" people are just proclaiming the limits of your reading; I've seen it many a time, and the OED citations show its wide usage, dating back at least 300 years.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 1:17 PM on June 9, 2008 marked best answer

Apparently it's customary and therefore OK to use the colon, even within a sentence

Just to be clear: it may be "customary" among a certain group of people, but the kind of people who look down their noses at "bad grammar" and "illiterate usage" will also look down their noses at this, so if you're concerned about your writing looking literate, do not use the colon.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 1:19 PM on June 9, 2008

I'm almost certain it's from in re, which means "in the matter of" or "concerning."

I suggest you read the thread more carefully.

I can't for the life of me figure out why you wouldn't just insist that your staff spell out regarding and be done with it.

I suggest you read the thread more carefully.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 1:56 PM on June 9, 2008 marked best answer

The others are either office argot or letters to the editor, which have their own formal niceties.

Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...

But you make a fair point. I do not deny that re comes primarily from certain restricted contexts, and I certainly agree with "the rules you choose to set for those are the ones that apply"; since the question is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 3:49 PM on June 9, 2008

the article doesn't read to me like a harsh attack piece

Me either, and I'm a trifle confused. I understand Belk's not liking the article, and I would certainly understand if his close friends and relatives took his position, but I don't understand the poster's take on it. Are you (assuming you're still reading the thread) a "friend" or someone who's "met him a handful of times"? Those are two very different things. If you're... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 7:29 AM on June 9, 2008

it's not a good idea because it sounds, umm, insane....

Don't be ridiculous. People have been doing this since the beginning of time; it's not "insane," it's just a tad vain. People are entitled to their vanity. Yeah, in a couple of years the poster will have to face the issue again, but so what? Perhaps it won't seem so bad then. I'm not advocating it, but let's not get carried away.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 1:57 PM on June 8, 2008

My reaction is somewhere between grumblebee's and dirtynumbangelboy's. But it doesn't really matter, does it? This isn't a real question, this is a "validate my emotions" post, as is clear from your "best answers" (read: people who agree with you).

Bottom line: you don't own your ex, and "unspoken, yet understood" is nonsense. You're trying to superimpose your understanding onto your ex. I'm quite sure if she posted we'd get a very... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 1:23 PM on June 8, 2008 marked best answer

Aren't "Good Chinese" and "Close Chinese" now proper nouns for those restaurants, even though they are not the names the proprietors have chosen?

This is exactly the right way to look at it. If you were operating on your girlfriend's wavelength, you'd both be talking about "Farmer's Market," you'd both know what you meant, and there would be no controversy. Since you, for whatever reason, find it unacceptable, you are... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 1:05 PM on June 7, 2008

I thought it was because the US helped established Israel as the zionist state for the Jews after the war.

Not true. Israel was established by the Jews themselves, and there was intense debate in the U.S. government about whether to recognize the new state. Truman went against the strong opposition of much of his cabinet and did so. Clark Clifford remembers:The President regarded his Secretary of State, General of the Army George C. Marshall, as... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 11:17 AM on June 6, 2008

I'll translate the beginning, or provide a summary in [brackets], of each paragraph of the long part in small type; if you want all of a given paragraph, let me know.

Bonds of this loan are issued in two series...

The owner of this bond has a share in the loan in the amount of 1,000 rubles, yielding FIVE AND ONE HALF PERCENT interest annually...

The payment of capital and interest according to this bond is free for ever... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 12:15 PM on June 5, 2008

Beaten to the punch, and better!
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 12:16 PM on June 5, 2008

Olympia Morata.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 11:47 AM on June 5, 2008

Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7 are must-haves for the devoted jazz fan.

Indeed, but since everybody's suggested them, I want to reinforce the votes for Jelly Roll Morton, whose claim to have invented jazz was (like many of his claims) hyperbolic, but whose music is undeniably great—his recordings with the Red Hot Peppers are as great as the Armstrongs and provide a perfect summing-up of the ensemble-oriented early jazz style that Armstrong... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 11:22 AM on June 5, 2008

Oh, and Yazoo Records has a wonderful pair of discs called Jazz The World Forgot, Jazz Classics of the 1920s (Vol. 1, Vol. 2). Lots of stuff you can't find anywhere else, and it's terrific music (not to mention, who can resist bands like Louis Dumaine's Jazzola Eight, Roy Johnson's Happy Pals, or the Pickett-Parham Apollo Syncopaters?).
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 11:27 AM on June 5, 2008

Er, and if you get interested enough, you'll want to read Gunther Schuller's Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (and then his followup The Swing Era—he's been promising to follow the story into the '50s for decades now, dammit!). Sorry, I just love this music too much to stay away!
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 11:32 AM on June 5, 2008

LolaGeek: Do you know if the pay's decent?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 11:09 AM on June 5, 2008

Previously. (My answer there still stands.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 6:45 PM on June 3, 2008

It seems to be literary criticism for people who are not interested in literature. I don't see how one could "bring down" its arguments other than by saying "What you say may be interesting to people who want literary examples to spice up their discussions of evolution, but it is of no interest to people who like literature for the traditional reasons people like literature."

From another perspective, it is just another in an endless series of NEW!... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 9:57 AM on June 3, 2008

I asked my question because I want to know if there is any reason that the USPS wouldn't simply replace face value first class stamps with Forever stamps, other than "to make more money off of certain people".

I don't understand why you don't think making money is a sufficient reason. The USPS is in business to make money; if they make more money this way, no other reason is required. As for the lack of variety in Forever stamps (which... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 9:47 AM on June 3, 2008

The Last Samurai, by Helen DeWitt.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat at 5:51 PM on June 2, 2008