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I have been alerted to the fact that
this site is reproducing the content of Languagehat without attribution. I can't find any way to contact them. Is there anything I can do about this?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 7:27 AM on April 2, 2008
(22 comments)
I'm helping edit a dictionary, and I just got to the
skirt entry, which contains the definition "informal: women regarded as sexually desirable." Now, I'm in my fifties and I think of that sense as "before my time," but before I go and tell them to add "dated" I want to double-check with the hip young MeFi crowd: do you know anybody younger than Grandpa Simpson who talks about "chasing skirt"?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 3:38 PM on February 11, 2008
(91 comments)
What's the downside of taking a house off the market temporarily (say, a couple of months)? My inlaws are trying to sell a house, it's taking a while, and the real estate agent suggested this so it wouldn't seem stale. Any reason not to do it?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 1:39 PM on February 4, 2008
(14 comments)
Has anybody had experience with
Charter Communications (in western Massachusetts, if that makes a difference)? My wife and I are moving to
Hadley in a couple of weeks and are thinking of taking advantage of Charter's bundle (available through the end of the month) of basic cable + high-speed internet + phone service (unlimited calling in US) for $69.97/mo. This seems like a good deal. Anybody have experience with them? And if you live in the Pioneer Valley, how worried should we be about the likelihood of an electricity failure disrupting our phone service?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 12:21 PM on July 19, 2007
(13 comments)
Anybody know of a good computer repairman/shop in or near Pittsfield, Mass? My wife's Dell desktop has developed an alarming hum (sometimes loud, sometimes soft), and she'd like to have someone take a look at it, but it would be nice not to have to play throw-a-dart-at-the-Yellow-Pages.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 6:23 AM on June 8, 2007
(7 comments)
I'm working on a book of international curses and insults and I'm supposed to write a section on the U.S. and Canada. Now, I have no problem finding examples of invective by Yanks, but (like a typical Yank) I'm completely at a loss when it comes to the Great White North. I'd appreciate any pointers to good use of wicked language by Canadians (doesn't have to be obscene; cf. Twain's "Harte is a liar, a thief, a swindler, a snob, a sot, a sponge, a coward..."), old or new, online or off. Thanks!
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 8:52 AM on May 21, 2007
(43 comments)
What was the boat journey up the Rhone (and the Saone and down the Seine) to Paris like in the old days, before the internal combustion engine and the damming of the river? Where were the portages? How long did it take? Any resources greatly appreciated, from memoirs to histories to (well researched) novels, online or off.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 11:30 AM on May 8, 2007
(6 comments)
How do I find a gutter cleaner?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 9:10 AM on January 5, 2007
(22 comments)
My Gateway laptop can't tell if there's anything in the E drive. How do I change this?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 12:05 PM on December 6, 2006
(15 comments)
Has noscript killed my Firefox, and if so what do I do about it?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 6:40 AM on September 28, 2006
(8 comments)
This week my blog (languagehat.com) had an unprecedented flood of weird spam; as I was in the midst of deleting another chunk of it, I found myself locked out of my MT control panel (when I try accessing mt.cgi, I get "Invalid login"). Songdog, who helps me with stuff like this, posted a
report at the Movable Type Community Forum, where you can find the horrid details; unfortunately, since I'm still using MT 2.63, there's not much in the way of support, and nobody's responded at the forum. If anybody here has suggestions, I'm all ears and deeply grateful.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 5:45 PM on July 1, 2006
(22 comments)
Does it make any sense to take out a second trust deed on a house you're trying to sell?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 3:43 PM on June 5, 2006
(12 comments)
What were the court costs in Jarndyce? (Spoilers inside if you aren't familiar with
Bleak House.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 2:33 PM on May 29, 2006
(2 comments)
I'm thinking of traveling with my laptop for the first time. What should I be careful about?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 6:44 AM on March 24, 2006
(22 comments)
I need information and suggestions on dealing with the aftermath of a parent's death, specifically the disposal of house and possessions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 12:44 PM on December 28, 2005
(26 comments)
Does anybody have any idea what's going on with this kind of comment spam? I'm getting scads of it, with no URLs but always a mention of a five-figure number. "I've managed to save up roughly $55085 in my bank account, but I'm not sure if I should buy a house or not. Do you think the market is stable or do you think that home prices will decrease by a lot?"
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 12:50 PM on November 18, 2005
(18 comments)
We'd like my wife's 89-year-old mother to be able to stay with us once in a while, which involves making her as comfortable as possible. Our double-bed futon is very comfortable, but it's in the living room and won't fit in the downstairs study/office, so she has no privacy when she sleeps there. We're thinking of getting a single bed to put in the study, but we don't really want to rearrange everything and have a bed taking up half the room in there for a few visits a year, so ideally it would be something we can put away when not in use. But it has to be comfortable (good mattress) and well built and not excessively expensive. Suggestions?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 7:57 AM on November 7, 2005
(22 comments)
My sister-in-law loves Motown and my wife and I would like to get her an anthology of the big hits, hopefully not more than three disks (because we can't spend big bucks this Xmas). Motown reissues being a notoriously tricky subject, can anybody recommend one with good sound and good value?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 3:02 PM on October 25, 2005
(11 comments)
My wife and I saw our doctor yesterday; he said we were both basically in good shape but he highly recommended we try
rhodiola, touted in
this book. He says the book is overwritten but he's checked out the claims and thinks they're substantiated enough to recommend using it; I like the fact that he prefers diet/lifestyle changes to prescription drugs unless the latter are clearly indicated, but I wanted to see if any MeFites knew anything about rhodiola, which I'd never heard of.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 9:53 AM on July 9, 2005
(18 comments)
Recently my blog has been getting comments consisting of gibberish linking to gibberish URLs. Unlike normal spam, they cannot be removed en masse via MT-Blacklist and have to be pried out one by one, and there's no way of preventing more of them without moving to pre-authorized comments (which this may force me to do). My question:
cui bono? Who's getting something out of this?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 2:25 PM on April 5, 2005
(14 comments)
Why is dental insurance so lousy? My wife and I have managed to get decent (though too expensive) health coverage, but the only dental coverage we can find provides only a few hundred more dollars coverage per year than you pay for it. And it's not just a self-employment thing: when I worked at a pharmaceutical-related company, the medical and vision coverage was fine but the dental was similarly lousy. Is there some structural reason for this? You'd think some company would offer better service in the hope the masses would flock to it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 10:40 AM on March 28, 2005
(14 comments)
Anybody have a good list of Quark characters with diacritical marks that would include such specialized items as an
o with a line over it and an
r with a hacek (as in "Dvořak")?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 10:45 AM on February 25, 2005
(4 comments)
RoofingFilter: One reason we got our new house cheap is that the roof needs to be replaced (and the ventilation improved); unfortunately our inspector, who used to be a roofer and had good suggestions, didn't have any names to recommend and could only suggest we get as many bids as possible. Since I had good luck with my query about movers (and thanks, NorthCoastCafe, for recommending
City Moves, who were great!), I'm rolling the dice again: anyone know a good roofer in Pittsfield (or the northern Berkshires)?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 7:34 AM on January 31, 2005
(9 comments)
So we're buying a house (cheap) in Pittsfield, Mass., and will be moving from Peekskill, NY sometime in January. We got an estimate from a Big Mover and it came to thousands and thousands of dollars. We'd love to use the kind of local guys with a truck, careful technique, and impeccable honesty that we
used in NYC; does anybody happen to know such people in either city (or vicinity)? Because if we just throw darts at the Yellow Pages I know we're going to regret it.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 3:31 PM on December 8, 2004
(11 comments)
So now that I've had to start looking for work and a new home, my five-year-old Dell laptop has decided to die on me. I'm probably going to order a Gateway at around the $1000 level (I don't do gaming or any of the stuff that would require something fancier), but what I want to know is what software I should make sure to get with it. I'm planning to do freelance work in editing and maybe translating; can anyone who does that tell me what I'll need besides MS Word (which I presume most files will be sent in)? Thanks.
I was going to preface this with "JobFilter" until I realized that looks like job 'work' rather than the intended Job 'guy to whom all that bad stuff happened in the Bible.' Damn ambiguous English language!
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 7:40 AM on November 19, 2004
(27 comments)
Now that I'm no longer on the corporate payroll, I've discovered for myself the horrors of the American health-care system: to continue my medical and dental coverage through COBRA costs me over $850 a month (for me and my wife). This is far more horrifying than mortgage, taxes, &c., and I don't see how I can continue it (I'm doing it now to avoid the dreaded lapse in coverage). Anybody have suggestions for cheaper health insurance available to the self-employed? (I'll almost certainly be living in western Massachusetts, for what that's worth.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 7:10 PM on November 11, 2004
(17 comments)
How much should I pay for a plumber? [mi]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 5:40 AM on November 3, 2004
(6 comments)
I'm thinking of getting away from the whole NYC corporate rat race, selling the house, buying a considerably cheaper one in the boonies, and living a simpler and less stressful life. This, of course, depends on being able to make a living, ideally working from home. Two questions: [more inside]
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 10:08 AM on October 18, 2004
(10 comments)
I want to get rid of a bunch (hundreds) of LPs, most of which are not worth anything to a store (nobody buys used classical LPs, apparently). I hate to just throw them out. Does anybody know of institutions that would be likely to accept donations of LPs? (Extra points if you know of a specific institution near Peekskill, NY... and if you live around here and think you might want some, let me know -- there's lots of classical and pre-1985 rock.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 7:36 AM on September 19, 2004
(15 comments)
Does anybody know of a choral recording of Hindemith's "Frau Musica"? The
sheet music is available, but I'm not finding any recordings.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 8:46 AM on September 5, 2004
(4 comments)
In a recent MeFi thread, caution live frogs
asks:
what's up with the ``fake quotation marks" style of quoting something in online papers? why fake it when there are perfectly legitimate ?curly quotes? available?
I have often wondered why those awful open quotes are so ubiquitous (and why only the open quotes?); anyone know?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 1:52 PM on May 12, 2004
(19 comments)
Why are some spam messages predated, often by days and occasionally by years (I just deleted two that were supposedly from the year 2000)? I'm sure there's some technical means to send them that way, but what do they get out of it? How likely am I to see a penis enlargement offer that's hidden on page 66 of my inbox?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 9:35 AM on April 25, 2004
(16 comments)
Why do reporters ask "How do you feel"? I've wondered about this for years (sometimes yelling at the TV); I'm inspired to ask the question by a sentence in
this NY Times story about the families of the contractors killed in Iraq Wednesday: "He would not discuss the details of his brother's death or how the attack — in which at least two of the four bodies were dragged through the streets and hung from a bridge in the city of Falluja, west of Baghdad — made him feel." Well, how do you
think it made him feel? I understand why reporters have to ask probing questions of grieving families, but this particular one seems so pointless and so ubiquitous I wonder if any reporters in the group could explain it to me.
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 12:56 PM on April 2, 2004
(19 comments)
Having bought a house, I'm now faced with paying a mortgage. You save a few bucks (and the effort of remembering to mail a check each month) if you have the payments deducted automatically from your bank account; is there any reason I shouldn't do this (assuming I keep enough of a balance to cover it)?
posted to Ask Metafilter by languagehat
at 8:51 AM on January 2, 2004
(12 comments)
