CritterKeeper

This could be taken a lot of ways, but I've decided I am amused by how clever the system is and how sound their logic. :-)

Judge Dee

The genetic mutation producing this new color morph is a fairly recent one, but it appears to be establishing its own niche, distinct from its progenitors

If we ask for that, we should ask to get the Newbie Intros subforum back, too! Maybe just call it Introductions, and then all the veterans can get in on the fun, too!

As far as I'm concerned, "ain't" is perfectly fine, but it's also useful for conveying information about the speaker when writing dialogue.

I remember back in the days of nn newsgroups and huge text files being posted which somehow could be converted into one little picture. Heck, I remember back in the '70s, when "message boards" were "PLATO Notes," "chat" was "talkomatic," "email" was "Personal Notes," IMs were "term-talk," "remote access" was "monitor mode," and "WoW" was "avatar." We used emoticons, but then, so did Abraham Lincoln....

Sounds like a great idea!

Hmm, that would depend on how many aberrations are showing up in Moperville, and how many of them subscribe to the tactic of trying to kill potential threats while they are still young and vulnerable. Akiko does have some pretty powerful magic in her heritage, after all. If there's a big discussion about how Diane is in danger because of her bloodline, just like Susan was attacked because of her magic potential back when she was a Freshman, can't you just imagine Nanase trailing off in the middle of a sentence, as she has her "Aw, crap!" moment?

Heh. Sounds like a cross between the Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle and a Car Talk "Puzzler of the Week." (For those of you who can't hear them, those are both shows on public radio. Actually, you can hear them, they're available as free podcasts. The Sunday Puzzle is even separated out into its own podcast so you don't have to download the entire soon-to-be-outdated news program just to get a five minute puzzle segment. Car Talk, on the other hand, mekes you listen to the whole show, or go to their web page for a text version.) True, but we must make a distinction between "overuse" and "any use at all of any words the reader might not know already." Heaven forbid we should ask a reader to look up a word if they don't know it and can't guess it from context! My copies of Anne MacCaffrey's Harper Hall Trilogy still bear pencilled-in definitions on the back fly leaf of words I did not know, and I am grateful to Anne for expanding the vocabulary of the young adults that series was targeted to. (targeted at? targeted for?) Likewise, J. K. Rowling used a diverse vocabulary in her books, some of the words just occurring in the text naturally and some being incorporated into names and spells as a bonus for diligent readers. Books written for, say, a fifth-grade reading level, should not be limited to using only those words the average fifth-grader already knows, or else how are the poor kids supposed to ever make it beyond to the next grade-levels?

I hadn't taken your post as an attack. You do have me a little confused as to whether your last line was means sarcastically or sincerely, though. Am I being called a nit-picker too, now, or am I just overly sensitized right now?

Technically, the phrase used in the commercial is, "I've fallen and I can't get up." If they come after you, that's your defense!

Calling me a snob, an elitist, and a pedant is not debating. Coming into a thread which has *one* purpose, and attacking that very purpose, is trolling of the worst sort.

Hmm, a crumpled-up piece of paper can't cover the rock properly, but I guess at least it's harder to cut....

Makes me sad when there's supposed to be *one* safe space for something, and people who don't like it have to come in there and ruin it, even though they already get to ban that something from the rest of the world.

Okay, the whole point of this thread was to give a safe place for people who *do* care about the English language. The people who say there is no such thing as correct get the entire rest of the forum, and this was supposed to be the *one* safe place to discuss what's correct usage. If it's just going to turn into a bunch of flames attacking that very position, then I'd rather TOH lock the thread and we forget all about it.

I'm not someone who is opposed to words like "ain't" but I do believe that there are some things that are just plain incorrect. If someone writes that "their tired" or they "could of" used some more sleep, the correct words were "they're" and "could've" and I think it's terrible to say that just because someone is of the wrong ethnic group or social status, that we should just give up on them ever knowing the difference, and say "well, that's okay for *them* to talk that way!" Do you really believe that some people are incapable of learning to speak correctly, that the only way for them to communicate is to lower standards for them?

My usual comment to them is, "If it was a snake it'd've bit ya!"

My favorite dramatic music....

Um, that's Friday's NP you've linked to there....

See, making a joke out of a typo is something my various crowds all do all the time. Many a time has someone in a chat room typed something wrong, and when they say "Aargh! I meant...." someone would be quick to reassure, "It's okay, I'm fluent in typo!" or to blame an infestation of typo demons in the keyboard. It never occurred to me that this was an example of "neurotypical privilege" before, but I can see how someone for whom such things come easily, with only the occasional goof, could afford to make jokes, while someone who struggles with every post would be more sensitive about perceived corrections. (Even trying to figure out how to phrase this is tricky! Forgive me for any poor choices....)

Ah, yes, storing loose-leaf tea. Tiesta comes in canisters or resealable plastic "refill" bags and much as I love the canisters, I mostly get the bags now, because I can get excess air away from the tea better. I'm still mostly drinking white, with the occasional green. Many of them have other flavorings added, to greater or lesser degree, something I don't see nearly as much with black teas.

"If You Know Beans About Chili, You Know Chili Ain't Got No Beans!"

The technology to go beyond text might never have gotten off the ground without the desire to see porn. Then again, even on an all-text internet, fanfic, including AU OCs, relationship non-porn slashfic, mpreg and such, would still be more than 1Gb!

The Oblivion War only comes up in one short story (or did it count as a novella?) which is told from the POV of a different character instead of Harry. Harry still has no idea it's happening, which is a good thing. Given the much smaller number of pages in which it's explored, we don't know much at all about the Oblivion War. Which is, of course, quite appropriate. Even the people fighting this war are on need-to-know. ;-) Just my own guesses and speculations, but a dusty old scholarly paper or thesis probably doesn't do much to create new worshippers and believers. I suspect the Oblivion War is responsible for a fair number of broken pipes in the stacks of University libraries, mice getting into boxes of stored theses, old obscure books being "unable to locate" on request slips, etc. There are a lot if things which are introduced early on which come back later and turn out to have been extremely important, even things in the first novel. Jim Butcher did a *lot* of plotting ahead of time and dropping hints. I suspect he's also not above hearing a fan ask whether some obscure bit he'd forgotten about was important, and sparking off of that to invent a new connection that *makes* it important later. Jim is a bit of a troll; once you've read the first book, look up his story about how the character of Bob came to be. Heck, his second bestselling series was spawned by a dare on an internet forum! It might be helpful to remember that the first book, Storm Front, was the author's first published novel. He was taking a creative writing class, and this was his ongoing project. From all his stories and behind-the-scenes info, it sounds like he had a great teacher, with a sense of fun about the process, who taught actual useful tools and techniques. Makes me wish I could go back and take the clsss too! But, it's a little rough around the edges; his writing style gets better over the next few books. He doesn't seem to be a writer who decided he got published and that's good enough, he's someone who is still working to hone his craft a few dozen books later. As I said above, the Oblivion War is only revealed in one short work, set in the same universe but with a different POV character (Thomas, and I won't say more to avoid spoiling). In general, the short stories are extras you don't need to read, but if you can read them in the appropriate places within the series, they add some depth and fun. Occasionally there will be references within the novels to events in the short stories, but anything you actually need to know is explained well enough to carry on without them. If I had to pick one book other than the first to start with, I think it would probably be Dead Beat, because it's got some of the best Crowning Moments of Funny and of Awesome. However, it does spoil some earlier reveals (again, Thomas, and I won't say more), so it's not perfect. Hmm, wonder if we could come out with a Dresden Files version of the Juggling Machetes order for Star Wars? At the least we'd need to take it to an off-topic Spoiler thread.....

Thank you for that link" It does an excellent job of explaining why choice of language is so important in this area!