Yes, the Internet's capacity for instant confirmation of my expectations has made me more certain of myself, too. Just like those trolls on Facebook.
OTOH, one way the Internet has made me richer than kings is my premium subscription to YouTube Music. All the world's music at my fingertips, at any time and to suit any mood!
I wouldn't trade a 21st century middle class existence for any human alive in the 19th century. Others may disagree, but I don't think they've thought this through as well as we have.
I'm often curious about word and phrase origins, especially ones that suddenly become trendy. Why are they suddenly trendy? Who decided they should be trendy? It's so weird.
Here is a series that I found highly entertaining.
I'm a language geek myself, but I've never learned French, so I just found out about the French numbers a couple of weeks ago. Did you know that in Switzerland, though, in Swiss French, their numbers are normal? https://sightlake.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/the-swiss-french-numbers/
Ha! I just did a little rabbit hole deep dive here in another comment with Daniel Nest. We were looking at Scandinavian and northern European numbers, and... well, let's just say it gets sort of interesting over in Denmark.
I moved to Denmark in 1996, and this meme (where Danish counting even beats the French) should tell you everything there's to know about my suffering over the years:
Which isn't too say that it makes it and easier. In the end, you just memorize the Danish terms for 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 and move on with your life without thinking more about it.
Not easy, but I sort of see how it happened. I'm pretty much never sorry whenever I unravel an etymological thread! Thanks for helping with that super weird one today.
Other strange number-related things? You said yourself, “a dime a dozen”. And since you brought it up as well, why was it an insult to say someone smelt of elderberries? My wife asked me that last week and I didn’t have a ready answer.
I think part of it was just making fun of the way French people talked. As much highbrow humor as Monty Python used, they weren't afraid to go low when the medium demanded it.
I've read this, too: hamsters breed prolifically, and elderberrires were used to make wine; ergo, Sir Gallahad's mom was a slut and his father was a drunk. John Cleese is still alive; we could try asking him!
Yes, the Internet's capacity for instant confirmation of my expectations has made me more certain of myself, too. Just like those trolls on Facebook.
OTOH, one way the Internet has made me richer than kings is my premium subscription to YouTube Music. All the world's music at my fingertips, at any time and to suit any mood!
I wouldn't trade a 21st century middle class existence for any human alive in the 19th century. Others may disagree, but I don't think they've thought this through as well as we have.
We used to call twenties “fun tickets.” Now a fun ticket is a C-note.
Bundles of twenties used to mean something in finance too. 🤷🏻♂️
Bien joue mon ami.
I remember cash!
I'm often curious about word and phrase origins, especially ones that suddenly become trendy. Why are they suddenly trendy? Who decided they should be trendy? It's so weird.
Here is a series that I found highly entertaining.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt13617060/
I love that series, although it was pretty limited in scope and didn't dive as deep as I was hoping. Probably not a huge surprise, right?
Right.
I'm a language geek myself, but I've never learned French, so I just found out about the French numbers a couple of weeks ago. Did you know that in Switzerland, though, in Swiss French, their numbers are normal? https://sightlake.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/the-swiss-french-numbers/
Ha! I just did a little rabbit hole deep dive here in another comment with Daniel Nest. We were looking at Scandinavian and northern European numbers, and... well, let's just say it gets sort of interesting over in Denmark.
This makes sense!
I saw the comments, so I had to dig into it a little.... Fascinating!
I love that something I write can spark a good conversation like this. That's a big part of why I'm here; thank you!
I moved to Denmark in 1996, and this meme (where Danish counting even beats the French) should tell you everything there's to know about my suffering over the years:
https://i.imgur.com/N76Llez.png
But I can see the "base 20" at work here as well!
What's up with that -1/2 term?
This does a good job of explaining it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nordiccountries/s/aUkKceWXml
Which isn't too say that it makes it and easier. In the end, you just memorize the Danish terms for 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 and move on with your life without thinking more about it.
Not easy, but I sort of see how it happened. I'm pretty much never sorry whenever I unravel an etymological thread! Thanks for helping with that super weird one today.
I recently learned that Catechesis comes from the Greek word “Katékhéo” meaning to “echo down."
I recently learned that Catechesis is a word!
Other strange number-related things? You said yourself, “a dime a dozen”. And since you brought it up as well, why was it an insult to say someone smelt of elderberries? My wife asked me that last week and I didn’t have a ready answer.
I think part of it was just making fun of the way French people talked. As much highbrow humor as Monty Python used, they weren't afraid to go low when the medium demanded it.
I've read this, too: hamsters breed prolifically, and elderberrires were used to make wine; ergo, Sir Gallahad's mom was a slut and his father was a drunk. John Cleese is still alive; we could try asking him!