lightcastle (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lightcastle) wrote2012-02-27 01:24 pm
lightcastle) wrote2012-02-27 01:24 pm
A mix of things you should know.
The Oatmeal grammar tag is full of fun things, even if many are usage and vocabulary, but not grammar. (I know, I'm losing this jargon fight. I do think we will need to brainstorm up a new word to mean "grammar" since we're losing the one we have.)
More in the we humans may actually be wired to be nice file.
At some point, the rules on academic publishing and access are going to have to change.
Merril Perlman clears up some usage I have always wondered about.
Something improvised as a temporary fix is “jury-rigged.” First used in the seventeenth century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “jury-rig” is a nautical term, not a legal one. A temporary mast to replace one that has broken is a “jury mast”; attaching any rigging to that is “jury-rigging.”
Something that is “jerry-built,” though, is shoddily built, usually out of inferior materials. The OED traces that phrase to 1869. (It’s not “gerry-built,” unless the builder is named Gerry.) The temporary “doughnut” tire that most cars carry these days would be a “jury-rigged” solution to a blowout; let’s hope it wasn’t “jerry-built,” too.
To be fair, things can be “jury-rigged” and “jerry-built,” meaning temporary and lousy, and it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference.
Whether you want to fine tune your interpretation as the Golden Rule, the Silver Rule, or the Platinum rule, it's still pretty much Rule #1 - Stop Being a Dick to People.
All "Top X" lists are debatable, but that's a pretty fine ensemble Den of Geek has assembled for Cult Film Actors.
When the Commetariat attacks.
More in the we humans may actually be wired to be nice file.
At some point, the rules on academic publishing and access are going to have to change.
Merril Perlman clears up some usage I have always wondered about.
Something improvised as a temporary fix is “jury-rigged.” First used in the seventeenth century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “jury-rig” is a nautical term, not a legal one. A temporary mast to replace one that has broken is a “jury mast”; attaching any rigging to that is “jury-rigging.”
Something that is “jerry-built,” though, is shoddily built, usually out of inferior materials. The OED traces that phrase to 1869. (It’s not “gerry-built,” unless the builder is named Gerry.) The temporary “doughnut” tire that most cars carry these days would be a “jury-rigged” solution to a blowout; let’s hope it wasn’t “jerry-built,” too.
To be fair, things can be “jury-rigged” and “jerry-built,” meaning temporary and lousy, and it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference.
Whether you want to fine tune your interpretation as the Golden Rule, the Silver Rule, or the Platinum rule, it's still pretty much Rule #1 - Stop Being a Dick to People.
All "Top X" lists are debatable, but that's a pretty fine ensemble Den of Geek has assembled for Cult Film Actors.
When the Commetariat attacks.