lightcastle

This is something I've wanted to ask about for awhile, and another conversation has reminded me about it.

I've never liked "tribe" as it gets used by people for their group of friends/community/etc. There's the issue of its use in Native American political structure of course. That's a big part of it. But there's also the fact that it has from the very beginning been linked to blood and exclusion, specifically.

I do like the idea of a word for these sorts of self-chosen communities of friends and intimates or at least like-minded individuals, but "tribe" always rubbed me the wrong way.

So, does anyone have other words they like for this sort of thing? Clique seems too exclusionary. I seem to remember having once done a search and come across Clade as an option, but now I can't find any backing other than the biological nomenclature, so perhaps I am thinking of another word. Nakama seems too intimate, for instance.

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.

It's back to work and I keep glancing at interesting things but don't have time to write. So you get a link dump from tabs.

(One of my 2012 quasi-resolutions is to set up a proper reading system. I will solicit "you should be reading these" suggestions, as well as asking what to use to manage them.)

Carbon nanotubes create wearable sensors. This kind of thing has been kicking around for a while, and seems to really getting to the point where smart clothing could be pretty commonplace.

From Obsidian Wings, some useful German words we could use in English:

Verschlimmbesserung, noun [from Verbesserung (improvement) and Verschlimmerung (deterioration/worsening)]: intended improvements or upgrades that end up making everything worse. Verb form: verschlimmbessern

kaputtreparieren, verb ("kaputt" + "repair"): repair or tinker with a thing to the point that it becomes broken.

The Occupy Movement (and I'm still iffy on whether I like that term, but it seems to have stuck) has been fascinating to watch, although why anyone is surprised they are having some of the problems they are having surprises me. The fact it exploded quickly and that it pretends to be non-hierarchical almost guarantees some form of these "do any of you realize you didn't invent social justice movements or protesting" moments.

Barbie trashes her dreamhouse.

The two types of sloth may be an example of convergent evolution. (Also, Sloth babies are cute)

Add this parasitic fly to the list of possible causes of colony collapse disorder. (Also, do not read if the whole "larva then eat their way out of the insect's head" thing is going to bother you.)

Three New Hampshire republicans have proposed a bill that says “All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived”.

A reminder, correlation does not mean causation, although it allows you to imply all kinds of things.

I was going to write something about the Hugo Schwyzer dust up over the holidays, but since I always thought he was a douchebag anyway...

I have just been informed that current practice is that colons are only to follow independent clauses. In other words, one can no longer introduce a list by saying something like "Vancomyacin has many side effects, including:" (or even "These effects include:")

Has anyone else heard this? It seems a bizarre move unless we no longer believe in lists which may not be exhaustive.

While looking up something about a song in occitan, I came across this line from Wikipedia.

"The Latin motto of Draguignan is : Alios nutrio, meos devoro (I feed others, I devour my children)."


Yes, I know that the Montreal motto is Concordia Salus

Title 1, Chapter 1, Section 1 of the US Code is entitled Words denoting number, gender, and so forth.

Some tidbits that struck me include the title of this post, but also:

the words “insane” and “insane person” and “lunatic” shall include every idiot, lunatic, insane person, and person non compos mentis;

the words “person” and “whoever” include corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals;

My coworker (those of you at the housewarming party would remember him as the one who made curry and was crashed on the couch blissed out on music causing some to wonder if he thought he was in an opium den) carries around a small version of The Iliad in ancient Greek.

No, he cannot read Ancient Greek.

I came across QUILTBAG recently and have been having mixed feelings about it. I do kind of adore that someone came up with an acronym that is pronounceable in English. I happen to like acronyms and anagrams from time to time.

However, the suffix -bag is so tied to insult in my understanding of North American slang (douchebag, dirtbag, etc), that I find it hard not to think of this as a pejorative. I had, in fact, presumed the acronym was coined by a European, although that seems not to be the case. (It seems to have started as QLTBG - just re-ordering the letters of the more well known versions.)

QUILTBAGPIPE (explanation here) gets around that, and is rather amusing, but I'm still not convinced.

Obviously, as a white, heterosexual, cis-male, what I think of it is rather epically inconsequential, even if the inclusiveness of QUILTBAGPIPE means I fall under its penumbra.

So, as I have friends and readers who are far more implicated in such things, what do others think here?

From a 1922 issue of Flapper magazine, a collection of slang used by people in the scene.

I may just be an airedale with a knack for apple sauce, sadly without a goof and far too much Father Time, but I think this list is pretty close to the monkey's eyebrows.


(On a more serious note, it's interesting to note the way the slang refers to traditional relationships.)

I support the idea of renaming the passive voice. Since most people don't know what it is anyway, and get ordered not to use it by people who don't know what it is, for reasons that aren't correct. (Passive construction doesn't hide agency.)

Since I am a descriptivist at heart, I think we should just accept "passive voice" as now meaning "vague about agency" and start using a new name for the extremely useful construction that once bore the name.

That old language hat post recommended "hyptic voice" and the comment section recommended borrowing from the Irish an briathar saor - "the free verb" - which isn't really the same thing but is a lovely phrase.