From a computer perspective the right-to-left aspect and especially the combination of right-to-left and left-to-right in the same text is especially tricky.
well, i mean, i did have to take lessons. spending some of my formative years in the US meant that until sometime in my teens, i didn't really know jack shit. but i suppose spending all that time around people speaking it does help.
What if the timestamps showed the date, but not the time?
SB: And what if they showed random times, which will provide commenters with an ineluctable temporal dissonance similar to a really good acid trip? We could then pretend we've found a way to stuff little notes into tachyons for posting in a previous year...
And while the future's there for anyone to change, still you know it seems/It would be easier sometimes to change the past.
I spoke Arabic as a kid [my father's an archaeologist, so we lived in the Middle East when I was young]. I think Finnish is more complicated when it comes to conjugations and declensions.
But what if we were not commenting at all, but rather, milking cows; and what if they were not timestamps, but rather, different echos of the same desultory moo?
I know I could never learn Arabic.
From a computer perspective the right-to-left aspect and especially the combination of right-to-left and left-to-right in the same text is especially tricky.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 8:53 AM
i don't think arabic is THAT hard.. i mean, at least the spellings are phonetic, and i think conjugating verbs is easier than even french.
but that's just me.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 9:02 AM
You know Arabic?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 9:06 AM
yah. "heritage speaker", though, per the article's nomenclature; i'm half egyptian.
but i can't read or write (in arabic), so, i kinda suck.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 9:21 AM
Then I don't think you're allowed to say it's not hard. (Yes, I say that to all the girls....) But you *can* work for the NSA. You could be The Man!
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 9:24 AM
well, i mean, i did have to take lessons. spending some of my formative years in the US meant that until sometime in my teens, i didn't really know jack shit. but i suppose spending all that time around people speaking it does help.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 9:27 AM
The article reminded me in a roundabout way of John Lawler's excellent observation (at page bottom):
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 10:14 AM
Verily, at the Mineshaft medieval, excellence was often to be found at page bottom.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 10:19 AM
At least John Lawler can't make fun of Heidegger.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 10:23 AM
While it's probably true, your comment qua speech act is perplexing.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 10:39 AM
I was thinking of this.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 10:43 AM
That was an equal opportunist rejoinder. I would have made an analogous joke if the reading group's subject did real philosophy.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 10:58 AM
Now you're reminding me of this.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 11:01 AM
Now that's not fair. Why, some of my best friends are Continentals.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 11:09 AM
Some of my best friends are Town Cars!
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 11:13 AM
Those are Pintos, Matt. You're living a lie.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 11:29 AM
I hate timestamps. People can totally tell when your comeback has that not-so-fresh feeling.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 11:32 AM
I also hate timestamps. You have your aggregator set to check every 15 minutes, eh? Or is that too personal?
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 11:35 AM
I was thinking of signing up for a class this fall myself. Maybe I should take a finance class instead.
Posted by Abby | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 1:03 PM
every 15 minutes
No, just a weird coincidence.
What if the timestamps showed the date, but not the time? That would give the illusion of flowing discourse without being too susceptible to mischief.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 1:08 PM
But Joe O's killer timestamps comment was the best April Fool's joke that year, if not the best comment ever.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 1:22 PM
What if the timestamps showed the date, but not the time?
SB: And what if they showed random times, which will provide commenters with an ineluctable temporal dissonance similar to a really good acid trip? We could then pretend we've found a way to stuff little notes into tachyons for posting in a previous year...
And while the future's there for anyone to change, still you know it seems/It would be easier sometimes to change the past.
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 3:22 PM
I spoke Arabic as a kid [my father's an archaeologist, so we lived in the Middle East when I was young]. I think Finnish is more complicated when it comes to conjugations and declensions.
Then there's classic Javanese...
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 3:35 PM
But what if we were not commenting at all, but rather, milking cows; and what if they were not timestamps, but rather, different echos of the same desultory moo?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 3:38 PM
different echos of the same desultory moo?
SB: As rendered by a Moo Synthesiser?
And on the subject of cows:
From a Philadelphia Daily News article by one H. Gensler:
As moms used to tell their daughters, you don't marry the cow when you can get the milk for free.
Pat Roberston had it wrong - it's bestiality that leads to gay marriage, not the other way around...
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 4:10 PM
As rendered by a Moo Synthesiser?
Immortalized on Wendy Carlos' Switched-On Livestock.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 4:24 PM
One must, of course, eschew boviation in this cow-related discourse...
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 4:55 PM
Gotta be cruel to be kine.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 5:00 PM
Cud be, cud be.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 5:15 PM
A lot of tripe, these ruminations. I can't stomach them.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 5:22 PM
Batter my heart, four-stomach'd God!
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 5:27 PM
Gotta be cruel to be kine.
I won't even mention the milk of mooin' kineness.
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 5:35 PM
I won't even mention the milk of mooin' kineness.
That would indeed be a missteak.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 6:38 PM
Hey, you know what's funny? All the things you guys have been writing have kinda been about cows!
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 6:51 PM
Huh. I hadn't noticed that beefore.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 06-10-05 7:22 PM