Author Topic: Park Your Amusements Here  (Read 98679 times)

Sajainta

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #75 on: December 23, 2009, 05:48:29 pm »
I know someone who has a little brother named Dalton.  He's 13 and thinks listening to Linkin Park is hardcore (but that's forgivable--I think we were all silly at 13).

But his name is DALTON.  DALTON.

The thought of CT Dalton "rocking" out to Linkin Park, throwing the "rock on" sign and singing along to "Crawling" was too much for me to handle and I couldn't stop laughing for about 10 minutes.

Lord J Esq

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #76 on: December 24, 2009, 05:23:55 am »
A Snail Encounters an Obstacle:

http://i.imgur.com/cZcFe.jpg

Lord J Esq

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #77 on: December 30, 2009, 05:51:24 pm »
Mother and baby experience simultaneous near-death experience on Christmas Eve; "miracle" heralded:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8435457.stm

The interesting thing here is not the statistical anomaly--which is to be expected from time to time in a world where thousands are born every day--but the cynicism with which it is presented. I can almost guarantee you that, somewhere in the BBC News offices, an editor somewhere said: "It's that time of the year, blokes. We need a really heartwarming holiday miracle story. The people eat it up. Keep your eyes peeled, what? Pip pip!"

(British accoutrement added by J for accuracy.)

It's good news for the family that they both lived. A miracle, though? No. Just a holiday centerpiece, as customary as the cornucopia. If not this, then it'd've been something else...

Radical_Dreamer

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #78 on: January 01, 2010, 05:57:09 pm »
I was running a game of Mafia at a party. During a vote to see if the townspeople were going to kill someone, one of the already dead players raised their hand. Dead players aren't allowed to participate, and since I knew he was joking, I reminded him of this in a light hearted fashion.

One of the other players looked up at me and asked "From Hell's heart I stab at thee?" to which I responded "Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool." I like my friends.

Thought

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #79 on: January 04, 2010, 03:39:24 pm »
I am terribly amused that the Finkelstein test is a real thing. It sounds utterly made up, but it is from a bygone era when researchers named things after themselves (sort of like the Islets of Langerhans).

V_Translanka

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #80 on: January 04, 2010, 05:20:47 pm »
I'm amused that this thread exists when it seems like it's just a "stuff you love" mixed with "check this link out"...How is the love thread ever going to catch up to the frustration thread with this gumming up the works?! lol

There was a hate thread?

By and large I am most amused by...let's see...idk...amusement parks I guess...

Lord J Esq

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #81 on: January 04, 2010, 07:02:01 pm »
This thread was not intended to be a link thread. Perhaps we can be more disciplined about posting links in here; I'll keep it in mind. However, this thread is most certainly not a "love" thread. Go back and read the very first post. "Love" is a big word; we don't need to be diluting it even further. Same goes with "hate," which is why I always stick out my tongue when people post frustrations in the Hate thread.

Lord J Esq

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #82 on: January 04, 2010, 10:19:03 pm »
I am amused that other countries seem to consciously put their own national qualifiers in front of terms at a much higher rate than we do in America. You can see this in caricature in bad storytelling sometimes, which is also amusing, but in a different way (since it is a comment on the storyteller's weakness rather than a national ethos).

Truthordeal

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #83 on: January 04, 2010, 10:26:47 pm »
I am amused that other countries seem to consciously put their own national qualifiers in front of terms at a much higher rate than we do in America. You can see this in caricature in bad storytelling sometimes, which is also amusing, but in a different way (since it is a comment on the storyteller's weakness rather than a national ethos).

Like, Swedish meatballs or German Shepherds, as opposed to American ______?

Lord J Esq

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #84 on: January 04, 2010, 10:30:02 pm »
Exactly. I was reading this, and right in the very first sentence they come out with "Irish." It's technically accurate--in fact it's more accurate than leaving it out--yet, on an Irish political website, on an Irish Internet domain, where the discussion at hand is of a prevailing issue in Ireland, it seems an amusingly self-conscious qualifier.

Edit: I should point out, however, that your specific examples are bogus, since the qualifiers on those two terms have since become integrated with the term itself, thus losing their adjectival quality.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2010, 10:32:35 pm by Lord J Esq »

V_Translanka

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #85 on: January 04, 2010, 11:34:24 pm »
What about stuff you'd hear in the news like the American Death Rate and such? Do those count?

I don't think the love thread is about things you love as much as you love your family or your significant other (isn't that phrase unbelievably not loving? lol)...I mean, just because you don't like how people are treating the word in society does that mean we should start a new thread pointing that out? Semantics. Love thread=Like a lot thread. Sound better? >_>

Lord J Esq

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #86 on: January 05, 2010, 12:15:38 am »
But it's not semantics. When people dilute the meaning of words, they undermine their own ability to communicate. They even harm other people's ability to be understood. Doesn't it strike you as dissonant when someone posts something which is truly and unambiguously an example of love or hate, and then the very next post is almost cruelly casual in comparison?

Admittedly I have, myself, abused the Love thread in this way, although I've been very disciplined about the Hate thread. I started the Amusement thread to try and divert some of the non-love stuff away from the Love thread, but I guess more threads are needed.

Or, to take it the other way, we might simply lump everything together into a single "What's on Your Mind?" thread, avoiding the problem of word dilution.

Truthordeal

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #87 on: January 06, 2010, 05:55:01 pm »
American history has seen three prominent figures with the name "John Edwards," and all three of them are douchebags. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

Sajainta

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #88 on: January 06, 2010, 06:42:10 pm »
American history has seen three prominent figures with the name "John Edwards," and all three of them are douchebags. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

What?  You don't like the thought of God dangling you as a spider over the fiery pits of Hell?  XD

Lord J Esq

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Re: Park Your Amusements Here
« Reply #89 on: January 07, 2010, 07:05:28 am »
I just read a description of Sarah Palin: "Mooselini." Hee hee!