Disqus - Latest Comments for CRConrad

Re: This Summer Vacay Is Totally Not Tubular, Man

Christian R. Conrad — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 10:01:14 -0000

That narrows it down some, but not totally unequivocally: Works the same in Sweden (and, I strongly suspect, Norway).

Re: This Summer Vacay Is Totally Not Tubular, Man

Christian R. Conrad — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 09:48:05 -0000

'It's been my experience that when people claim they are giving "explanations" for why they do X, what they're really giving is "excuses."'

Except perhaps for, like in this case, people on the spectrum. As I've understood it, they're often more literal-minded than the average person, so when they say explanation they mean... Explanation.

Re: With Great Bacon, Comes Great Stupidity, Part 2

Christian R. Conrad — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 08:07:34 -0000

Cook's right in a way though; everything does taste better with bacon.

(Yeah no, not saying it's very vegetarian. Being vegetarian just means you can't have everything taste better.)

Re: Invest In Some Time Away From Annoying In-Laws

Christian R. Conrad — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 03:30:04 -0000

"Her brother-in-law [...] has started inviting us to meals or drinks with the assumption that we’d pay for everything."

Yeah no, that's not how "inviting to meals or drinks" works. You "invite" means you pay.

Re: Invest In Some Time Away From Annoying In-Laws

Christian R. Conrad — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 03:25:52 -0000

I wonder if that thing has a different name in Sweden. In Swedish, "snor" means "snot" and "lax" means "salmon", so "snorlax" would mean "snot-salmon".

Re: Invest In Some Time Away From Annoying In-Laws

Christian R. Conrad — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 03:23:13 -0000

I think you read it wrong. It rather clearly says "Her brother-in-law", where the "her" refers to OP's wife.

Re: Knit Where You Thought It Was Gonna Go

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 11:15:31 -0000

You mean "nutter", as in "you're nuts!"? Yeah, that was the only thing I could come up with at first too. The actual answer... Still has me somewhat baffled. To my ears, "the N-word" sounds nothing like "knitter".

Re: Knit Where You Thought It Was Gonna Go

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 11:06:50 -0000

Which, depending on how you pronounce your Ts and Gs, for many people may sound almost impossible to mistake for each other.

People like me. That's why I had to delve into this comment section to find out what the offending word was supposed to have been.

Re: Knit Where You Thought It Was Gonna Go

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 10:44:39 -0000

Men fy på sig, inte känna igen ett av KAJs tidigare storverk! Nu får finlandssvensken skämmas... .😉 But yeah, many (most?) varieties of Ostrobothnian are incomprehensible even to most other Finland-Swedes. To take the most famous of them (I'd guess) at the moment, Linus Torvalds probably wouldn't get that either (because he's from Helsinki). And I certainly don't understand my wife's relatives unless they make an effort to speak "Standard Finland-Swedish", and they're only from Kokkola -- not Närpes or Vörå or anything.

Here it is, on YLE's streaming platform: https://arenan.yle.fi/1-4671297 (Sorry, Fröken Humla, dunno if that's viewable from outside Finland, but at least Lemmy should be able to see it.)

Re: When The Students Won’t Can It

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:58:23 -0000

Frankly what I think is that you're not particularly good at grokking context.

Re: When The Students Won’t Can It

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:55:29 -0000

Used to be from third grade, in the early 70s. Wonder when it changed, and why?

(Source: Garpenbergs skola, ÅK3 1973-74.)

Re: When The Students Won’t Can It

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:25:08 -0000

“A very formal way”, in this case, is actually “the most correct way”.

Nope, just plain wrong. This case took place in a Swedish school, which aren't that ridiculously formal. Here, it is far too stilted to be “the most correct way”.

Re: When The Students Won’t Can It

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:09:09 -0000

When I went to elementary school in Sweden, 50+ years ago, it wasn't "Ms. [Last Name]" but just "Miss" ("fröken").

I think I found out the last name of my lågstadie(year 1-3) teacher quite by accident, in passing, many years later. Never had the faintest idea about it while she taught us.

Re: When The Students Won’t Can It

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:00:49 -0000

So, what's that called, de-veloping?

(Nah, I know, devolving. But that's still not exact.)

Re: In A State Of Confusion, Part 9

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 07:33:03 -0000

"Be careful when visiting the Okefenokee."

You misspelled Ookaboolapongafenge.

Re: In A State Of Confusion, Part 9

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 07:31:32 -0000

Sure, but it was called Georgia(or apparently Grusia, in the local language) all the time. Whether part of Russia or indepndent, there's been a Georgia there since... Idunno, the Middle Ages at the very least, possibly Antiquity. At least a thousand years, maybe fifteen hundred or two thousand.

Re: A Human Error

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 05:11:46 -0000

So, what is the difference between ‘first astronauts to the moon’ and ‘first human landing’?”

Re: Allergic To Common Sense, Part 18

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 04:18:23 -0000

"because 'rape oil' is not a very marketable name."

...in English.

Re: Allergic To Common Sense, Part 18

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 04:17:13 -0000

The plant is called rap-something in many languages, and sexual assault is called "rape" pretty much only in English. So only English-speaking countries — newsflash, not all countries are — have this "problem" in the first place.

Re: Allergic To Common Sense, Part 23

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 03:46:31 -0000

"Yeps, and the things you can eat twice are food."

No. You can eat blackboard chalks, or sawdust, repeatedly. But not extract any calories from them.

Re: Allergic To Common Sense, Part 23

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 03:44:22 -0000

"Huh, I just realised a couple weird edge cases that can sneak through that definition. Beer is food now!"

Beer has always been food.

Re: Allergic To Common Sense, Part 23

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 03:41:45 -0000

Nope, totally different things. Lutfisk (or lutefisk; that's Norwegian, while the version without the e is Swedish. In Finnish it's lipeäkala) is basically dried fish (Stockfisch, bacalhao) that is softened in lye (alkalische Lösung, soda, Natron) overnight or for a couple of days to become soft again. (And then rinsed in water for about equally long to get the pH to something non-lethal.) It doesn't smell or taste very much of anything, really. The problem most people have with it is the gelatinous consistency the process imparts.

Re: Allergic To Common Sense, Part 23

Christian R. Conrad — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 03:31:58 -0000

Yum!

Re: When A Six-Year-Old Is Burdened With Glorious Porpoise

Christian R. Conrad — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 11:57:56 -0000

Imagine if Rear Admiral Grace Hopper had found a dead flying mammal in that mainframe in stead of an insect... We'd all be de-batting our programs now, in stead of de-bugging them.

Re: Never Joke With The Customers… Ever!, Part 12

Christian R. Conrad — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 10:04:14 -0000

Still among the best, and probably the scariest, book I've ever read. Been a while since I read it — must be over thirty years IIRC — and as memory fades with time, the only thing I can recall for sure is that I'm not going to re-read it. But otherwisxe, if I come across a new Greg Bear book, I'll be all over it.