The most frequently confused words I see in bicycling forums

[Bill Sornson]

John Pitts wrote:

> Voilà - "wallah", "wahlah".

Irregardless, I was just settin' here, and...

VIOLA!

Bill "sarcams a la mold" S.

 

[Leo Lichtman]

"Bill Sornson" wrote:
> Irregardless, I was just settin' here, and...
>
> VIOLA!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I could care less!

 

[David L. Johnson]

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:19:28 +0000, jobst.brandt wrote:

> Just the hazard of mentioning untruth is to great to use the correct
> form.

Considering the thread, we'll assume this was just a typo.


--

David L. Johnson

__o | "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored
_`\(,_ | by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." --Ralph Waldo
(_)/ (_) | Emerson

 

[Mark Hickey]

"Leo Lichtman" <[email protected]> wrote:

>"Mark Hickey" wrote: I'm jest what? And don't call me Surely.
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>I didn't call you surly. But, if you'll give me your number, I'll surely
>call you.

I'd surely be sorely stockless on Surly.

Mark "should I have named my company 'Grumpy Cycles'?" Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

 

[[email protected]]

David L. Johnson <[email protected]> writes:

>> Just the hazard of mentioning untruth is too great to use the
>> correct form. ^^^

was "to"

> Considering the thread, we'll assume this was just a typo.

My spell checker doesn't find that sort of thing and my lazy finger
typing skips all sorts of characters that create words of this type.

I was disappointed in "Visual Thesaurus" not even recognizing that
lying in bed could be a truthful pastime. To them is is all lies.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Jobst Brandt

 

[[email protected]]

Mark Hickey <[email protected]> writes:

>> "Mark Hickey" wrote: I'm jest what? And don't call me Surely.
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>> I didn't call you surly. But, if you'll give me your number, I'll
>> surely call you.

> I'd surely be sorely stockless on Surly.

I think we should give credit to Richard Feynman who made this phrase
famous in his book:

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"

.... and don't call me Shirley!"

http://tinyurl.com/aalx4

I can recommend it as a good book on things like those discussed on
wreck.bike.tech.

Jobst Brandt

 

[Leo Lichtman]

<[email protected]> wrote: (clip) To them is is all lies.
(clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That depends on what your definition of "is" is.

 

[Bob]

Mark Hickey wrote:
> "Colorado Bicycler" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Anyone else with some favorites?
>
> It's vs its
>
> I've seen this one screwed up in "real literature" like magazines and
> newspapers quite often.
>
> Remember - It's is ALWAYS a contraction of "It is". It's is NOT the
> possessive form of "It". Its is.
>
> How's THAT for a couple tortured sentences?

My favorite Winston Churchill anecdote-

In the process of typing it from the original longhand, Churchill's
secretary once changed a letter that Churchill had handwritten.
Churchill asked him (coldly, no doubt) why he had presumed to change
his words. The secretary replied, "Sir, I knew you would never
knowingly end a sentence with a preposition so I assumed it was a
mistake."
Churchill's alleged reply- "That is the sort of assumption up with
which I shall not put."

Regards,
Bob Hunt

P.S.- I screw up on "it's/its" on a too frequent basis. Damn
apostrophes.

 

[Roger Houston]

"The Wogster" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>>
>
> Except that English has adopted the accent free version of the word,
> otherwise we would call it something else. It's why English is so hard,

In British, isn't it a "mech"?

 

[Roger Houston]

"John Pitts" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Voilà - "wallah", "wahlah".
>
> Eg "Wallah! He pulled a rabbit out of the hat."
>
> Took me ages to figure out what people meant.

That's not confusion, it's just stupidity and laziness. Taking a stupid,
wild-assed guess at the spelling and just hammering it up there.

 

[Peter Cole]

[email protected] wrote:
> Mark Hickey <[email protected]> writes:
>
>
>>>"Mark Hickey" wrote: I'm jest what? And don't call me Surely.
>>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>
>>>I didn't call you surly. But, if you'll give me your number, I'll
>>>surely call you.
>
>
>>I'd surely be sorely stockless on Surly.
>
>
> I think we should give credit to Richard Feynman who made this phrase
> famous in his book:
>
> "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
>
> ... and don't call me Shirley!"
>
> http://tinyurl.com/aalx4

Maybe so, but Amazon search doesn't show the word "Shirley" appearing in
that book.

Also, the book was published in 1985, 5 years after the movie
"Airplane!" came out, which included the famous lines:

Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

Rumack: Mr. Striker, the passengers are getting worse. You must land soon.
Ted Striker: Surely there must be something you can do.
Rumack: I'm doing everything I can... and stop calling me Shirley.

 

[p.k.]

Tension and Compression?

 

[Bill Sornson]

p.k. wrote:

> Tension and Compression?

Name two symptoms of holiday stress.

 

[Benjamin Lewis]

jobst brandt wrote:

> I think we should give credit to Richard Feynman who made this phrase
> famous in his book:
>
> "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
>
> ... and don't call me Shirley!"
>
> http://tinyurl.com/aalx4
>
> I can recommend it as a good book on things like those discussed on
> wreck.bike.tech.

Also don't miss "What Do You Care What Other People Think?", which has a
long section on his work in the space shuttle Challenger inquiry, and may
be of particular interest to many here.

Both books are likely to be entertaining reads for the non-technical crowd
as well.

--
Benjamin Lewis

Now is the time for all good men to come to.
-- Walt Kelly

 

[Colorado Bicycler]

p.k. wrote:
>> Tension and Compression?


>Name two symptoms of holiday stress.

You win the Double Jeopardy, but;

I always thought that "tension" was yelled when the troops were getting
ready to march.

 

[Alex Potter]

Roger Houston wrote on Tuesday 13 December 2005 13:01:

>
> "The Wogster" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>>
>>
>> Except that English has adopted the accent free version of the word,
>> otherwise we would call it something else. It's why English is so
>> hard,
>
> In British, isn't it a "mech"?

When I first encountered them in the early 1950s they were called
derailleurs. AFAIK, they still are.
--
Regards
Alex (Birmingham, UK)
The From address above is a spam-trap.
The Reply-To address is valid

 

[[email protected]]

Patrick Lamb <[email protected]> wrote:

> e.g., the breaks on my bike aren't working.

So, at stop signs, you should always break your bike?

Call me a wild-eyed nonconformist, but I may opt out on that one. ;-)


Bill

--------------------------------------------
| As long as people believe in absurdities |
| they will continue to commit atrocities. |
| --Voltaire |
--------------------------------------------

 

[[email protected]]

Mike Kruger <[email protected]> wrote:

> 1. Consultant-ese. A consultant can't improve your accounting. They have to
> improve your "accounting process". We don't have files anymore, we have
> "database structures". Businesses will pay more for jargon. I used to write
> specs. Now I write "technical requirements". I don't talk to programmers
> anymore; I go to "Joint Application Design" meetings or "Tollgate Review
> Processes". These meetings aren't moderated (or refereed!). They are
> "facilitated".

Near here there is a new church ^H^H^H^H^H^H excuse me, "family worship
center."


Bill

----------------------------------------
| I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect. |
| Therefore I am perfect. |
-----------------------------------------

 

[[email protected]]

Colorado Bicycler wrote:
> Just for fun.
>
> The most frequently confused words I see in bicycling forums:
<snip>
>
> Anyone else with some favorites?

less/fewer

 

[Peter Cole]

[email protected] wrote:
> I think we should give credit to Richard Feynman who made this phrase
> famous in his book:
>
> "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
>
> ... and don't call me Shirley!"
>
> http://tinyurl.com/aalx4
>
> I can recommend it as a good book on things like those discussed on
> wreck.bike.tech.

A very interesting site I happened to stumble upon has a series of 4
lectures by Feynman delivered in 1979 (8 years before his death) on his
specialty (Noble prize) of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Although the
material is pretty esoteric, Feynman's unique style very much comes
through, his reputation for being one of the most entertaining lecturers
and making pretty arcane subjects approachable comes through very
clearly, even after all these years.

<http://www.vega.org.uk/video/subseries/8>