Shouldn’t that be “drive OUR grammar police bananas”? And what sort of bananas are “grammar police” ones, anyway? And how DO you drive one? And can contradictions actually drive, come to that?
…and I am. I may be self-appointed, but I still consider myself a high-ranking member. You’re baiting me, but I’m not biting. Nice try, though. I give you full marks for effort, and partial credit for creativity.
“Cannot people just spell it out when they can”? No, sorry, that suggestion just looks like a crime against English to me. With “can not”, you can at least move the words around a bit to suit.
Hence the logical incongruity: Cannot (or can’t, or can not, if that makes you feel any better) when they can. It’s like saying “false when true”. The question is “Why don’t they spell it out when they can?” The answer to which is “Twitter, texting, and the internet have made people even more lazy than they already were.”
“I am sympathetic. Cannot people just spell it out when they can?”
Generally i agree to the extent that it’s convenient. That said, there are times when using acronyms is far more concise. Of course this is predicated on the assumption that everyone involved is conversant with the acronyms being used. (IMO, YMMV, ONVIA, IANAGC)
Neither Bing nor Google search is helpful with either ONVIA or IANAGC. ONVIA does turn up as an “American government business intelligence company” — which makes one wonder what kind of business, exactly, the government thinks it’s operating.
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but scroll down the page a bit… there was a whole conversation about bees and spelling – beginning roughly 11 hours before your comment. A slightly different angle, but it still played off the “spelling bee” pun. Sorry.
Also, nobody seems to have mentioned that the air is now filled with little lights — almost like, since Melissa is concious of what she is, she’s actually manifesting as much of the swarm as she can manage (obv, bees don’t light up, but with the lights from the bus you’ll get some reflections from the not-bees).
When we saw Sweetheart (operating the drone) wake up from the VR, the drone was in an otherwise empty room with cables running into the back of her head.
Where is the swarm, physically? Or different parts of the swarm? How are they even being made to experience the VR?
I’m also wondering how a swarm of bees break into a computer. Does it involve acoustic modems? Are the bees actually inside one of the servers; literal bugs in the machine (the heat would probably kill them!) Maybe there’s an incredibly specialized piece of hardware; something that looks like a water tank with an internet connection, except all the bees fit inside (and it’s properly ventilated or air conditioned for their comfort), and the inside is an interface with pheromone sprays and model/robotic bees that interact with those of the swarm. . .
Or maybe it’s all just done with lots of USBee cables?
The forum has already decided it’s by hundreds of tiny little helmets on the individual members of the swarm. I’d ask who she commissioned those from, but the sheer number of mad scientists makes for too many options.
It makes sense that she would refuse to learn what LMAO stands for. As a bee collective, the very notion of losing your ass must be especially offensive. (Bees actually lose their ass when they sting.)
And if she is, in fact, the new queen of the swarm, she should be extra protective of her ass, since the queen does not lose it when she stings. Her stinger – unlike that of the worker bees – is not barbed. She can sting as many times as she wants and still retain her stinger.
But if she has not learned what LMAO means, then why would she think that it had anything to do with losing one’s ass?
And when you really think about it, would you rather die from laughing your ass off, or die because you got mad and stung somebody? Personally, I hope I’m laughing when I go out. I’ll be telling jokes to the doctors and nurses, and saying “Hey, would someone please turn off that damned alarm? It’s distracting…”
And so I arrive at the end of binging ten years of this comic in a couple of weeks. Now I will have to slow right down and wonder for a day or two what comes next. This is my current favourite comic and its humour and wisdom are just right in these increasingly disorienting times.
Now, you go back and binge it again a few more times. Every time you do, you’ll catch stuff you didn’t see before. I never bothered to keep track, but I imagine that I’ve read it through over a hundred times now.
And if you haven’t already done it (or even if you have), go back and read its predecessor, Narbonic.
I’m sure you are right about stuff I didn’t see before! There are so many fascinating details and interconnections. Also each of the wallpapers is a world in itself!
Annotations are comments and notes on a given text, often making explicit what it implicit, like jokes or references. For example, an annotated work would point out that “Melissa”, as noted above, literally means “bee” in Greek — but I guess that JCW and/or SG decided not to have Virginia point that out, perhaps because it would break the flow of conversation; perhaps because she already has figured out the bee connection, and Melissa is clearly aware of it, so Dr. Lee doesn’t feel any need to belabor the point.
There are famous annotated versions of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland”.
Presumably, bergerjacques means that having finished the books by Baum, he is aware of the many references to the Oz stories (and other stories) in the Skin Horse comic, and is wondering if anyone has collated them in one place.
Nothing to do with the filename story, which is its own separate thing.
On the one hand, yes, I know what annotations are. And it is perfectly reasonable to assume that he is talking about annotations as they relate Skin Horse to the Oz stories. That was also my first thought.
On the other hand, I’ve seen enough people over the years ask questions (or make statements) that one would think were related to the subjects they were just talking about, when in fact, they had completely shifted gears, changed subjects, and switched channels, and they just assumed that you would know where they had gone. And since the filename story is a type of annotation – albeit brief, and only in fragments – I figured it was safe to ask.
I’m sympathetic. Can’t people just spell it out when they can?
Like spelling out can not instead of using contractions?
…but not putting a superfluous space in the middle of the word “cannot”?
Of course, the logical contradiction of Robert’s question could drive us grammar police bananas.
Shouldn’t that be “drive OUR grammar police bananas”? And what sort of bananas are “grammar police” ones, anyway? And how DO you drive one? And can contradictions actually drive, come to that?
No, “Drive us” is correct in this context, assuming the speaker is one of the grammar police.
…and I am. I may be self-appointed, but I still consider myself a high-ranking member. You’re baiting me, but I’m not biting. Nice try, though. I give you full marks for effort, and partial credit for creativity.
“Cannot people just spell it out when they can”? No, sorry, that suggestion just looks like a crime against English to me. With “can not”, you can at least move the words around a bit to suit.
Hence the logical incongruity: Cannot (or can’t, or can not, if that makes you feel any better) when they can. It’s like saying “false when true”. The question is “Why don’t they spell it out when they can?” The answer to which is “Twitter, texting, and the internet have made people even more lazy than they already were.”
“I am sympathetic. Cannot people just spell it out when they can?”
Generally i agree to the extent that it’s convenient. That said, there are times when using acronyms is far more concise. Of course this is predicated on the assumption that everyone involved is conversant with the acronyms being used. (IMO, YMMV, ONVIA, IANAGC)
I Am Not A Greek Chorus? I Accept No Alternate Government Contracts?
I don’t know what ONVIA means either, but those possible meanings for IANAGC just kind of popped into my head.
Then there’s one of my personal favourites… DILLIGAF.
from context, “I am not a Grammar Cop”.
…or “I Am Now A Grammar Cop”.
Neither Bing nor Google search is helpful with either ONVIA or IANAGC. ONVIA does turn up as an “American government business intelligence company” — which makes one wonder what kind of business, exactly, the government thinks it’s operating.
I only recognize two of those acronyms, so we see the basic assumptions of using acronyms runs into some rocky patches.
Of course, the same thing goes for any highly specific terminology, so the idea shouldn’t be that hard for Gavotte to comprehend.
Because they are not spelling bees?
I’m amazed to be the first to post that.
Not to burst your bubble or anything, but scroll down the page a bit… there was a whole conversation about bees and spelling – beginning roughly 11 hours before your comment. A slightly different angle, but it still played off the “spelling bee” pun. Sorry.
Ah! Melissa! Greek for bees! Nice one, Shaenon!
It’s like how Foster’s is Australian for bee…r.
A comment about cigars (spoken in a German accent of course) comes to mind.
Oh sure, his was just a cigar. It’s everyone elses that were dicks.
Unless it’s Groucho Marx then it was a cigar and a moustache.
…unless you’re reading Dead Philosophers In Heaven, in which case his cigar is a penis “(please don’t tell the others)”
*smacks forehead*
Of course bees are going to be pedantic about spelling.
…
That’s *speciest*
termor3258: Quite right. It should be “Of course Gavotte is going to be pedantic about spelling.” http://skin-horse.com/comic/she-could-hardly-2/
Well, that didn’t work.
“Laughing my abdomens off,” of course.
Melissa is great. Had to look that one up.
Also, nobody seems to have mentioned that the air is now filled with little lights — almost like, since Melissa is concious of what she is, she’s actually manifesting as much of the swarm as she can manage (obv, bees don’t light up, but with the lights from the bus you’ll get some reflections from the not-bees).
I thought those were stars, but looking back they started to appear around the time the other members of the swarm started dancing.
I think the lights where they’re dancing are supposed to be reflections from the mirrorball, and these lights are supposed to be stars.
There are no lights around Queen or Apis when their backs are to the Arcade.
I had assumed they were reflections from the mirrorball
When we saw Sweetheart (operating the drone) wake up from the VR, the drone was in an otherwise empty room with cables running into the back of her head.
Where is the swarm, physically? Or different parts of the swarm? How are they even being made to experience the VR?
I’m also wondering how a swarm of bees break into a computer. Does it involve acoustic modems? Are the bees actually inside one of the servers; literal bugs in the machine (the heat would probably kill them!) Maybe there’s an incredibly specialized piece of hardware; something that looks like a water tank with an internet connection, except all the bees fit inside (and it’s properly ventilated or air conditioned for their comfort), and the inside is an interface with pheromone sprays and model/robotic bees that interact with those of the swarm. . .
Or maybe it’s all just done with lots of USBee cables?
The forum has already decided it’s by hundreds of tiny little helmets on the individual members of the swarm. I’d ask who she commissioned those from, but the sheer number of mad scientists makes for too many options.
It makes sense that she would refuse to learn what LMAO stands for. As a bee collective, the very notion of losing your ass must be especially offensive. (Bees actually lose their ass when they sting.)
And if she is, in fact, the new queen of the swarm, she should be extra protective of her ass, since the queen does not lose it when she stings. Her stinger – unlike that of the worker bees – is not barbed. She can sting as many times as she wants and still retain her stinger.
But if she has not learned what LMAO means, then why would she think that it had anything to do with losing one’s ass?
And when you really think about it, would you rather die from laughing your ass off, or die because you got mad and stung somebody? Personally, I hope I’m laughing when I go out. I’ll be telling jokes to the doctors and nurses, and saying “Hey, would someone please turn off that damned alarm? It’s distracting…”
Sounds like she is refusing to learn on principle
And so I arrive at the end of binging ten years of this comic in a couple of weeks. Now I will have to slow right down and wonder for a day or two what comes next. This is my current favourite comic and its humour and wisdom are just right in these increasingly disorienting times.
Now, you go back and binge it again a few more times. Every time you do, you’ll catch stuff you didn’t see before. I never bothered to keep track, but I imagine that I’ve read it through over a hundred times now.
And if you haven’t already done it (or even if you have), go back and read its predecessor, Narbonic.
I’m sure you are right about stuff I didn’t see before! There are so many fascinating details and interconnections. Also each of the wallpapers is a world in itself!
I only recently got round to reading the first five books of Baum’s Wizard of Oz… Whose doing the Skin Horse annotations these days?
Annotations?
Annotations are comments and notes on a given text, often making explicit what it implicit, like jokes or references. For example, an annotated work would point out that “Melissa”, as noted above, literally means “bee” in Greek — but I guess that JCW and/or SG decided not to have Virginia point that out, perhaps because it would break the flow of conversation; perhaps because she already has figured out the bee connection, and Melissa is clearly aware of it, so Dr. Lee doesn’t feel any need to belabor the point.
There are famous annotated versions of “The Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland”.
Presumably, bergerjacques means that having finished the books by Baum, he is aware of the many references to the Oz stories (and other stories) in the Skin Horse comic, and is wondering if anyone has collated them in one place.
Nothing to do with the filename story, which is its own separate thing.
On the one hand, yes, I know what annotations are. And it is perfectly reasonable to assume that he is talking about annotations as they relate Skin Horse to the Oz stories. That was also my first thought.
On the other hand, I’ve seen enough people over the years ask questions (or make statements) that one would think were related to the subjects they were just talking about, when in fact, they had completely shifted gears, changed subjects, and switched channels, and they just assumed that you would know where they had gone. And since the filename story is a type of annotation – albeit brief, and only in fragments – I figured it was safe to ask.
If you’re referring to the filename story, I have a copy that’s current as of Nov 2. I’m a couple days behind.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s9e62nuzq4gkooz/Skin%20Horse%20filename%20story.txt?dl=0
pronounced “le mou”
I thought that was French for “meow”.
Yes! You can just tell she’s pronouncing it as a word, not an acronym.
(You beat me to it by… two and a bit years…)