h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Makes you think, dunnit? So, according to the OT, Exodus III v14, God's name is "I am." There's a point there somewhere, maybe?

C\|/

Well, I suppose, if one needs an old book of worn-out mythology to tell them the obvious . . .


az

Here are a few examples which include some already mentioned above: http://www.fun-with-words.com/redundant_etymology.html

Personally, I dislike the way abbreviations are given in both their initial and expanded forms: ATM machine; HIV virus; PIN number etc, etc.

toxx

New Scientist had a collection of those, Toxxin - they called it RAS, or Redundant Acronym Syndrome, or just to be annoying, RAS Syndrome!

What about Hanseatic League? I know I read somewhere that Hanseatic means ??? League, so Hanseatic League means ??? League League.



BTW, why can't you get a "small" or "medium" drink at fast fod restaurants in the US? Since when did "large" begin to mean "the smallest size"?

I didn't know that RDO. So does that mean they are called 'large', 'extra large' and 'really really extra large' or some such thing?

Meanwhile they are 'shrinking' clothes sizes so that what used to be a small is now called a medium, a medium is now called a large, etc.

The last time I was in Canada I went out for brunch with my family and I swear the amount of food on my plate could have easily fed four people. Don't understand why they do that either.


az

That is stupid.

Large, Giant and "Economy" sizes, az. Which is fine if you're a family of fourteen, but not much use to singletons.

Noggin

Burger King has 'medium' as the smallest size, and how can you have medium without small? Medium is defined as: "Occurring or being between two degrees, amounts, or quantities; intermediate" so how can you have a medium without a small?

So they can charge more?


az

That makes as much sense as any.

and because they're are a nation of over eaters...... oops wrong thread, thought I was in the "opinions of Americans " thread

Which one's that?

The one called Opinions of Americans, I think.
Carry on though, its amusing watching you guys go off the subject

Go off *what* subject?

Anyhow, that's my speciality here.

What the heck, it's all god, innit?


az

Just started reading "The Closing of the Western Mind:The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason" by Charles Freeman about how Christianity killed off intellectual inquiry in the west for a millenium.

"There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiousity ... It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which man should not wish to learn."

St. Augustine

Good job we don't have people like that around anymore

No, but we still have the Pope. The Vatican released a letter this weekend warning women that 'feminist' attitudes are destroying how God intended men and women to be together and that a woman's place is to wait and listen.




az

Yeesh.

I read that about that.
Written for him by Cardinal Ratzinger (sp.?) who is possibly the only person who makes the current Pope look like a liberal
The book also deals with how the Virgin Mary cult arose, the division of women into virgins and whores etc, but I'm still only on page 5.

"I didn't know that RDO. So does that mean they are called 'large', 'extra large' and 'really really extra large' or some such thing?"

Worse still--they're insconsistant, so you have to lok closely at the menu to figure out what the sizes are.

Sometimes it's "medium, large, extra large"--though medium implies a small. At Wendy's, it is "Large, Biggie, Great Biggie".

I think it's because they think people choose based on the implications of the name and not the actual quantity.