Thursday - September 29, 2011

We’ll Call It A Draw!

Posted by Christopher     on 09/29/2011 at 10:52 PM   
Filed Under: • CHESS • Fun-Stuff • Humor •  
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This, too, has a name

The serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma or Harvard comma, and sometimes referred to as the series comma) is the comma used immediately before a coordinating conjunction (usually and or or, and sometimes nor) preceding the final item in a list of three or more items. For example, a list of three countries can be punctuated as either “Portugal, Spain, and France” (with the serial comma) or as “Portugal, Spain and France” (without the serial comma).

Opinions vary among writers and editors on the usage or avoidance of the serial comma. In American English, the serial comma is standard usage in non-journalistic writing that follows the Chicago Manual of Style. Journalists, however, usually follow the AP Stylebook, which advises against it. It is used less often in British English, where it is standard usage to leave it out, with some notable exceptions such as Fowler’s Modern English Usage. In many languages (e.g., French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish), the serial comma is not the norm and may even go against punctuation rules. It may be recommended in many cases, however, to avoid ambiguity or to aid prosody (the voice - tone and meter - of what you are writing).

News to me. Never knew that those extra commas had a name. I seem to recall that I was taught to use them and to realize that they were used correctly by analyzing my sentence and removing the text between the commas; if the sentence still read properly then the commas were used properly. Which I just explained in a big long sentence without a single comma in it that actually needed a bit of prosody just like this sentence does.

While this seems like some funny bit from The Oatmeal’s never ending fight for proper grammar, I got it from FatKidAtCamp.com. You can easily see how it reduces ambiguity. Except in San Francisco.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/29/2011 at 01:47 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Thursday - September 22, 2011

I Googled Myself!

I was going to comment on the current problems, idiocies, and indeed flatulence going on.

I was going to quote a ‘poem’ I read when I was a Tenderfoot in the Boy Scouts.

I knew it was from Mad Magazine. I couldn’t remember the exact year.

So I Googled it, and came up with…me.

Very sad.

“With all these dire warnings
of pain, doom, and strife,
It’s hard to imagine
a fate worse than Life.”

The search term was

with all these dire warnings of pain doom and strife

First hit. BMEWS comments.

I gotta quit quoting myself!

Still don’t know what issue of Mad Magazine that appeared in. I’m guessing 1971-72.

Posted by Christopher     on 09/22/2011 at 03:51 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Personal •  
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Cars so ugly they should be towed!

Go here for more nasty cars.

Example: Number 13

Yep. This one’s for you, Drew!

Posted by Christopher     on 09/22/2011 at 02:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • Humor •  
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Save a Liberal!

Why?

Seriously, why? Isn’t it Obama’s job to save liberals? Why should you or I do it? We are supposed to wait for the government Obama to help save us…

Almost forgot to give Tammy Bruce as the source.

Posted by Christopher     on 09/22/2011 at 02:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Obama, The One •  
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When Parents Tweet

It’s things like this that I avoid by NOT using Twitter. I do enough damage posting here!

See more Tweeting disasters here.

Posted by Christopher     on 09/22/2011 at 09:19 AM   
Filed Under: • Computers and Cyberspace • Daily Life • Humor •  
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   Wednesday - September 21, 2011

today’s funnies

click to enlarge

Posted by Drew458     on 09/21/2011 at 01:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Sunday - September 18, 2011

nyuk nyuk nyuk

Posted by Drew458     on 09/18/2011 at 09:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Friday - September 16, 2011

Crowder Causing Trouble

Another new one from Steve Crowder, in which he reports Social Security to the SEC. It is a Ponzi scheme after all, and that’s illegal. Go Steve!

Posted by Drew458     on 09/16/2011 at 09:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Tuesday - September 13, 2011

Social Security Math

It may only be Tuesday, but my bet is that this is the best comment of the week from any blog:

Eric Praline commenting at Soylent Green, on Social Security being a Ponzi scheme and the GOP candidate’s kerfluffle over such a statement of truth:

Let’s break down the numbers: with a $100 trillion unfunded liability, and the average worker contributes $200,000 over a lifetime (according to investmentpedia, whatever that’s worth) that means 500 million new suckers are needed. With a sucker born every minute, that works out to about 950.6 years.

Romney’s right, that seems like a solid strategy to me. Can kicking FTW.

FTW is right. Effing fantastic.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/13/2011 at 03:11 PM   
Filed Under: • Government • Humor •  
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   Thursday - September 08, 2011

saving your time

Just in case you’d got that last piece of lint out from behind the clothes dryer, got all your socks sorted, cleaned the fish tank, and couldn’t find anything at all else to watch on TV and were resigned to watching Teh One give his paramount Jobs Speech (have your shovels ready!), ADHD leveraged his contacts and found a pre-teleprompter copy of the speech. So you can read his short version, avoid watching the Great I Am on the tube, and get back to important things, like sorting the coins you found under the couch cushions.

WASHINGTON, D.C – In a major campaign (jobs) speech before Congress tomorrow night, President Barack Obama will say that jobs are priority #1, just as soon as he gets re-elected in 2012.

In the meantime, the “Great Orator” will spell out a 5-point plan that will continue to spread a matrix of a Thousand Points of Darkness throughout the land until he can once again claim in January 2013 that “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

[ a small part of ] Obama’s $300 billion lackluster plan:

3. Creating the Barack Obama Caddy and Bus Driver Fund. Immediately following his speech, the president will go on permanent vacation until his presumed second inauguration in January 2013. Instead of running the country, Obama will embark on the I Take No Responsibility Bus Tour across America, stopping every day at a golf course to, of course, play golf.

Not a bad effort at all. Read on!

Posted by Drew458     on 09/08/2011 at 11:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Obama, The One •  
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D’oh!

A young New York woman was so depressed that she decided to end her life by throwing herself into the ocean, but just before she could throw herself from the docks, a handsome young man stopped her.

“You have so much to live for,” said the man. “I’m a sailor, and we are off to Italy tomorrow. I can stow you away on my ship. I’ll take care of you, bring you food every day, and keep you happy.”

With nothing to lose, combined with the fact that she had always wanted to go to Italy, the woman accepted.

That night the sailor brought her aboard and hid her in a small but comfortable compartment in the hold. From then on, every night he would bring her three sandwiches, a bottle of red wine, and make love to her until dawn.

Two weeks later she was discovered by the captain during a routine inspection.

“What are you doing here?” asked the captain.

“I have an arrangement with one of the sailors,” she replied. “He brings me food and I get a free trip to Italy .”

“I see,” the captain said.

Her conscience got the best of her and she added, “Plus, he’s screwing me.”

“He certainly is,” replied the captain. “This is the Staten Island Ferry.”

Posted by Drew458     on 09/08/2011 at 10:10 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Wednesday - September 07, 2011

Drew’s favorite bowling alley

Posted by Christopher     on 09/07/2011 at 02:40 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Obama, The One •  
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   Saturday - September 03, 2011

steve bridges as obama via theospark

While Drew was posting his, I was off raiding Theo Spark and came back with this. And after some of my posts today, I think we all need a laff.
Don’t you?

So Here, H/T TheoSpark

Posted by peiper     on 09/03/2011 at 01:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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