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[Ares Land]

Someone tried to tell me today that polenta is "properly" translated as "grits". As. If.

Something good came out of this! I finally figured out why people in South-Eastern France say poleinte (S.Fr. polenta): that way they stress the same syllabe as Franco Provencal polenta.

[masako]

Someone tried to tell me today that polenta is "properly" translated as "grits". As. If.

Well. They're both boiled cornmeal. Different colored corn, sure...but corn just the same.

What's the problem?

[Linguoboy]

Someone tried to tell me today that polenta is "properly" translated as "grits". As. If.

Well. They're both boiled cornmeal. Different colored corn, sure...but corn just the same.

And country sausage and albóndigas are both fried ground pork. Different shapes...but pork just the same.

[Nortaneous]

Someone tried to tell me today that polenta is "properly" translated as "grits". As. If.

Well. They're both boiled cornmeal. Different colored corn, sure...but corn just the same.

What's the problem?

the first problem is that the word "polenta" exists in english

[Linguoboy]

the first problem is that the word "polenta" exists in english

And, like, why did we call it "pizza" when we already had the word "pie"?

[Linguoboy]

In other randomness, there's a meme going around that purports to prove that the average USAmerican is duller than a twelve year-old. It consists of side-by-side screencaptures, one of a Quora response explaining that the average IQ score of a twelve year-old is 100 and the other a Google Search result showing that the average IQ score for the USA population is 98. The best part is that the Quora answer even explains that IQ scores are calculated relative to the scores of others the same age.

So I think it may actually prove its point, but not in the way those who share it think it does.

[Pabappa]

Huh. Amateurs. I had a higher IQ score than that when I was three!

[Raphael]

In other randomness, there's a meme going around that purports to prove that the average USAmerican is duller than a twelve year-old. It consists of side-by-side screencaptures, one of a Quora response explaining that the average IQ score of a twelve year-old is 100 and the other a Google Search result showing that the average IQ score for the USA population is 98. The best part is that the Quora answer even explains that IQ scores are calculated relative to the scores of others the same age.

So I think it may actually prove its point, but not in the way those who share it think it does.

This reminds me, though just very indirectly, of a piece of writing I read somewhere on the internet long ago - sorry, I don't have the link - about what the author learned from their time travelling the world. One of the things the author claimed to have learned was that people from the USA aren't particularly stupid - not because they aren't dumb, but because they aren't necessarily any dumber than people from other countries.

The author claimed that they had come to that insight when, during their travels, they had an argument with a German about how stupid people from the USA are. The German kept berating the author about how people from the USA are all very clueless and uninformed about the rest of the world, while people from other countries are supposedly better informed.

The author reacted by asking the German who the Prime Minister of Japan was.

[Linguoboy]

This reminds me, though just very indirectly, of a piece of writing I read somewhere on the internet long ago - sorry, I don't have the link - about what the author learned from their time travelling the world. One of the things the author claimed to have learned was that people from the USA aren't particularly stupid - not because they aren't dumb, but because they aren't necessarily any dumber than people from other countries.

I had a lot of conversations like that when I lived in Germany. People would be like, "Can't Americans see how awful Bush is? Why did they elect him?" And I'd be like, "Why did you elect Kohl?" Invariably they'd say, "I didn't vote for him!" and I'd be like, "Well, I didn't vote for Bush either."

I just had that kind of exchange with a guy I know in Düsseldorf. He posted something to the effect of "Why aren't Americans talking about what a moron they have in the White House?" And I really didn't know how to respond because I don't see how you can have more than a half dozen non-MAGA-hatted USAmerican friends on social media and not realise that we talk about his stupidity all the time. It's literally at the point that if someone vagueposts "Argh! SO DUMB!" everyone's first reaction is "What did Trump do now?"

(Followup to the IQ meme story: a mutual friend messaged me and was like, "Did that stupid IQ post get taken down?" and I was like, "I dunno, he unfriended me." He then thanked me for throwing myself on the grenade. Last time I can do that, dude!)

[Ares Land]

I had a lot of conversations like that when I lived in Germany. People would be like, "Can't Americans see how awful Bush is? Why did they elect him?" And I'd be like, "Why did you elect Kohl?" Invariably they'd say, "I didn't vote for him!" and I'd be like, "Well, I didn't vote for Bush either."

I remember that about ten years ago, Umberto Eco was interviewed on French radio. The host asked him, basically, 'How could the Italians vote for Berlusconi'; Eco answered: 'well, I don't know. How could the French vote for Sarkozy?'

(While Berlusconi was perhaps marginally worse -- he came off as a bit, well, Trump-ish -- there really was nothing you could say about Berlusconi that wouldn't apply to Sarkozy as well...)

[chris_notts]

I had a lot of conversations like that when I lived in Germany. People would be like, "Can't Americans see how awful Bush is? Why did they elect him?" And I'd be like, "Why did you elect Kohl?" Invariably they'd say, "I didn't vote for him!" and I'd be like, "Well, I didn't vote for Bush either."

I remember that about ten years ago, Umberto Eco was interviewed on French radio. The host asked him, basically, 'How could the Italians vote for Berlusconi'; Eco answered: 'well, I don't know. How could the French vote for Sarkozy?'

(While Berlusconi was perhaps marginally worse -- he came off as a bit, well, Trump-ish -- there really was nothing you could say about Berlusconi that wouldn't apply to Sarkozy as well...)

Did Sarkozy have bunga bunga parties? He always struck me as having a bit of a Napoleon complex, but I didn't realise he rivalled Berlusconi in the corruption and sex scandal stakes.

[Linguoboy]

I'm finding that if you live long enough, every country disappoints you. When Harper won, I was like, "WTH, Canada? You're supposed to be smarter than us!" Then Ontario turned around and elected Doug Fucking Ford and I'm like, "I'm done with you and anyone who tries to shame us for our political sideshow."

[Ares Land]

Did Sarkozy have bunga bunga parties? He always struck me as having a bit of a Napoleon complex, but I didn't realise he rivalled Berlusconi in the corruption and sex scandal stakes.

Oh, I forgot about the sex scandals. Nope, Sarkozy was fairly tame in that respect. As for corruption, though... It's fairly likely that his 2007 presidential campaign was financed, in part, by Gaddafi. And that's just, you know, one scandal.

[Qwynegold]

I've noticed something a bit weird about myself: in my mind, the 1970s - a decade when I wasn't born yet - are for some reason strongly associated with hot sunny summer days, as if there had been no other weather or seasons back then. Does anyone else have similar weird mental associations?

Old post, but I feel this way too, now that you mentioned it. I think it might be that I'm associating the 70's with old photos taken in the 70's, that are faded so they look extremely sunny.

[Curlyjimsam]

I've noticed something a bit weird about myself: in my mind, the 1970s - a decade when I wasn't born yet - are for some reason strongly associated with hot sunny summer days, as if there had been no other weather or seasons back then. Does anyone else have similar weird mental associations?

Old post, but I feel this way too, now that you mentioned it. I think it might be that I'm associating the 70's with old photos taken in the 70's, that are faded so they look extremely sunny.

Reminds me of the lyrics of Paul Simon's Kodachrome (released in 1973):

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

[Raphael]

Yes, that might explain it! Somehow I've got the impression that movies and TV shows made in that time tend to take place on bright sunny summer days, too, though - and to some extent even period pieces made later but set in that time.

[Linguoboy]

Yes, that might explain it! Somehow I've got the impression that movies and TV shows made in that time tend to take place on bright sunny summer days, too, though - and to some extent even period pieces made later but set in that time.

I have those kinds of memories, too, but I was a child in the 70s and we often played outside in summer. Our official curfew was dusk ("when the streetlights come on" when we lived in the city), which was never later than 8:30 p.m. at our latitude, but that's still and awful lot of time in the sunshine! Naturally, we also played outside in winter, but not nearly as much so I wouldn't have as many memories of that.

There is something about the look of a lot of 70s films and shows that just makes me feel...queegy. It's kind of hard to describe. I think I associate it with some of the more gory and frightening adult films I saw at a young age. (The children's entertainment we watched was much more likely to be animated.)

[Neon Fox]

Who are these people that can't taste what they drink? I know the second I swallow what I'm taking in... 63 per
cent of us don't?

I guess I'm not really a "moderate drinker " at this point but I'd think that those people less habituated to it would notice the taste first.

Maybe read the article and find out? (I'll just note here that even moderate drinkers have been known to drink drinks which conceal the taste of alcohol by means of various additives, colloquially called "mixers".)

Yeah, except those don't work. You can still tell it's alcoholic--or at least I can. Since I got to college people have been handing me things claiming you can't even tell there's booze in them! They have universally been wrong.

[Moose-tache]

There's no question that media from the 60s and 70s, especially the cheaper variety, has a brownish-yellow tint to it. This was actually not because of degradation of the film or video, but an artifact of playback. Here's a fun bit of trivia. The tunics that Captain Kirk and other command officers in Star Trek TOS wore were actually green. But they appear gold on the show. In an episode of DS9 they used old footage from The Trouble With Tribbles, but the footage was remastered from the original, so Kirk's tunic comes out green, which has the weird result that his tunic does not match the actually gold tunics worn by other actors: https://i.stack.imgur.com/kfVuQ.jpg ... What you're seeing on the left is the actual color that actors would have seen on set, and on the right is the color that became the canonical beige tunic in later iterations of Star Trek.

Combine this with a "Golden Harvest" aesthetic, and a need to film in full daylight with cheap television cameras, and you end up with lots of yellowy, washed-out colors. That might explain some of the connotation of the 70s with sunny days. Maybe...

[Pabappa]

Ever wonder what happens if you watch a youtube video and the uploader deletes it while youre watching?

well, now i know ... it plays just like normal, but i cant watch it again or leave any comments.