Thursday miscellanea #136

Our wedding anniversary was Tuesday. Thanks for an inspiring and fulfilling first 14 years, Lea. I love you.
I’ve allowed my effort to get traction at work after the unplanned hiatus to take much too much of my bandwidth. I have to get tornado recovery back into the mix to a larger degree.
Three days from two weeks from the Indianapolis 500. Starving for an open-wheel oval!
Well, I finally experienced my first Red Ring of Death. Didn’t much care for turning loose of the coin unplanned—my new A/V receiver fund is now depleted—but doubtless the Mark II version of the Xbox 360, aka the Xbox 360 S, is a fine piece. I love how quietly it runs. Hey, Microsoft? Please release something this finished initially when it comes time for your next console. Now, bring on Gears of War 3 and Bioshock Infinite!
I’ve seen a white 2012 Fiat 500 twice now on my evening commute. I think I feel the same way about it as I felt about the Smart Fortwo: this car doesn’t do anything well enough to justify its price. Such a ridiculous conveyance needs to start at $10,000 (or get 50 mpg, or have a 5-second 0-60, or something) to be seriously discussed by rational people.
Folks, I don’t get why so many of you have trouble with “y’all.” First of all, the usual apostrophe conventions apply. It goes where the letters are missing. So it’s not ya’ll, dig? Secondly, y’all is never singular. This is some bastardization that has doubtlessly got traction because of its consistent depiction in Yankee-produced popular culture. We don’t use it that way, and never have. It’s short for “you all,” and therefore always refers to more than one person.
Know what some subhuman cretin whom I hope soon contracts something itchy and long-lasting did sometime in the past few days? S/he a) walloped the right front door of the Technical Writing Express; b) examined the ding closely, as evidenced by the surgically-removed dirt right on top of it; and c) walked away. I don’t believe in karma. Sometimes I wish I did.

6 thoughts on “Thursday miscellanea #136”

saintseester

May 12, 2011 at 7:44 am

I think this is the first time I’ve been reading a post where you referenced a particular item (Fiat 500) without a link to a picture of it. I actually had to go open a new window and type 8 letters. But, on your observation, who would buy such a ridiculous car when it basically gets 1 or 2 MPG better than our roomy standard-shift Altima? Or hell, buy the much more economical Sentra. It’s still a lot bigger. I don’t buy nostalgia-shapes.
Bo

May 12, 2011 at 12:25 pm

Sorry about that, ‘seester. I fixed it.

Yup, you’re on it. They’ll move a few tens of thousands on cuteness, but that won’t be enough to sustain it (see also, again, the Smart). Practically, it’s much too compromised to be worth the money. It has no killer feature. Were it extraordinary in even one meaningful way, it’d have a future.
kemtee

May 16, 2011 at 5:41 pm

The “killer feature” is exactly that. That thing would lose in a battle against any decent sized car (or SUV, or pickup). This wee commuter cars aren’t worth it when you consider what you’re up against on a daily basis.

I was always told “all y’all” was plural, BTW.
Bo

May 17, 2011 at 7:30 am

They just don’t make any sense in the United States. Crowded Rome or Paris street? Sure.

“All y’all” means more than “y’all,” but both are plural:

“Y’all come over for ribs tonight.”
“All of us? Or just the boys?”
“All y’all.”
saintseester

May 17, 2011 at 4:56 pm

“Summa y’all” vs. “all a y’all”
Bo

May 17, 2011 at 10:00 pm

‘seester, sure, but the point is they’re all plural. Somehow this notion that we use y’all as singular has gotten traction. I’ve never heard that even once.

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6 thoughts on “Thursday miscellanea #136”

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