The New ZBB Quote Thread

[Raphael]

Gothic had plinsjan, which is a loan from Proto-Slavic. Looks like the Germanic people weren't good at dancing, liked it better when other peoples did it, and loaned their words for it

[Raphael]

My on-the-job knowledge came in handy today. I got a scam text purporting to be from my pastor using an unfamiliar number, but I was able to detect the scam (protip: indigents in a hospital will not request donations be in the form of Apple gift cards…or really any gift catfs) and notify Pastor (via his real number).

[Raphael]

Just to be clear, this is a regime that reportedly throws acid in the face of women who don't wear a hijab. At the same time, Iran released Lego videos of Hegseth giving blowjobs to Trump. As usual, religious people have the most perverted imaginations.

[Man in Space]

My on-the-job knowledge came in handy today. I got a scam text purporting to be from my pastor using an unfamiliar number, but I was able to detect the scam (protip: indigents in a hospital will not request donations be in the form of Apple gift cards…or really any gift catfs) and notify Pastor (via his real number).

I have fixed the typo. I wouldn’t have realized had you not posted—thank you!

[rotting bones]

But as far as the competence or lack thereof of the Far Right is concerned, I'd say that they're a lot more competent at getting power than at using it. They are very competent at pushing many people's buttons in just the right way, and telling many people the comforting untruths they want to hear, and as a result, they are very competent at getting support and therefore power. But their ideas about how the world actually works are generally false, and as a result, they are not at all competent at using the power they get.

[Raphael]

I have fixed the typo. I wouldn’t have realized had you not posted—thank you!

Oh, I hadn't noticed the typo and didn't quote it for that. I had quoted it for the sort-of funny story aspect.

[Raphael]

Perhaps you are unaware that for all but the last year and a half or so of this period, Britain was run by the Conservatives. There was a whole thing, Brexit, it was in the papers. They already had their Trump, arguably two of them. And a head of lettuce was involved.

[Man in Space]

. . .the only functioning state institution [in Pakistan] is the army. Every once in awhile they decide they can run the country better than civilians, and then spend ten years proving that they can't.

[bradrn]

Every liquid is drinkable, at least once

Wait till you try root beer.

[malloc]

A bit off-topic: malloc() in a recursive footnote is probably not a good idea.

[Travis B.]

Not to be confused with expiatory stress, the emphasis your priest puts on atoning for your sins.

So loss of /r/ in some intervocalic contexts is due to supernatural influence?

[bradrn]

ketchup = [tʰəˌmäːɾɐʉ̯ˈsoːs]

[Zju]

Starostin's chimeras do not meet the standard of historical linguistics.

Sino-Tibetanists happily reconstruct the numbers. I suppose Classical Tibetan *drug , Sunwar ruku, and Written Burmese k’rok could be from Middle Chinese *ljuwk, but they're explained better by proto-Sino-Tibetan *t-r’uk.

This numeral has parallels in NEC and appears to be derived from a lexeme 'hand' found in Yenissean *ŕɔŋ and Burushaki -reŋ.

Which looks rather like Balto-Slavonic *ránkā 'hand, arm', which has possible connections in other parts of Indo-European, but with initial cluster wr-. Alas, Bayesianly speaking, this connection has a good chance of being wrong, which itself is plausibly connected to the Balto-Slavonic word.

[Raphael]

One example of this is ME appel of paradis, which in ModE is 'banana'.

[Raphael]

Another one I quote not for being funny, but for being insightful:

Nge ye homwei mwe nge u go ge do nge u go zwa.
A skilled speaker can speak like a rock and speak like liquid.

[WeepingElf]

Thanks to Gemini AI […] I've found another possible match

Bahahahahaha! Yeah, you and AI are a match made in heaven, you both like spewing meaningless gibberish.

[Raphael]

Not a headline, but a great one spotted by a coworker in a textbook footnote:

Multiply lux times 93.02 to obtain foot candles

The Shrek 25th anniversary celebrations are getting weird.

[bradrn]

Not a headline, but a great one spotted by a coworker in a textbook footnote:

Multiply lux times 93.02 to obtain foot candles

The Shrek 25th anniversary celebrations are getting weird.

I don’t actually get this one.

[Man in Space]

The Shrek 25th anniversary celebrations are getting weird.

I don’t actually get this one.

I don’t know if Shrek is as big a phenomenon in Australia as it is Up Top. There is a famous scene wherein the titular ogre makes a candle out of his earwax, which was a popular enough meme for the MythBusters to test it.

[bradrn]

Yuk.