Re: Sharp Focus!

1

Sure but what have the Mahometans done for us lately?


Posted by: Stepin Fetchitler | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 7:50 AM
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2

But the Republican Party is a Big Tent, right? Certainly they have room for a broad diversity of viewpoints!


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 7:57 AM
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3

I've always viewed those anti-algebra editorials as thinly disguised racism.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 7:58 AM
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4

1: Dropped some sick beats, for starters.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:00 AM
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5

Carli Fiorina is like the shepherd who is no longer able to control the demon sheep she has called forth with her campaigns.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:23 AM
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6

The general message of the speech is fine, but I can't really get behind Suleiman the Magnificent as an "enlightened ruler".


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:30 AM
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7

Too bad Suleiman the Enlightened wasn't a magnificent ruler either.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:35 AM
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8

but I can't really get behind Suleiman the Magnificent as an "enlightened ruler".

Me neither.


Posted by: Opinionated Charles V | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:37 AM
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9

Never trust anyone with the middle name "the".


Posted by: Tom Scudder | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:42 AM
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10

True, he did some great things with regard to the Ottoman civil code - hence his epithet in the Empire was Suleiman el Kanuni, Suleiman the Lawgiver - but he was, like all his predecessors, a despot who regarded the conquering and subjugation of other countries as his sacred duty, who tortured his enemies and rivals to death in various horrible ways, and who ruled an empire based on slavery.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:42 AM
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11

10.last: So maybe something for conservatives to like after all!


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:44 AM
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12

11: I cross them over, you knock them in.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:46 AM
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13

Though he was part of a long and honourable tradition of Ottoman Epithets: Selim the Grim, Mehmet the Conqueror, Selim the Sot and Abdulhamid the Damned come immediately to mind.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:47 AM
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14

I'm told by those who know that he wasn't a half bad poet in both Persian and Ottoman Turkish. The incongruity of a world-conquering emperor writing flowery love poetry in two languages has always struck me as odd.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 8:50 AM
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15

That anybody who doesn't have an all-conquering army can write poetry without being smacked is what amazes me.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:04 AM
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16

Abdulhamid the Damned is almost as good as Ethelred the Unready.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:07 AM
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17

Never trust anyone with the middle name "the".

This reminded me that when I was in high school, family friends adopted a teenaged kid from Vietnam named Sang The Dang. Magic Facebook tells me ended up joining the Navy.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:08 AM
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18

(Looking at pictures now, I guess he wasn't quite a teenager yet when they adopted him.)


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:13 AM
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19

I am reliably informed by one who knows that the "readiness" of "Ethelred the Unready" refers to advice (cognate with German Rat), not preparedness: he is Ethelred the un- or poorly advised, not the ill prepared. (Though I suppose being well advised is a form of preparation.)


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:21 AM
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20

17 What a great name, it's positively Pynchonian.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:26 AM
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21

19 -- that's right, it's kind of a pun or Alonis irony or something. Aethelraed in Old English means "noble advice" and "unraed" means "un-advised" or "ill-advised."


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:34 AM
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22

19: your informant is correct: he was correctly Ethelred Unrede (or, in the Anglo-Saxon, Aethelred Unraed). "Rede" is archaic English for advice or counsel; "Rede oft is found at the rising of the sun" Legolas advises Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings".


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:34 AM
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23

Also, relative to other rulers of his approximate day, Suleiman was pretty damned enlightened and was light years ahead of Europe on religious toleration. I'd take him over eg Ferdinand and Isabella or Charles V or Catherine de Medici or most of the reign of the tudors.


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:40 AM
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24

As long as we're talking about outmoded uses of words, am I correct in surmising [1] that "deck" in the sense of "cover", as in German "decken" and "entdecken", survives in English pretty much only in the set phrase "decked out"?

[1] please hear this in your mental ear in the intonations of this character saying "ascertain".


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:48 AM
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25

What about "hit the deck"?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:50 AM
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26

Deck the halls with whatever one uses.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:51 AM
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27

Also "bedeck".


Posted by: lambchop | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:53 AM
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28

Hitting the deck is just hitting the deck of a ship, generalized, right? I guess insofar as the deck of a ship is like a thing that covers ... the sea ... then it works. "Bedeck" is uncontroversial though.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 9:58 AM
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29

And decking halls. I was totally wrong!


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:00 AM
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30

According to my online old english dictionary and 10 seconds of internet research, I think that the old english was "theccen," to cover, which was the cognate of decken, and survives as modern english "to thatch."


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:01 AM
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31

Well, the deck of a ship covers the ship. Think of a Viking ship - essentially just a big open rowing boat. If you cover it over, then you've got a ship with a deck.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:02 AM
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32

"Theccen" also survives as "teach", because teachers cover subjects.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:03 AM
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33

Some other online thing says that "deck" as opposed to "thatch" in the current sense comes not from old english but into middle english from Dutch dekken, meaning "cover" but then especially applied to the cover of a ship, ie the deck.


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:04 AM
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34

Screw you Ajay, I will catch up to you in the end.


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:05 AM
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35

33 makes sense because I suspect that English ships didn't really have decks in the time when Old English was being spoken. Alfred the Great may have founded the Royal Navy, but its ships were longships.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:10 AM
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36

And bloody long they were - 60 oars. But he didn't found the West Saxon navy, he upgraded it. Wessex had warships and occasionally won naval battles with the Vikings before he was out of nappies.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:20 AM
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37

Relatedly, one way to understand the meaning of "Alfred" ("Alf-raed") is as "Elf Advice" which is truly not the MOST badass of names.


Posted by: Roberto Tigre | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:33 AM
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38

37: Maybe not, but he was Great Elf Advice.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:35 AM
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39

Batman always depended upon good Elf Advice.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:35 AM
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40

37: Ach, too bad they left Middle Earth after the Conquest.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:39 AM
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41

As long as it doesn't become Elf Abuse.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:40 AM
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42

Some other online thing says that "deck" as opposed to "thatch" in the current sense comes not from old english but into middle english from Dutch dekken, meaning "cover" but then especially applied to the cover of a ship, ie the deck.

Right, and in that case thatch is cognate but only indirectly, as the English cousin of the Dutch dekken.

And thatch is cognate with toga!


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:44 AM
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43

Ooh, and stegosaurus!


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 10:44 AM
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44

||

This is totally great. Watch the short video:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/rugby-league/fouryearold-gets-lost-and-then-scores-a-try-in-rugby-league-charity-match-in-australia-10460645.html

>


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 11:12 AM
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45

41. There's a multi-decade 273,000 page comic book exploration of this idea. Elfquest it's called.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 11:21 AM
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46

38: Like don't stop only halfway pulled onto the median strip.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 11:39 AM
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47

Too soon.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 11:44 AM
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48

Too late; I am irreversibly a monster.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 12:00 PM
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49

||

Is C-Murder a big deal, as rappers go? Unless he was kidding, my friend in state prison is like hanging out with him.

|>


Posted by: Herbert Hoover | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 12:10 PM
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50

49: Jammies shrugged and said "Eh."


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 1:58 PM
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51

His debut album went platinum in the late 90s, but hasn't really had a big seller since 2000 or so.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-18-15 2:09 PM
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