random bits

[cellio]

There's a parlor game going around that calls for the poster to list three things he has done that he doesn't think any of his readers have done. I think I must be too boring; I can't think of three (that would also be interesting enough to post).
I keep a log for Erik, recording anything unusual and all medication starts/stops. I started doing

Comments

[browngirl]

I bet you've done things the rest of us haven't, what with your music, your conversion, your creer, your cats...

[cellio]

Yeah, but I have to have done things that none of you have done. That's harder. :-)

[ealdthryth]

Misuse of populous is one of my pet language peeves too!

[cellio]

I think part of why it jumps out at me so much (more than other near-homophones) is that "-ous" is almost always an adjective. (Anecdotal evidence only; I haven't done a dictionary analysis.) How likely is it to be a noun?

chirping

[fauxklore]

I had a chirping a couple of weeks after changing smoke detector batteries. I had forgotten about the carbon monoxide detector in the kitchen, which is mounted on the side of the refrigerator just above the floor.

Re: chirping

[cellio]

Oh, forgot to mention that. We changed the battery in the CO detector too. :-(

[dvarin]

Argh. I tried to construct a sentence where the phrase "populous should give council to" appeared, but was defeated by 'council' being a discrete noun and 'counsel' being a mass noun.

[cellio]

I would hope that wasn't the only thing that defeated you. :-)

[dvarin]

It was, actually. If you let me use 'councils' instead, I can construct the following (admittedly somewhat tortured) paragraph:

The people of this country live in two types of counties, the populous and the sparse. In order that the government of the entire country reflect the will of the majority, the elements contributed to its composition must vary by county--the sparse should give single advocates, while the populous should give councils to each of the particular departments of justice, trade, etc, with the advocates merely observing and the councils having final authority.

[merle_]

You might be able to fool it by making "council to" part of a noun phrase:
"The council to the king has been decimated by recent plagues, and is down to a single person, who is very busy. Therefore, groups that are populous should give council to the king sufficient time to ponder decisions."

Not a very good sentence, for I would use "the council to the king", but close. Vaguely.

[merle_]

There was intermittent beeping in my apartment last week. I kept taking down smoke detectors and moving them around in an attempt to use directional hearing to no avail. Turns out that I was on call, and the pager (which is normally obnoxiously loud, enough to wake the dead) was quietly chirping to tell me that its battery was low. *sigh* It took me three days to guess that, even though it started around the time I was given the pager...

[cellio]

Oops. :-)