Quick Fire Questions (A Place to Ask and Answer)

[chrispenycate]

I was assuming that the source of the canned goods was a supermarket or warehouse, rather than an individual having made more than a few months of provisions. And what do industrial distributors put in glass nowadays? Coke, jam and peanut butter; and even that's not properly pasturised (mind you, we can melt the jars down later, for window glass for the previous question. And, if the supermarket had wine, even stained glass windows are within consideration.

Glass is easy, if you only want to get light through it, not see. It melts before iron, so you can prepare it in a cast iron saucepan over a gas flame, broken window glass, soda bottles, broken tumblers (not plate glass), then pour it into a baking tray - nasty, bubbly translucent slabs but functional. If you don't have the lead float method, adequate. Blowing it's a bit more difficult (although window glass was long blown in cylinders, and flattened out to make windows).

 

[The Judge]

Most societies are patriarchal, Warren, so it's kingdom, which is defined as a country or state ruled by a king or queen. If yours is matriarchal and only women ascend the throne, or men are only allowed if no women available, by all means call it a queendom, but you'll get funny looks -- and it can't become a kingdom when her son inherits, it has to stay queendom. And yes, it's a noun, but not one in common use.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Thanks, TJ. I'm going to leave it Kingdom then, since the queen only inherits if there is no male heir.

 

[subtletylost]

I just have a quick grammar question. What is a comma splice and how do I get rid of one?

 

[Abernovo]

I think it's the joining together of two sentences with a comma, you get rid of it by separating the sentences properly with a period or semi-colon. Comma splice above was intentional, by the way. Alternatively, you could join the sentences with and/or/but etc., as applicable.

I must admit, it's a term I'd never heard of before coming to this site.

 

[Warren_Paul]

I must admit, it's a term I'd never heard of before coming to this site.

Me either, and I use them a lot.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I just have a quick grammar question. What is a comma splice and how do I get rid of one?

The Wikipedia entry on Comma splicing between clauses is pretty good and has quite a number of different ways of altering it to some other form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma_splice

 

[choccoweeble]

I just have a quick grammar question. What is a comma splice and how do I get rid of one?

I would generally put a dash instead of the comma, but a semi-colon can be used instead. Or just divide into two sentences.

 

[chrispenycate]

Actually, I discovered the term since I arrived here, but fell on it with all the fanaticism of a recent convert. Previously I used to suggest what could (should) be done about each particular example - sometimes a period (full stop) or semicolon, sometimes changing a verb from transitive to intransitive form... but that's bad, because I would be setting the form of the writing (and you wouldn't want to write like me, would you?)

So a nice neutral phrase - look at this point here, there's something you might want to correct, but do so in your style - like "comma splice" or "fragment" is very useful.

 

[Hex]

[no jokes were attempted in the writing of this post]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a legally way of saying the following:

"This is a meeting of the independent university court of the nation of Askar, represented* by Professors Napier, Samson and Twig. Summoned before us is the researcher Rachel Brown."

Can anyone help?

* I mean that they're not actually the whole of the court, but they represent it. I'm sure there's a word for that but my brain isn't providing it.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Management jargon-version would probably use an agenda pre-meeting and minutes - post.

Memo to members of the independent university court of Askar

notification of meeting (date, time, venue)
in attendance: prof Napier, Samson, Twig.
Requested attendance(or probably enforced in your case); Rachel Brown
Agenda: review of the circumstances underlying the death of Dania X
A.O.B.

 

[The Judge]

A court doesn't usually meet, it hears or sits -- so "This is a sitting of..." though in the US they're more likely (I think) to say "This is a session of..." (That doesn't sound quite right somehow. Perhaps it's "The court of blah-di-blah is now in session". I knew I should have paid more attention to the court scenes in LA Law...)

I'm a tad confused by the represented bit. Do you mean there are more of them present but only 4 deciding things? Or there is a pool of 20 possible judges, but only 4 are there and will give judgement? If the latter, then that's basically what every court is -- eg there are close to 40 judges who can hear cases in the Court of Appeal, but usually only 3 will sit in a case (I think the max is 5).

English courts (the lower ones I've practised in, anyway) don't read out the name of the judge who is hearing the case, though it would be known, since it's on the court list. And in case reports it would appear as eg CA: Maurice Kay, Rimer, Tomlinson LJJ: 3 April 2012 ie, the Court of Appeal; the three judges named (LJJ = Lords Justices, their titles) and the date.

The Americans use the word "presiding" ie something like "... the inferior court of blah-di-blah, Judge Roberts presiding". I'm not sure what they do when there's more than one as in their Supreme Court.

I don't think anyone is likely to get up in arms over the "represented" bit though.

 

[Ökuþórr]

Do any of you guys, in all of your fantasy reading, know the name Fiarú (fee-ar-oo or fee-yar-oo).
I want to use it for a God, but I cant shake the feeling that its something I've picked up from someone else's writing and cant remember where. It sounds so familiar. Google tells me nothing. Have you heard it before?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Nope neither me nor Mr Springs who is pretty good on gods and mythology have come across that one

 

[allmywires]

Never heard it, but I think fear means man in Gaelic. If Google doesn't come up with anything I'm tempted to say you've got a free pass there...

 

[Ökuþórr]

Thanks for the answers guys.

I just had a rare moment of brain activity. I think it may be because it sounds like the word Siaru, the language from Name of the Wind.

 

[allmywires]

Good to hear

I have a semantics related question - if my people are from a country called Romana, but their language is called Romiu, would I refer to them as the Romana people or the Romiu? I've been sort of mixing and matching so far but I feel like I should stick to one of the other.

 

[Ökuþórr]

Good to hear

I have a semantics related question - if my people are from a country called Romana, but their language is called Romiu, would I refer to them as the Romana people or the Romiu? I've been sort of mixing and matching so far but I feel like I should stick to one of the other.

I feel a little silly though. I'm pretty certain I was just confusing it with Siaru now.

First two that popped into my head were Roman and Romani. But those are taken in the real world.
I would say Romana, but perhaps you could have one that outsiders use, and one the Romana use. Or have one term more like slang and the other more official.

Or
Romanish.
Roma (may be taken in the real world.)
Romu.
Ro.

 

[allmywires]

Romanan was what I was going to go for but it's such a mouthful. Gah. My own fault for picking a name that is essentially the same as two things that already exist (Roma and Romany). Boo.

 

[subtletylost]

If I have made some edits to a piece I put up for critiques and it isn't so drastically different that you can't tell it's the same piece, do I need to start a new thread for it or can i put it as a new post in the old thread? I want to put the edited version up so I can see if it still make sense to people.