*smiles*

[conuly]

So, I'm reading Wikiquote's List of Misquotations, and I can't help but grin at the following:

* "A damn close run thing" Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington, refering to his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo.

o He actually said "It has been a damn nice thing-the nearest run thing you ever saw...", where he used nice in the archaic meaning of "careful or precise" and not the modern "attractive or agreeable".

I was just thinking about re-reading Good Omens, too!

Comments

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Correction: not archaic, simply correct. Misuse, even universal misuse, does not change the meaning. Nice means "neat, careful, or precise", not "attractive or agreeable".

[conuly]

Misuse, even universal misuse, does not change the meaning.

Uh, yes it does. Eventually. Like I told Stej the other day when talking about ethnic (lo though I loathe the use of that term), usage drives the dictionary, not the other way around. Language changes.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Language does change. That does not mean it changes correctly. Might does not make right. Numbers do not change meaning. The majority might think it means something new, but that does not make them right. It's like a cave painting on a wall. We might misinterpret the artist's intent, all of us, but that does not change the artist's intent--what it really means, or meant to him or her.

[conuly]

*sighs*

Look, I like you, you're oftimes an interesting person... but this and the JKR thing (you can't judge an author you haven't read. Period)...

You're driving me batty. Nothing personal, but I can't keep having these discussions. They'll never end well.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Okay, sorry. I promise to abstain from further conversations with you on those two subjects.

[conuly]

*huggles*

Thankies. I've temporarily moved you off my list, though, mostly because I'm in a really pissy mood at somebody *else* who I can't tell to stop annoying me because technically it's not my business.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Who is it?

[conuly]

Nobody you know - it's somebody offline who nevertheless knows this journal's URL and whom I don't want to piss off. Because I like this person well enough, I just can't stand certain things they do. All the time. I intend to post about it in a FLocked post when I can talk about it reasonably to explain why it upsets me.

And no, Lizziey, it's not you either, so go away.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I don't understand. You're unfriending me because of someone I don't know?

[conuly]

No, I'm temporarily removing the impulse to say to you all the same things I want to say to this person because I can't say them to that person, but I can say them to you.

And that comment just recently irritated me.

And I don't *want* to take out my anger on you. Don't want to take it out on anybody, but you're the most likely candidate at the moment because nobody else has commented interestingly on my journal lately.

And stupid as it is, if I see you posting much, I may succumb to stupid temptation and comment more irritably than necessary.

It's stupid. I know it is. You don't have to tell me that. But this is how I am attempting to maintain a friendship, because, honestly? If I don't immediately distance myself from all sources of disagreement, somebody's going to lose a metaphorical limb.

I'll be over it in a day or so. When I forget about this stupid person and what they're stupidly doing which is stupidly irritating me beyond belief.

Normally, I love disagreement. Today... not the time.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I understand, and I don't think it's stupid. All I would add is that you are welcome to tell me off, if you think it would be therapeutic. I mean, we're not close, I don't really know you, but I work at a mental-health agency, and everyone who works there apreciates the therapeutic value of venting without taking it personally. I say vent.

[conuly]

*sighs*

I'm sorry I put it so badly. I know we're not close, but you're still one of the more interesting people on my Friends list - pissing you off because of somebody else is exactly what I wanted to avoid! And not seeing posts can help that. (You're looking at somebody who has let emails collapse because she didn't want to see certain emails, and who has unplugged the answering machine to avoid certain calls, and who has cut entirely unrelated classes to avoid other classes. Cutting a few people off my list to avoid pissing *them* off is positively a step up!)

[conuly]

And if I see you posting, I'll remember the preceding comments, and it'll be all kinds of... idiotic on my part, really. I could just move you off my default friends group, but then I'd forget to put you back on, and months later go "Gee, I wonder why rpeate never posts anymore...?"

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

To thine own self be true.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Well, the new edition of Good Omens is coming out and all... good time for it.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Correction: not archaic, simply correct. Misuse, even universal misuse, does not change the meaning. Nice means "neat, careful, or precise", not "attractive or agreeable".

[conuly]

Misuse, even universal misuse, does not change the meaning.

Uh, yes it does. Eventually. Like I told Stej the other day when talking about ethnic (lo though I loathe the use of that term), usage drives the dictionary, not the other way around. Language changes.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Language does change. That does not mean it changes correctly. Might does not make right. Numbers do not change meaning. The majority might think it means something new, but that does not make them right. It's like a cave painting on a wall. We might misinterpret the artist's intent, all of us, but that does not change the artist's intent--what it really means, or meant to him or her.

[conuly]

*sighs*

Look, I like you, you're oftimes an interesting person... but this and the JKR thing (you can't judge an author you haven't read. Period)...

You're driving me batty. Nothing personal, but I can't keep having these discussions. They'll never end well.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Okay, sorry. I promise to abstain from further conversations with you on those two subjects.

[conuly]

*huggles*

Thankies. I've temporarily moved you off my list, though, mostly because I'm in a really pissy mood at somebody *else* who I can't tell to stop annoying me because technically it's not my business.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Who is it?

[conuly]

Nobody you know - it's somebody offline who nevertheless knows this journal's URL and whom I don't want to piss off. Because I like this person well enough, I just can't stand certain things they do. All the time. I intend to post about it in a FLocked post when I can talk about it reasonably to explain why it upsets me.

And no, Lizziey, it's not you either, so go away.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I don't understand. You're unfriending me because of someone I don't know?

[conuly]

No, I'm temporarily removing the impulse to say to you all the same things I want to say to this person because I can't say them to that person, but I can say them to you.

And that comment just recently irritated me.

And I don't *want* to take out my anger on you. Don't want to take it out on anybody, but you're the most likely candidate at the moment because nobody else has commented interestingly on my journal lately.

And stupid as it is, if I see you posting much, I may succumb to stupid temptation and comment more irritably than necessary.

It's stupid. I know it is. You don't have to tell me that. But this is how I am attempting to maintain a friendship, because, honestly? If I don't immediately distance myself from all sources of disagreement, somebody's going to lose a metaphorical limb.

I'll be over it in a day or so. When I forget about this stupid person and what they're stupidly doing which is stupidly irritating me beyond belief.

Normally, I love disagreement. Today... not the time.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I understand, and I don't think it's stupid. All I would add is that you are welcome to tell me off, if you think it would be therapeutic. I mean, we're not close, I don't really know you, but I work at a mental-health agency, and everyone who works there apreciates the therapeutic value of venting without taking it personally. I say vent.

[conuly]

*sighs*

I'm sorry I put it so badly. I know we're not close, but you're still one of the more interesting people on my Friends list - pissing you off because of somebody else is exactly what I wanted to avoid! And not seeing posts can help that. (You're looking at somebody who has let emails collapse because she didn't want to see certain emails, and who has unplugged the answering machine to avoid certain calls, and who has cut entirely unrelated classes to avoid other classes. Cutting a few people off my list to avoid pissing *them* off is positively a step up!)

[conuly]

And if I see you posting, I'll remember the preceding comments, and it'll be all kinds of... idiotic on my part, really. I could just move you off my default friends group, but then I'd forget to put you back on, and months later go "Gee, I wonder why rpeate never posts anymore...?"

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

To thine own self be true.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Well, the new edition of Good Omens is coming out and all... good time for it.