huju
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hujuParticipant
So, how many kidders are on this thread, 1 or 2?
hujuParticipantTo Joseph: I think your tin foil kepah is picking up some bad signals.
hujuParticipantTo bk613: The US is not done addressing the corona virus, and so it it too soon that the US outside New York did a “not terrible” job” addressing it. And is “not terrible” really the level of quality we should aim for?
hujuParticipantTo Health: In times like this, there will be many different opinions. But different facts?
And without facts, opinions are meaningless.
hujuParticipantTo Health: I know only a little about medical science, which is precisely my point. Yes, COVID-19 is new, and physicians and other scientists are just now learning about it. But uncredentialed commenters are taking odd bits of information from wherever they find it and jumping to unwarranted conclusions. That’s not science, that’s a bunch of bubameintsers (probably without the bubbies), and it is a waste of time. Maybe we need a new word: politicianmeintser? kibbitzermeintser? schmendrickmeinster?
hujuParticipantThe medical utility of hydroxychloroquine is well established: works for lupus, works for malaria, dangerous but usually worth the risk for lupus and malaria. It is a shocking indictment of most of the commenters on this news article that there are almost 250 comments discussing a medical issue that is settled. There is no need for further discussion, but that has not stopped us YWN folks from continuing to discuss the medical efficacy of hydroxychloroquine for any illnesses other than lupus and malaria.
How about discussing the Salk vaccine for curing hemorrhoids.
hujuParticipantCharliehall is right: evolution does fix stupid.
May 21, 2020 10:51 am at 10:51 am in reply to: Can someone explain to me why some frum people are cavalier about corona virus #1863059hujuParticipantThanks, mexipal. I am sending my kids out to play in traffic.
May 20, 2020 5:42 pm at 5:42 pm in reply to: Can someone explain to me why some frum people are cavalier about corona virus #1862851hujuParticipant“Doing my best” had a very good comment, which was also very polite. Forgive me, but I am going to be blunt: Frumers who don’t take COVID-19 seriously, as well as gentiles who don’t take it seriously, are not particularly smart. It’s that simple (and so are they).
hujuParticipantVaccines have been around for about 200 years. Anti-Semitismn has been around for more than 2000 years. If a vaccine becomes available for COVID-19, some anti-vaxxers, including some Jewish anti-vaxxers, will refuse it. You can’t fix stupid.
hujuParticipantOK, by popular demand (assuming Milhouse is popular): weather, whether, wether, and also if/whether.
Weather is the climactic condition. Wether is a castrated sheep or goat. Whether sets up alternatives, e.g., I don’t know whether we will go to Bubby’s or Aunt Sally’s for Shabbos dinner.
if/whether: In the old days, it would have been wrong to say, I don’t know if we will go to Bubby’s or Aunt Sally’s for Shabbos dinner. “If” used to set up a condition, e.g., if Uncle Mac gets over his cold, we will have Shabbos dinner at Aunt Sally’s house. But recently, the if/whether distinction has faded, and some authorities would accept, “I don’t know if we will go to Bubby’s house or Aunt Sally’s house for Shabbos dinner.” I’m old-school, and you can do it my way if you want, and, whether or not you are old school or new school, you can use if when whether would have been the only choice in the old days.
Also, I generally find that “whether or not” is not preferable to “whether”. But I am old-school.
And, of course, “iffy weather” means you probably should cancel the picnic.
hujuParticipantto dayenu: The only safe way to build herd immunity is with a vaccine. Any other method requires members of the “herd” to get sick with the coronavirus. Do you want to volunteer yourself? your kids? Or would you like to volunteer me?
May 18, 2020 2:17 pm at 2:17 pm in reply to: What is EY doing in fighting Covi-19 that NYC can learn from” #1861878hujuParticipantEY locked down very aggressively, and I think Israelis obeyed the locked down orders more thoroughly than those American dopes with confederate flags and AK-47’s. And their leaders have some backbone, and don’t have any stupid ideas like, e.g., maybe bleach will help.
hujuParticipantTo anonymous Jew: I’ve been tasting my coffee a lot. It’s as good as anything I can get anywhere else, so I am happy to remain in lockdown. And the brisket ….
hujuParticipantA friend of mine is called Soft Patel because he is flabby.
hujuParticipantJoseph: How humane should we be when producing a test?
hujuParticipantOK, now: your, yours, you’re and yore.
“Your” is the second person possessive case, singular and plural. E.g., your hat is in the cloakroom, your hats are in the cloakroom.
“Yours” – actually, I can’t explain it well; help is welcome. It is used as an adjective, e.g., is this hat yours? Are these hats yours? “Yours” is both singular and plural.
“You’re” is a contraction of “you are,” e.g., Huju, you’re wrong (I read that a lot, especially from Milhouse.)
“Yore” means way back when, e.g., in days of yore, black hats were not fedoras, and Jews in Jerusalem spoke Arabic.
May 13, 2020 12:51 pm at 12:51 pm in reply to: What is EY doing in fighting Covi-19 that NYC can learn from” #1860261hujuParticipantComparisons of infection rates and death rates are not meaningful if the samples from different countries do not have the same testing rates. Testing in the US is behind most of the world, and is biased to exclude persons showing no symptoms, and so the US infection rates and death rates appear higher than most other countries. (Given the US limits on testing resources, the bias is a reasonable accommodation to our limited resources.)
hujuParticipantRe amil zola comment: Here in the Northeast, Glenmorgan is a well-regarded single-malt Scotch whiskey.
hujuParticipantRe nOmesorah’s comment about watching television: Best comment of the month.
hujuParticipantTo Milhouse: Is KoolAid kosher?
hujuParticipantGeneral Flynn thought he was guilty when he twice pled guilty.
hujuParticipantTo Joseph: What is official English? As far as I know, there is no such thing. There is an official French: the French government has a board or committee which approves and disapproves words that creep into French writing, but there is no comparable governmental authority for English.
And how does spoken speech get into dictionaries? In fact, perhaps you can tell us how dictionaries are written.
hujuParticipanta. Milhouse agrees with me – well, stranger things have happened. Maybe I have mentioned this before (not on this thread), but the only 2 US Supreme Court justices to socialize outside of the court were Ruth Ginsburg and Antonin Scala – two middle-class kids from New York City who grew up loving the opera they could not afford to attend (except, maybe, when the Met sold standing room tickets for a quarter). They and their spouses occasionally attended opera together.
b. If you use Noon and Midnight, you will spare some of your readers a trip to the dictionary, even if the dictionary says 12 a.m. is universally (not including me) understood to mean Midnight.
c. Joseph: I am not interested in spoken or conversational English. If you invite someone to your house face-to-face, he/she can ask you for clarification.
hujuParticipantA recent map showing neighborhoods/zip codes hardest hit in the 5 boros shows Boro Park is hard-hit. The conclusion I jump to is, the virus is anti-semitic.
And I guess the news about coronavirus in the White House is fake news.
hujuParticipantOK, this is not really and English issue, but here goes: 12 am and 12 pm make no sense and are ambiguous. They are used to refer to Noon and Midnight (is 12 am Noon, or is it Midnight?). If you mean Noon, say Noon, or 12 Noon. And if you mean Midnight, say Midnight or 12 Midnight.
am, or a.m., stands for ante-meridian, i.e., before the meridian. Likewise, pm, or p.m., means post-meridian, or after the meridian. But Noon and Midnight are the meridians, neither before nor after. So 12 pm or 12 am is senseless.
And what day is it when it is one minute after Tuesday Midnight? Is it Tuesday, or Wednesday. Is Midnight the end of the day, or the beginning?
Take a look at your insurance policies. I’ll bet that they expire at 11:59 pm to avoid ambiguity. I think I have auto policies that expire at Noon.
hujuParticipantOne of the most glaring infirmities in this thread is that so many commenters appear to have no scientific education beyond high school, or even middle school. It is in college that students start to learn that “science” is not merely a bundle of facts currently accepted by scientists. It is also a process and philosphy. COVID-19 is a new phenomenon, and scientists (and the rest of us) have a lot to learn about it. And if you don’t understand science, you may misunderstand much of what you read about it.
hujuParticipantRe Millhop: The use of “boy” and “girl” for adult servants is thoroughly obnoxious and inappropriate. That is not an English rule, it is a humanitarian rule, and probably a Torah rule.
Let me emphasize that I am limiting my discussion to written English, not spoken English.
hujuParticipantTo Joseph: Where did you get the information that “hundreds” of US and world hospitals are using Dr. Zelenko’s protocol? Did you count them yourself? Did Fox News report it? NewsMax? American Journal of Epidemiology? Belarus Journal of Mishigoss?
hujuParticipantAnd, may I add, I don’t think it’s working.
hujuParticipantWell, time for a tip.
Lots of us (large quantity, not parcel of real estate) use “by” in a way that is unique to former Yiddish speakers and their descendents. “I’m staying by my cousin on Shabbos when I go to Waterbury,” we might say, to indicate that “I” will be staying at his/her cousin’s house on Shabbos.
And a few comments up, Joseph, in explaining when a girl becomes a woman, said “By Jews at age 12 …. ” A better answer, i.e., in a better form of English, the answer would be, “According to Jews …” or, even better, “According to the Torah ….”
hujuParticipantLet’s be clear about “rules” of grammar and usage. No one goes to jail for breaking them. But (oops) if you want to make yourself clear to readers, following the rules helps a lot. (And, according to a beloved English teacher, “a lot” is a parcel of real estate, not an expression of high quantity. Shame on me.)
One other point: some snobs (not me, though I am a snob) follow the rules of grammar to show off their class status, just to let readers know they been tuh college or their Dad’s a bank president or Wall Street gonif. William F. Buckley followed all the rules he learned at, and before he attended, Yale, but he used so many little-known big words that his meaning was usually lost on everyone. But (oops again) he loved showing off.
hujuParticipantTo DivodTB: There have been some rigorous studies that show that spelling errors do not cause misunderstanding if the misspelled word has all the right ettersl tub in the gronw order. And, no, I ani’t iddingk.
hujuParticipantToday’s rule: Remember to never split infinitives. This rule has eroded, and even the language maven William Safire agreed with the abandonment. But if an infinitive is split too wide, i.e., there are lots of words or ideas between the “to” and the verb, it can be confusing or burdensome to the reader.
hujuParticipantTo Milhost: Your epistemology is interesting: if you never heard of something, it does not exist. The rule about not using the possessive case for things was well-established when I was a high schooler. Maybe it has faded in the last few decades. As I said, there are numerous exceptions, e.g., “horse’s behind”.
hujuParticipantTo Millhose: I stand by my comment. The US president clearly does not understand that Lysol and bleach are not safely ingestible by humans. No research needed.
hujuParticipantTo show everybody how smart I am.
hujuParticipantYes, I used “ain’t” as a provocation. I rarely use it, and when I do, it’s to startle the reader, or to deliberately sound crude or vulgar. Ira Gershwin used “ain’t” to very good effect.
hujuParticipantThe relevant question is not whether camps are open. The relevant question is whether the medical and public health experts consider them safe.
hujuParticipantGarlic is delicious. Who cares if it is good for coronavirus, social distancing, or anything else.
hujuParticipantThe expected market for a COVID-19 vaccine is about 8 Billion people. A very low price should cover the currently-expected cost of development.
The Torah has a lot to say about pricing. My limited knowledge says that pricing should be lower than price-gouging.
hujuParticipantTrump never snapped. It’s just that he never learned anything after the fourth grade.
His parents must have had those safety locks on the cabinets where they kept the household cleaners.
hujuParticipantRe: akuperma’s first comment. Please explain to me, and to the US president, the difference between (i) a stand-up comic, and (ii) the president of the US.
And FYI, bleach tastes terrible, but Lysol is delicious.
hujuParticipantTo Joseph: A proper, scientific study is not quackery. I don’t know how many hospitals in the US are prescribing and using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, but the ones who are, and are not part of a study, are Daffy.
hujuParticipantAnti-vaxxers are wrong and are a threat to the rest of us. They may not know it, but they are extremely selfish.
hujuParticipantTo DovidBT: Right you are. I could lie and say I planted those errors, but that would be too Trump-like.
Akuperma is right that Skype and other computer/internet face-to-face communication have contributed to slovenly writing. One important thing to remember, though, is that when writing, there is no opportunity for the writer to see the face of his readers and know that they have not understood him. Therefore, writing requires more clarity. Texting does not require quick responses. It requires coherent responses, and clear English adds coherence. (Some texters require quick responses. Make them cool their heels.)
Today’s tip: Learn when to use – and when not to use – an apostrophe. There is a headline in today’s YWN news that “Husband Murder’s Wife”. The apostrophe should not be used.
A few apostrophe rules:
Use it to make possessives. Don’t use it to make plurals, or third person singulars (I murder, you murder, he/she/it murders).
Things (not people) generally should not be put in the possessive. E.g., the bus’es wheels don’t go round and round, but the wheels on the bus go round and round. There are lots of exceptions to this rule, e.g., the day’s news, tonight’s dinner, but we should avoid them anyway.
And the phrases “should of” or “would of” are wrong. They are misunderstandings of the contractions for “should have” and “would have”, which should be written as “should’ve” and “would’ve”.
And speaking of contractions, they require an apostrophe: Don’t, not dont; can’t, not cant, ain’t, not aint.
hujuParticipantTo coffee addled: You seem to have an extremely narrow definition of “quack medicine.” Yes, hydroxchloroquine is FDA approved for treatment of malaria, and azithromycin is FDA approved as an anti-biotic, but prescribing them to grow hair or cure COVID-19 is quack medicine, or should I say, just Daffy.
hujuParticipantMillhouse discovered how to post by trial and error, not by experiment. There is an important difference, which is important to keep in mind when the US president is recommending the ingestion of household cleaners.
hujuParticipantOK, OK, I admit it. Joseph correctly recognized that I was proposing to assassinate people.
hujuParticipantCTLawyer’s practice of not doing what he cannot afford is an excellent guide to life. Unfortunately, it is widely ignored. IF more frum Jews followed it, I think the yeshiva and kollel populations would be cut in half. I leave it to the Torah experts to tell us whether that would be a good or a bad thing.
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