A Simple Geek Test
Sean O'Hara
It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
or Gandalf from Maiar.
--http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3212-2003Dec15.html
If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
--
Sean O'Hara
Gibberish in Neutral: http://diogenes-sinope.blogspot.com/
Niall McAuley
message news:MPG.1a495959a...@news.cis.dfn.de...
> The opening line from Stephen Hunter's Return of the King review:
> It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
> or Gandalf from Maiar.
> If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
What will three mistakes buy me?
--
Niall [real address ends in net, not ten.invalid]
Brandon
Sean O'Hara wrote:
>
> The opening line from Stephen Hunter's Return of the King review:
>
> It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
> or Gandalf from Maiar.
> --http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3212-2003Dec15.html
>
> If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
I am not a LOTR geek, having never successfully read the
entire story. My wife reported instantly that Gandalf *is*
a Maiar. (She adds, "So is the Balrog. So is Sauron.")
--
Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable
from malice. -- seen on Usenet, 10/22/03 (with apologies to
Arthur C. Clarke)
Lee DeRaud
wrote:
>I am not a LOTR geek, having never successfully read the
>entire story.
Oh hell, *that's* no disqualification. The NY Times ran a story today
about people lining up to see an 11-hour LOTR marathon consisting of
the extended versions of FOTR and TTT followed by a day-early showing
of ROTK. Some quotes from the people in line:
Caroline Cross, a 24-year-old New Yorker who first read LOTR in high
school: "The coolest part about this is that we get to see all three
movies together. This is the way Tolkien intended it. It's a trilogy;
the realization of the author's intention."
Her friend Lisa Ebe, also 24, added: "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
I've never read the books at all. I want to read them but they look so
long. I'd rather see a long movie."
Mike Schneider, a 17-year-old from Westchester: "I've read the trilogy
five times but never the last 50 pages so I still have something to
look forward to."
(Full story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/16/nyregion/16CND-RING.html?ex=1386997200&en=c33300e6aa4454a2&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND)
My head hurts.
Lee
Mike Schilling
"Brandon" <jch...@avalon.net> wrote in message
news:3FDFADA6...@avalon.net...
>
>
> Sean O'Hara wrote:
> >
> > The opening line from Stephen Hunter's Return of the King review:
> >
> > It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
> > or Gandalf from Maiar.
> > --http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3212-2003Dec15.html
> >
> > If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
>
> I am not a LOTR geek, having never successfully read the
> entire story. My wife reported instantly that Gandalf *is*
> a Maiar. (She adds, "So is the Balrog. So is Sauron.")
A true geek would also know that "Maiar" is a plural. Gandalf is a *Maia*;
Gandalf and Sauron are *Maiar*.
Mike Schilling
"Niall McAuley" <gnmc...@eircom.ten.invalid> wrote in message
news:oJMDb.1197$HR....@news.indigo.ie...
> "Sean O'Hara" <darkerthenightth...@myrealbox.com> wrote in
> message news:MPG.1a495959a...@news.cis.dfn.de...
> > The opening line from Stephen Hunter's Return of the King review:
>
> > It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
> > or Gandalf from Maiar.
>
> > If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
>
> What will three mistakes buy me?
Three? I only see two, unless I count "Using Maiar as if it were a singular
personal name when it is both the name of a species and a plural" as two.
Jeen Broekstra
> Mike Schneider, a 17-year-old from Westchester: "I've read the
> trilogy five times but never the last 50 pages so I still have
> something to look forward to."
Boy, is he in for a disappointment then.
Jeen
--
Jeen Broekstra http://www.cs.vu.nl/~jbroeks/
In spite of everything, I still believe that people are good at heart.
-- Ann Frank
Niall McAuley
"Mike Schilling" <mscotts...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:imSDb.40862$T92....@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
That's how I was counting.
1) Maiar is not a personal name
2) Maiar is plural
3) Gandalf is not different from Maiar, since he are one.
--
Niall [real address ends in com, not moc.invalid]
Jon Meltzer
"Sean O'Hara" <darkerthenightth...@myrealbox.com> wrote in
message news:MPG.1a495959a...@news.cis.dfn.de...
>
> It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
> or Gandalf from Maiar.
> --http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3212-2003Dec15.html
>
> If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
"Maiar".
Now, excuse me. I have to go bite off the head of a live chicken.
J.B. Moreno
> "Niall McAuley" <gnmc...@eircom.ten.invalid> wrote in message
> > "Sean O'Hara" <darkerthenightth...@myrealbox.com> wrote in
> > > It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
> > > or Gandalf from Maiar.
> > >
> > > If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
> >
> > What will three mistakes buy me?
>
> Three? I only see two, unless I count "Using Maiar as if it were a singular
> personal name when it is both the name of a species and a plural" as two.
I don't think so, it should either be "the Maiar" OR "a Maia", counting
it twice is cheating, in neither case is it being used as a name.
--
JBM
"Everything is futile." -- Marvin of Borg
D.F. Manno
Sean O'Hara <darkerthenightth...@myrealbox.com> wrote:
> The opening line from Stephen Hunter's Return of the King review:
>
> It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
> or Gandalf from Maiar.
> --http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3212-2003Dec15.html
>
> If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
Happily, I failed.
--
D.F. Manno
domm...@netscape.net
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)
Robert Carnegie
<jbr...@not4mail.cs.vu.nl> writes
>Lee DeRaud wrote:
>
>> Mike Schneider, a 17-year-old from Westchester: "I've read the
>> trilogy five times but never the last 50 pages so I still have
>> something to look forward to."
>
>Boy, is he in for a disappointment then.
Well, AIUI, he can still go home and read the last 50 pages. I'm
not sure, but I think they left out /all/ of that.
Robert Carnegie at home, rja.ca...@excite.com at large
--
"Are you sure you want to post?" - my software, every time
Robert Carnegie
McAuley <Niall....@ericsson.moc.invalid> writes
I think only (3) counts, as he might as well have said - in fact,
technically would have done better to say - "if you can tell Gandalf
from Elves."
But, as with some BBC TV and radio parodies and other
commentaries, when they touch on LOTR and Trek and Harry
Potter, I am impressed with the research done. It would be fairly
easy to mock any of these works, or similar works, making up
ludicrous names, phenomena, etc. But when someone gets the
details right, you can be pretty sure that they appreciate the source
material, and aren't going to slap fans in the face - just gently pull
their legs, perhaps.
Lee DeRaud
<rja.ca...@excite.com> wrote:
>But, as with some BBC TV and radio parodies and other
>commentaries, when they touch on LOTR and Trek and Harry
>Potter, I am impressed with the research done. It would be fairly
>easy to mock any of these works, or similar works, making up
>ludicrous names, phenomena, etc. But when someone gets the
>details right, you can be pretty sure that they appreciate the source
>material, and aren't going to slap fans in the face - just gently pull
>their legs, perhaps.
You mean like that JarJaromir thing that's been going around? :-)
Lee
John Schilling
>In article <slrnbu0651....@flits.cs.vu.nl>, Jeen Broekstra
><jbr...@not4mail.cs.vu.nl> writes
>>Lee DeRaud wrote:
>>> Mike Schneider, a 17-year-old from Westchester: "I've read the
>>> trilogy five times but never the last 50 pages so I still have
>>> something to look forward to."
>>Boy, is he in for a disappointment then.
>Well, AIUI, he can still go home and read the last 50 pages. I'm
>not sure, but I think they left out /all/ of that.
No; they kept all of that (modulo the usual novel:movie compression).
It's the fifty *previous* pages that were excised.
Which is appropriate. The Scouring of the Shire can, regrettably,
be dispensed with to fit the trilogy into ten or so hours of film.
The ultimate disposition of Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam, and something
of the reasons for same, are essential.
--
*John Schilling * "Anything worth doing, *
*Member:AIAA,NRA,ACLU,SAS,LP * is worth doing for money" *
*Chief Scientist & General Partner * -13th Rule of Acquisition *
*White Elephant Research, LLC * "There is no substitute *
*schi...@spock.usc.edu * for success" *
*661-951-9107 or 661-275-6795 * -58th Rule of Acquisition *
Sean O'Hara
declared...
>
> Which is appropriate. The Scouring of the Shire can, regrettably,
> be dispensed with to fit the trilogy into ten or so hours of film.
> The ultimate disposition of Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam, and something
> of the reasons for same, are essential.
>
with Aragorn's coronation, or -- ick -- with Frodo back in the Shire
telling his tale to hobbit children.
M. Northstar
"D.F. Manno" <domm...@netscape.net> skrev i meddelandet
news:dommanno-A08080...@corp-radius.supernews.com...
> In article <MPG.1a495959a...@news.cis.dfn.de>,
> Sean O'Hara <darkerthenightth...@myrealbox.com> wrote:
>
> > The opening line from Stephen Hunter's Return of the King review:
> >
> > It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or Aragorn from Gimli
> > or Gandalf from Maiar.
> > --http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3212-2003Dec15.html
> >
> > If you immediately spot a mistake in that sentence, you are a geek.
>
> Happily, I failed.
Unhappily, I failed too. Damn, not even good enough to be a geek :-)
M. Northstar
Bill Reich
And how about 4) Orc should begin with a capital letter. I knows we
don't LIKES the smelly fings but that doesn't mean we don't capitilize
em.
--
Will in New Haven
"Go not to RGP for advise for they will say 'it depends'"
Robert Carnegie
>"Niall McAuley" <Niall....@ericsson.moc.invalid> wrote:
>> > > "Sean O'Hara" <darkerthenightthebrighterthestar@
>> > > myrealbox.com> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > The opening line from Stephen Hunter's Return of the
>> > > > King review:
>> > > >
>> > > > It may help if you know an orc from a Ringwraith or
>> > > > Aragorn from Gimli or Gandalf from Maiar.
>>
>>
>> 2) Maiar is plural
>>
>> 3) Gandalf is not different from Maiar, since he are one.
>
>And how about 4) Orc should begin with a capital letter. I knows we
>don't LIKES the smelly fings but that doesn't mean we don't capitilize
>em.
Does we always? I thought we doesn't colloqially, necessarily.
(But perhaps we have reads too many knockoffses of Middle-
Earth, and role-playing gameses too, yes.) We thinks that when
we is expounding upon The Orcish Problem and possible
solutions we may do, yes, precious. If we capitalised Orc every
time we met one - or Elf or Dwarf or Man - we would get tired of it
very quickly, sss. Very quickly indeed, precious.
We admits we evidently spends too much time talking to
ourselves, we thinks. We shoulds get out mores, we thinks.
Chuck Bridgeland
> Does we always? I thought we doesn't colloqially, necessarily.
> (But perhaps we have reads too many knockoffses of Middle-
> Earth, and role-playing gameses too, yes.) We thinks that when
> we is expounding upon The Orcish Problem and possible
> solutions we may do, yes, precious. If we capitalised Orc every
> time we met one - or Elf or Dwarf or Man - we would get tired of it
> very quickly, sss. Very quickly indeed, precious.
I dunno. German, I think, capitalizes every Noun, not just proper Nouns,
and has for Centuries.
--
cats are too intelligent to leave witnesses
Chuck Bridgeland, chuckbri at computerdyn dot com