Chronic Hysteresis
Eric Walker
It signifies a short-term time loop, in which one relives the
same moments in a more or less endless loop.
I am fascinated to discover, after a long absence from this
forum, that it appears to be in a state of chronic hysteresis.
Consider:
>When answering the phone and the caller asks to speak with
>you, do you answer "this is he" or "this is him"???
I fear to do a Google on "this is he/she/I" for this group: I
reckon my telephone wires might burn up under the load.
It's certainly cozy, but it's somewhat frightening too.
--
Cordially,
Eric Walker
My opinions on English are available at
http://owlcroft.com/english/
CLP
Eric Walker <ewa...@owlcroft.com> wrote in message
news:rjnyxrebjypebsgpb...@news.cis.dfn.de...
> >When answering the phone and the caller asks to speak with
> >you, do you answer "this is he" or "this is him"???
I just say, "Speaking".
Carl
Raymond S. Wise
news:ba2cnf$oord7$2...@ID-169066.news.dfncis.de...
>
> Eric Walker <ewa...@owlcroft.com> wrote in message
> news:rjnyxrebjypebsgpb...@news.cis.dfn.de...
>
> > >When answering the phone and the caller asks to speak with
> > >you, do you answer "this is he" or "this is him"???
>
>
> I just say, "Speaking".
> Carl
As an example of the "chronic hysteresis" which Eric referred to in his
original post, the following answer to the question was given on May 1st by
Daniel James:
"I usually answer "speaking[....]"
He did have additional comments, but I think the example qualifies as close
enough an illustration of "chronic hysteresis." Or is it, *your* post which
qualifies as an example? Oh well, in an endless time-loop there is no
"first," is there?
--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapols, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com
Eric Walker
> Eric Walker <ewa...@owlcroft.com> wrote in message
> news:rjnyxrebjypebsgpb...@news.cis.dfn.de...
>
> > >When answering the phone and the caller asks to speak with
> > >you, do you answer "this is he" or "this is him"???
>
> I just say, "Speaking".
Mind, I was not raising that question, just quoting a recent
example of how the turning wheel seems to have a small radius.
I am quickly re-learning some things it took me a while to
realize before. I really need to get a good news reader, because
(so far as I know) Google has no equivalent of kill files, and
I am seeing at least a couple of names I long ago killfiled--and,
on seeing them, am reminded anew just why I killfiled them. (I
was most reluctant to start a killfile for a.e.u., which, is one
of those things that took me too long to realize was needed.)
Back to case with copulative verbs: my feeling, and extensive
experience of the real world, is that competent English users
rarely have any qualms about using the correct form save for the
first-person singular, whose right use today sounds stilted. That
is not a mark that what is correct has changed, it is a mark that
what is correct has become relatively rare in the flood of half-
schooled and unschooled speech and writing we are today flooded
with. But that form is also the most easily side-stepped, as
"I am" is not only sound but natural in response to "Who's there?"
and like questions.
So: shall we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when,
with a cloud of dust and a hearty "Hi-yo Silver!", the masked and
unmasked riders of a.e.u. rode the length and breadth of singular
"they", genitive with gerund, case with copulative verbs, serial
comma use, and seven States and Territories?
Hi-yo, Gingham! (Thereon hangs a tale.)
Harvey Van Sickle
> I really need to get a good news reader, because (so far as I
> know) Google has no equivalent of kill files, and I am seeing at
> least a couple of names I long ago killfiled--and, on seeing them,
> am reminded anew just why I killfiled them. (I was most reluctant
> to start a killfile for a.e.u., which, is one of those things that
> took me too long to realize was needed.)
XNews is very good -- takes a bit of getting used to if you've been
reading groups through Google, but its kill-filing and scoring work
very well.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 20 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey to whhvs)
Eric Walker
> On Fri, 16 May 2003 20:18:32 GMT, Eric Walker wrote
>
> > I really need to get a good news reader, because (so far as I
> > know) Google has no equivalent of kill files, and I am seeing at
> > least a couple of names I long ago killfiled--and, on seeing them,
> > am reminded anew just why I killfiled them. (I was most reluctant
> > to start a killfile for a.e.u., which, is one of those things that
> > took me too long to realize was needed.)
>
> XNews is very good -- takes a bit of getting used to if you've been
> reading groups through Google, but its kill-filing and scoring work
> very well.
Thank you for the thought. I run on OS/2, so my choices are more
limited than some. I have used in the past, and again recently as a
test, a product called PMI News, which is generally quite satisfactory
save that it has some residual bugs that very occasionally hang it up
(it was a companion piece to the highly successful PMMail program, but
the guy was graduated from college before PMINews was 100% debugged
and his successors in interest let the project die--but even as it is,
it's so nice a lot of people still use it).
I am also preparing to try the Mozilla News function--it is
downloading headers as I type--and we'll see what we see. The old
Netscape News function was a cobble-up and not very satisfactory, but
the Mozilla project has produced some good work. (I believe that the
round of releases after the pending 1.4 browser, which is still a
Swiss Army Knife, will separate the browser and the news/mail
functions into two distinct stand-alone products, and that is for all
platforms; that bodes well for the news function, as it will be its
own thing, not an afterthought on a browser.)
--
Eric Walker
My opinions on English are at
http://owlcroft.com/english/
Dena Jo
> I really need to get a good news reader
I highly recommend Xnews. Its only drawback is it's not an off-line
reader, but since you're Googling AEU right now, I suspect that won't
be a problem for you. The filters in Xnews are extensive and work like
a charm.
--
Dena Jo
(Email: Replace TPUBGTH with denajo2)