Thoughts at large

**Jimaz** · February-10-12, 06:26 PM

Why does the Detroit "Free" Press cost a dollar?

**jcole** · February-10-12, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

Why does the Detroit "Free" Press cost a dollar?

It has a little something to do with the First Amendment and the guarantee of freedom of the press or a 'Free Press'

**Jimaz** · February-10-12, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by jcole

It has a little something to do with the First Amendment and the guarantee of freedom of the press or a 'Free Press'

We need an emoticon for facetiousness.

**jcole** · February-10-12, 10:48 PM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

We need an emoticon for facetiousness.

Or a sarcmark

**MizMotown** · February-22-12, 12:52 PM

We can either suffer from our suffering, or we can use it to end suffering. To abolish anguish we must understand its nature. What is suffering? It is a face to face encounter with something that the false self doesn't want to face. It is resistance against the Truth, against Reality. We resist the very Truth that could liberate us because we don't recognize it, because we are still under the delusion that falsehood is all there is.
- Vernon Howard's Mystic Path to Cosmic Power [[page 120 hard cover)

Those who imagine they understand themselves do not want to hear anything that scares their imagination.
- Vernon Howard's Cosmic Command [[page 114 paperback)

**Jimaz** · February-28-12, 05:36 PM

I couldn't find this online but today's hardcopy Free Press had an amusing mistake on page 8A:

P.S. Surveys from Europe show consumer confidence is rising among French and Italians but slipping among Swedes. This could reflect a worsening climate for investors in stocks and blondes [[sic).

Blondes. Swedes. Get it? LOL! <groan>

**rb336** · February-28-12, 07:08 PM

Damn, my blonde investments have tanked lately

**Jimaz** · March-27-12, 08:02 PM

In Carly Simon's You're So Vain, the lyrics contain the line "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you."

Well—um—It actually is, isn't it?

**Pam** · March-28-12, 05:58 AM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

In Carly Simon's You're So Vain, the lyrics contain the line "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you."

Well—um—It actually is, isn't it?

Yes. I think Carly was making a little joke there.

**rb336** · April-01-12, 08:18 AM

OK, I do believe the endtimes are here - KISS at the Academy of Country Music Awards?????

**Roq** · April-01-12, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

OK, I do believe the endtimes are here - KISS at the Academy of Country Music Awards?????

wha...?? Now I have an image of them as they were on the cover of Destroyer only with cowboy hats on now...

**Jimaz** · April-09-12, 05:39 PM

Why did my cell phone provider give me a phone that cheerfully invites callers to leave voice mail yet:

doesn't allow me to receive voice mail
doesn't indicate that the messages even exist [[or allow me to detect their existence)
doesn't even indicate that the feature itself exists

?!

Ultimately they had to enable the receive feature from their end—after 13 messages had gone ignored.

Is it some kind of sophomoric telecom industry prank?

It's like mounting a bottomless suggestion box over a wastebasket!

**old guy** · April-13-12, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

Why did my cell phone provider give me a phone that cheerfully invites callers to leave voice mail yet:

doesn't allow me to receive voice mail
doesn't indicate that the messages even exist [[or allow me to detect their existence)
doesn't even indicate that the feature itself exists

?!

Ultimately they had to enable the receive feature from their end—after 13 messages had gone ignored.

Is it some kind of sophomoric telecom industry prank?

It's like mounting a bottomless suggestion box over a wastebasket!

You didn't go with "The Jitterbug" did you?

**Jimaz** · April-13-12, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by old guy

You didn't go with "The Jitterbug" did you?

Dingdingdingding! We have a winner!

Its main selling point is that it's easy to use. LOL!

**jackie5275** · May-03-12, 09:03 AM

Why do so many people spell the opposite of winning as loose? It's lose. It's like it's becoming the acceptable spelling of the word.

**rb336** · May-03-12, 09:40 AM

Bon Jovi's commercial for advil officially ushered him into the world of "he's as corny as my grandpa"

and can we have an end to the annoying, unfunny obnoxious kid commercials?

**Jimaz** · June-04-12, 10:54 AM

Why don't they make hearing aids for doorposts?

**rb336** · June-04-12, 02:13 PM

they don't have ears?

**theklep** · June-06-12, 05:59 AM

That's no ordinary rabbit, It's a killer rabbit.

**rb336** · June-09-12, 04:50 PM

I want Brooks Rich & Tangy Ketchup

**BRAZZMAN** · June-09-12, 09:35 PM

And please for once and for ever it is not "Pushing the envelope" it is "Pushing the edge of the envelope".

**rb336** · June-10-12, 08:52 PM

Originally Posted by BRAZZMAN

And please for once and for ever it is not "Pushing the envelope" it is "Pushing the edge of the envelope".

that's a relatively minor thing in a language where the word "literally" has literally come to mean its opposite, or where "impact" has become a verb

**Wheels** · June-10-12, 09:17 PM

Originally Posted by BRAZZMAN

And please for once and for ever it is not "Pushing the envelope" it is "Pushing the edge of the envelope".

Push the envelope

Dear Word Detective: I have somehow gotten the impression that “pushing the envelope” means encroaching on forbidden territory in a conversational sense. I would like to know if this is so. If I am correct or not, from where did the expression come? – Rene Guggisberg.
Good question. I think I know what you mean, as when you say something like “Lovely engagement ring, Debbie. Is that the one Dave got on eBay?” Conversations can be tricky. Personally, I have a tendency to answer people’s rhetorical questions literally, and folks who make the mistake of asking “Why me?” in my presence often get five or six good suggestions.
I have actually answered a question about “pushing the envelope” before, but I see by the clock on the wall that it’s been almost exactly ten years, so we’ll take another run at it. To “push the envelope” does include straining the boundaries of polite conversation, but more broadly it means to approach, exceed, or even extend the limits of what is considered possible or permissible in any context. This can be a good thing, as when a race car driver sets a new world’s record time, or a bad thing, as when an office worker sets a new record for calling in sick. In both cases, the attempt itself carries a risk considered too great by most people.
“Pushing the envelope” comes from a field, however, where tremendous risk is the whole point. It’s drawn from the lingo of test pilots, whose job consists of pushing their aircraft right up to and often beyond the technical specifications and theoretical limits of their craft. While “pushing the envelope” [[originally in the form “pushing the edge of the envelope”) has probably been in use among test pilots since World War II, it was propelled into general usage by Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book about test pilots and the early US space program, The Right Stuff. The “envelope” being pushed in “pushing the envelope” is a mathematical construct, what is called the “flight envelope” of a given aircraft: combinations of speed and altitude, range and speed, or speed and stress on the aircraft’s frame, that are considered the limits of the plane’s capabilities. Within the “envelope” formed by these parameters, you’re [[at least theoretically) OK. Push those limits and you’re asking for trouble, which is what test pilots do for a living. In the process, they verify the safety of the aircraft within those limits and pinpoint possible points of failure if the “envelope” is pushed too far.
Given the popularity of Tom Wolfe’s book [[and the movie made from it), it’s not surprising that by the early 1980s “push the envelope” was being used in non-aviation contexts with the diluted meaning of “experiment, innovate, take risks” [[“Steven Bochco is offering a new series this fall on ABC, ‘NYPD Blue,’ that … will ‘push the edge of the envelope’ of profanity, nudity and artistic violence,” 1989).

Get over it.

**BRAZZMAN** · June-11-12, 09:57 AM

[QUOTE=Wheels;324535]Push the envelope

While “pushing the envelope” [[originally in the form “pushing the edge of the envelope”) has probably been in use among test pilots since World War II, it was propelled into general usage by Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book about test pilots and the early US space program, The Right Stuff. The “envelope” being pushed in “pushing the envelope” is a mathematical construct, what is called the “flight envelope” of a given aircraft: combinations of speed and altitude, range and speed, or speed and stress on the aircraft’s frame, that are considered the limits of the plane’s capabilities. Within the “envelope” formed by these parameters, you’re [[at least theoretically) OK. Push those limits and you’re asking for trouble, which is what test pilots do for a living. In the process, they verify the safety of the aircraft within those limits and pinpoint possible points of failure if the “envelope” is pushed too far.
Given the popularity of Tom Wolfe’s book [[and the movie made from it), it’s not surprising that by the early 1980s “push the envelope” was being used in non-aviation contexts with the diluted meaning of “experiment, innovate, take risks” .

Thanks Wheels. Well said and exactly what I think of whenever I hear "push the envelope". It just drives me up the wall for some reason. Most users probably do not know the original context and have a vague idea, as you suggest, what they mean when saying it. It may be impossible to explain the phrase in literal terms if never encountered before.
I'll try to get over it. "Get over it" another one!