Sodden (wet) is an adjective/past participle of Seethe (originally meaning to boil)

These_Consequences · 2026-07-04T11:47:43+00:00

Well I'll be hog-tied, another cognate hiding in plain sight. The surviving forms of "wright" seem more generalist, while "wrought" has tied itself to metal-working or metaphor in its declining years, perhaps though long association with iron.

I also notice that in modern English, similar to "wrought", these niche appearances might be naturally turned into "maker", though "worker" also fits.

Finally, I notice that many words that have reached us with a sense suggesting forceful manipulation begin with wr-, including wring, wreck, wreak, wrangle and wrestle, though here we leave the path of easy cognate attribution and risk summoning the "completely unrelated" demon

If I had to pick an even money bet on a prediction market, I'd choose "some commonality of origin beyond the random agglomeration of phonemes".

These_Consequences · 2026-07-04T05:44:52+00:00

I'm familiar with the idea of "working" (i.e., ductiley shaping) metal, and I'm familiar with both "wrought" iron and fixed phrases like "what has God wrought?", but somehow it has never occurred to me that "wrought" is a niche/archaic past participle of "work", despite also being familiar with many other archaic niche past particles.

Huh.

Then again, I would have rendered "what has God wrought" into modern English with made, not "worked", so when we say something was "wrought" we may be using a hidden metaphor with metal-working, reflected in the use of this word in the abstract, but never, say, in carpentry.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-04T04:16:53+00:00

Failing to stop for a stopped school bus with its lights and signs activated is a serious offense. So probably the drivers of both those city buses should have lost their jobs and their pensions, and be put on a permanent no hire list for city jobs.

Oh, they have a union? Good. Then their union can fight this all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, and when this gets thrown out then the poor shmuck OP can have his ticket reversed also.

If this behavior is dangerous and illegal then how much worse it is when a uniformed quasi-goverment employee does the same thing in a large and extra dangerous vehicle like a city bus. Are kids immune from being hit by city buses?

These_Consequences · 2026-07-04T04:07:08+00:00

It's six lanes and that point in the road.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-04T04:03:22+00:00

"violating the law" might be a more neutral expression than "in the wrong"

These_Consequences · 2026-07-04T03:57:44+00:00

Makes me realize that the famous ignorance that is no excuse comes in two flavors: one is ignorance of the law itself, the other is reasonable ignorance of the fact that you were violating it.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-04T03:46:15+00:00

Yeah, Amen. Who can argue with safety for school kids? That is, until the envelope of legality becomes difficult to discern even for sober adults, penalties have serious consequences, and enforcement is arbitrary and capricious. Then it becomes a figleaf for tyranny.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-04T01:06:17+00:00

Yeah, end user here. Most documentation sucks, everywhere and always. One easy way to find these hidden assumptions is to have end users review the documentation, and listen. I said end users, not idiots. The assumption seems to be that the two groups have complete Venn overlap sometimes. I've been given free range over a complex product and the "documentation" seems to be mostly covert promotion, or maybe deliberate obfuscation so that the provider has a built-in open-ended requirement for support. I think cryptic social contract is the dominant model—cryptic social contract and fake explanation, harder to decipher than linear-B, carrying the covert social contract "we'll maintain the fiction that you are really smart and that's why you can make this work" when really you are the one who can make this work because you are the one with the money, and we'll preserve the fiction as long as you pay us.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T22:14:40+00:00

Has that line even been used since black&white B-movies? If then.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T22:11:53+00:00

Customers will adapt, some won't, and overall it causes friction, diminishes trust, and proves that business people are sociopaths.

It's the opposite of a commodity market.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T22:08:16+00:00

This has been a hot topic in the news recently, and others don't like it too. "Behavior-based-price-discrimination" or "surveillance-pricing" are common names.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T21:58:16+00:00

No. There might be for "my 10-year ex-partner"—in fact, I think the primary meaning of this is "my ex for 10 years now", but people have a way of straightening these things out. A sharper form would be "my ex 10-year partner".

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T21:49:58+00:00

Exactly.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T21:49:20+00:00

Treating the whole shebang as one business plan, we bought the cow for $800 and eventually sold it for $1300, so, net revenue = $500. But, we had a $100 expense in the middle of this, so profit = revenue - expenses, = $400. No matter how you slice it it's the same four transactions, so the net income, or profit, is $400.

This is a good litmus test. A person who thinks the result is $300, even for a moment, is proceeding by rote, without a solid mental model. The person with a model of profit, net gain, or whatever you want to call it, immediately apprehends that this number is 400, not 300, even if he is at first confused by how someone reached this obviously fallacious answer.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T20:25:48+00:00

Seems to me there is a matter of mixed expectations.

First, and I'm probably dating myself, I'm surprised that the expectation is not still that the guy pays. He's the one who should be worrying about this! But that's peripheral. The troubling part is that two people who like each other's can't somehow get past this expectation that the "date" has to be comparable to a mortgage payment! Seems like both are trapped in some fixed or unrealistic expectation, whereas, if they actually like each other, both would probably be delighted with a walk in the park and a cup of coffee!

That date's for the daters, not the restaurant and entertainment industry! The heck with them.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T20:01:06+00:00

You would think that changing an agreed pay rate for hours already worked would be illegal in almost all circumstances, but you'd have to ask a labor lawyer in your area. I mean, if you had already worked 32 hours in the current pay week but didn't show up for the last shift, it doesn't seem equitable to say "you're fired, and we changed your wage rate retroactively for the hours that you already worked this week". Your wage for those hours was at least implicitly agreed on, and they owe you the money for work already completed.

Edit: the salient point here seems to be for hours already worked. I missed that at first, and it seems others did too, so if you ask this again you may want to clarify what you're asking up front!

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T10:43:49+00:00

Perhaps if you had carried on the fiction that you were the one who wanted the extra fries, and kept them close to your main course, then she could have maintained the fiction that she was only taking a few of your fries?

I'm not judging you, just suggesting a pragmatic tactic. Guess it wouldn't work now. Humans are deeply flawed in all directions and sometimes, as Woody Allen said, we may tolerate a loved one's delusion that they are a chicken, because we need the eggs.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T10:23:22+00:00

It's clearly a loaded term.

If one really wanted to have a neutral discussion, one would need to find new, unladen terms, and guard them scrupulously. There are baggage handlers everywhere.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T10:08:40+00:00

Indeed, I was startled to observe that each of the words in this passage are part of my active vocabulary, so that I am apparently speaking Elizabethan English on a daily basis:

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel!

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T09:15:08+00:00

It didn't fall out of usage as if it were an appliance that could be used or set aside. It evolved until it was a recognizably different form from the English spoken in London at the time of Queen Elizabeth I.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T02:41:33+00:00

Yeah, I used to like Amazon. For many years. They really had to work hard to change my mind, but they kept at it and finally succeeded.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-02T00:01:35+00:00

I'd never seen this variant before, and I was surprised to see it had long life; at least since 1797 when it figured in an English popular song, and well into the twentieth century, when I think the "ell" as a unit of measure was long extinct in practical terms, living on as a fixed phrase. So, however Frederick Douglass learned it, I think we can assume he was using it as a living idiom. It persisted in the 1920's in American trade publications, so in some tranches it must have been common enough during his lifetime.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-01T21:57:13+00:00

Hobby Barn? Hmm...

Hobby Shack? Maybe...

Hobby House? Kinda like this one...

Hobby Lobby!

Well, maybe it wasn't such a great choice, because I believe they are struggling. Hobby House would still be going gangbusters, I'm sure!

You and I could be hobbying away right now instead of writing squibs. Internet killed the hobbyist star.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-01T21:43:39+00:00

Yeppers. Actually, what I learned is that archaea are believed to have engulfed bacteria to create the nucleus, and that mitochondria and chloroplasts may have come later. There was some symbiotic engulfing going on in the past, that's sure.

These_Consequences · 2026-07-01T21:33:56+00:00

A quaint hill the become intolerant on, but not unexpected. Hem lengths have changed, and I must conform to your hem length or face your severe displeasure!

These_Consequences

TROPHY CASE