The Syndicate

I love them! <3

What food do you absolutely love that most people (in your experience) hate?

S~V~S wrote:I love them! <3

What food do you absolutely love that most people (in your experience) hate?

I came up with a number of such foods: I don't know too many people who like olives, cottage cheese, or oysters, but I don't think I've met more than a handful of people who like escargot.

What's your least favorite game?

Epignosis wrote:

S~V~S wrote:I love them! <3

What food do you absolutely love that most people (in your experience) hate?

I came up with a number of such foods: I don't know too many people who like olives, cottage cheese, or oysters, but I don't think I've met more than a handful of people who like escargot.

What's your least favorite game?

Actually, I like all of those things.

And I really dislike pinochle & canasta, about equally. Maybe canasta a tad more.

Who is your favorite world leader of all times?

Have we ever had a world leader?



Calvin Coolidge.

Who are you? Who who, who who?

Calvin was pretty cool I have to agree.

And I am Sherry the often confused and not terribly terrible.

If you are sipping a spirit after dinner, what is it?

These days, almost exclusively bourbon.

Gaia has a position open as a Planeteer. Do you hope the ring you get is Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, or Heart?

GO PLANET!

I am not immensely familiar with this, so I will say air. As a Gemini, I like air.

If you could have one object in the world for yourself, and had to keep it to yourself & tell no one,what would it be?

I am gonna bump this becasue I have a real random question; it is something I have ALWAYS wondered about.

Why don't we call countries by what they call themselves? And I don't mean English specifically. Like let's look at that European country that is the home of Octoberfest and schadenfreude. They call themselves Deutschland. We call them Germany, the French call them Allemagne. Why is that?

S~V~S wrote:I am gonna bump this becasue I have a real random question; it is something I have ALWAYS wondered about.

Why don't we call countries by what they call themselves? And I don't mean English specifically. Like let's look at that European country that is the home of Octoberfest and schadenfreude. They call themselves Deutschland. We call them Germany, the French call them Allemagne. Why is that?

I've never figured that out either. What's even weirder is we do it when names change to. Like Czechia for Czech republic, mirroring a change there to change their name to 'Cesko'. So, why don't be call it Czecho or czescho? And, even more odd, where does that Z come from? It's not there in the actually Czech word, and nor do we pronounce it as though there is a Z there...?

Due to its geographic location and robust history (pre-and-post Holy Roman Empire conflicts), that particular country received a number of names that stem from five main groups:

1. The Latin name for the region Germania
2. The Old High German word diutisc, which means "native"
3. The Alemanni tribal confederation
4. The Saxon tribe
5. The Slavic word němьcь, which means "foreigner"

For other countries, linguistic corruptions play a part. For instance, Nippon is an island off the Asian mainland. While in China, Marco Polo heard the Chinese dialect of that country, Cipangu. When he got back to Italy, that got corrupted to Giappone. Now we say "Japan."

And let's be honest: We'd rather say "North Korea" than "Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk."

Golden wrote:

S~V~S wrote:I am gonna bump this becasue I have a real random question; it is something I have ALWAYS wondered about.

Why don't we call countries by what they call themselves? And I don't mean English specifically. Like let's look at that European country that is the home of Octoberfest and schadenfreude. They call themselves Deutschland. We call them Germany, the French call them Allemagne. Why is that?

I've never figured that out either. What's even weirder is we do it when names change to. Like Czechia for Czech republic, mirroring a change there to change their name to 'Cesko'. So, why don't be call it Czecho or czescho? And, even more odd, where does that Z come from? It's not there in the actually Czech word, and nor do we pronounce it as though there is a Z there...?

In Russian, the CZ transliteration, as in Czar, comes from French and specifically Peter the Great's desire to transform Russia into a Western pseudo-France. I'm not sure of the exact logic, but it was used to transliterate the Cyrillic character more properly represented as TS. But Czech is not pronounced like TS either, so that one's a mystery to me, probably because I know nothing of the Czech language.

On a related note, I really hate it when people try to make me pronounce the names of countries in their native accents. Once I said Uruguay as any American would (your-a-gway), and was promptly corrected "It's OO-ROO-GWAIEE!" No it bloody isn't because I'm speaking English, not Spanish. If you're going to take that position, I expect you to follow your own advice consistently and say Deutschland for Germany, España for Spain, and Rossiya for Russia, which no one does, because it makes you sound like a pretentious idiot.

Further side note, in Russian the word for a German is "Nemetz" which means a dumb (unable to speak) person. I suspect the answer to Sherry's original question is that most country names came into existence when we were more interested in fighting with our neighbors than talking to them. We didn't care what they called themselves, so we made up a name for them and it stuck. I would think thta we would be more likely to call newer countries by the names they call themselves.

Epi, I understood the origins of the words, but what I meant (and was unclear about obvs) was that national names are like personal names to my thought. I work with a guy named Miguel Perro, and we call him Miguel Perro, not our English translation of his name, basically, Mike Dog. So if we don't do it with one set of names, why with the other. But Llamas explanation does make sense. Maybe I will start a trend and just start calling Norway "Norge, lol.

Well I wanted to bump this thread but it doesn't even end in a question Interesting linguistic discussion though!

What are the, let's say 3, languages you'd most like to learn?

Spanish, Russian, Hebrew

S~V~S wrote:If you could have one object in the world for yourself, and had to keep it to yourself & tell no one,what would it be?

Gosh. Does it have to be a real object that exists currently in the world? Or can it be a hypothetical/fantastical item?
If the latter, probably a Cloak of Invisibility, or some kind of magical device
If the former, man I have no idea of even what category of thing I should be thinking of. Big question, that.

If you were to design a map of a fictional landmass, what features would it include?

Mountains, in the middle, like a spine, tapering down to beaches. Lots of deciduous forests on the slopes. No big cities, just small towns.

If you could un-invent one thing existing in the world, what would it be?

Government.

If you could be the leader of any country in the world other than the USA, which one would it be and why?

Probably Norge (heh heh) since I love that kind of climate and 50% of my ancestors are from there.

If you could peaceably eliminate any country in the world, which one would it be?

North Korea.

You get one magical item from the Harry Potter universe. What is it and what are you going to do with it?

A wand. It seems pretty useful. I might consider going around and rescuing people from criminals with it.

In what country would you most like to have a vacation home?

England.

You find a trove of semi-precious gemstones- what would you want them to be?

Emeralds and Aquamarines, love them.

You find a sandwich (in a trustworthy place lol)- what kind of sandwich would you want it to be?

Monte Cristo.

You are a track and field star- what is your best event?

50 yard dash

You are a farmer in east Asia. Rice or vegetables?

Rice.

Who is the best rap artist?

I go NY old school; Grandmaster Flash.

Name an artist you like from a musical genre you hate.

I'm not crazy about technical death metal, but I do like Between the Buried and Me.

What is an artist you don't like from a musical genre you love?

Hm that's surprisingly tough. I'm gonna go with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Meh


What's a musical genre you've recently gotten more interested in?

Post Punk

If you could bring back any Musician from the past and ask him/her one question, who would it be and what would you ask?

I'd bring back Chris Squire and ask him if he'd record an album with me.

If you had to change your name to something else, what would your name be?

Philip

If you would go on a date with Vompatti, what would you wear?

Something expensive k

Did you know that Philip means "horse lover?"

No.

If a driverless car is faced with the choice of accepting a head-on collision or veering and running over pedestrians, which option should be programmed as a default course of action?

Head-on collision. Pedestrians always have the right-of-way.

How many pencils can you see from where you are right now?

Zero. I work mainly with pens and highlighters.

If a mime falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

No,it suffers in silence.

Are you in a room with a rocking chair?

My desk chair leans back, but it doesn't rock.

Do you like Rick Astley?

No, but I have an ongoing Rick Roll joke with my sister. Once at a funeral, my phone vibrated, I looked at it and she had rick rolled me at the funeral we both were at. We're an odd family.

What weird thing does your family do that has to be explained to outsiders?

Oh, SO much, lol. We have a lot of inside jokes and nonsense words... probably half of conversations between my mom, my brother and me would make little sense to others. Hard to pick a specific thing to answer that question though.


Do you use made-up words a lot or with certain people?

Yes, but mainly with close friends/family

What's something you like that other people think is weird?

Eating kiwis whole (with the skin). And probably several weird food combinations


What's an unusual food combination you like?

Rice and milk, aka rice pooridge.

What kind of pie will you make on Pi Day?

Pizza Pi



What are your two favorite Syndicate smilies?

and
I could pick almost any of them though we have such a great selection. I love all of LC's.


What are three websites other than the syndicate that you frequent on a daily basis?

The Syndicate is Number 1.
Google Email, Slack, and Facebook.

Do you consider your wallet over- or under-stuffed?

Oh under, waaaay under, lol.

Is financial success very important to you?

Nah not really, just stability


What's your favorite little way to treat yourself (e.g. starbucks, a hot bath, a guilty pleasure tv show or something)

Starbucks. I get a chocolate coconut mocha and I get a Puppuccino for my dog (espresso size of whipped cream). She gets more excited when I ask if she wants to go to Starbucks than to the park, lol.

Same question.

So many possible answers, lol. Let's go with microwaveable mug brownies. Fast and easy but I can make them really gooey and delicious.


Do you like to fidget with small objects or certain textures?