Ask Asher

[Asher]

No.

[Krill]

What is your favourite brand of beer?

[Asher]

Right now, Alexander Keith's. Specifically, their Indian Pale Ale.

[Krill]

and favourite spirit?

[Asher]

Crown Royal (Canadian Whisky).

I also like Bombay Sapphire, but mostly in mixes and not straight like Whisky.

[Q Classic]

What good music have you heard lately?

[Asher]

Current song I really like is Rogue Wave - Lake Michigan.

[DrSpike]

How do you feel about the use of hyperbole in debate?

[Asher]

How else do you have a debate?

[Q Classic]

Are you going to answer questions with questions?

[Asher]

I believe I already have?

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher
How else do you have a debate?

Have you tried making balanced, evidence-based points?

[Asher]

Originally posted by DrSpike


Have you tried making balanced, evidence-based points?

Yes, it is less interesting and less effective, "British" if you will.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Asher

For starters, I do more than go to plays and read novels and dictionaries and pretend that's what makes one intelligent.

How very industrious of you.

I wasn't aware that anyone (let alone me) had claimed that those activities and pursuits were what made one intelligent.

Of course reading a good English dictionary might help you understand better the meanings of certain words and the correct usage of certain English phrases, but why should I limit the possibilities for my future enjoyment at your expense ?

Naturally, if you did go to plays, you wouldn't have made that silly assumption about actors being frauds.

I thought it was only sad old souls like certain Trekkies and the Phelps family who confused actors with the roles they played.... clearly this isn't the case.

It depends how you want to look at it.

Yes, you can look at it from the point of view of someone who has been to theatres and seen plays, and knows what drama and acting entails, or you can look at it from your point of view, and just get it wrong.

When actors lack skill, it definitely constitutes a feeling of fraud.

Oh, a 'feeling' of fraud. Changed slightly from this earlier statement of yours, hasn't it ?

You remind me of a Shakespearean actor playing a role; a fraud.

No mention of skill or acting ability there- just that a 'Shakespearean' actor playing a role IS A FRAUD.

You would seriously have us believe that people who go to see Ian McKellen play King Lear honestly believe that he really is trying to make them believe that he is not an actor called Ian McKellen, but is an ancient king of Britain, who instead of speaking a Celtic language, just happens to be speaking Elizabethan English written by William Shakespeare and is wearing modern dress and has decided to walk on the stage of a theatre in Stratford or London in the 21st Century.

Even in Shakespeare's day they knew that the roles of Cleopatra and Cordelia and Desdemona were being played by young boys, not adult women, and that Othello wasn't actually an African, but a Caucasian with makeup on.

I suggest you make yourself familiar with the meanings of fraud....

Hey, wait a minute -- maybe that was the point when I used the word with you?

No, I'd say you just weren't familiar with the meaning of fraud. Certainly not in the way you (mis)used it...

I don't use thesauruses, but you clearly do.

Yes, because the English language is a puissant tool in the right hands.

There are often several words for the same thing, but different shades of meaning may attach to each, thus making one more suitable in a particular instance than another.

How can you get on me for using "haughty"

'Get on you' ? I wasn't aware I had. I was simply surprised (given your incorrect use of fraud) that you were even aware of the existence of 'haughty'.

you use even more obscure words like "invective"?

Are you under the misapprehension that I think 'haughty' is an obscure word ?

Invective certainly isn't either. Perhaps I'm simply too used to a certain level of skill or familiarity with the spoken and written English language- the kind shown by those 'Poly members for whom English is not a first language...

You have yet to say one witty thing in this entire thread.

Repetitious. Remember, simply repeating your opinion doesn't make it true.

That should be indicative of your lack of wit.

How crushing and soul-destroying. Even now, I'm considering life as an eremite.

Hey, you're the one that came in here pretending you were in any sort of position to judge me.

Really ? I saw this uninformed 'judgment':

For instance, people who live in Europe are generally stupid because they never left Europe for the New World.

and simply couldn't resist (despite my better instincts) its sheer puerility and general ignorance.

I'd have thought that people in Europe could be glad that they didn't end up in the New World with you as a neighbour if that's what you think about them or their relatives...

You've got obvious insecurities here, and that's simply obvious.

Repetitive, and as I've already informed you, simply reiterating something doesn't make it so...

I honestly think you use a thesaurus on a regular basis to try to sound more intelligent.

No, I use my lexicon.

I think you are either too stupid to realize you need to adjust your speech to the context,

Advice you'd do well to heed- steer clear of words such as 'fraud' when clearly you don't understand their meaning, or the proper context they should be used in.

I have not charged you for this advice...

you get a kick out of talking about obscure things to people who've no clue what you're talking about.

Which subjects, and to whom ? Give instances.

It plays to your insecurities and makes you feel smart.

Which insecurities are these ?

On which occasions am I meant to have felt 'smart' after talking about 'obscure things' ?

Provide examples of these 'obscure things' and give the dates on which I talked about them.

Why else would you constantly name-drop obscure playwrights and poets in conversations with a computer scientist?

Who (obscure) did you have in mind ?

My partner's a computer scientist and he's read Oscar Wilde's work. Robertson Davies is a famous Canadian author. Having established on several occasions that you're

a) gay

b) Canadian

wasn't there a slight possibility that even you might have heard of either or both of them ?

Do you simply not comprehend that they don't have the same knowledge domain as you

I understand quite well that one of them may not.

or do you get your rocks off pretending knowing useless trivia about culture makes you the superior individual?

No.

You fool some people on this site, but not all of us.

That's only to be expected. You can fool some of the people all of the time... who is this 'we' you're speaking for ?

"Haughty" and "insufferable" are absolutely the correct words to describe someone such as yourself.

Well, if you do truly find me 'haughty' and 'insufferable', then just think how good that would make me feel if I could really be bothered to give a flying f*ck about how much I might annoy you...

Your entire purpose in this thread, and on these fora in general, is to perpetuate your smugness as far as it will go.

Feel better for venting, do we ?

And the reason you flame me without provocation is you know I'm right.

Oh, how self-evidently true (I won't disabuse you of this mistaken notion, because everyone should have an illusion or two...)

He's discussed Oscar Wilde every time we have a flame war.

Prove it.

I think he's just running out of names.

Your second illusion...

My opponent is hastily reading his thesaurus and consulting his public library for his next insult.

Or in the real world, going to Rough Trade Records and eating Bengali food in Brick Lane.

You shouldn't judge everyone by your standards or requirements...

[Asher]

Jesus Christ, I'm not reading that.

Let me guess, his post can be summarized thusly:

Thou roguish sheep-biting codpiece!

Away, you bottle-ale rascal, you filthy bung, away!

Thou bootless crook-pated puttock!

Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity? And will you yet call yourself young?

Thou froward crook-pated hedge-pig!

Thou art not noble;
For all th'accommodations that thou bear'st are nurs'd by baseness.