I've Been Wondering: The 2020 General Questions thread

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  • HelenEvaHelenEva Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    fineline wrote: »
    I'm curious if anyone has genuine, friendly chats with JWs, where you discuss and learn about each other's beliefs in a respectful way. Does this ever happen?

    My late Granddad managed this. L & M visited him weekly for over a year, chatting in the hall rather than the living room, but always on a friendly basis. They swapped church anecdotes and family news.

    My late father likewise. He had a good friend from work who was Mormon which I think made him broad minded about those who canvass religions at the door. I guess it's partly thinking of him that makes me not resort to the slam the door while talking loudly about black mass approach to Jehovah's Witness discouragement.
  • CameronCameron Shipmate
    HelenEva wrote: »
    fineline wrote: »
    I'm curious if anyone has genuine, friendly chats with JWs, where you discuss and learn about each other's beliefs in a respectful way. Does this ever happen?

    My late Granddad managed this. L & M visited him weekly for over a year, chatting in the hall rather than the living room, but always on a friendly basis. They swapped church anecdotes and family news.

    My late father likewise. He had a good friend from work who was Mormon which I think made him broad minded about those who canvass religions at the door. I guess it's partly thinking of him that makes me not resort to the slam the door while talking loudly about black mass approach to Jehovah's Witness discouragement.

    It was only a joke, @HelenEva - and neither a genuine recommendation nor a recollection. I really would have hoped that was obvious(!), but text is an ambiguous communication, I suppose. I am, though, sorry to have offended you and anyone else who felt similarly.

    However, I must point out that you added 'slam the door' from your own imagination. I am not enthusiastic about conversing with uninvited callers of any kind and I don't think anyone should feel obliged to do so; but not only have I never actually mentioned goats on the doorstep, I have never slammed a door on anyone - or even alluded to it.

  • HelenEvaHelenEva Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Cameron wrote: »
    HelenEva wrote: »
    fineline wrote: »
    I'm curious if anyone has genuine, friendly chats with JWs, where you discuss and learn about each other's beliefs in a respectful way. Does this ever happen?

    My late Granddad managed this. L & M visited him weekly for over a year, chatting in the hall rather than the living room, but always on a friendly basis. They swapped church anecdotes and family news.

    My late father likewise. He had a good friend from work who was Mormon which I think made him broad minded about those who canvass religions at the door. I guess it's partly thinking of him that makes me not resort to the slam the door while talking loudly about black mass approach to Jehovah's Witness discouragement.

    It was only a joke, @HelenEva - and neither a genuine recommendation nor a recollection. I really would have hoped that was obvious(!), but text is an ambiguous communication, I suppose. I am, though, sorry to have offended you and anyone else who felt similarly.

    However, I must point out that you added 'slam the door' from your own imagination. I am not enthusiastic about conversing with uninvited callers of any kind and I don't think anyone should feel obliged to do so; but not only have I never actually mentioned goats on the doorstep, I have never slammed a door on anyone - or even alluded to it.

    I think we've managed a totally classic miscommunication there @Cameron because I wasn't thinking of or intending my comments to be aimed at you or anyone in particular - more a humorous reference to a whole trend of thinking about how, frivolously, to deal with unwanted callers. I also was intending a light-hearted quip - I find the thought of discouraging anyone from calling with the occasional goat sacrifice rather entertaining, so long as it remains hypothetical not literal. Let us resolve to use more smiley emoticons so as to demonstrate our lightness of heart. :smiley:
  • CameronCameron Shipmate
    Agreed :smiley:
  • HelenEvaHelenEva Shipmate
    It seems to be my week for having random questions - please bear with me for another?
    Because of various things to do with coronavirus, I'm about to move onto working shifts at work which could be any day of the week. I've said I'm not prepared to work Easter Sunday for religious reasons (and work accept that) but I'll do other Sundays and potentially Easter Week. Do you think that's right? How much does God mind if we work on Sundays or important Christian days if it's in a good cause? And how does one define a good cause?
  • The early Christians didn't get Sunday off. I am sure God honours your concerns about this more than he is worried by the changes in your work pattern.
  • HelenEvaHelenEva Shipmate
    Cathscats wrote: »
    The early Christians didn't get Sunday off. I am sure God honours your concerns about this more than he is worried by the changes in your work pattern.

    Thanks @Cathscats . I know it's a silly thing to worry about really but I guess in stressful times one worries about silly things. :smile:
  • "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" - so just make sure for your personal sake that you get your "day of rest" somewhere, if it's not Sunday
  • Yes. It’s the potential effect on you, both in terms of faith and of rest, God is concerned about. Take care of those areas and you’re fine.
  • I'm a professional organist employed by a church so I work every Sunday and Holy Day. No one, clergy or laity, has ever queried this.
  • Yeah, same here (missionary family). Our "Sabbath" is Saturday.

    As for not querying it, I hope you mean "they haven't been rude about it" and NOT "They don't give a damn about my wellbeing." Because we've had the latter, particularly in terms of not allowing us (the people on-duty in the loft) time or opportunity to get to the Eucharist. Grrrrrr.
  • {Slight tangent.}

    Back in the '60s, there was a TV movie about Jews and Christians in NYC (?) working each others' shifts so everyone could have time off for their particular religious holidays.

    I've always thought that was cool.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I've got a concern about the brave Hungarian peasant girl - the one Hancock asked about dying in vain. Did she, by any chance, establish that if someone were accused of something, they were entitled to know what they were accused of before any punishment were imposed? Or is it established in law anyway, joking apart? So you can't be told that what you did is known, and you have no opportunity to know what is "known", what the evidence is, and who supplied it, because it is assumed that you know, having done it.
  • 'Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did that poor girl die in vain!'
  • Errr...context? What Hungarian girl? I presume this is from a book, TV show, or film?

    Thx.
  • Sorry old British TV staring Tony Hancock - this episode was a skit of Twelve Angry Men

    https://youtu.be/oJ4mxOluXY4
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I was trying to be jokey about something quite serious, something from Magna Carta, or common law. There are a few Hancock episodes which have entered the national consciousness.
  • Thx. I don't think Hancock's show ever made it to this side of the Pond.

    ;) Oh, and I *have* heard of Magna Carta, actually. ;)
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I got the Hancock reference (I'm that age), it was the 'Hungarian' threw me. Magda Carta?
  • Penny S wrote: »
    I've got a concern about the brave Hungarian peasant girl - the one Hancock asked about dying in vain. Did she, by any chance, establish that if someone were accused of something, they were entitled to know what they were accused of before any punishment were imposed? Or is it established in law anyway, joking apart? So you can't be told that what you did is known, and you have no opportunity to know what is "known", what the evidence is, and who supplied it, because it is assumed that you know, having done it.

    In law, any punishment would be imposed after a trial, in which would make it very clear what the accused was alleged to have done. If there was no trial, but a fixed penalty, again, it would be very clear what the penalty was for (e.g. here is a photo of your car in a bus lane, penalty £60).

    Are you asking about some sort of extra-judicial punishment?
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    For a friend, definitely extra-judiciary, a sort of punishment imposed without him being told what it was he was supposed to have done. It being assumed that he knew and was lying about it. He's had his good name filched and can't challenge it.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    I got the Hancock reference (I'm that age), it was the 'Hungarian' threw me. Magda Carta?

    Being of a similar age and having BBC programmes played here when I was a child I got the Handcock reference too - as I did the Gilbert and Sullivan one you made on another thread to the Admiral's elderly ugly daughter - "able to pass for 43 in the dusk with the light behind her."
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Rich attorney's elderly ugly daughter. Trial by Jury rather than Pinafore.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Ah, yes, thanks - scans better too.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited March 2020
    Can someone explain what's appealing about the name of this exercise programme FB keeps throwing at me?

    https://thesufferfest.com/

    I really, really don't get it. Why on earth (barring a sexual fetish) would I pay to be in pain? If the aim is fitness, why not emphasise that? To me it's like trying to advertise a car by emphasising how much the fuel costs and how expensive its parts are - the negatives.

    No idea of the actual content; I'm too put off by the name to actually look.
  • I looked. I think it's for people who think they aren't gaining strength etc. unless they are in pain. Freaks.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    Has any American completed their census questionnaire online yet? What kinds of questions are they asking? I have two roommates and we need to coordinate our answers as a household. One of my roomies works long hours so it might help if we had some of our answers ready to make things simpler.

    Thanks :smile:
  • Lyda wrote: »
    Has any American completed their census questionnaire online yet? What kinds of questions are they asking? I have two roommates and we need to coordinate our answers as a household. One of my roomies works long hours so it might help if we had some of our answers ready to make things simpler.

    Thanks :smile:

    I have. We had the short form (I understand some people get to fill out a longer form).

    I found it distinctly odd. From memory, they wanted to know:

    How many people in your household;
    How are they all related to one another;
    Whether any of them have a different residence that could result in them being counted twice;
    In minute detail, race and ethnic origin: that is, a) for each member of the household, is that person Hispanic, yes or no; and b) here's a long series of boxes of the white, black, Asian, etc. type, and we want you to check EVERY box you can lay claim to, and THEN type in the specific national/tribal origin under that. So one of us wound up ticking three boxes: white (six national origins typed out after that), Asian (Vietnamese typed after that), and American Indian (Cherokee typed after that.)

    I dithered about this, as it seemed rather... intrusive? But I know the census is the only way lots of federal, state, private funding gets allotted (God help you if your population is terribly undercounted and you go applying for grants), and also the way political power gets allotted (House of Representatives, etc.).

    What really freaked my biscuits was that they asked virtually nothing else. I cannot recall if they asked about household income or ages. I am certain there were no questions about the number of rooms/bathrooms etc. in the home, whether we rented or owned or what, whether anyone qualified as disabled, if anyone was in school, employment issues, and things that one would expect a government taking a ten-yearly snapshot of its people to want to know. It was basically All About Race. And that seemed really fucked up.
  • Well, I used to argue with them....JWs or Mormons ..... and now I simply tell the truth thusly:
    Good Morning, I admire your dedication to your ministry, such a witness! I am an Epsicopal priest.... oh, and a married gay man..... and just to save you time: the man in house next door to your left is an RC Deacon; the house next down in the other direction is empty, and the last house that way is my clergy colleague, also an Epsicopal Priest, but he's married to a woman who is nurse and is working today. Blessing on your ministry!

    Usually they find the need to cconsult in their car by the time I get to 'the house next door'. Ooooooo.... husband just said that in this day of virus one might just cough, and say "I'm not really feeling well today and best shut the door on you."
  • (sinister or damaging) Pain versus reasonable strain from exertion, re above. Many people don't understand the difference.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    Thanks, LB. I think I did a long form back in 2000 where they had questions about income which my then roomie told me I blew about her income. It sounds like the census people think we all took 23&Me tests. As to ethnicity, my mom's family is all Great Britain, and there are vague tales of Germany , France, and Netherlands on my dad's side but nothing specific. My roommates are Hispanic of different flavors.

    Anyone else do a long form this time?
  • jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host, 8th Day Host
    I thought the heritage question in the census was completely out of line. Since I didn't think 'Heinz 57' would be appropriate, I input 'American'.

    Yes, the questions that would have been helpful for knowing about the people were sadly missing.
  • RicardusRicardus Shipmate
    Can anyone guess what I might have learnt in primary school maths in the 1990s in the UK that my mum would have found weird?

    She was saying recently that she would have been scared to homeschool me, because even mathematics, which ought to be constant, seemed to have changed, in the sense that what I was learning looked like incomprehensible gobbledegook to her.

    The only things I can really remember are arithmetic, 'find the next in the sequence', and something called 'function machines' which are more of a gimmick than a completely new branch of mathematics. Did techniques for long division and multiplication change significantly during the 20th century?
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    The whole way of teaching maths in the 90s was radically different from the way the parents of 90s children had been taught. Many parents found it bamboozling. IMHO it was based much more on an understanding of numbers and how they work, and less on learning rules and tricks.
  • Does anyone know if the "n" was ever pronounced in the word "damn"? would it sound dam-nuh or something?
  • It's pronounced in the noun form (damnation), but I think you're going to have to walk all the way back to Latin on this one, sorry.
  • LC, that's apt to be a lonnnggg walk! ;)
  • cgichardcgichard Shipmate
    Does anyone know if the "n" was ever pronounced in the word "damn"? would it sound dam-nuh or something?
    The "n" is certainly pronounced in damnable. Compare with comfortable, which we know isn't about tables.
  • RicardusRicardus Shipmate
    My guess is that it would have been lost around the time English verb-endings stopped adding an extra syllable to the verb. So the N in 'he damneth' or 'damnèd' can be attached to the second syllable, but it can't be pronounced in 'damns' or 'damn'd'.
  • I find that now when I try and watch you tube the sound is very very low and I can hardly hear it. I have my volume all the way up on my computer, and you tube is not on mute, and volume there is all the way up. I am having no problem with the sound any place but you tube. Anyone have a clue how to fix it.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited April 2020
    Do you have external speakers? If so, these often have a volume control all their own.
    ...
    Drat, now I see you have no problems elsewhere. Then, do you have a YouTube app or account? There may be settings inside that which control volume. I myself only access YouTube the Ooooold-fashioned way, through the desktop browser, so can't advise you further...
  • Thanks Lamb Chopped for trying to help, yes just through the desktop browser.No You Tube account.
  • @Lamb Chopped I think this will be a great help. It is past my morning sharp part of the day, so I am not going to tackle it until tomorrow but looks like good things to check out. I love the ship, and its many wise mates.
  • @Lamb Chopped. I fixed it I fixed it switched browser. Thanks again.
  • Hurray!

  • That may have fixed it for me. Adobe Flash hadn't been updating, and once that was done I had quite reasonable sound from Youtube.
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    Macarius is reading a book about the Anglo- Saxon period in England. Dates are given as, for example, ‘The reform of the minster at Stow (Lincs) in 1053 x 5...’. This convention (that is, the use of ‘x’) is unknown to us and we cannot find what it means. Sometimes dates have ‘circa’ (about) as well, so it does not mean that. Date ranges are indicated by dashes, so not that.

    We can take some stabs at what it might mean but they are guesses. Can any Shippie help? Thanks.

    MMM
  • Albert RossAlbert Ross Shipmate Posts: 2
    I think this means "circa" but giving a range. ie "1053 x 5" - no earlier than 1053, no later than 1055.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    I don’t know whether this is relevant, but the screen keyboard on the iPad has ‘x’ and ‘-‘ on the same key. If you just tap it you get an ‘x’ if you swipe the key downward you get a ‘-‘. I’m wondering if what you’re seeing is just a repeated typo.
This discussion has been closed.