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[pwhodges]

Jeph is drawing on line again, using LiveStream.  Today's link from his twitter.

[idontunderstand]

Sans cats with dicks now?

[pwhodges]

Today the cat had a hat.

What?  You're surprised?

[Is it cold in here?]

That reminds me of http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/activity/h/humor/www/Generic/french.joke

[idontunderstand]

I can't tell if it's you guys or me that's more nuts.

[DSL]

American punchline to the French joke:

The proprietor of the, um, hat shop says to the American, "But Monsieur, I cannot sell you un capeau noir unless I am certain your wife has indeed passed on. We must be sure she is dead."
"OK," says the American, and walks outside the shop. Soon, there is heard a short, sharp report. The American returns.
"OK," he says. "Now how much?"

@idontundersand: Does this help answer your question?

[idontunderstand]

I don't understand!

[Skewbrow]

Attempting a quick summary at the risk of causing more :

A bon chat donning a boner hat ended the chat about bonercats?

No, I'm sure I didn't get it either.

[Jabberwocky]

I'll never be able to look at the Cat in the Hat the same way again.

[Carl-E]

I don't understand!

Knowng you're a non-native English speaker and not in the US, here's the genesis of DSL's "punchline", from a joke I've heard for ages in this country;

An emergency operator gets a call from a distraught man who tells her "I think my wife just died!" 

The operator responds, "Are you sure she's dead?" 

The man replies, "Just a moment."

The operator hears silence for a moment, then a gunshot. 

The man comes back on and says, "OK, I'm sure.  Now what?"


...and I think the joke says more about american culture than it does about our humor...

[idontunderstand]

 

[DSL]

I'm here all week.

Good thing it's Friday.

[Is it cold in here?]

I keep meaning to start a topic in Chatter about how weird English is.

"To make sure" can mean either to verify the state of something without changing it, or it can mean emphatically to put it into that state if necessary.

[jmucchiello]

I keep meaning to start a topic in Chatter about how weird English is.

"To make sure" can mean either to verify the state of something without changing it, or it can mean emphatically to put it into that state if necessary.

Yeah, so? Most languages have ambiguous constructs. If you want to pick on English start with "can't". "You can't drink too much water each day." Is that an warning against drinking excessive amounts of water or is it a statement implying no amount of daily water intake is unhealthy?

[jwhouk]

And meanwhile, goodbye tinychat.  

[snubnose]

Yeah, so? Most languages have ambiguous constructs. If you want to pick on English start with "can't". "You can't drink too much water each day." Is that an warning against drinking excessive amounts of water or is it a statement implying no amount of daily water intake is unhealthy?

Just for the record: you CAN drink too much water, and it isnt even that much: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

[jmucchiello]

Yeah, so? Most languages have ambiguous constructs. If you want to pick on English start with "can't". "You can't drink too much water each day." Is that an warning against drinking excessive amounts of water or is it a statement implying no amount of daily water intake is unhealthy?

Just for the record: you CAN drink too much water, and it isnt even that much: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

I know that. The point is that when you tell someone this fact you can say "You can drink too much water, so be careful." or you can say "You can't drink too much water, so be careful." And both sentences mean exactly the same thing. Even though one is syntactically the negation of the other.

[Barmymoo]

Well really, the second one (with that meaning) is just wrong. It should be "you should not drink too much water". The only correct meaning of "you can't drink too much water" is actually untrue. But I see your point - language in its actual usage is indeed weird.