mike carey

The term is awkward in speech but serves a purpose in print (whether it's a necessary purpose is a separate question). Aside from that, once a word has moved into English (or a new word created in English based on a word in another language) the rules of the original language no longer have to apply. In some cases they stick, but in others the word is completely assimilated. (Replacing a foreign gender suffix with an x to indicate unknown isn't an English grammatical standard either but an English speaker can see what it's trying to do, and the word is trying to communicate to others in English text, not Spanish.) Transitions of words into English take time and can also happen differently in different regional versions of English. For example Americans do not pronounce the h in 'herb' whereas Australians do. (The Oxford tells me that the US usage was standard in English until the 19th century.)

I don't have a/c. It's going to be 13 today (that's 56F) after 0 overnight (32) but then it's winter here. I have a small gas heater, and have the 'thermostat', such as it is, set to 18 (64F), but I usually only have it on in the evenings and first thing in the morning.

Oh, I understand completely why an American would be wary of such a name.

I think I've said something like this before, but to a non-American that's not the first thing you think of. Aggressive identity Christianity is much less of a thing in Australia, and I think also in Canada, especially from a francophone there (I was going to say, 'Isn't a thing', but there's sure to be a few who are like that), so I would take it on face value rather than attribute such a motive to his choice of nom de plume (acknowledging that might a bad assumption). There is an Australian Nascar driver whose name is Will Power, and it's just his name, not a claim about his attitude.

I've bought some surgical masks but haven't used them yet, my local shops are sufficiently uncrowded that I don't think it is necessary given our low level of infections. But I am still mindful of the need to be ready to wear them. With that in mind, I have ordered some cloth masks from a small company in Nova Scotia. They have a variety of provincial tartans and some other 'cute' cloth patterns in masks at CA$8 apiece. (In case you wondered, they have a pride mask.) https://www.maritimetartancompany.ca/ If you choose to buy from them, let them know you are supporting them.

From what I've read, the prevalence of disease is among younger people now, so that will probably have an effect on the rate of deaths. Another thought is that the recent surge hasn't had enough time to flow through to affect the number of deaths. We should know whether that is a factor soon enough.

I generally identify as gay, but will sometimes use queer as well partly as a way of reclaiming that word from being a slur. For the most part everyone only identifies with one of the initials and the whole LGBT or LGBTQI+ or any version of that is an omnibus term for all the groups collectively. There are some issues that affect each of the parts of that collective identity and fewer that affect only some of them. It's important to have terms that include all of us when talking about us collectively rather than talking about, say gay rights. Of course some of the conversations are about one of the initials, so discussions about trans rights shouldn't be watered down by calling them LGBTQI+ rights. I'm not concerned about which version is used, and nor am I worried about queer being used as a shorthand collective term (I recognise that some people specifically identify as queer and may be concerned about it being given a wider meaning than what they see it as).

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Yes, I need to do that. In future I'll keep them separate.

It's somewhat amusing to read a discussion of western pallets. I'm not sure that those wooden items vary much. Now western palates I'm sure differ from those of other cultures.

The potential area of interest in this debate is whether the virus persists in other bodily fluids when it is no longer being shed into the respiratory tract. If it is, and it can be detected in semen, the question then is whether it is active intact viruses or only inert viruses or virus fragments that cannot cause infection. From this sort of discussion, it is possible that sex may involve exposure to the virus that other forms of close contact and making out do not, but if so we don't know whether that exposure carries a risk of infection.

As I recall, the aim is to have clean hands while they do their work. Whether the last thing they do before starting is wash their hands or put on gloves, their hands will touch the same things after that. Whether they're wearing gloves or not makes no difference. In a similar vein, establishments that insist that customers wear gloves achieve nothing if they do not insist that those gloves are sterile ones that their customers put on as they enter.

Hey @joshnineplus welcome to the forum. You have posted in exactly the way to make people here consider your offering. I wish I could travel right now, but we can't leave the country. Best wishes!

I can understand that. As a student, I had a holiday job as a labourer on the railways and I found myself swearing far more than I had previously.

@BasketBaller my heart rejoices for you. I'm with NT.

Sorry!

I agree with @big-n-tall (although as I'm not a doctor, seek your own professional advice), every exposure to a pathogen adds to the library of them that your immune system is programmed to recognise and combat. Every time you had a cold or the flu it added a bit to the range of those diseases that your immune system recognises, but they both mutate so there's always a chance that a new version will get through your defences. The flu vaccine gives you a chance to develop immunity to any new variations of flu without contracting the disease.

There's a potential trap with that, you potentially mark as read new posts in the earlier threads you perused that were made between when you read the thread and when you hit that button, that you might otherwise have wanted to read. Not a big deal, of course.

For any future trip on that route, I think I'll stick to the car ferry I used last time!

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I'm so happy for you, Victor. Seems it's been good while it lasted and that you were going to move this way eventually, but it's sad that your timing has been forced by the pandemic. But that happens, and you were in a position to make the move now, so that's a positive. Good luck in your new adventure. I hope our on-line paths continue to cross, and that we even have a chance to meet for a drink or a meal when this is all over.

Yes, you do, at least from my experience. And at the time of our first contact I was an unlikely person to meet you. I wasn't in Vegas and didn't have a clear time when I would be, but you maintained very civil contact over the long time between then and when we were able to meet.

I'd like to think it was deliberate!

I love Australian consumer law that mandates that the advertised price is the final price. Small print 'additional charges' are illegal.

No, it won't appear here! I saw it here as a discussion piece on TV here, not as an ad. It talks about consent and about internet porn not being the best way for teens to learn about sex. I think it's a great ad, and I'd be happy if it were broadcast here. Derrick could visit me any time he wanted to.