GRAMMAR: The difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
Actually Abstract can be used as a noun or a verb. If you've ever looked up academic or scientific papers, the first thing you'll see is the abstract, which encapsulates what the paper is about. This means the info has been abstracted from the entire paper. In its verb form it's used maybe just in philosophy, but it means to draw out only the relevant aspects of something, as in to abstract the concept of 'chairness' by looking at many chairs and trying to understand what they all have in common that makes them chairs. Aristotle used to use that word. I believe it's from the same root as extract, distract, and retract. Meaning of the word Abstract @ Stack Exchange In fact in its most common modern usage—abstract art—the artists have abstracted out only the core elements of art, without using any figures or objects. Only the principles of art, divorced from meaning or setting.
It annoys me a bit (but shouldn't) that yesterday I thought it was St. Paddy's day did a little drankin'. It was Kentucky bourbon—sorry, didn't have any Jameson on hand, but Kentucky has a large Irish, Scots, and Scots-Irish contingent, and I believe it was probably they who began the Kentucky bourbon distilling tradition. I should look into that. But oh well, it means I get to drink again tonight. Oops! Yep—here (well, I was partly right anyway): Early distilling practices were brought to the area now known as Kentucky by settlers, including Scots, Scots-Irish, English, Irish, and Welsh, in the late 18th century. They used their expertise from their respective homelands to lay down the foundation for what would later become one of America’s most cherished beverages. source
It used to be a tradition of mine to get a corned beef brisket and boil it up, eat some with horseradish and cabbage on the day, and then make Reubens with the leftovers. I wanted to do that, but alas, I am now on the Carnivore diet, so I eat only meat and other animal products. I don't think corned beef would be very good by itself. But I suppose I could put on something green, just to get in the spirit.
What IS corned beef, in the colonies? Over here, corned beef is what used to be given out as army rations in WW2 and was called "bully beef".
Yep, that's what it looks like 'round here. What Naomasa posted looks like it's ground up. I'm not sure exactly what 'corned' means in this context, but I know way back when a corne meant a lump or nodule of something, usually hard. Maybe it refers to the lumps of meat in between the fat? Close— Smithsonian reports that the British invented the term "corned beef" to describe the size of the salt crystals used to cure the imported meat. The crystals were roughly the size of corn kernels; in other words, they were huge. As Smithsonian puts it, "the taste was much more salt than beef." source So it's salt beef, like you'd see stenciled on the sides of barrels in the holds of ships.
Abstract is a verb - it means to remove as in ' the land owner was given a license to abstract water from the river' this is the english language- some words have more than one meaning , it can also be a noun as in ' I wrote an abstract of the speech'
This brings up the question—if corned beef is cured, like salt beef, then why is it kept refrigerated? It should be shelf stable, like jerkey or beef sticks, right? Here's some fascinating info (if you're into this stuff): How Long Does Salted Meat Last? – Average Shelf Life of 4 Types Ready to Eat and Shelf Stable Products Process Familiarization You can bet I'll be looking into this further.
All this talk of the definition of abstract made me wonder... Is the difference between a smartass and a dumbass that one is internet connected and the other isn't?
I was told that corned beef means corn-fed beef, but I don't necessarily believe everything I'm told.
Whoops. Well, thanks for that ... my mistake. Apologies for the brain-fart. All the same, I'm tired of people taking one word and using it in a way it wasn't created to be used. I've heard one person say "I've strongered the rope" (where they mean "strengthened", of course). I've even seen one book about London refer to Shakespeare's infamous "exit, pursued by a bear" instruction as "a grizzly end". (I would smile at the wordplay, except that I've read this book through, and it uses the wrong word more than once. Ah, well...)
British v American spelling. I dont have a problem with it. I have a problem with Grammarly and Word telling me I cant spell whenever I use a British spelling. I don't do it intentionally. And I've never been to the UK. But for whatever reason, I grew up using the British spelling of certain words. "Catalogue" instead of "Catalog" for example. I'm going through my edits now and Grammarly has underlined "Leapt" and "Dreamt" as wrong (US= Leaped and Dreamed) I don't want to switch the location to UK because then it will start flagging all my US spelling as wrong. I guess i can just ignore it.... but ugh! its annoying
It would all be easier if the Brits and Canadians would just give in to the inevitable and write right.
I bought a new laptop. I was told it came with Word and Excel. Yes, it did. But what the shop didn't tell me is that the license ran out after 90 days, and I had to renew the annual subscription. I had a WTF? moment because Microsoft wanted about £90. No, I am not paying MS. I have just spent the last two hours trying to get OpenOffice to work. The icon is there, but when I click on it, nothing happens.
I had that issue with open office, it’ll be a bad download, however I generally find libre office to be better anyway
A big upvote for the mention of LibreOffice. I tried using OpenOffice, and found LibreOffice to be excellent. I wouldn't use anything else. Micro$oft can take their licenses and stuff 'em.
