Regarding Native American vs native American?

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

I remain skeptical qua obama; I suspect that he was born in Africa.

Come on David and someone got into a time machine and went back to 1961 and placed a birth announcement in both of the local papers.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

I 'm not as sure of that
as u seem to be.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

That's because you have a grand aversion to the facts, Om.

0 Replies

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

I may be going on silly tangents, but you are going on hate-filled tangents. At least my tangents aren't demonizing people.

Would any one like to explain what does "tangents" mean here. Oxford dictionary offers me no clue. It sounds like a silly "touch-and-run" play to me.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

In this context it means moving (rhetorically) in a different direction from the main subject.

Proper usage of the term requires the secondary or "tangential" subject to be related in some way (even if only tenuously) to the primary subject, otherwise it would be a non-sequitur.

Max and JTT have been off on wild tangents coming very close to non-sequitur.

A more apt tangential departure from the original subject would be the comment made about Bill Clinton's Native American heritage.

Comments made about Obama's African heritage and where he was born may be tangential to the comment about Clinton, but are non-sequitur as regards the original discussion.

As you probably have noticed, A2K members go off on tangents all the time, and so the threads often appear as rivers with many branching tributaries.

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

As you probably have noticed, A2K members go off on tangents all the time, and so the threads often appear as rivers with many branching tributaries.

Ah yes, "tributaries." Know them well.

1 Reply

@Foofie,

Tributaries? That is a horrible metaphor.

A tributary is one of multiple source streams merge into one coherent river. I think what you intend is the opposite of a tributary. The correct term is "distributary" (one of many streams that branches off from a main river).

2 Replies

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Tributaries? That is a horrible metaphor.

A tributary is one of multiple source streams merge into one coherent river. I think what you intend is the opposite of a tributary. The correct term is "distributary" (one of many streams that branches off from a main river).

I was imitating W.C. Fields; nothing more.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

OK - the opposite of tributary

2 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Indicative of how you and Foofie are all talk, no thought, Finn.

Max's pedantry is similar to the same stream of BS that has often afflicted the English language. The metaphor is apt because any stream that is off the main stream is a side stream. It matters not at all if you paddle, literally or figuratively, upstream or downstream, it's still off stream.

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

A tributary is upstream, distributaries are downstream. That is all.

1 Reply

@Foofie,

maxdancona wrote:

Tributaries? That is a horrible metaphor.

A tributary is one of multiple source streams merge into one coherent river. I think what you intend is the opposite of a tributary. The correct term is "distributary" (one of many streams that branches off from a main river).

Foofie wrote:

I was imitating W.C. Fields; nothing more.

What is the purpose of doing so ?

0 Replies

@farmerman,

A couple days late and at least a dollar short, Farmer. Finn and Foofie know they were alright.

0 Replies

Regarding Native American vs native American?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know