Happy Birthday President Nelson!

[Physics Guy]

I read USW as und so weiter ("and so forth") because it is indeed a common abbreviation in written German (to the point of being a bit of a plague), but then I thought that this had to be wrong, because in German it's written "usw.", lowercase with a period after, even though it's an acronym. It gets its period even in the middle of a sentence, like the periods in "e.g." or "Dr." in English, but it doesn't get the capitals.

My guess as to why "usw." is lowercase is that it's because those words wouldn't be capitalised if they were written out in full. In German all nouns—not just proper nouns—are always capitalised, so a capitalised acronym would probably imply that it stood for a string of nouns. I'm pretty sure this guess must be right, actually, because another common abbreviation is "z.B.", and here the B is capitalised, because this one is zum Beispiel ("for example"), and Beispiel is a noun.

I'm not sure why "z.B." gets a period after each letter, when "usw." only gets one at the end. I think it must just be that more than two periods in a single abbreviation starts to look silly. One might suspect that the capital B plays a role, getting a period to separate it from the mere lowercase z, but I doubt this can be true, because "d.h." (das heißt, "that is") also gets two periods. On the other hand heißt is a verb, and maybe that's almost as good as being a noun. Maybe abbreviations with important parts of speech like verbs and nouns are entitled to more periods than the grammatical riffraff.

Asking a native German speaker probably won't clear up these mysteries. Native speakers have nigh-infallible instincts for what expressions are correct in their languages, but hardly ever know—and usually do not care—why they are correct. English is full of equally weird quirks to which I pay no attention, but I've learned German late enough in life that it's still a novelty to me and I can't help thinking about these things.

[malkie]

The abbreviation "usw." is common in written German, but even though it's an acronym (und so weiter, "and so forth") it's just written in lowercase with a period after it, not capitalised. It gets its period even in the middle of a sentence, like the periods in "e.g." or "Dr." in English, but it doesn't get the capitals.

My guess as to why "usw." is lowercase is that it's because those words wouldn't be capitalised if they were written out in full. In German all nouns—not just proper nouns—are always capitalised, so a capitalised acronym would probably imply that it stood for a string of nouns. I'm pretty sure this guess must be right, actually, because another common abbreviation is "z.B.", and here the B is capitalised, because this one is zum Beispiel ("for example"), and Beispiel is a noun.

I'm not sure why "z.B." gets a period after each letter, when "usw." only gets one at the end. I think it must just be that more than two periods in a single abbreviation starts to look silly. One might suspect that the capital B plays a role, getting a period to separate it from the mere lowercase z, but I doubt this can be true, because "d.h." (das heißt, "that is") also gets two periods. On the other hand heißt is a verb, and maybe that's almost as good as being a noun. Maybe abbreviations with important parts of speech like verbs and nouns are entitled to more periods than the grammatical riffraff.

Thanks for the correction.

[MG 2.0]

Earlier I mentioned that there were some posters that I have chosen to put on ignore. I gave reasons then why when I did so. As a result, my participation is curtailed to the point where I respond only to those that at this point in time (and after a lot of thought) I believe are serious 'seekers' and/or 'friendly's' rather than those that simply have an agenda to tear down the church or its members. I cannot spend the time or bandwidth or emotional/intellectual resources going the rounds with those that continue to rehash past grievances/grudges.

As a result, there may be some things said that might be designed to come my way that don't get read. It is what it is.

I have enjoyed being able to interact in a civil fashion with some posters recently. Morley and malkie come to mind. That is the way it ought to be. That is all I have time and energy for.

There is only one of me and I have other things that interest me. But I do find interacting with some folks interesting and informative. And I don't mind the pushback if done appropriately.

Regards,
MG

[sock puppet]

Earlier I mentioned that there were some posters that I have chosen to put on ignore. I gave reasons then why when I did so. As a result, my participation is curtailed to the point where I respond only to those that at this point in time (and after a lot of thought) I believe are serious 'seekers' and/or 'friendly's' rather than those that simply have an agenda to tear down the church or its members. I cannot spend the time or bandwidth or emotional/intellectual resources going the rounds with those that continue to rehash past grievances/grudges.

As a result, there may be some things said that might be designed to come my way that don't get read. It is what it is.

I have enjoyed being able to interact in a civil fashion with some posters recently. Morley and malkie come to mind. That is the way it ought to be. That is all I have time and energy for.

There is only one of me and I have other things that interest me. But I do find interacting with some folks interesting and informative. And I don't mind the pushback if done appropriately.

Regards,
MG

And there you have it. MG 2.0's new TTOC.

[I Have Questions]

Earlier I mentioned that there were some posters that I have chosen to put on ignore. I gave reasons then why when I did so. As a result, my participation is curtailed to the point where I respond only to those that at this point in time (and after a lot of thought) I believe are serious 'seekers' and/or 'friendly's' rather than those that simply have an agenda to tear down the church or its members. I cannot spend the time or bandwidth or emotional/intellectual resources going the rounds with those that continue to rehash past grievances/grudges.

As a result, there may be some things said that might be designed to come my way that don't get read. It is what it is.

I have enjoyed being able to interact in a civil fashion with some posters recently. Morley and malkie come to mind. That is the way it ought to be. That is all I have time and energy for.

There is only one of me and I have other things that interest me. But I do find interacting with some folks interesting and informative. And I don't mind the pushback if done appropriately.

Regards,
MG

And there you have it. MG 2.0's new TTOC.

Absolutely!

[Marcus]

And there you have it. MG 2.0's new TTOC.

Absolutely!

Especially the part where he writes an essay to announce his (non-)intentions. Shades used to tell him there's no need to announce he's not going to do what he says he's not going to do, but that seems to go right over the narcissist's head.