Ribh's D'Coopage

[Ribh]

Just had an interesting conversation with Barking Bracket.
I stuck my head in the coop door to find Bracket eating an egg.
Without thinking I said, "you can't do that Bracket".
Bracket who may well be mad but is far from being an imbecile, looks up after wiping the worst of the tell tale yolk off her beak and says,
"you're self evidently incorrect".
Okay clever clogs I reply, "you shouldn't do that".
"Exactly why not?" Bracket asked.
I'm a bit stumped now. I'm left with the choice of owning up to being a selfish greedy egg snatching monster, or a rational friend with her best interests at heart.
Bracket is waiting, head cocked to one side with her beady long range eye fixed on the changes going on in my face. She knows she's got me.
Compromise was what I thought might ease the situation.
"Don't eat any more please", I asked her.
"I only ate that one because we broke it when Hinge came to lay an egg" Bracket informed me, "and I'm not going to eat any more because I won't have any to sit on, will I?" I can't argue with the logic of that and I was just about to say "you can't sit", when the earlier error flashed across my mind. I could just foresee the row when I mentioned I would confiscate the lot if I found her looking broody.
I tried another tack. "it's getting a bit late in the year for hatching"; I hoped it sounded as offhand as intended.
"It doesn't matter here" Bracket said. "If I was in say Finland, you might have a point but since I've been here it hasn't got much below freezing and chicks would be fine with me."
I couldn't help feeling that I wasn't getting anywhere near my desired outcome which was no more egg eating and no more going broody, this year at least.
I did think about bolstering my case with the cost of feed and housing, but I know the type of answer I would get to that and I don't have much of an argument in defense of the you can't live in the trees line of reason.
It started to rain. Bracket looking like a cross between Uriah Heep and Fagin metnions that I'll get terribly wet standing outside given I don't have feathers and I'm terribly delicate with regard to climatic change and suggests I go back to my coop before I'm soaked through.
I left feeling I might have done better if I had just kept my mouth shut.

That is a wonderful story but you are in trouble if you are losing an argument to a chicken.

 

[Shadrach]

That is a wonderful story but you are in trouble if you are losing an argument to a chicken.

It's a linguistics thing I promise you. I have the same problem with Catalan. I know what I want to say but I'm not really up to speed with the language.

 

[Ribh]

It's a linguistics thing I promise you. I have the same problem with Catalan. I know what I want to say but I'm not really up to speed with the language.

Excuses, excuses... At least that was a civil conversation. I can't repeat what Morrigu says. The language that girl uses!

 

[Shadrach]

Excuses, excuses... At least that was a civil conversation. I can't repeat what Morrigu says. The language that girl uses!

Reasons madam please, reasons....
I just swear back in such cases. Funny how quickly one picks up swear words in a foreign language way before one can decline a verb.

 

[Ribh]

Reasons madam please, reasons....
I just swear back in such cases. Funny how quickly one picks up swear words in a foreign language way before one can decline a verb.

Sadly all too true.

 

[Shadrach]

Sadly all too true.

I'm going to be horrid....
Our species is inordinately impressed with the fact that we can talk.
Take my younger sister for example. From the day she discovered that if she opened her mouth and made shapes with it while she waggled her tongue, sounds would come out. She never got over the novelty.
We've had a number of debates on the subject. My stance has always been that effective communication is essentially about the signal to noise ratio, much like in electronics. Too much noise drowns out the signal. My sister is all noise. If there is a signal I've yet to hear it.
She and many of the others she knows are exceedingly impressed with this ability to talk, so much so in fact that they've learn't other languages in order to talk more, to more people.
I have put forward the view that what's really important is what you say; not how many languages you can talk a load of shite in. Not surprisingly this line of debate hasn't been well received.
She is particularly prone to using 'always' and 'never' and this reminds me of something a physics tutor of mine told me after I had submitted an essay early in my degree.
"Always and never are very simple words to describe an infinite span of time. If used incorrectly they will make you look a fool and a liar.
Never use always for the future and always use never for the past."

 

[RoyalChick]

That is a wonderful story but you are in trouble if you are losing an argument to a chicken.

Really? I feel like I lose an argument to a chicken pretty much every day.
No, it is time to work in the vegetable garden not move the mulch away from the flower beds. No, it is not time for a snack I just came for a chat.
No, I am trying to dig the hole deeper not fill it in.
And all those were just in the last week!

 

[Ribh]

I'm going to be horrid....
Our species is inordinately impressed with the fact that we can talk.
Take my younger sister for example. From the day she discovered that if she opened her mouth and made shapes with it while she waggled her tongue, sounds would come out. She never got over the novelty.
We've had a number of debates on the subject. My stance has always been that effective communication is essentially about the signal to noise ratio, much like in electronics. Too much noise drowns out the signal. My sister is all noise. If there is a signal I've yet to hear it.
She and many of the others she knows are exceedingly impressed with this ability to talk, so much so in fact that they've learn't other languages in order to talk more, to more people.
I have put forward the view that what's really important is what you say; not how many languages you can talk a load of shite in. Not surprisingly this line of debate hasn't been well received.
She is particularly prone to using 'always' and 'never' and this reminds me of something a physics tutor of mine told me after I had submitted an essay early in my degree.
"Always and never are very simple words to describe an infinite span of time. If used incorrectly they will make you look a fool and a liar.
Never use always for the future and always use never for the past."

We are probably in agreement despite the fact I did my degree in language, albeit written language. It's about effective communication whether you want to convey information or emotion. I have a similar problem with music.

 

[Ribh]

Really? I feel like I lose an argument to a chicken pretty much every day.
No, it is time to work in the vegetable garden not move the mulch away from the flower beds. No, it is not time for a snack I just came for a chat.
No, I am trying to dig the hole deeper not fill it in.
And all those were just in the last week!

I practise selective deafness...

 

[Shadrach]

We are probably in agreement despite the fact I did my degree in language, albeit written language. It's about effective communication whether you want to convey information or emotion. I have a similar problem with music.

You know my sister then.