EEnglish?
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EEnglish?

 
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Arian
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:51 pm    Post subject: EEnglish? Reply with quote

I've been taking part in a word game in an online forum.

A fictional person was described who had likes and dislikes such as "She
likes cakes and pies, but not snacks", and "She likes babies, but not
children", and our job was to work out what the pattern was.

After a while, I thought I understood the rule, but I snagged on one
example in particular. I learnt that "she" liked English. The person
setting the puzzle was adamant that this was correct.

Trouble is, this doesn't fit the rest of the rules I worked out - not
according to the way I pronounce "English", anyway.

I discovered that "she" liked:
any word where the letter A was pronounced "ay" (she likes mates, but
not mats or fetes)
any word where the letter E was pronounced "ee" (she likes meat, but not
bread or margarine)
any word where the letter I was pronounced "eye" (she likes fire, but
not tidbits or the lyre)
any word where the letter O was pronounced "oh" (she likes moats, but
not moths, mothers or books)
any word where the letter U was pronounced "(y)oo" (she likes unicorns
and the lute, but not cups or loot)

But why, if that's the whole of the rule, does she like English?

Is there anyone here for whom the first sound of "English" is "ee"?

--
Arian

Address me by name at North-net (with no hyphen), a 3-letter company
trading in the great south land.

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soup
Guest





Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 6:02 pm    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

Arian popped their head over the parapet saw what was going on and said

Quote:
any word where the letter I was pronounced "eye" (she likes fire, but
not tidbits or the lyre)

Lyre doesn't have an "I" in it and I pronounce it to rhyme with fire

Quote:
Is there anyone here for whom the first sound of "English" is "ee"?

Not for me .
YMMV
--
yours S

Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione
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CDB
Guest





Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:59 pm    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

"soup" <1@slartibartfarst.com> wrote in message
news:JOmNd.8643$8B3.5838@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
Quote:
Arian popped their head over the parapet saw what was going on and said

any word where the letter I was pronounced "eye" (she likes fire, but
not tidbits or the lyre)

Lyre doesn't have an "I" in it and I pronounce it to rhyme with fire

Is there anyone here for whom the first sound of "English" is "ee"?

Not for me .
YMMV

Yes. I think your rule would work better if reversed. For example, "any

word in which the sound of "eye" is spelled "i". In the example which
disconcerted you, were there words she didn't like? (If she disliked
"ignition", she might be preferring words in which the sound of "shh!" is
spelled "sh".) CDB

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Michael DeBusk
Guest





Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 8:03 am    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 18:51:35 +1100, Arian <h7zfu9202@sneakemail.com> wrote:

Quote:
I've been taking part in a word game in an online forum.

I love that game! My hypnosis teacher introduced me to it. He referred
to his fictional "Aunt Tillie". The differences between his version and
the one to which you refer are: the rules by which Aunt Tillie liked
and disliked something, and; the things were not written down, but
spoken. (We only wrote them down when there was only one poor sap left
who couldn't figure out the rule.)

Aunt Tillie liked herself, but not her twin sister Lena.
She hated my teacher, Doug, but loved his brother Bill.
She liked apples, but hated peaches. Loved berries, hated pears.
Loved trees! Hated branches, and leaves, and trunks. Roots were OK.
Liked balls. Hated spheres. Liked puppies, hated dogs.
Kittens were wonderful, but cats were right out.
Never drank water, or wine, or soda; only beer. And Dr Pepper.

It felt really good when I figured it out. Looking at it in writing,
it's obvious, but as we sat around talking about it... damn...

--
Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place
Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet?
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Arian
Guest





Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:13 pm    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

soup wrote:
Quote:
Arian popped their head over the parapet saw what was going on and said


any word where the letter I was pronounced "eye" (she likes fire, but
not tidbits or the lyre)

Lyre doesn't have an "I" in it and I pronounce it to rhyme with fire

Exactly. "She" only likes words that rhyme with 'fire' when they *do*
have an I in them. She doesn't like crying, either.

Quote:
Is there anyone here for whom the first sound of "English" is "ee"?


Not for me .
YMMV

Well, *mine* doesn't, that's the problem. I didn't know anyone's did.

But either I haven't understood the whole of the rule (and certainly
every *other* example has fit into the pattern I described), or the
setter of the puzzle believes that "English" starts with "ee".

Well, unless she thinks the I in the second syllable is long Smile, but
that seems even more improbable.

--
Arian

Fan of 'Order of the Stick'
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript

Address me by name at North-net (with no hyphen), a 3-letter company
trading in the great south land.
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Arian
Guest





Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:19 pm    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

Michael DeBusk wrote:

Quote:
On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 18:51:35 +1100, Arian <h7zfu9202@sneakemail.com> wrote:


I've been taking part in a word game in an online forum.


I love that game! My hypnosis teacher introduced me to it. He referred
to his fictional "Aunt Tillie". The differences between his version and
the one to which you refer are: the rules by which Aunt Tillie liked
and disliked something, and; the things were not written down, but
spoken. (We only wrote them down when there was only one poor sap left
who couldn't figure out the rule.)

Aunt Tillie liked herself, but not her twin sister Lena.
She hated my teacher, Doug, but loved his brother Bill.
She liked apples, but hated peaches. Loved berries, hated pears.
Loved trees! Hated branches, and leaves, and trunks. Roots were OK.
Liked balls. Hated spheres. Liked puppies, hated dogs.
Kittens were wonderful, but cats were right out.
Never drank water, or wine, or soda; only beer. And Dr Pepper.

It felt really good when I figured it out. Looking at it in writing,
it's obvious, but as we sat around talking about it... damn...

We've been doing that one too - calling it "Deep but not profound".

And you may think it's too easy when written down, but it's taken some
posters quite a while to work it out. Even with a million (but not
myriad of) written examples to look at, some people have remained
bamboozled (but not mystified). :-)

--
Arian

Fan of 'Order of the Stick'
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript

Address me by name at North-net (with no hyphen), a 3-letter company
trading in the great south land.
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Arian
Guest





Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:36 pm    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

CDB wrote:

Quote:
"soup" <1@slartibartfarst.com> wrote in message
news:JOmNd.8643$8B3.5838@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

Arian popped their head over the parapet saw what was going on and said


any word where the letter I was pronounced "eye" (she likes fire, but
not tidbits or the lyre)

Lyre doesn't have an "I" in it and I pronounce it to rhyme with fire


Is there anyone here for whom the first sound of "English" is "ee"?

Not for me .
YMMV


Yes.

What are you agreeing to? Do you mean you *do* pronounce "English" with
an initial "ee"?

Quote:
I think your rule would work better if reversed. For example, "any
word in which the sound of "eye" is spelled "i".

Yes, if you like.

Quote:
In the example which
disconcerted you, were there words she didn't like? (If she disliked
"ignition", she might be preferring words in which the sound of "shh!" is
spelled "sh".)

True. Problem is, by my rule, she would dislike "ignition" anyway, based
on the pronunciation of the I's. If I find out that she does dislike
"ignition", what extra information will that give me? :-)

--
Arian

Fan of 'Order of the Stick'
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript

Address me by name at North-net (with no hyphen), a 3-letter company
trading in the great south land.
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Tony Cooper
Guest





Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:04 pm    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 06:16:49 GMT, Michael DeBusk
<m_debusk@despammed.com> wrote:

Quote:
On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 18:51:35 +1100, Arian <h7zfu9202@sneakemail.com> wrote:

I've been taking part in a word game in an online forum.

I love that game! My hypnosis teacher introduced me to it. He referred
to his fictional "Aunt Tillie". The differences between his version and
the one to which you refer are: the rules by which Aunt Tillie liked
and disliked something, and; the things were not written down, but
spoken. (We only wrote them down when there was only one poor sap left
who couldn't figure out the rule.)

Aunt Tillie liked herself, but not her twin sister Lena.
She hated my teacher, Doug, but loved his brother Bill.
She liked apples, but hated peaches. Loved berries, hated pears.
Loved trees! Hated branches, and leaves, and trunks. Roots were OK.
Liked balls. Hated spheres. Liked puppies, hated dogs.
Kittens were wonderful, but cats were right out.
Never drank water, or wine, or soda; only beer. And Dr Pepper.

It felt really good when I figured it out. Looking at it in writing,
it's obvious, but as we sat around talking about it... damn...

We played the game as "The Old Witch liked....", but only with the
double letter as "liked". Liked "cigarettes" but hated "cigars".
It's what I would call a "car game". A good game to play in a car on
a trip.
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Michael DeBusk
Guest





Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:06 am    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:04:46 GMT, Tony Cooper
<tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:

Quote:
We played the game as "The Old Witch liked....", but only with the
double letter as "liked". Liked "cigarettes" but hated "cigars".
It's what I would call a "car game". A good game to play in a car
on a trip.

Being a group of theoretically grown men, we had a lot of fun getting a
bit raunchy with it too. All words are good words.

"Was she married?"
"She hated men. She liked zucchini, though."

Anyone know of similar games?

--
Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place
Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet?
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Michael DeBusk
Guest





Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:07 am    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 20:19:11 +1100, Arian <h7zfu9202@sneakemail.com> wrote:

Quote:
We've been doing that one too - calling it "Deep but not profound".

A good name for it. Not the best, but good. OK, it's excellent.

Quote:
And you may think it's too easy when written down, but it's taken
some posters quite a while to work it out.

The expression on the face of the last guy to get it, when he finally
does get it, is priceless. But not charming.

--
Michael DeBusk, Co-Conspirator to Make the World a Better Place
Did he update http://home.earthlink.net/~debu4335/ yet?
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Odysseus
Guest





Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 8:05 am    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

Michael DeBusk wrote:
Quote:

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:04:46 GMT, Tony Cooper
tony_cooper213@earthlink.net> wrote:

We played the game as "The Old Witch liked....", but only with the
double letter as "liked". Liked "cigarettes" but hated "cigars".
It's what I would call a "car game". A good game to play in a car
on a trip.

Being a group of theoretically grown men, we had a lot of fun getting a
bit raunchy with it too. All words are good words.

"Was she married?"
"She hated men. She liked zucchini, though."

Anyone know of similar games?


There's one called "Eleusis" that was described in Martin Gardner's
"Mathematical Recreations" column in _Scientific American_ years ago.
One player is designated "God" and secretly decides on a rule or set
of rules determining whether or not a particular play of a card is
correct. Two or three decks of cards are dealt out to the others, who
take turns choosing one to play, "God" adjudicating them according to
his rule. A player who thinks he's deduced the rule can declare
himself a "Prophet", at which point he takes over the judging until
he makes an incorrect call, when "God" declares him a "False
Prophet". I don't recall the details of scoring and so on, but I'd be
surprised if the complete rules aren't available on the Web somewhere.

A commercial (Parker Brothers?) boxed game for two called
"Mastermind" called for similar inductive reasoning from players. One
concealed a row of about six coloured pegs at his end of a plastic
board, and the other played various combinations of pegs, each of
which was scored by the 'poser', indicating how many pegs were
exactly correct and how many were of the right colour but in the
wrong position, in each combination -- but without indicating which
particular pegs had scored. If the 'solver' failed to get the correct
sequence in something like ten or twelve guesses, the 'poser' won.

--
Odysseus
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Michael Mendelsohn
Guest





Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 6:46 pm    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

Odysseus schrieb:
Quote:
A commercial (Parker Brothers?) boxed game for two called
"Mastermind" called for similar inductive reasoning from players.

That's the game previously (and still) known as "Bulls and Cows".
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22bulls+and+cows%22+game

Cheers
Michael
--
Wasn't it yesterday that someone told me that I could pick any phrase
and it could be made to have sexula innuendo?
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Pat Durkin
Guest





Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:19 pm    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

"Michael Mendelsohn" <invalid@msgid.michael.mendelsohn.de> wrote in message
news:4209F81E.44A74E82@msgid.michael.mendelsohn.de...
Quote:
Odysseus schrieb:
A commercial (Parker Brothers?) boxed game for two called
"Mastermind" called for similar inductive reasoning from players.

That's the game previously (and still) known as "Bulls and Cows".
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22bulls+and+cows%22+game

--
Wasn't it yesterday that someone told me that I could pick any phrase
and it could be made to have sexula innuendo?

Michael, that was I, and I consider it to be true in many situations.
However, it was especially true in the context of that thread: Looking for a
phrase. . .

Pat
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Michael Mendelsohn
Guest





Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:56 am    Post subject: Re: EEnglish? Reply with quote

Pat Durkin schrieb:
Quote:
"Michael Mendelsohn" <invalid@msgid.michael.mendelsohn.de> wrote in message
That's the game previously (and still) known as "Bulls and Cows".

--
Wasn't it yesterday that someone told me that I could pick any phrase
and it could be made to have sexual innuendo?

Michael, that was I, and I consider it to be true in many situations.
However, it was especially true in the context of that thread: Looking for a
phrase. . .

Now if I could just recall why it came to my mind
in the context of my above post...

I once knew a missionary who had 69 French spoons
Michael
--
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend
in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country
and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.
-- Ronald Reagan, October 10, 1965
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Rain Dancer



Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 1

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah ^o^ I love Deep but not Profound ^.^

I learned it that you tell people that the game is "Deep but not Profound, Letters but not the Words" it makes people crazy when they try to over analyze it >w< I just wish that the person who taught it to me let me try and figure it out myself!

I'd love to hear of any new word games i can maybe introduce to my group of friends ^.^ They all (pretty much~.^) know Deep but not Profound - It catches you also, because you'r trying to figure out the symbolic correlations in it, not just likes versus dislikes ^o^
how can something be a Tree but not the Leaves for example? What's wrong with the leaves that the tree can't have them ^o^;

Ah it was a fun night, where one of my friends who had learned it recently taught it (the hard way of course ~.^) to a large group of friend's - with my help ^.^ She didn't know i'd learned it already but when i repeatedly kept getting things right she asked, and i let her know i'd played it before ^o^ I don't remember who taught it to me though -_-;;;

And then we proceeded to aggravate the rest of the room with our enlightened points of view. ^^. Would love to know some more games that can be played verbally though.

We also have the - what is everybody bringing to the picnic thing so far - Most of us know it by now, but it's fun to watch a few stragglers try and figure out what on earth we're all talking about ~.^
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