1026: "Compare and Concave"

[XTCamus]

Funny and sweet. I think this would have solved his Valentine dilemma nicely. I even printed this up to give to my wife, labeled To My Valentine. She doesn't usually read XKCD but is very sentimental, and I am still in the doghouse for some foolish things I've said and done recently. Like other posters I wondered about possible other interpretations of "while I'm in", or maybe a better phrase here.... All I could think of was the rather tame, "Difficult to focus on work while I'm enjoying", or the racier, "Difficult to focus on work while sweating underneath."

[Afrael]

According to my HS English teacher, Romeo was more likely to be in his late 20s. Juliet was jail-bait, though

Jailbait doesn't quite cover it by today's standards. Juliet on Wikipedia.

[neoliminal]

According to my HS English teacher, Romeo was more likely to be in his late 20s. Juliet was jail-bait, though

Jailbait doesn't quite cover it by today's standards. Juliet on Wikipedia.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

[Lerkistan]

I was a little, but on reflection 'thee' works better as a column heading anyway: besides alluding better to the poem, on analogy with a table using 'he, I' rather than 'him, me' I prefer the way it was done.

Strange analogy... if you'd use 'he, I' rather than 'him, me', then you should obviously use 'thou'. Agree that thee alludes better to the poem, though.

[krallja]

I altered the comic slightly, but can't bbcode it because I'm new here: http://jacob.jkrall.net/compare-and-contrast

[tesseraktik]

While I don't mean to bash Shakespeare, I find that his sonnets contained rather poor quantitative analysis. For example, in comparing thee to a Summer's day, he found thee to be "more lovely" and "more temperate", but he indicated neither how he had measured these qualities, nor does he state the magnitude of the difference. In other words, we have no way of telling whether or not these figures are statistically significant.

Stringberg's reports were likewise limited, but at least he submitted his figures.

[keltas]

Being a non-native speaker, at first I thought he was referring to tee, the drink.
I wondered why it was written that way, maybe it was a weird british expression...

But after reading the explanation, I thought it was funny!

[philipquarles]

I really want to get a bunch of snakes and release them in a library now. Or maybe the local Starbucks would be better.

[Fire Brns]

Being a non-native speaker, at first I thought he was referring to tee, the drink.
I wondered why it was written that way, maybe it was a weird british expression...

But after reading the explanation, I thought it was funny!

Middle english, basically "you". Thee, thine, thou, ect. "thou" may be related to "you" if one remembers the story behind "ye".


I do find Shakespeare to be quite highly overrated.

[whateveries]

I do find Shakespeare to be quite highly overrated.

Really? why? to me the Bard is rated just about right.

[JamesGecko]

This comic reminds me of a Foxtrot cartoon in which Jason, reciting the verse to Paige, digresses and makes a significantly less flattering list. I can't find it on Google, though.

[MichaelRpdx]

Have you tried to focus while in the Ronpaul? WAITNO I don't want to know.

[Eternal Density]

Let me compare thine sister to a summer's day.



So... it has come to this.

[dwarduk2]

I read this thread, and the confusion over thou/thee is really annoying me. The basis is that there are three main forms a pronoun can take in English: subject, object, possessive; these are analogous to German ich, mich, mir. For instance, the second person plural and polite pronoun was ye, you, your, but as time went by, the subject form began to be replaced with the object form. It works similarly with the singular pronoun thou, thee, thy/thine (I think the distinction is whether a vowel or consonant follows).

As for what the column heading should be and why, I have no idea. All I can say is that the sensation that accompanies the column heading there is the same feeling as the phrase "between x and y", which would use the object "thee".

Yes, I registered an account just to post this. It really has come to this.

[dbmag9]

I was a little, but on reflection 'thee' works better as a column heading anyway: besides alluding better to the poem, on analogy with a table using 'he, I' rather than 'him, me' I prefer the way it was done.

Strange analogy... if you'd use 'he, I' rather than 'him, me', then you should obviously use 'thou'. Agree that thee alludes better to the poem, though.

My point (though unclear, I guess) was that the column headings "he, I" sound less appropriate to me than "him, me". Heavily dependent on what the row sentences are like, of course, not to mention personal preference and suchlike.

[Taymon]

According to my HS English teacher, Romeo was more likely to be in his late 20s. Juliet was jail-bait, though

Jailbait doesn't quite cover it by today's standards. Juliet on Wikipedia.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Props to you for getting that quote right. Nobody ever gets that quote right.

It still doesn't mean what you're using it to mean, though.

[RebeccaRGB]

I read this thread, and the confusion over thou/thee is really annoying me. The basis is that there are three main forms a pronoun can take in English

I'd say there's five:

I, me, my, mine, myself
you, you, your, yours, yourself
it, it, its, its, itself
he, him, his, his, himself
she, her, her, hers, herself
we, us, our, ours, ourselves
you, you, your, yours, yourselves
they, them, their, theirs, themselves

And the one so many are confused about:

thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself (nothing about vowels)

You wouldn't say, "shall I compare she to a summer's day," would you? You'd say, "shall I compare her to a summer's day." So thee is correct.

[PM 2Ring]

I was expecting the title text for this comic to make a Summer Glau reference.
Curiously, "Shall I compare thee to a Summer Glau?" (in quotes) doesn't get many Google hits; even if you remove the "a" the hit count is still quite low.

[ahammel]

Shall I compare thee to a Summer Glau?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Worse art thou at ballet, and thine brow
Has never broken any reaver's pate
Thou art less morbid, yet more creepifying
No horde of nerds profess their love for thee
Thou art not a term'nator undying
Thou dost not travel 'pon Serenity
Thou dost not consort with Angels fair
And never hast thou shared in Echo's strife
And yet, thy blow doth cause me to declare
"I've never been so turned on in my life"
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
No Fox exec shall ever cancel thee


My sincerest apologies to Mr. Shakespeare and Ms. Glau

[eran_rathan]

I was expecting the title text for this comic to make a Summer Glau reference.
Curiously, "Shall I compare thee to a Summer Glau?" (in quotes) doesn't get many Google hits; even if you remove the "a" the hit count is still quite low.

When I was first talked into going and seeing "(500) days of Summer" I was sincerely hoping Summer Glau was in it.

But Zooey Deschanel was (and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is always cool, in a hipster sortof way, like me), so it was all good.

[UniqueScreenname]

I altered the comic slightly, but can't bbcode it because I'm new here: http://jacob.jkrall.net/compare-and-contrast

Harbinger of Hurricane season AHAHAHAHAHAHA

[San Fran Sam]

I read this thread, and the confusion over thou/thee is really annoying me. The basis is that there are three main forms a pronoun can take in English

I'd say there's five:

I, me, my, mine, myself
you, you, your, yours, yourself
it, it, its, its, itself
he, him, his, his, himself
she, her, her, hers, herself
we, us, our, ours, ourselves
you, you, your, yours, yourselves
they, them, their, theirs, themselves

And the one so many are confused about:

thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself (nothing about vowels)

You wouldn't say, "shall I compare she to a summer's day," would you? You'd say, "shall I compare her to a summer's day." So thee is correct.

All through the day I, me, mine,
I, me, mine, I, me, mine.
All through the night I, me, mine,
I, me, mine, I, me, mine.

-- George Harrison

[dwarduk2]

I read this thread, and the confusion over thou/thee is really annoying me. The basis is that there are three main forms a pronoun can take in English

I'd say there's five:

I, me, my, mine, myself
you, you, your, yours, yourself
it, it, its, its, itself
he, him, his, his, himself
she, her, her, hers, herself
we, us, our, ours, ourselves
you, you, your, yours, yourselves
they, them, their, theirs, themselves

And the one so many are confused about:

thou, thee, thy, thine, thyself (nothing about vowels)

You wouldn't say, "shall I compare she to a summer's day," would you? You'd say, "shall I compare her to a summer's day." So thee is correct.

Yes, you're right. I don't normally bother counting reflexive, and forgot about the difference between possessive and genitive. Most of the grammar I learned was in German lessons rather than English lessons, so I'm not perfect in my explanations . And the thing about vowels I was saying was the difference between "thy face" and "thine eyes" (because of the pronunciation difficulty of the double diphthong). I'll need to look into this more again; not thought about grammar in months.

[devopablo]

WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY ABOUT THIS COMIC?

Christ, I get so tired of asking myself that.

This might be my last post ever.

[PM 2Ring]

Shall I compare thee to a Summer Glau?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Worse art thou at ballet, and thine brow
Has never broken any reaver's pate
Thou art less morbid, yet more creepifying
No horde of nerds profess their love for thee
Thou art not a term'nator undying
Thou dost not travel 'pon Serenity
Thou dost not consort with Angels fair
And never hast thou shared in Echo's strife
And yet, thy blow doth cause me to declare
"I've never been so turned on in my life"
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
No Fox exec shall ever cancel thee


My sincerest apologies to Mr. Shakespeare and Ms. Glau

Well done, ahammel!

[ahammel]

Thanks, it took me all morning.

This might be my last post ever.

Don't stumble on the way out, dearie.

[Steve the Pocket]

[awesomeness]

I don't often return to a thread I had almost nothing to say in to begin with, but I sure am glad I did this time. Good. Show. Sir.

[MacFreek]

"Thee" in Dutch means tea, as in cup of tea.

The frightening thing is how well the punchline of the cartoon holds when comparing tea with a hot summers day.

[ihsir]

Upon first reading, I thought that the last comparison had to do with the object being "in" the mind -- thinking about the object, which gave me a corny/mushy feeling:

It's difficult to focus on work while I'm thinking about you.
It's difficult to focus on work while I'm thinking about a Summer's day.

[addams]

Shall I compare thee to a Summer Glau?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Worse art thou at ballet, and thine brow
Has never broken any reaver's pate
Thou art less morbid, yet more creepifying
No horde of nerds profess their love for thee
Thou art not a term'nator undying
Thou dost not travel 'pon Serenity
Thou dost not consort with Angels fair
And never hast thou shared in Echo's strife
And yet, thy blow doth cause me to declare
"I've never been so turned on in my life"
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
No Fox exec shall ever cancel thee


My sincerest apologies to Mr. Shakespeare and Ms. Glau

Well done, ahammel!

Another 'well done' for the poet.

"Thou art less morbid, yet more creepifying"

That is my favorite line. You are so funny.

[fredfnord]

While I don't mean to bash Shakespeare, I find that his sonnets contained rather poor quantitative analysis. For example, in comparing thee to a Summer's day, he found thee to be "more lovely" and "more temperate", but he indicated neither how he had measured these qualities, nor does he state the magnitude of the difference. In other words, we have no way of telling whether or not these figures are statistically significant.

Stringberg's reports were likewise limited, but at least he submitted his figures.

Statistically significant? When comparing a singleton to a singleton ('you' to 'a specific summer's day') any difference is automatically statistically significant, because your sample size on both sides is one!

[JoeIcarus]

Shall I compare thee to a Summer Glau?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Worse art thou at ballet, and thine brow
Has never broken any reaver's pate
Thou art less morbid, yet more creepifying
No horde of nerds profess their love for thee
Thou art not a term'nator undying
Thou dost not travel 'pon Serenity
Thou dost not consort with Angels fair
And never hast thou shared in Echo's strife
And yet, thy blow doth cause me to declare
"I've never been so turned on in my life"
So long as men will breathe or eyes will see
No Fox exec shall ever cancel thee

I registered just to say that this is perhaps the awesomest thing I have read on a forum ever.

[hijabihoodlum]

this thread title is incorrect, and it's driving me crazy. the comic is titled 'compare and contrast.' maybe the title was changed or something? gr.

[Nigh]

this thread title is incorrect, and it's driving me crazy. the comic is titled 'compare and contrast.' maybe the title was changed or something? gr.

The Puppetmasters' chains have been severed, so they're messing around. The title is correct, it's just that a certain someone changed it. It's just like with everyone saying spray, hath, and other nonsense things. It's a lulzfest.