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How to inflame

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artfizz
artfizz
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Jan 14, 2010
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#41
wormrose wrote:

Have I read "The Soul of the White Ant" - Actually no! As facinated as I am by Ants, I have very little interest in termites (or any other insect for that matter).

kenneth67 wrote: 

 That seems a bit contradictory judging from your previous post:

"I have studied Ants on and off for about twenty years as a layperson. I have read several books and have had several colonies in captivity in my home where I could observe them and I have many, many hours of video-taped behavior."

A white  ant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.

tryst
tryst
Jan 14, 2010
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#42
artfizz wrote:
wormrose wrote:

Have I read "The Soul of the White Ant" - Actually no! As facinated as I am by Ants, I have very little interest in termites (or any other insect for that matter).

kenneth67 wrote: 

 That seems a bit contradictory judging from your previous post:

"I have studied Ants on and off for about twenty years as a layperson. I have read several books and have had several colonies in captivity in my home where I could observe them and I have many, many hours of video-taped behavior."

A white  ant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.

 

LaughingThat is funny, Artfizz. Why is your script so small?

wormrose
wormrose
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Jan 14, 2010
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#43

A white  ant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.

I've always heard the phrase - White Elephant

tryst
tryst
Jan 14, 2010
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#44
artfizz wrote:
wormrose wrote:

How to inflame - upon greeting a pair of women, ask one if the other is her mother.

Actually there are so many ways to inflame women. This is too easy.

tryst wrote: Really? As if that can't be said for you people?

MAKING A FACTUAL STATEMENT ...

I don't know which of you is sillier.

You may have missed the joke there.

bigpoison
bigpoison
Jan 14, 2010
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#45

A match seems to work well--a lighter is even better. 

Discussion of anthropomorphism by animal lovers usually does it for me.

artfizz
artfizz
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Jan 14, 2010
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#46
wormrose wrote: How to inflame - upon greeting a pair of women, ask one if the other is her mother. Actually there are so many ways to inflame women. This is too easy.
tryst wrote: Really? As if that can't be said for you people?
artfizz wrote: MAKING A FACTUAL STATEMENT ...
I don't know which of you is sillier.

tryst wrote: You may have missed the joke there.

Au contraire. I thought it was unexpectedly clever of you (a mere woman!) to refer to non-women as "you people".

wormrose
wormrose
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Jan 14, 2010
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#47

There is no contradiction in my lack of interest about Termites. It's just a preference for Ants. A termite is not a white ant. That's just a clever phrase. It is a different species of creature which is similar to an Ant in that it lives in a society with a Queen. So do Bees.

artfizz
artfizz
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Jan 14, 2010
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#48
tryst wrote:

That is funny, Artfizz. Why is your script so small?

It may be small - but I've never had any complaints.

(I pasted it directly from Wikipedia.)

wormrose
wormrose
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Jan 14, 2010
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#49

I didn't miss it. I'm old enough to remember when women were also people. Then they became persons.

tryst
tryst
Jan 14, 2010
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#50
artfizz wrote:
wormrose wrote: How to inflame - upon greeting a pair of women, ask one if the other is her mother. Actually there are so many ways to inflame women. This is too easy.
tryst wrote: Really? As if that can't be said for you people?
artfizz wrote: MAKING A FACTUAL STATEMENT ...
I don't know which of you is sillier.

tryst wrote: You may have missed the joke there.

Au contraire. I thought it was unexpectedly clever of you (a mere woman!) to refer to non-women as "you people".

All women are given a handbook, passed on from our mothers, which explains how to 'fake' being clever. Of course, if it is clever, I don't understand it.

rednblack
rednblack
Jan 14, 2010
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#51
tryst wrote:

Irony is wrong, that is sarcasm.

Kind of.  All sarcasm is irony, but not all irony is sarcasm. 

artfizz
artfizz
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Jan 14, 2010
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#52
tryst wrote:
All women are given a handbook, passed on from our mothers, which explains how to 'fake' being clever. Of course, if it is clever, I don't understand it.

Sometimes the best man for the job ... is a woman.    {No inuendo intended.}

artfizz
artfizz
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Jan 14, 2010
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#53
wormrose wrote:

A white  ant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth.

I've always heard the phrase - White Elephant

An ELEPHant is a kind of ant?

xqsme
xqsme
Jan 14, 2010
0
#54

But of course ... an Eleph   ant  !

Sceadungen
Sceadungen
Jan 14, 2010
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#55
wormrose wrote:

Just to clarify my comments before you guys think I've gone off the deep end; I have studied Ants on and off for about twenty years as a layperson. I have read several books and have had several colonies in captivity in my home where I could observe them and I have many, many hours of video-taped behavior. It is an easy matter to transfer human characteristics to other living things and we do it all the time but we never know for certain if our transferences are correct - not even with other humans. But in one particular circumstance I have seen Ants exhibit a specific behaivior which is normally used on an enemy, but there is no such enemy around. And it seemed to me that in those circumstances it was the same type of behaivior we observe in kittens and puppies (and children) and the like when they pretend to fight with each other. So, I really do believe Ants have imaginations. But of course I can't prove it.

 How those long Winter evenings must fly by for you

wormrose
wormrose
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Jan 14, 2010
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#56
Sceadungen wrote:
wormrose wrote:

Just to clarify my comments before you guys think I've gone off the deep end; I have studied Ants on and off for about twenty years as a layperson. I have read several books and have had several colonies in captivity in my home where I could observe them and I have many, many hours of video-taped behavior. It is an easy matter to transfer human characteristics to other living things and we do it all the time but we never know for certain if our transferences are correct - not even with other humans. But in one particular circumstance I have seen Ants exhibit a specific behaivior which is normally used on an enemy, but there is no such enemy around. And it seemed to me that in those circumstances it was the same type of behaivior we observe in kittens and puppies (and children) and the like when they pretend to fight with each other. So, I really do believe Ants have imaginations. But of course I can't prove it.

 How those long Winter evenings must fly by for you

...and then I discovered chess on the internet. To heck with ants!

xqsme
xqsme
Jan 14, 2010
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#57

And Smartyp   ants and Fancyp ants ...who get together as Particip ants !

artfizz
artfizz
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Jan 14, 2010
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#58
xqsme wrote:

And Smartyp   ants and Fancyp ants ...who get together as Particip ants !

How piqu ant!

wormrose
wormrose
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Jan 14, 2010
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#59

Almost ramp ant

artfizz
artfizz
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Jan 14, 2010
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#60

It's like en passant in the wind.