c4countdown

When I was at school, I was taught to spell the word "dilemma" as "dilemna". Only years later did I find out how it was actually spelt with the double-m.

Anyway, my current dilemma is - If I want to start a topic on the chocolate bar Topic, how can I put it in the Off-topic forum?

What dilemmas do you fight with? Maybe it could be something you have been fighting with for years, or it could just be a current dilemma. Perhaps it's sexuality, religion, which side to butter your toast on, or whether to get a 9-5 job or go on the dole so you can watch Countdown.

I was taught to spell frustum as frustrum and was similarly distraught when I discovered the mistake.

My dilemma is whether or not it's acceptable to use the word "dilemma" when the number of options is greater than two. In the absence of a word such as polylemma, I usually say "quandary" for such situations.

Another possible dilemma is whether the plural should be dilemmata.

Dilemma IS the plural, dilemmem is the singular. This is what I was taught.

When I was at school we were taught the thing about polar bear fur being like fibre optic cable. We even did some presentation on it at a local schools' science fair. The fuckers.

Charlie Reams wrote:My dilemma is whether or not it's acceptable to use the word "dilemma" when the number of options is greater than two. In the absence of a word such as polylemma, I usually say "quandary" for such situations.

According to my dictionary, you have the word "trilemma" at your disposal in the event that your options number three.

Q. What does Dinos do when he wants to talk dirty?
A. Dilemma.

It is always nice when you are a kid to be able to correct your teacher. It makes you feel ssooo smart. We always used to like to correct teachers when they said "formulas", telling them it was "formulae".
Must be even more pleasurable for those well-read among you who have met your teachers now you're adults and been able to put them right on some of the misinformation with which they tried to poison your minds.

Derek Hazell wrote:Must be even more pleasurable for those well-read among you who have met your teachers now you're adults and been able to put them right on some of the misinformation with which they tried to poison your minds.

My school teachers kept telling me there was some beardy guy watching my every move and evaluating me for purity. Also he wanted to be inside me, if only I'd kneel and let him. Luckily this creepy rumour turned out to be an elaborate collective fantasy.

Charlie Reams wrote:Luckily this creepy rumour turned out to be an elaborate collective fantasy.

That's what you think.

I love it when I start a seemingly boring thread and it ascends into hilarity.

Charlie Reams wrote:I was taught to spell frustum as frustrum and was similarly distraught when I discovered the mistake.

Me too.

I also remember being told when I made a spelling mistake at school that I'd have to do the word right ten times. So after referring to Febuary, I carefully submitted "The second month is Feburary" ten times - I don't think I was told to try again 100 times, but February still doesn't look right somehow, and I usually just use "Feb".

Derek Hazell wrote:It is always nice when you are a kid to be able to correct your teacher. It makes you feel ssooo smart. We always used to like to correct teachers when they said "formulas", telling them it was "formulae".
Must be even more pleasurable for those well-read among you who have met your teachers now you're adults and been able to put them right on some of the misinformation with which they tried to poison your minds.

It seems it doesn't matter HOW far I push my finger up my nose, my eye DOESN' T fall out .

Derek Hazell wrote:When I was at school, I was taught to spell the word "dilemma" as "dilemna". Only years later did I find out how it was actually spelt with the double-m.

Anyway, my current dilemma is - If I want to start a topic on the chocolate bar Topic, how can I put it in the Off-topic forum?

What has a hazlenut in every bite?

Sue Sanders wrote:

Derek Hazell wrote:When I was at school, I was taught to spell the word "dilemma" as "dilemna". Only years later did I find out how it was actually spelt with the double-m.

Anyway, my current dilemma is - If I want to start a topic on the chocolate bar Topic, how can I put it in the Off-topic forum?

What has a hazlenut in every bite?

Squirrel shit boom boom
You load 'em and i'll fire 'em

Charlie Reams wrote:I was taught to spell frustum as frustrum and was similarly distraught when I discovered the mistake.

My dilemma is whether or not it's acceptable to use the word "dilemma" when the number of options is greater than two. In the absence of a word such as polylemma, I usually say "quandary" for such situations

Haha in a similar vein I've being going round thinking it was spelt quandry for years! Oh how the bowling shoe is on the other foot now!

My dilemmas involve questions with the answers yes or no.

Jason Larsen wrote:My dilemmas involve questions with the answers yes or no.

They're not dilemmas, they're A-level questions.

I thought they'd be lower than A-level!

Sue Sanders wrote:

Derek Hazell wrote:It is always nice when you are a kid to be able to correct your teacher. It makes you feel ssooo smart. We always used to like to correct teachers when they said "formulas", telling them it was "formulae".
Must be even more pleasurable for those well-read among you who have met your teachers now you're adults and been able to put them right on some of the misinformation with which they tried to poison your minds.

It seems it doesn't matter HOW far I push my finger up my nose, my eye DOESN' T fall out .

Where to you have to put you finger to make that happen then?

Ian Volante wrote:

Sue Sanders wrote:

Derek Hazell wrote:It is always nice when you are a kid to be able to correct your teacher. It makes you feel ssooo smart. We always used to like to correct teachers when they said "formulas", telling them it was "formulae".
Must be even more pleasurable for those well-read among you who have met your teachers now you're adults and been able to put them right on some of the misinformation with which they tried to poison your minds.

It seems it doesn't matter HOW far I push my finger up my nose, my eye DOESN' T fall out .

Where to you have to put you finger to make that happen then?

up your arse

Sue Sanders wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:Where to you have to put you finger to make that happen then?

up your arse

For the sake of your sight, be careful then!

Sue Sanders wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:

Sue Sanders wrote: It seems it doesn't matter HOW far I push my finger up my nose, my eye DOESN' T fall out .

Where to you have to put you finger to make that happen then?

up your arse

I'm confused as to whose eye is going to fall out as a result of this action.

Brian Moore wrote:

Sue Sanders wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:Where to you have to put you finger to make that happen then?

up your arse

I'm confused as to whose eye is going to fall out as a result of this action.

Bit of a dilemma that then.

Things can't actually really be pushed "up" your nose. Your nose goes back into your face, not up. The outside bit is an optical illusion. People who nail things into their nose aren't actually doing a trick as such, just playing on the fact that everyone thinks your nose goes up.

Also, my way of remembering 'scholars mate' and 'fools mate' in chess is now:

"Fools mate is something a fool would fall for, but scholars mate is something that nobody would fall for so it's only around as a little puzzle for scholars.

That's wrong, so it's the other way around"

Kieran Child wrote:That's wrong, so it's the other way around"

Most of the mnemonics I carefully memorised at school turned out - years later - to be wrong and the other way around.

I was reminded today of one of my big dilemmas - and as I drive between the Midlands and Kent a lot, it is always raising its ugly head......

If the motorway overhead gantries are warning me of impending doom (well, a queue/accident/closure) up ahead - should I stay on the motorway and hope a decent diversion has been set up, or hope it will have miraculously cleared by the time I get there or it maybe hope it just mightn't be too bad a queue....or should my trusty dog-eared map book and me wing it in the areas normally marked 'here be dragons'?

Today, around 4pm I finally struggled clear of 2 lanes closed on the M40 and bowled along the M25 for a few junctions, only to read on a gantry,'M25 closed J 8 and J 9.' After a false start (Does anybody know Wraysbury?) I turned around, went back to the M4 London bound (brand new territory for me) and, at about 4.30 pm sacrificed myself to the evil that is The South Circular. It took me nearly 3 hours to get back on route and I really thought I would have been better to just go with the diversion that would have been set up for the M25....so I was quietly pleased to hear on the 6.50pm traffic report that the M25 'trapped' traffic was just being released, and being turned back in the direction it had come from. So I reckon I got off lightly. I often go on crazy detours - occasionally navigating only by the sun - because I believe in the adage 'it's better to keep moving' But I'm always convinced the best thing WOULD have been to stay on route. The annoying thing is not being able to visit a parallel universe to find out the answer. Oooh . It's a dilemma!

"If the motorway overhead gantries are warning me of impending doom (well, a queue/accident/closure) up ahead - should I stay on the motorway and hope a decent diversion has been set up, or hope it will have miraculously cleared by the time I get there or it maybe hope it just mightn't be too bad a queue....or should my trusty dog-eared map book and me wing it in the areas normally marked 'here be dragons'?

Today, around 4pm I finally struggled clear of 2 lanes closed on the M40 and bowled along the M25 for a few junctions, only to read on a gantry,'M25 closed J 8 and J 9.' After a false start (Does anybody know Wraysbury?) I turned around, went back to the M4 London bound (brand new territory for me) and, at about 4.30 pm sacrificed myself to the evil that is The South Circular. It took me nearly 3 hours to get back on route and I really thought I would have been better to just go with the diversion that would have been set up for the M25....so I was quietly pleased to hear on the 6.50pm traffic report that the M25 'trapped' traffic was just being released, and being turned back in the direction it had come from. So I reckon I got off lightly. I often go on crazy detours - occasionally navigating only by the sun - because I believe in the adage 'it's better to keep moving' But I'm always convinced the best thing WOULD have been to stay on route. The annoying thing is not being able to visit a parallel universe to find out the answer. Oooh . It's a dilemma!"

My experience is that whatever you decide to do is wrong... I cross the M25 at Junction 8 every day, and yesterday (as the radio said the problem was between 9 and 8) I thought I would plough on and it might be busier than usual. My usual detour goes closer to J9. However, just as I joined the queue a mile or so north of J8, the radio announced that M25 was closed at J8, so we then crawled along - 90 minutes for less than 3 miles. Admittedly I did try another detour, but a side road was closed so I ended up going a mile or so down a narrow country road only to be led back to the road I'd left but a bit nearer home. But I got off lightly compared with you...

I just put a really long post up telling a story about a badly-designed diversion and why I went round it three times, but it just got et. FUUUUUKKKKKK!

Sorry Kai.

Ian Volante wrote:I just put a really long post up telling a story about a badly-designed diversion and why I went round it three times, but it just got et. FUUUUUKKKKKK!

Sorry Kai.

I'll feel your pain twice over hen, oh, I mean then - ha, I went all 'Scotch'!! That losing a big typing sess is heart breaking!

Sue Sanders wrote:I was reminded today of one of my big dilemmas - and as I drive between the Midlands and Kent a lot, it is always raising its ugly head......

Have you considered going via Southampton? You'd at least miss the M25.

David Roe wrote:

Sue Sanders wrote:I was reminded today of one of my big dilemmas - and as I drive between the Midlands and Kent a lot, it is always raising its ugly head......

Have you considered going via Southampton? You'd at least miss the M25.

I live on the North Kent coast. On a good day I go M2, M25 (North) via Dartford Crossing, M1 to Northampton and it can be done in 2 hours 15 mins. I was starting from Leamington Spa via Oxford this time so used the M40 and, yeh, maybe I should have then dropped down to Woking, Guilford, Dorking etc. Or reverted to my normal route by going North round the M25. I live in Whitstable. Really, the M25 is unavoidable! And Southampton a very very long way away!!!!