Teacher Discussion Forums

(Red Alert: intended humour below. )

I know a lot of you are shaking your heads thinking "What is this guy up to?". Believe me, I have my own reasons for posting this question. But I would like to know what many of you believe. Everybody who participates in the Applied Linguistics section of Dave's knows him because he makes a lot of contributions to our discussions. Sometimes, though, I wonder :

Based on every post that Stephen Jones (or "Stones, as I say) has made, and every time he lets his opinion on a particular topic be known, and how cranky he can seem in his written communication, and how pissed off he can make you when he replies to something you've written, and the typos he makes, and how uptight he can be... how old would you say he must be?

I'm really curious! I would really like to know, and I thought it would be cool to see if my hunch is right. But it would be fun to see who thinks he's older and who thinks he might be under 30. Let's all make a guess, and when enough of us have spoken, Stones gives us the answer. Let's see how far off some of us are in our predictions

If you already know, give us enough time before you reveal the answer.

I'm presuming, SJ, that this would be ok with you. And my intent is not to insult you, but to learn more about a person who contributes a lot to these discussions.

Alternatively, we could all guess how old wjserson is.

As for me, not that you asked, I'm exactly the same age as Kylie Minogue.

You certainly could try to guess my age as well. But (by the information that you supplied) I think we all know that you're 36, right Andrew?

Oh, and before you reply, read some of these quotes, laugh a little, and tell me this isn't a guy worth knowing a little more about (like his age). I know he was born in Wales but grew up in Manchester. You can find out in what context these fascinating statements were made yourself. The ones involving Shun are not included :

"Sorry...line of reasoning doesn't work at all."
"you are making an elementary mistake"
"(He) seems to have fallen in love with explaantions so elegant that the fact that they have nothing to do with reality is a blemish so minor it would be churlish to bring it up."
"(He) is talking rubbish, and the macho 'I'm a real man so don't come to me with your nancy grammar books', doesn't make his explanations any more palatable."
"You're all still wrong though"
"Why on earth would you want to give up the trendy youthful crowd you hang out with for the old fogeys that make up my acquaintances"
"You're not reading me properly"
"As usual ... you are letting your hobbyhorse trample over the particular meaning."
"You're being just as dogmatic as Shuntang"
"Keep the cape on; there doesn't appear to be much underneath"
"The problem...is that your idea of distance appears crystal clear to you , but is flawed precisely for that reason"
"Your post is full of mistakes"
"Maybe, if we translated your post back into either Malayasian or Chinese, it would make perfect sense."
"You keep repeating the same nonsense"
"I am afraid... you are way off base in describing epistemic and deontic modality"
"Your comments...are also pretty meaningless"
"Something seriously wrong with your reading skills"
"Dubious statements which merely reflect, clumsily, what all human beings can grasp..."
"we don't believe in any of this politeness rubbish!"
"I really fail to see your point"
"Would you be so good as to point out some of those places and explain why he is wrong? Again!"
"If only I knew what your point was"

You should have included a poll. It would be as worthwhile and informative as most of the polls that get posted.

It would take at least 50 years to develop such biliousness, I would think. Admittedly, it is very articulate biliousness.

Larry Latham

I hate to be a wet blanket here, but I'm really not into this kind of thing. SJ isn't a Shuntang, totally deserving of the contempt and ridicule people might want to dish out to him...take a look at his recent posts in which he tried to help woodcutter get his head around information structuring in discourse (theme and rheme etc), for example.

It's a good thing that there are people like SJ on Dave's (despite his "occassionally" bilious phrasing), because we'd be a lot less the wiser without him (I fear); besides, he sometimes cracks a good (though often quite acid) joke or two, and who doesn't "enjoy" it when threads hot up into nice warm p*ssing contests between ubergrammarians (even if there is always the danger that Dave's will suffer a devastating nuclear winter with all the resulting "fallout").

I'll put the pom-poms down now (woodcutter called me a cheerleading hamster before)!

Hear hear! for what you say about SJ, FH. I have a little more contempt for the likes of Halim (Korean government distroyed [sic] my life) than for Shun, however. You won't find any of Halim's posts left, our new moderator Lorikeet has deleted them all, hurah! Shun's posts, if nothing else, give an insight into the learning processes of a certain type of learner.

Why do you want to know SJ's age, though, Wjserson?

Well, among the more "active" participants of this forum, there are some very interesting characters.

Take Larry for example: he obviously has a great deal of experience and knowledge (as does SJ). And to know more about people like Larry helps you better understand where they're coming from. But Larry's postings give me the impression that, although he might be older and wiser (than me for example), he has a great of coolness in his demeanor. Usually I'd assume that an older male from California would drive a conservative vehicle: a big Buick or Lincoln. A Sunday driver maybe. But with Larry I can't help but wonder if he might have something more interesting: my gutt tells me its gotta be Japanese... and sporty...and I bet he has a super stereo system with a subwoofer too. But this is all for another forum.

Anyway, the same curiosity makes me wonder about SJ. And I just thought it would be interesting to see what impression people got of him after reading 2 years worth of postings from him. So... there you go Andrew.

Oh and I'd add that, with all the serious conversations we have, I thought we could talk about something slightly more humerous and maybe learn something other than our opinion of modal auxiliaries, or what Pullum or Zwicky or Kiefer or Lewis was thinking when he said such-and-such. For the self-proclaimed "wet blanket", nobody's trying to insult SJ or compare him to Shun. Don't worry. I have nothing but respect for he, Larry, and all of you.

I know Larry well enough that he can take what I said in my last posting and laugh. He won't be reading it as Larry-trashing. By the way, I should have added s in there Larry, especially the stuff about the car. For all I know you DO own a Buick or Lincoln and take pride in blocking traffic every day

Not by the hair on your chiny-chin-chin. I like to roll down the freeway, smooth as silk, with my subs boomin'

But for the record, anyone who takes this thread as SJ bashing has totally misunderstood. This is SJ appreciation from the get-go. While all of the people who visit here regularly probably get a little peeved with him from time to time, due to his rather acid nature on this forum (and I'd guess that is something of a put on, and his real nature is more mild mannered), no one who has been around a while can not respect his obvious knowledge and skills. I take issue with Stephen from time to time, thinking that I know better than he does on some particular point, but I rarely take umbrage, nor can I ever simply dismiss him as a mere annoyance. He is always a force to be taken seriously. And, he has a sharp and sometimes devastating wit. Hail to Stephen. (But he really should make a better attempt to understand the concept of remoteness in English).

Larry Latham

Wow, if you never make any more posts, your total will forever be the date of the Battle of Hastings (1066 and all that), Larry!