What’s wrong with the following paragraph from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd9x33z8nzpo?

The day was extraordinary in its normalcy, given the chaos of four years before. Harris stood at the front of the US House chamber with a sombre expression as lawmakers read out each state's election results before formally declaring their authenticity.

Ambiguity. Who or what is declared authentic? The ambiguity would not exist if the word "results" had been singular, as it could well have been - there was only one election (of the Electoral College) in each state. Of course, had it been singular, it would be the lawmakers being declared authentic, probably not what is intended!

Otherwise nothing, or nothing much.

Fowler's has an interesting entry on "normalcy".

Apparently "normalcy", "normality" and "normalness" all entered the language in the middle of the 19th century. Even the word "normal" did not acquire its present meaning until about 1840. Before then, since 17th century, it just referred to rectangles and perpendiculars.

As far as "normalcy" is concerned, its use in British English is "rare (and disliked)", but in North America, especially USA, it is the more frequent form. In Indian and East Asian English "normalcy" is, as it were, the norm.

"Normalness" has not caught on anywhere.

Another point: How can something "extraordinary" be "normal"?

See also https://english.stackexchange.com/quest … -ridiculed

27

(15 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Are you too young to remember Mrs Mills, she was great

Ha ha! Yes she was a little overweight!

I also remember Winifred Atwell, a little earlier, and who also revelled in playing her piano. Also, like Leander, tended to play fast rags! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJagAMtp6AE

Yes, I had noticed the tautology! But apparently AI did not. It did not say the real reason it could not produce a self-portrait of anything but itself.

29

(15 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Sorry to say Geoff but I am not a great fan of Leander. ..... I find his playing to be a bit heavy, and dare I say it a little too fast

Albert, I do not disagree with that, but he is very young, very enthusiastic, and I have no doubt that he will mature and improve as he progresses. He also admits that he tends to play rags too fast, but that his enthusiasm runs awry, as you will see from the link in Alfred's reply above https://punster.me/serif/viewtopic.php?pid=6320#p6320.

Sure, his current playing is far from perfect, but I have never seen another pianist showing so much enjoyment for playing. It's infectious. One cannot watch his videos without smiling!

30

(15 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Thank you Karen, Ali and Robert.

Nice to see you back here, Ali. We'll have to mind or p's and q's now! (Or should that be Ps and Qs? However, I'm sure you're pleased that one particular P is absent!

I've mentioned young Leander, a true genius on piano, before. You all may like to check out his Christmas selection - all played from memory, including 19 minutes of Nutcracker Suite. Amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P … oOerD9qtKD

Try asking for a self-portrait of someone else and see where that gets you!

I did!

Request: produce a self-portrait of William Overington

Reply: As much as I wish I could help you, I'm unable to create images of real people. However, if you tell me more about William Overington or share a photo, I can describe what he might look like. How does that sound?

It's interesting that AI seems to believe it looks like a human, but is unsure of its gender.

Have you tried the suggestion from Eric in Message 10 above? It maybe won't help, but won't do any harm.

Geoff

what information unknown to the problem solver would influence the answer.

It is not specified whether the bag also contains other packets of microwaveable rice, or how many red and yellow packets there are.

And since you imply that this is not a text books or examination type question, the answer depends also of what the man wants to extract, and whether he is able to look into the bag.

There is insufficient information to say, while most of the information given is quite irrelevant.

Drag all the items in My Designs into a new publication. Save it to a thumb drive. Open it on the new computer, Drag all the items into My Designs.

37

(8 replies, posted in PhotoPlus)

Ctrl+C will copy the selection. Or use the Edit menu both to Copy and to Paste (as new Layer). The new Layer can be move to wherever you want it.

38

(44 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Where are the Trump supporters? I would dearly like to know why they truly believe that he is right for the presidency.

39

(5 replies, posted in PagePlus)

Tom also mentioned that you can do the same using the context toolbar, ie the one that appears at the top of the screen when any text is selected. It shows the font and its size (amongst other things). If the size box is blank, it means that the text selected is not all the same size.

To copy an item that is in Assets tab to your publication just drag and drop.

You can add items in your publication to theAssets tab the sam way.

41

(7 replies, posted in Art & Literature)

I saw the picture in this article

There are four pictures in that article.

What are you on about? What sort of impression? Isn't a picture an image?

42

(5 replies, posted in PagePlus)

Select the text, go to the Character tab, and type in the font size you want.


https://i.postimg.cc/JypMNPR7/Publication1.jpg

43

(60 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Yes, I agree. Leander does tend to play rags too fast. But that does not detract from his talent. And he really does seem to enjoy himself playing. His expressions are priceless!

One of the best interpreters of rags on piano is, in my opinion, Ann Charters. For instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsY737Y4A9U

44

(4 replies, posted in PagePlus)

Two possible solutions:

1. Buy a cd/dvd drive that connects via a USB. Do a search for cd/dvd usb drive. I have a Dell, which works very well.

2. Copy the Serif DVD to a flash drive, and install from that.

Geoff

45

(44 replies, posted in General Discussion)

Robert

I couldn't agree more. The Scottish Green Party does too, I believe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6tpLGIu4t4

Perhaps Leander can help you chill by casting your fate to the wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWV7oLoljKw

Geoff

46

(44 replies, posted in General Discussion)

morally bankrupt

Unfortunately this applies very much to the Biden (hence Harris) administration when it comes to its unwavering support for the ongoing genocide in Palestine. This will certainly have seriously diminished Harris's total votes.

On the first link, did you note the comments below? It's only about a month old since it was posted, and the lad comments

I am sorry I made some mistakes because my friends were running back and forth outside.

I never noticed the mistakes!

And on the second one (less than a month ago) he comments

24K views  3 weeks ago
I learned this song by watching Valentina Lisitsa play it. I got tired near the end so I need to keep working on it.

To cheer you up after yesterday's election here are a couple of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvmERNXnXcw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh4b7S5Elog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C3BxkWFLgE

Both boys have several similar videos on YouTube

William,

There are thousands, perhaps millions, of short videos about music in the internet. I see several just about every time I connect to You Tube. What is so special about this particular one that makes you think that I, or anyone else, would want to view it? I have asked you many times to be more specific about links you post, but you have almost never done so.

I have not clicked on any of your mystery links and will not do so.

I'm not sure why extracting a picture from a PDF document would present any problems. I do it frequently.