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Consider the sentences "There once was a man who owned a car." and "There once was a company which owned a car.". You use "who" for the man, because he's a person, but "which" for the company, because it's not a person.
Now consider the sentence "This is the man whose car was stolen.". What's the equivalent for a company?
What it should be is "This is the company whiches car was stolen", but there's no such word in English. Instead, you either have to go with "whose" (and so imply that the company is a person, which it's not) or to take the same route as languages that don't have possessives and say "This is the company, the car of which was stolen". Given that the latter is clumsy, people tend to use the former; I myself go with the latter as I feel it undermines the word "who" if people use "whose" in reference to inanimate objects. Also, it jars even more when used for abstract nouns ("I liked her attitude, whose forthrightness I found refreshing.").
What I really want is a "whiches".
What's annoying about this is that Middle English did have the word "whiches" in the sense that I want to use it. There's a record of a 1387 sermon by Thomas Wimbledon that includes the line: "Kyng Achab slow þe pore man Nabyoth, for he wolde nouȝt sille hym his vyneȝerd Vpon whiches processe þus seiþ Seynt Ambrose, 'How fer wole ȝe riche men strecche ȝoure coueytise?'. ". [Translation: King Achab slew the poor man Nabyoth, for he would not sell him his vineyard, upon the process of which said Saint Ambrose, 'How far will you rich men stretch your covetousness?'.] That "whiches" is exactly what I want, but I had to translate "whiches process" to "the process of which". Somewhere along the line, Middle English's common-sense word was lost and we had to use an ill-fitting word instead or rephrase the sentence.
I also want a word that means the same as "where" but that doesn't suggest it's referring to a place, so I don't see "This is the episode where Tyrion gets slapped."; "in which" is, sadly, two words, and therefore a word too long for most people.
There is actually a word "whiches" in modern English, but it means more than one occurrence of the word "which", as in "How many whiches were there in that book?".
I feel the language is deliberately mocking me.
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Hast thou become bereft of wit? Bring back Thorn first, so "ye olde shope" makes sense, restore Wynn, Yogh, Ash, and Eth to the Alphabet where they are so sadly unmissed!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: restore Wynn, Yogh, Ash, and Eth to the Alphabet
I quite understand you, and sympathies with your needs (almost to the point of sweeping away a crocodile tear), but in the civilized world we've no use for the above-mentioned characters.*
* Were they important in writing love-poems to sheep, perhaps?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: Were they important in writing love-poems to sheep, perhaps?
No, we have Welsh and Australian for that.
But they were so useful! Thorn-with-a-bar was a single character meaning "that", and was used as much as the single character word "and": "&" which got downgraded to "half a boolean operator". 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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"This is the company from which the car was stolen."
Please, no whiches. There is a reason it became archaic.
It Is The Absolute Verifiable Truth & Proven Fact
That Your Belly-Button Signature Ties
To Viviparous Mama.
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Whether it is proper English or not, a lot of people use 'the episode where'.
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Has to vote this interesting excursion into etymology and linguistics ... up !
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it. A few hundred years later another traveler despairing as myself, may mourn the disappearance of what I may have seen, but failed to see.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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Appreciated given your past observations on my posts.
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To deny anyone the ability for change and redemption ... is to deny that for oneself.
cheers, Bill
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it. A few hundred years later another traveler despairing as myself, may mourn the disappearance of what I may have seen, but failed to see.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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I have often mused on this very subject!
So use "whiches" if you have found evidence for it. And if not just plain make it up. If it gets enough traction it will get in the dictionary!
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I just took a look at this website[^] for 'wild' (= not organized in a club) model pilots. They have advice for all kinds of problems around building and flying the models.
If you look at the lower starboard side of the page, you will find this solution to a problem.[^] While I have eliminated all possible sources of such a problem, I can quite well understand the bitter reality behind it.
I can well remember being given the coice between Herself and that computer. One could stay, the other had to go. Well, I still have the computer. How many here may have been driven into the arms of computers in a similar way? Should we put a similar little picture in Q&A ?
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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Am I looking at that picture wrong (2nd link) or what?  To me, it appears that the solution was sending her away, which led to some...ummm....excitement? 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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More like a constant data stream (the problem) which is solved by going out and finding some peace in flying the models (the solution).
Sending her away in a remote controlled aircraft... brilliant! Do a barrel roll!
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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Ah, now I get it! That's a remote controller in his lap...and a model airplane.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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My wife is a very wise woman. Early in our relationship, she learnt that the computer always comes first. 
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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Or she has implemented the usual strategies to get rid of it, like spreading the news that the computer is fat, of questionable morality and wears things that look like they were made from old curtains. Sooner or later this must have an effect on this blasted computer... or not.
The user can't update the up: we update it for them (Choice in the CP poll)
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Just recognized that my beard half way to white... (not much hair on the top of my head, so can't check there)
When it happened to you first?
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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About 20 years ago, I noticed some salt in the pepper of my beard, and looking at it today, it's salt at the front, and pepper at the sides!
There is some grey in my hair, but much, much more normal colour and my forehead isn't growing that fast - which does annoy my elder brother as his started accelerating in his twenties and readed the back of his neck by mid thirties.
I put it down to protecting my head from sunshine by cramming it into motorcycle helmets for decades ...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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DNA dictates when your hair will go gray/white. Some experts are on the fence if stress expedites this action.
I started going gray/white on the sides of my head and beard when I was around 40 years old.
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Slacker007 wrote: DNA
A highly unscientific observation of mine, among my friends, is that men with kids are distinctly grayer.
... such stuff as dreams are made on
modified 13-Sep-17 12:49pm.
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They can't afford hair colour.
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Jörgen Andersson wrote: They can't afford hair colour.
FTFY
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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 I feel that way some days. 
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I started getting grey hairs in my twenties and have a lot more now.
Going purely on the basis of people I know, I'm fairly convinced that men who go grey early are far less likely to go bald - not sure whether there's ever been any research to prove this or otherwise.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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PeejayAdams wrote: who go grey early are far less likely to go bald
Except you are already bald before gone grey... 
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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