Mind your P’s and Q’s
What exactly are your P’s and Q’s?
Oh… when you show the plural of single letters, you use an apostrophe… it’s weird, I know… but it’s true. You can show capital single, plural letters without the apostrophe, but the preferred method is to use the apostrophe for consistency.






[pints]size and [quarts]
And yes, we’ve heard the joke about the instruction
not right/right not
to new sextons: “Mind your keys and pews.”………random and in-between
good stuff leonard
that screws with my mind more than this song does
smokin’ a phatty to that! not!
Marina,
I suppose when in a pub, I will behave myself when drinking Pints and Quarts,
and will not click my Pints and Quarts together too hard when toasting.
http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/apparel/apscitemdetail/1/14/14/all/6337/detail.aspx
Sticks and stones will break my bones, but P’s and Q’s will never hurt me.
Hi Marina!
How’s life treating you today? Can I offer another possible solution to the Question?
In Briton we have some groups of Celtic languages still living on in places like Wales, Cornwall and Ireland and they are grouped into P-Celts and Q-Celts because when we come to translate old celtic script, to record the K sound one group wrote a q and the other a p. E.g when writing family names ’son of’ was Maq in Q-Celtic but Map in P-Celtic. So there was a reason to mind your P’s and Q’s when talking to anyone about their family heritage etc etc and their favoutite fast food place ..Map Donald’s would have got you laughed out of the local burger bar!
Any word origin that refers back to beer will be the one I remember, validated or not.
I love the chair you are sitting on. How is the manufacturer called?
I always thought that minding my P’s and Q’s meant to correctly utilize punctuation and quotation marks.
Like this site…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSb7s1fAFaA&feature=related
Scherrie Payne: Stoned Love (LIVE! IN NY)
Aloha my Beautiful And Knowlegeable Teacher;
For me, the answer you gave for “mind your P’s and Q’s” equating it to pints And quarts when a barkeep is adding up ones bar-tab seems correct. My earlist memroy thou is when a child my grandmother saying that phrase when being around adults and speaking.
Aloha
I’ll guess 1st one,the bartender one seems good too. I’m a tad bit grogged tho from self-inflicted groggedishicalismican activities.
tryant-tillyagitit (yawn,stumble,lay down,snooooore)
tum te tum …. ahhhhh … i’ll check for some music …
Good music.
Simple Man
The best A+
Capman check this out
Marshal Tucker Band
Marshal Tucker Band
Let’s see if this works
I needed a space after the first <a href……..
looks like this place is deserted!
Where’s the desert, I like cake myself.Chocolate with Chocolate icing. And a big glass of milk. Yummmmy
The first theory (kids and their spelling) sounds the best to me.
Nick
Marina
I would think the winner of your Love Letter contest would
rather have a signed and personalized copy
of your new upcoming book……? Maybe both?
Marina
I forgot to tell you and your students.
Go to Urban Dictionaryand word search hotforwords
All your student can write an update, so far I am the only one :sad
Word Request: “Cocktail”
What has a cock and a tail have to do with something we drink?
I’d like to hear your version.
Don’t cheat now…. no Wikipedia.
ooh, and while i remember… “johnny come lately”
a person is referred to as a “Johnny come lately”
???????
thanks
Word/Phase Request
I heard “Balls to the wall,” has nothing to do with testicles
Then exactly what balls and who’s wall are they talking about?
Ok Chev you have to take a url that has a jpg or jpeg file or a gif file for this to work. First you find the picture you want and get the url from it by right clicking your mouse on the picture and selecting Properties from the open menu bar. Then copy and paste the url or the http//:blablabla.jpeg to the comment box you want to comment to comment to. Then add the following to the front and back of the url.<a href=”http//:blablabla.jpeg“> dog to the url and it should work. You may need to play with it some in the Learn / practice area under the Submit Comment box to the right in blue letters. There you can hone your wording so it does what you want it to. Also the learn / practice area will step you through a lot of the processes of adding different ways of adding bold letters, Italics and more. You can practice ther as much as you want to. It doesn’t interfere with the rest of the programs. If you need more help just send me another post. I will help you all I can.
Mike
At the end of dog add for the dog word to be blue and brink up a picture.
Never mind the second comment just go to the learn / practice area and try from there.
Thanks
I had to many to drink tonight, that’s why things aren’t working to good.
Hic
Try this video href=”http://www.hotforwords.com/2008/03/30/balls-to-the-wall/”> Balls to the Walls . It’s in her Word / Lesson at the top of the page. See if that answers your question Chev.
Balls to the Walls
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Apparently any html it doesn’t like gets stripped off the top. Rats!
Unless I do it correctly!
There! now that it’s working properly, I wonder if it will produce the desired effect?
{determined to make it work this time!}
I give up.
…for now!
i would like to know the origin of “the bees knees”
“my new car is the bees knees” = my new car is the best thing.
A quick survey produced a <a href=http://ask.yahoo.com/20031127.html?Yahoo link from 2003 with information that Ps & Qs was first cited in the Oxford Dictionary around 1779, and was already well established to mean to be on one’s best behaviour. The allusion for school children to mind their lower case p’s and q’s wasn’t found until the 1800’s.
What…….. you don’t like my explanation ?
evidently there is no right or wrong way P’s or Ps or p’s
according to Miss Marina. I have not researched it so I will take her at her word.
I think a lot of us did Greg and we each come up with different answers. Or the same answer but no real truth behind the facts of the ps and qs.
Negotiat settlement as the wrong s commeted against You?
HI — I have a couple of requests:
– his or her “name is mud”
and
– mum’s the word
thanks!
not saying that i am right but “name is mud” came from a doctor whose surname was actually MUDD and he helped (fixed up) a person who had been shot.
this person actually got shot by a cop. why? because he’d just committed a robbery.
Dr. MUDD was then charged with helping a criminal.
AT LEAST THATS THE STORY AS I KNOW IT.
[Doctor Samuel Mudd]
mr. mudd and mr. gold.
Visual treat for all the Chi Chi Mongers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1toalqfJBc
Looks like that would hurt plus be bad for the boobs to slap them around like that. But it was interesting to watch any I enjoyed it.
HI Marina,
Looking georgous as ever, pretty hot too, thirsty almost! So I thought you may like to – ‘Wet your whistle!’
cheers
Oh, I know this one!
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts… So in old
England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them ‘Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.’ – …can’t see this phrase being taken too seriously to a bunch of Brits on the lash, really!
cheers
Congratz to all that won the Love letter contest.
Being a hopeless romantic, personally I would love to see the winning entries… Any chance of that, Dear Teacher?
Thank you Mike,
My name in the list is Klaus (in Calif)
“The only difference between eccentric and crazy is the amount of money you have.” Original quote by Che Volay
Someone at YouTube has it in for Marina; last time I looked the current vid was at the bottom of page two, and now it’s disappeared altogether.
Hi Bob, I see the current video at 2nd position on page 2 (i.e. 27th) with 65k views. The Perky video is at position #3 on page 1 with 503k views.
Maybe you were on the UK site or other site. I’m on the Worldwide (All) site.
Capman it seems others can chage their
Gravatar a lot quicker than I
I’ve clear cache & cookies several times now
plus restarted my PC
Is there another trick?
OK I understand now how it works
That other Gravatar felt evil
like it was possessed by an evil being
Gravatar just takes awhile sometimes to change Gravatars.
Grassy-ass mucho estoy yo
Spanish Yoda speak
Translation, Many thanks I am
Check out your YT Email
I changed mine over an hour ago to a different Yoda. It still hasn’t changed yet. I cleaned all of my cache twice. Slow gravatar.
The trick I picked up on is to go back to your Gravatar site
and click over your new Gravatar(the one which is highlighted) like magic it appears.
Maybe just a coincident but it work for me.
It just now changed to the new gravtar
Are you talking about this present Yoda Gravatar?
Because I seen it change at 4:28 PT
when I made a reply to you.
When they say do you read me over, do you read me, where did that come from?
Can someone tell me how this has happened Foxbow sent me a clip on msn of a voice identical to marinas syaing ” I love you I want to have sex with you oh yes oh oh oh my god thats so good ” The oh oh oh bit sounds really poorly done but the first parts and last parts are faultless. How on earth could he have made this voice. I know he plays around with music.
Mind your Ps and Qs my little Padawan.
he could’ve downloaded a few vids, extract the audio, put the right words / phrases together in a new audio file. takes a little work, though.
Send it to me James! I want to hear it!
maybe Marina loves Foxbow and wants to have sex with him oh yes oh oh oh and my god thinks that would be so good.
.. did you consider that?
Miss M I can’t believe as pretty as it is out side and your sitting by your computer commenting to us.
You should be out shopping or walking Kobe at the dog park. Live some the site will still be hear when you get back.
Where did the word “buck” come from in reference to money. Example: He owes me 5 bucks.
Hello, I just became a member and im very excited!!
I have a word for you, and i would like to know how it came about..
The word is Lay`d = To get lay`d, to have sex. If you could help me that would be wonderful,, Okay have a great day bye..
I think I like… “My teacher Marina is Pretty Qute”. So, I always mind my “P” & “Q” teacher.
“Mind Your P,s and Q,s ” is an expression used by Chess players, “The Games of Kings” to remind themselves that the lowest point value piece on the board( pawn) and the highest value point (Queen) can all be the most valueable piece depending on how the game plays out. except for the king which is never captured or removed from the board(only checkmated).
Hi there Marina! I was watching your videos, when I saw the word “codswallop”. I thought I heard it somewhere before, but I couldn’t remember where. Now I’ve finally figured it out. It was in one of the Sam & Max games. So, I came up with another word from Sam & Max. How about investigating on “awkward”? Or on my nickname, “flummoxed”? Well, of course I know what does it mean, but where did it come from? (by the way, I’m Hungarian, so sorry about any mistakes I made
)
Hey cufan71 how about come over and help me change out the bearings on my tractors mower deck. I had one spindle freeze up Saturday. My son want help me he’s planning on a Saturday night stump burn in the back yard and a bunch of alkie friends are coming over to have a party. Most will sleep here when they are done in. Others have designated drivers. No one leaves here driving after drinking. Plenty of sleeping it off room.
Sorry Capman I’m not much of a repairman!
Any time I have major trouble with my tractor I take it to the John Deere dealer to get it fixed! Hope y’all had a BLAST at the party!
Another example of Ps and Qs.
Investigations by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007 when revising the entry turned up early examples of the use of Ps and Qs to mean learning the alphabet. The first is in a poem by Charles Churchill, published in 1763:
“On all occasions next the chair / He stands for service of the Mayor, / And to instruct him how to use / His A’s and B’s, and P’s and Q’s.”
The conclusion must be that this is the true origin.
Mucho grassy-ass
Hey, Mike, you stole my quotation.
Ishall have to drop a bag of flour on you next time I fly over.
Sorry Bob. I’ll do better next time.
IT comes from school mahrms telling their student to watch their P’s and Q’s
In other words watch your Punctuation and Quotation when writing
your school work. ( P’s & Q’s )
There you go the right answer from old guy greg.
actually it’s Ps & Qs
It’s actually p’s and q’s and Ps and Qs… and P’s and Q’s. Apostrophes are used to show the plural of single letters.
Hey Marina, this is my first time posting a comment to you. I just joined your site. I love your videos. I was wonder about the word “yankee”. Where did this word come from?
under the weather
Here you go my friend a little phrase request “under the weather” treatment for you.
Tylenal Flu Reliever
Try Again
Marina, here is my latest project/ fan video.. Its good to know we can sort out problems we never even had in the first place isn’t it
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TlqsDizT77E
given the discussion about apostrophication in this title [y'all look below], Marina, are nightclothes PJs or PJ’s?
no matter…just remember: Why you wear pajamas to bed
Annuder I been there and had that happen to me, but it was a woman. Battalion Commander told me to get her out whether she had clothes on or not. So it was not. I wish I had carried a camera at times like that.
i figured it probably wasn’t all that uncommon…but a picture of it is…
the poor guy was prolly the butt of jokes at the firehouse that week…
word request: Japan
Japanese [until recent history] have always referred to their county as Nihon or Nippon. -pronounced ‘Knee-hone’ and ‘Knee-pone’ (like the ‘pone’ in pony).
How in the world did it turn into Japan? Who named this country Japan? Was he hard of hearing? I would have liked to have been there…
“What is the name of your country?”
“
“Nihon.”
“I see, Japan you say.”
”
hmmm…when growing older (’cause i don’ t think i ever grew “up” ‘cept in heighth), the usage of this phrase always implied being mindful of one’s manners…being polite & quiet in the presence of adults engaged in adult conversation…
so i always assumed it referred to those words somehow…
i’ve never encountered the “alert” or “on top of your game” version of “mind your p’s & q’s”…
anyway, i lean toward the “kids” origins, ’cause that’s the phrase is most often directed toward children…
You know Annuder I forgot about our parents telling us that when we were little ones. You didn’t talk when the grown ups talked. You were quite and sat motionless. Good memory, I have CRS so I chose a different answer.
I think perhaps that, and the pints and quarts meanings, are examples of people taking a saying which is familiar, but which they don’t really understand, and grafting on to it something which is convenient, expedient and, to their minds, logical.
well, i am RIGHT, goshdurnitall!!! So there!!!!…ppppffffffffttttttttttt!!!!…
noon
noon spelled backwards noon
No it’s not. I tried it twice and I get 1200 hundred hours.
Do you really mean 120 thousand hours?
Don’t forget ‘nooner’
Afternoon delight
onno
racecar spelled backwards is racecar.
No-one.
enoon, the present tense of enon?…
Anon … an’ on, and on and on …
In regards of the current approved $700 billion dollar bailout plan. What does the terms ‘Earmarks’ and ‘Pork’ mean? Are there Ears and Pork in the government’s bailout plan?
ok, i’m just gonna ask a random person on HFW
……HOW TE HELL is it possible for the dollar to rise in value when the us has such finacial problems!?!
it’s not that the euro is loosing value or something, i don’t get it!??!
2 months ago orso 1 euro was $1,58 now it’s worth 1,38
Because the U.S. Economy is still better than most.
I guess the government doesn’t have the assets like gold or silver or enough property in there vaults or bonds to cover that amount. So the value of the Euro or dollar reduces in value. My guess only Fox. Say the government has five billion dollars of gold in the reserve, and outstanding debts of 10 billion dollars then actually your money is decreased in value because you don’t have the funds in the reserve to back up the currency..
In other words, the dollar has lost less value than the euro.
Actually, Capman, there is no longer a link between the dollar and gold. And only the default connection between the national debt and what the dollar buys. that is to say that in reality, no currency is worth more than the paper on which it is printed. It only has value because people agree on that value. For example, in 2001, when the dotcom bomb dropped, the stock of the company lost 98% of its value, even though fundamentally, nothing changed about the company, only ppl’s unwillingness to purchase tech-related stocks. Think of money as stock in a country.
As for the relationship to debt, it’s like someone buying my car. I don’t care if it’s from his pocket, or from a loan, as long as I get the agreed sum for the purchase. And if a loan, the lender only cares that he has the ability to repay it.
I hope this helps.
[How Currency Works]
Better explanation than mine.
Are you serious, Captain? or are you making a word request?
That’s correct; both sites are separate from each other.
but do the views of her vids here count at YouTube? I am reluctant to go there for her vids, but would just to do my little part to help out if they are not counted from here.
Word request is what I’m trying for. I know what the words mean. Im just looking for words that are related to current events. It helps miss M’s YT videos move up the list faster.
{wiping sweat from brow}
WHEW!! you had me worried for a moment, there, Captain.
Someone said in a recent post (mijj, I believe) that the viewings here don’t count toward her YouTube patronage as they are two seperate sites… Can you confirm or disprove this?
uhm…. it’s still a video from youtube so it counts it no mather where it is linked…you can even see how many clicks it has gotten from a certain link ,go to youtube and click the “statistics and data” you will see how many clicks it has gotten from every site that it is linked on.
Thanks, Foxbow!
Yea, thats correct foxbow. Thanks for chiming up.
I wasn’t spending much time thinking about how I was answering the question. Im super busy moving off my stuff off the sailboat and getting class ready for next week.
I heard that in the early 1700s (or 1700’s) southern US farmers would write ‘pork’ on barrels of tobacco to avoid export taxes. I haven’t found any confirmation on internet. Hope Marina investigates.
Gorgeous, as always, Marina. I prefer Pints and Quarts, since it’s the only one I’ve heard to be any sort of valid.
WORD REQUEST: Legend. It’s always been a quizzical word to me, since it means such a powerful concept.
Marina,
Hi Doll. Love seeing you in action on Fox News. I would like to get your take on this word “Antibull”. Keep up the good work. You making learning fun.
Antibull
Favorite is “please and thank you”
just seems like the one that would be repeated more often
Hi Marina,
Mind your…? Take care of your…?
Be watchful of your…? Be mindful of your…?
Mind your… own business.
Mind your… manners.
Mind your… beers.
Mind your… typesetting.
Be mindful your probing and questioning? It’s not polite.
hmmm?
ooops!
should be…
Be mindful of your probing and questioning. It’s not polite.
Marina,
I followed your comment at ensey.org, as did one of your prominent students. I hope we have represented our Alma Mater well.
Hi Marina! I would like to know the origins of UNPOLITE as opposed to IMPOLITE. After my daughter was visiting and I correctedher for using the word UNPOLITE, she proved me wrong as the word is listed in the dictionary though I never heard anyone use it in everyday language. So is unpolite really a word? Also where does the word polite come from and does it have to do with politics?
“We’re going to turn this team around 360 degrees.” – Jason Kidd, upon his drafting to the” Now thats funny 360 leaves ya going in the same direction
Oh! so that’s what that means!
Teach not thy parent’s mother to extract
The embryo juices of the bird by suction.
The good old lady can that feat enact,
Quite irrespective of your kind instruction.
Another phrase for hotforwords to investigate;
“You can’t teach your Grandmother to suck eggs.”
bob i agree with what your saying, but when those kind of things are done behind your back on one of your creatures, what to be done the woman is still the grandmother?
in my case mother?
yes and don’t turn something over to look at the bottom just turn it half over.
Homework: There’s a controversy here? I don’t think so…
Pints and Quart
If this were a typesetter’s issue, we’d also hear “mind your b’s and d’s”
pints and quarts sound good to me
My recollection favors the bartender theory. I remember giving a speech about word origins and I researched “Mind your Ps and Qs” and found that bartenders in England would use the term as a shortening of pints and quarts. If a person were getting too drunk the bartender would invoke the phrase.
There is a little mistake. There should be no apostrophe as the P and Q do not belong to anyone nor is there an omitted character.You should mind your Ps and Qs…
Thanks londondude119 for pointing that out. I thought the same thing at first, but the Oxford English Dictionary lists it with apostrophes… and further research shows that plurals of single letters have an apostrophe to prevent confusion. Some of the sources say that they are “not needed” on capital single letters, though many people “still prefer them”. So I went with them… though you are correct…. I could have avoided them on the capital letters.
http://www.apostropheabuse.com/2006/05/mind-your-ps-and-qs-or-your-ps-and-qs.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_apost.html
i imagine the same is true for digits…we often see ’80’s in reference to the 1980s (or is that 1980’s…
‘eh, you can’t teach your grammar to suck eggs (ask Bob about that)…
Hey Marina, Thanks for making this P’s & Q’s video!
On of my students “Captain Kyle W.” wanted to know if P’s & Q’s meant Pint & Quarts. I’ll email him to let him know that you did a lesson on the phrase.
Heyas,
I like the please and thank yous, and the pints and quarts theories.
This reminded me of a different saying ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. I was wondering of its origin, as some picture could be worth a thousand words. Surely not all pictures though
Jya mata ne
Also in my mythology class we studied the origin of mind your ps and qs and the most trusted theory was actually to watch your pros and cons as well as pints and quarts so that would be my answer.
I would love to see the roots for the word allegory.
Is that an ugly alligator
Just razzing you. M will see your word request and make note of it, “allegory” sounds interesting.
No its a story that is similar in context to another but with different characters and scenery.
The ezplanation which sounds most logical to me
has to be the typesetter’s dilemna of having to
visualize the lower case letters, backwards, not
forgetting that a lower case “d” upside down can
be substituted if you run out of “p”s. If the guy
doing the typesetting has dyslexia, this can add
to the dilemna. I figure proofreaders would have
said “mind your p’s and q’s and d’s”, though…
That sounds fupped duck ’til you think about it
What was missing to help understand the possible
origin was an answer to the question of when the
phrase was first brought into use, and where?
The pints and quarts explanation also makes a
great deal of sense, as this would explain the phrase’s
use before the age of printing technology.
There could even be another explanation not yet
considered. Translations between languages comes
to mind as some alphabets use similar characters
(only reversed) and lots of them are derived from
Latin. Without knowing or approximating the earliest
usage of this phrase – it’s easy to speculate about this.
OH NO!! YOUR FISH HAS DIED
May he rest in peace
R.I.P
Nice fish ChaCha
i have a word request.
can you make a video on what the word “boxing” means? it doesn’t have to do anything with boxes, or does it? I’m just a little curious. thanks Hotforwords.
He He He they both sound masd like they both got stood up for a date.
wth :S only 12 hours between the 2 vids………. that just shows how perverted youtube is….
you mean “that shows how perverted Marina is”, surely.
no, the general audience on yt……., marina puts on some hooters outfit and 100’s of k’s of people click on it like their lives depend on it
interesting point about the hooters outfit.
I wonder how number of views of her vids match up to the deployment of skin by M on her vids. .. that could be worth investigating. – i guess that will have to be number of views v. the type of still image chosen to represent the vid (rather than content).
does M chose to deploy skinage and boobage ad hoc? .. or is there a strategy?
She’s a model.
They show skin and boobiladge in hot outfits and sometimes their skivvies. But I am hear just for the knowledge. HMMMMM
it’s more subtle than that, Cap. If it was that easy, any bird that displays flesh and boobs, etc would be equally successful.
The content does matter .. a lot … it does to me too.
I wouldn’t have been hooked into HFW if it didn’t have content.
Honestly Mijj I would too. I like being hear for the knowledge and the friendships that I have acquired. Marina is a excellent person just to spend what little time we can with.
pah!
{… slaps Capman around for descending into sentimentality …}
The class will remain orderly while I await orders from Bob.
so .. you’re not so much a clone as a marionette dangling from Bob’s fingers.
Maybe his middle finger.
Partradge quail and russian ringneck pheasants
Pear tree in a partridge.
Capman911’s yoda speaking catching is on here I think, hmmm?? yes??
Sentence fragments are
and salt water injection well.
what is called brine water
Marina – i would like you to tell us about the Magna Carta.
I’m not sure how you’d fit that into a philology thing, but i think it’d be worth while.
That one’s easy, mijj:
Magna is Latin. it means ‘Big’.
Carta = the wheeled thing used to move heavy things in.
So the Magna Carta would be the biggest wheeled thing you have. Particularly handy for moving your White Elephants when they get in the way.
lol
glad to see you are here, mijj – Just b4 I went to a meeting with my realtor yesterday, I saw your reply, alone, “all that wisdom… gone” inside two nested posts from Marina, and absolutely died laughing! If I were there when it happened, there would have been two identical posts there, one from you and one from me, posted simultaneously. I had really hope that noone would post to it and spoil the beauty of it, but, oh well.
Dear совершенная Marina, for your homework, I like the bartender’s theory best. To prevent any confusion on the tab, I’d just order beer by the quart, so if there’s a mistake, I’d only be charged for a pint.
Your dear student, seesixcm6
I read that in the Oktoberfest in Munich, they charge 7.50 Euros for a mug that has one liter of beer. When full, each mug weighs 2.5 kilos, so the dirndl-wearing waitress who has eight of them is carrying 20 kilos! That’s a heavy load, and she smiles, too! You look beautiful in your low-cut flower print dress and you sit very nicely, too. You were very attractive in the “perks” video you posted yesterday morning, then about 12-1/2 hours later, you posted this “P’s & Q’s” video, last night! We’re lucky to get such a nice pair of your videos!
Darn.
I saw your arms a swinging and I thought you were going to sing a p’s and q’s song.
Nice, Nice, Nice Dress.
But the stark blank background is starting to get old.
My P’s and Q’s are in the study of logic. If p then q.
(If OJ and when found guilty then goto jail)(2008 version of the longest yard)
My favorite is that little sun dress you’re wearing….
What was this lesson about again?
In case anyone missed it from the previous thread …
[The LONG Scientific Personality Test]
I had always heard and believed it to be like her bar theory, but in reverse… the admonition from a barkeep (or fellow patron) to a patron who starts to show signs of unruliness to ‘mind his p(int)s and q(uart)s’ – a polite way to say “monitor your intake and behavior lest you get yourself into trouble”, but I like the typesetting suggestion as well as the please and thank you theory.
Ciao,
Fianchetto
This makes sense. Verbally, there is no distinction
as with written upper and lower case letters. This
explanation should satisfy Bob’s arguement where
he says barkeeps could simply use the uppercase
letters to keep their notes straight.
I didn’t mean “could”; I meant “would have”.
Someone else has pondered on the educational standards and writing ability of tavern frequenters of the time and wondered if any of them would have known the difference between the letters, even when they were sober.
I doubt that the bar-keepers would have been much more advanced either; if they could read and write, it was probably only with “big letters” and they wouldn’t have mastered “joined-up writing”.
But I could be wrong … again.
Mind your PS and your QUOTES ! = PS and QS !
Take care when you use to many times a postscriptum or a quote !
It’s an advice for young writters !
Example : In the biography of Mark Twain, there is a crowdtitude of PS and QS (also called foot-notes)
From how slow youtube have been this is probably the quickest i have known for A new video to come up YAY
{smothering James with a big fat sloppy wet kiss}
Hi, James, I just thought I’d try and see if we could kiss and make up, and ask that if we ever get into another flame war that it be like this, you brute, and not the other way.
oh.. Ok
This is a most Pee-Kew-liar conundrum.
I don’t believe the bar origins – it would be easier for bar-tenders to write P and Q as capitals and then there would be no confusion.
World Wide Words has this to add.
These seem to be the earliest recorded examples of the phrase and must, therefore be the favourites.
but what is Maligo? Perhaps this could help us deduce the 1612 initials. I agree your logic that it would not likely be prime and quality, but am also coming up empty looking for Maligo in hopes of reverse-engineering sensible adjectives for it.
A very good question; since he’s asking for a quart of it, it must be something for him to imbibe.
A Google search for Maligo leaves the impression that it’s a Family name, so I surmise that he was requesting a quart of some intoxicant brewed by a person named Maligo.
Just reading it capitalised gave me that presumtion (perhaps an Italian vintner or brewer), then finding it a geographical name and a language, thought it perhaps a beverage originating in the Philipines or Angola, neither being of any use to confirm or dismiss the beverage idea, nor offering any insight as to what it might be if other than an intoxicating beverage.
Since I am an alcoholic I like the Beer-theorie best, of course
Marina, I thought you already did this lesson 2 or 3 months ago. When a fight a brawl would break out in a pub, the bartender would yell out: “Mind your P’s an Q’s.” Short for mind your Pints and Quarts.
Hmmm … Like the bar-keeper would mind if everyone spilled their drinks in a brawl. I think he’d be more concerned with his furnishings getting smashed up.
In response to the video on the word “perky”.
(This does apply to several of your more current videos as well.)
Although you are indescribably attractive, your ability to convey knowledge to those less endowed has become overshadowed by your ability to objectify yourself. When I subscribed to your videos on Youtube originaly you were SMART and Sexy. The now current trend is SEXY and smart. Although they are still educational, you have deviated from the original posts by trying to be more sexually appealing as apposed to intelligently appealing. Still great videos no question, but advice to remove the flamers (could be a neat word to “investigate”), try returning to the root of conveying intelligence with sexyness, as apposed to the current style of short videos with more skin. Longer videos with more information = much better viewing experience.
Just my two bits.
Sincerely, Chris.
Well said, Chris.
I concur.
yeh .. me too .. but not so much toning down the sexy .. but making it more subtle. i.e. tease rather than flaunt. {… begins to steam slowly …} …
.. i like to be teased
How’s this:
{teasing mijj sans flaunt}
{.. goes green and gags a little ..}
only the original or the evil twin will do.
That should work until I change my gravatar back….
I believe that the typesetter’s explanation is the correct one.
and what about the d and b ???
confusing qs with ps does not imply not confusing ds with bs.
plus, “mind your ps, qs, bs, and ds” sounds really awkward, doesn’t it?
She is holding some information back.

I know for sure she is.
This is not an interactive game
where she is going to give us a
definitive answer.
Very typical of teachers to do this.
It’s a Power Trip sort of thing.
That to us, yea she does. Gives us home work that we never find out the answer to. Hmmmmmm.
Yoda speak
Did M delete some comments from yesterday?
Why?
I know she did some of the long embedded threads as they were messing up the page. In Firefox they look like a long string, but in IE7 they mess up the page for some reason. It was some of ones that people go 4 or 5 deep in the comments where there is no reply button. She had warned everyone before about doing that. Us big kids just carried away yesterday. Teacher left the classroom and we did some cutting up.
I knew about the deep threads
but some comments of ours are gone too
they were not part of long treads
like the date changes right after my above comment
Maybe it was just easier for her to get rid of the whole thread or comments instead of trying to pick through the elongated comments. Marina doesn’t delete unless she has to. She told me this a while back on another video.
I’m somewhat of a typo-nut, and took some classes on it; so the typesetter’s origin is my favorite. It also made the most sense to me.
I’d put my money with the first explanation – the one about the letters, since the phenomenon which possible provoked the expression’s creation in this case is the one most widely available – everyone was taught how to write, so higher chance there, imo.
Some might say there are more people who drink beer than literates, but anyway…
I also like the Pints and Quarts answer.
I like the first origin since it is the one I have heard since I was a kid and it just seems to make sense to me. Have a good day.
This REQUEST relates to the golf lesson why do we yell FOUR (for) when we drive the ball down the fairway?
I know it is a warning to others that may be in the way but why FOUR (for)????
So that other players are forewarned you are supposed to yell fore before you drive the ball.
Home work:
I like th efirst one, because when I was younger I had the same problem with p’s and q’s (or was it q’s and p’s)
although b’s and d’s gave the same problem to kids and type setters, so now that I think about it I think the last one (pub guy) sounds right.
Marina, Is it not your job to fine the definitive answer for us?
What the hell is my tuition paying for?
Are you offering it as a mnemonic or as an etymology?
Hi Marina! I would like to know what the origin for “Pig Latin” is. Why Pig?
I wonder if it comes from Orwell’s Animal Farm.
The pigs that were more equal than others were using Latin to baffle the prole pigs and keep them in the mushroom syndrome.
I like the Pints and Quarts answer, specially because Oktoberfest in München ends this weekend. I wish I could have gone, it is a great time.
I mind my pints & quarts always. Thanks, Marina!
That one was a good one. I would say coats&pigtails or pints& quarts.
You looked so pretty in that dress wow :
good job Marina:
I was wondering if you could tell me what the word spunk means?
you should wash your hands before asking that question, young man.
I guess i’d better change my gravatar before Marina gives me a spanking.
That I would like to see.
Marina .. can you make sure Capman isn’t present for the spanking. I’d prefer it if it was in private.
Thank you.
Caqman 611 went to deb,
drop trousers, and take your punishment
behehehaha
you would only faint before, during and after mijj!
I like the pints and quarts. But maybe that’s just because I want a beer.
Marina!! .. you wasted a days rest by putting this up so quick!!
we could easily have gone another day on the last vid.
tsk!
anyhoo ..
p’s n q’s .. i like the first n last. .. typesetter n pub guy
I have a lot of catching up to do! Your gravatar is freaking me out!
There were four of us using you gravatar on the last video. People thought you were interacting with us a lot. It was fun and cool.
i think your TAs should use your avatar!!
i’m going to change mine back cos i think i prefer a sane Marina.
lot of catching up to do? .. those words wont wear out if you don’t use ‘em, you know.
oh .. and please don’t read all my posts in the last thread.
thank you.
If you need any help let me know.
It’s Saturday night &
you’re stepping out
believe me I know how it works
been there, done that &
ditto, darn gone done it some more
Too bad it’s retroactive with the gravatar and not the name, otherwise you would have no idea that I am really one of Bob’s Marina Clones and not the real Marina. Curses…foiled again!
I agree that we could have lasted another day or two, but when I initially arrived here to check for posts on the previous video, I saw the new one posted, My first thought was “yippee… we get a bonus video!
…so do I view new vid or check replies to earlier posts?”
I think she must have just got her green/blue screen and wanted to use it at the request of a student who said they wanted to play with her backgrounds.
Thanks, Dear Teacher, for another terriffic post, and for the change-up in format. While I do prefer your usual format, I like the refreshing splash that this one provides from time to time
Hmm… new bluescreen… could this mean perhaps you have ideas for the shape of things to come? I look forward to seeing what direction your new tool will take you!
Ciao,
Fianchetto
acually, i checked back to another vid where M’s sat in a chair aganst a plain background .. i think that plain background is just a plain wall that happens to be good for a bluescreen (assuming it’s a unique colour).
I remember that one…other vid IS a wall, I think this one is bluescreen, tho. Not positive, but almost.
Hey! Who said you could come out and play?
I haven’t given you a brain yet; if people see you masquerading as Marina and acting dumb, what are they going to think?
Get back in your box immediately!
MOVE!!
NOW!!
Yes, Master Bob.
{climbing back into box, replacing packing peanuts}
Please hurry, Master Bob. I had to borrow Fianchetto’s and, well… need I say more?
I think the typesetter one made the most sense
what the bloody ‘ell is going on here .. this is up way too quick!
Look at the video views she is already on the first page of the partner listings.
She usually uploads when she reaches number 24.
http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=mp&t=t&cr=US&p=1
well.. far be it for us mere mortals to determine the mysteries of Marina’s video strategy.
My guess is, Marina is so overworked she thought it was next Thursday.
oh .. i bet i know what it is …
… Marina is off somewhere for the weekend, and wants to minimise the time without a video.
So she left it til the last moment before she left before putting this up.
… tha’s my guess.
“So she left it til the last moment before she left before putting this up.”
???
i mean .. she left putting up the vid to the last moment, and then she disappears out of the door for her weekend of freedom from goddam videos.
and while the cat’s away, the mice shall play! Bwahahahhahahaha!
3rd
Home work= I think it means Kids and type setters. The kids could be dyslexic, and looking at letters backwards for a type setter could become confusing after a long day setting type.
yeah, I didn’t even think of dyslexia, and especially since back then, I would imagine it was less known
If the kids where dyslexia
would that help them
than hinder them
Thank you caqman 611
But if you are looking at them backwards
wouldn’t a “p” look like a “p” and a “q’” look like a “q”
think about it?b
Got it p, b, d,q, are transvestites there orientation are all mixed up.
Hey, my numbers on my PowerBall lottery ticket just won
maybe not.
Oh no
It’s so hard to reply to you
when I can’t do it directly under your comment
Au contraire, mon fraire
tu est 4th
Ok your 4th.
If a person has dyslexia he sees certain letters backwards. So a “p” would look like a “q” and a ‘q’ would look like a ‘p’.
So if he wrote a sentence it would look like this. My quqqy has a pueer smell about him. or My puppy has a queer smell about him.
See if this helps understanding dyslexia.
There is no single pattern of difficulty that affects all dyslexic people. A dyslexic person might have any of the following problems:
* She might see some letters as backwards or upside down;
* She might see text appearing to jump around on a page;
* She might not be able to tell the difference between letters that look similar in shape such as o and e and c ;
* She might not be able to tell the difference between letters that have similar shape but different orientation, such as b and p and d and q ;
* The letters might look all jumbled up and out of order;
* The letters and words might look all bunched together;
* The letters of some words might appear completely backwards, such as the word bird looking like drib ;
Pardon my French
Ok your 3 rd. I cede to you mon fraire
hey capman, I see words dance about on the page from time to time, didnt realise that was a form of dyslexia! Can be really frustrating at times so have to have a break for 5 mins then get back to reading. Usually starts dancing ater 20-30mins, had all this since a kid but know one ever suggested dyslexia before. Recall a teacher explaining as you have mentioned about letters appearing round the wrong way, but never jumping about. Have always put it down to concentration or tierdness…….
hello aagain
Why
did this happen, so fast?
1st yay!
Ok, Ok 2nd.
Hey Felicity long time no hear from you. Glad to see you with us again.
Congratz on being first.
Earlier today it was me