(Okay, anyone who knows me knows I hate dichotomies. But I'm interested to see where this goes)

First one: Would you rather a cold Christmas or a warm one?

Depends on how cold.  I've done Chrissy in Australia for probably 10 of the last 20 years, and going to the beach or having a swim on Christmas day is great.  Did the beach thing on Christmas day in California, once, but instead of cold beer I had hot chocolate, and no swimming (Northern California).

I'd rather have a warm one than cold.  I hate cold weather, and snow holds no appeal for me.

i would prefer a warm one without the cold climate food - but that may take a while in coming.

The cold climate food isn't all that common is it?

Don't most ppl just have barbies?

My mates in Townsville cook a full English-style Christmas feast, with the baked ham, etc.  It was over 45 degrees in the kitchen with the oven going full blast.  Ugh.  I'm gonna BBQ a chook and have a big prawn salad.

Whoa!

I've had one mild cold one and 33 warm ones. I'd like to balance that up a little more.

I've done the extremes of temperature at Christmas (in the bounds of regular human habitation) and I have to say that nice warm sunshine (about 25 degrees C) with a light breeze is just about right for me...

In South Africa it's the middle of summer, so It's about 35 C here. Naturally I'd prefer a cold Xmas, with lots of snow!

minus 15 Christmas all the way.

Okay, next:

Would you rather an expensive gift that you didn't really need or a small thoughtful one?
 

Small and thoughtful

Unless I can sell the expensive one 

Small thoughtfull one definitely. Im still trying to find a situation where I wouldnt need a pen knife.

How about a gift certificate.  Make it a Kiva one, and guilt them into doing something good?

How about any gift?? These days I'm happy with what I can get and can appreciate even the worst gifts...

hahaha I'm inclined to agree with Morgan.

But I'd really rather something I can put to good use... Like my swiss army knife
 

woo!

Would you rather white, dark or milk chocolate? (yes, 3 options this time)

HAHAAHAHHAHA

Id say white chocolate although theres nothing wrong with being a milk or dark chocolate fan.

It is very different to milk and dark. Mostly because it has no cocoa beans in it.

Well, yeah.... Which is why it tastes a lot like the indian milk sweets

And I'm not a fan of white either
 

Friend of mine can only eat white chocolate. They can't eat milk/dark because of the caffeine content.

(Okay, anyone who knows me knows I hate dichotomies. But I'm interested to see where this goes)

First one: Would you rather a cold Christmas or a warm one?

Sorry Dek: I'd love to say........... "I hate to be a pedant" .........but that just wouldn't be true - to anyone who knows me -, but how is your poser a "dichotomy" ?

Aaaaaaaand....haven't we already had this discussion? where pseud made a very reasoned argument saying that Crimbo was more about family and friends than weather? Though I have to say I disagreed, and still do, with him, arguing that it is a MIDWINTER festival and therefore, because all the trappings fit a MIDWINTER festival, that that is its natural seasonal place. IE: Cold
 

Geez.... it was a simple question...

Yeah but it wasn't dichotomic

Yes it was. hot/cold

Those were the only choices I offered

di·chot·o·my

(d-kt-m)n. pl. di·chot·o·mies

1. Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions: "the dichotomy of the one and the many" Louis Auchincloss.

Yes?

One or the other, as you offer, is not a dichotomy, it's a choice. One AND the other is a dichotomy

Ie: "the one and the many" in society.

OR: A dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichotomies

Just because they are not overlapping does not make them any less a part of the whole. Choosing one type of Christmas, or another, is a whole in itself. Cold=Whole  - Hot=Whole, it's a choice.

OR: Whilst the one overlaps with the many, the many do not overlap the one.

But dek only gave two choices. That IS a dichotomy. However, if she aske "Would you like your christmas hot, cold, warm, cool, snowing, windy, rainy, sunny, cloudy, mild, balmy, (etc.)" it would be different.

Even better if Dek had said How would you like your christmas this year?

But she didn't.
So deal with it.
 

OK!!

Morgan K.- smarty pants.

How is this simple choice (Dek's words): "Would you rather a cold Christmas or a warm one?", anything other than a choice. There is no interplay. No two states in play at any one and the same time. Just Hot or Cold. No contradictions. No non-mutual exclusivity. Just...and only that....wait for it...... a choice.

Oh dear, but didn't you say : "But dek only gave two choices......" so apparently you do agree then?

Evidently another one who has had a fucked-up recent school/university education that allows words like 'dichotomy' to be used at will to mean just about anything to do with pairs when you need to use a BIG word.

There is  also a "d" in "asked".........no parenthesis around 'etc' and ....no comma before it........and..... Even better if Dek had said "How.........." pl. note the quotation marks , even when suggesting a comment.

Yer'self
 

Actually, there IS supposed to be a comma before etc. 
I put parenthesis around etc. because it shows that my list hasn't ended, I'm just too brainless to think up any other terms! And my lack of typing skills and use of punctuation is all due to laziness because I have one hell of a hangover.
So there.  

Hehe....what were we talking about anyway?
*scrolls up and has a look*

My hair hurts.....

*gets out some hair clippers and shaves Morgan K.'s head*

There, problem solvered.
 

HAHAHAHAHA how about no.

Oh come on.  It did wonders for Sigourney Weaver in Aliens 3.

If you shaved my head, I'd probably look like an alien.

hehehe

@ Morgan

LOL

Actually, there IS supposed to be a comma before etc. 
I put parenthesis around etc. because it shows that my list hasn't ended, I'm just too brainless to think up any other terms! And my lack of typing skills and use of punctuation is all due to laziness because I have one hell of a hangover.
So there.  

Hehe....what were we talking about anyway?
*scrolls up and has a look*

My hair hurts.....

Hahahahahaha...Mine has too of late, I do feel for you, this time year

OK ......down to brass tacks: there is no comma before et cetera (= "and so on") just as you do not write a list and put a comma in before the "and", ie - Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet  Pl. note there is no comma before ...and violet.

The fact you wrote "etc" is confirmation enough that your list was not complete so the parenthesis does not belong.

The basic rule for the use of parenthesis is that you can read a sentence and that which is in parenthesis can be, if you wish, disregarded: "I was walking down the road (it was a sunny day) and I tripped on the prone body of a drunken Tanglerer (Morgan K)...." the fact it was a sunny day and the body was of you are not entirely relevant.

Isn't this more fun than the boring question we started with?
 

He's right about the parentheses, they're one of several ways of denoting a sub-clause to the sentence - something that contains extra information, but isn't completely necessary. An aside, if you will. The rest of the sentence is complete without it, but it adds a little extra to it.

You can also use commas to do the same thing if you want to make it more a part of the flow of the sentence.

One thing I've never quite known - what's the difference between parentheses and brackets?

Try to ignore it and hope it dies?

Revive it with another question:

Would you rather foreign or Hollywood films?
 

Hollywood is foreign.

LOL

Not how it's classified though
 

One word: Slippers.

It's a very good idea to just let this one go... I can't fathom another topic of such "pedantry" and pointlessness.....


And I like either, so long as its good?? Hollywood makes a lot of crap, but so do independent film makers.
There is always the good with the bad.

Foreign doesn't necessarily imply indie?

No, I suppose it doesn't

I am with Morgan K Foreign and Hollywood have their respective good and bad. Remember this, the Hollywood monster made The Godfather and "Foreign" made Yahoo Serious's Young Einstein....I rest my case.

But your choice is one or the other. Now PICK!

Hahaha

No!!
 

grrrrrrrrr

Yeh, then captain kirk would probably try to shag you. 

Exactly what episodes of Star Trek have you been watching?!?

the one where he gets disproved by paper

disproved/disproven?

Oh...

fair enough then I guess. lol.

Simon Pegg as Scotty in the new movie! Wooo!

Saints........preserve........us............