Hello Answer Person,

It is very, very frustrating that there only appears to be one e-Print station in Bostock. Would it be so difficult to introduce 2 or 3 more, in the spirit of the comp lab in old Perkins?

Also, you could use some posters on the walls (really ugly right now), a new carpet (also hideous), and some recycling bins by the xerox machines. Other than that Bostock is OK.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: I’m probably as confused as you. There are two separate e-print networks.

We always had zero “OIT” e-print stations in Perkins and/or Bostock until just now, when one was installed. The several “Library” e-print stations are there as always. Most printing demand in the library is generated from the hard-wired computers here in the library and 10+ page print jobs go to those printers. The OIT e-print stations receive print jobs from any OIT cluster, from dorm rooms, and from wireless networks on campus (including wireless laptops in Perkins/Bostock), but not from the hard-wired library computers. One of those was just installed in the library.

Current inventory:
Library e-print system: 2 printers in Reference; 1 in basement lab.
OIT e-print system: 1 printer ner Bostock front door (plus in OIT labs around campus).
Color e-print station: 1 printer in Perkins Reference; hooked in to both systems — prints from hard-wired library computers and from OIT clusters, but not yet from dorms or wireless since they don’t have it set up yet to download and install the drivers yourself.

We realize there’s a demand for more OIT e-print stations in the library and to unify the two systems to increase convenience and reduce confusion. It’s apparently not as easy as you’d think to do this (technically or bureaucratically) but your concerns have been passed on (you’re hardly the first one to ask!).

Decorating the walls will slowly occur, so please be patient. We all know there’s a need for vastly increased recycling capacity, and this need should eventually be addressed (don’t hold your breath). The carpet is a matter of personal taste (of the architects and the various committees that approved it), so don’t expect any changes there. I don’t think it’s as controversial as the carpet in the Bryan Center or in the Duke South clinic.

My backpack has waist and chest straps to help with heavy loads. What is the appropriate manner in which to use these straps? Should some be tighter and others loose? How tight should the backpack be against my back? Thanks.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: I think you just want it to feel comfortable, and that’s very subjective. All straps should be tight enough to provide extra support when heavy and keep it from having a life of its own when you bend over, but be careful not to cut off your circulation!

People eat walnuts, pecans, and other nuts grown on trees. Why don’t we eat acorns?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: They require some preparation, but many native peoples ate oak acorns. The process includes cracking, peeling, grinding into a meal, leaching out the tannin (bitter tasting substance in oaks) in hot water, and drying if you’re going to do more grinding or not use it immediately. The flour or meal is used for a porridge or in baking.

The bitter tannin doesn’t seem to bother squirrels, bears, or hogs.

You can do a Google search for words like . For instance:
http://siouxme.com/acorn.html
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/clay79.html
http://www.nativetech.org/recipes/recipe.php?recipeid=11
http://www.kumeyaay.com/history/article_detail.html?id=58

How do you pronounce the name Crowell? I think I lived in that quad. Yep, still do. Thank ye

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: When you hurt yourself, you say Ow!
A female pig is a sow.
It’s usually rhymed with those words, and that’s how I pronounce it.

In the South, this surname is often pronouced like “crawl,” but Mr. Crowell was a Yale graduate from the North and so probably pronounced his name as I mentioned above. He died in 1931, so we can’t be sure. Please see the biographical sketch at the University Archives website: http://www.lib.duke.edu/archives/history/presidents.htm#Crowell

In a previous post, I believe I used “dear” when I meant to use “deer”. I am sorry for the mistake. Is it possible to correct?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: If you’re the “deer in the headlights” person, then you really did spell “deer” correctly. There’s no way for you to update a submission that you previously made to the Online Suggestion Book, although I could have cleaned it up for you. Even if you had spelled it wrong, I’m confident there would have been little chance that I would have interpreted it as meaning that a car was about to make roadkill out of your sweetheart.

I suspect from these to questions that you may worry too much, and probably for no reason! I’m sure things will be OK.

In class the other day, I was called on to answer a question that I did not expect to be asked. The question was an abrupt switch from what we had been talking about, and I expected to speak about the former topic of discussion. I was so surprised that I became frozen, almost like a deer in headlights. Rather then speak, I fumbled through my notes until the teacher called on someone else. The impression I gave was that I was either a) not participating or b) not understanding.

But the truth is I did understand the reading and I had an incisive comment to make. I contend that the surprise, and then subsequent panic as I though how foolish I must look, prevented me from speaking. What should I do? Is it inappropriate to email or speak with the professor and apologize. The class is a large discussion, and I don’t get an opportunity to speak often, does that change how I should react? Thanks.

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: If you have a lot of other opportunities to “prove yourself” in the class (exams, papers, homework assignments), then I would drop it and focus on these other methods. Is the class small enough so that the instructor would recognize your name? Does class participation count? If so, you need to relax and be prepared for another such eventuality, and, better yet, assertively volunteer incisive comments in the future. Only if you think this will be a major factor on how the professor remembers you should you think about a very simple apology that your mind was wandering, but you don’t want to sound like you’re making excuses or over-apologize.

Sorry if this reply is too delayed to help you, but hopefully it will be useful in the future.

How many and which languages associate gender with nouns? Historically, how did a particular gender come to be associated with a particular noun?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Hundreds, perhaps thousands. More broadly, these can be called noun classes, and many languages have more than just “masculine” and “feminine.” Those designations, as you suggest, can seem rather arbitrary. Since the languages developed over many millenia, it’s got to be lost to history why one noun is classed this way or that.

For a free online introduction, I recommend the article on “grammatical gender” at http://en.wikipedia.com . It includes long listings of languages with and without grammatical gender, with the disclaimer, “This is an incomplete list, which can or may never satisfy any subjective standard for completeness.” Some languages are gouped in the list (“most Slavic languages”) or only discussed in the essays. It also includes fictional languages, such as Klingon! There’s a nice bibliography, too, if you don’t trust Wikipedia.

Is appropriacy a word? Do the British really use revise like we use review?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: “Appropriacy” isn’t listed at all in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the biggest, baddest dictionary of all.

Yes, the third definition of the word “revise” in the OED seems to be how Americans would use review: “(a) To look or read carefully over, with a view to improving or correcting. (b) To go over again, to re-examine, in order to improve or amend; to condense by revision. (c) To go over (a subject already learnt) in preparation for an examination.”

These definitions emphasize the inspection, or reviewing as Americans would say, not the re-writing, as Americans would use “revise.” Definition 2 of “revise” in the American Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary says “(a) to make a new, amended, improved, or up-to-date version of (b) to provide with a new taxonomic arrangement” and definition 1.b. says, “b British : to study again : REVIEW.”

How do you pronounce the first syllable of “Bostock”? Is it a long “o”, as in “Little Bo Peep” or “Bohemian,” or is it a shorter “o”, like “Boston” or “botulism”?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Both vowels are “ahhhh,” like what you say when a doctor sticks the tongue depressor in your mouth. (Not “awe” like in Bawston, but more like botulism.)

How many miles of driving would I have from Santiago, Chile or Mendoza Argentina back to the U.S.? How long would the trip realistically take? And can the dangerous areas of Columbia be avoided? Finally, would it be faster to do the trip in a car or in a boat (assuming coast to coast in the boat)?

ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: Here’s a web site of someone who drove from California to the Tierra del Fuego and back, a total of 31,000 miles http://www.well.com/~dreyer/ . I guess divide by 2, then subtract a little since you’re not going quite that far, and I guess in the range of 12-14,000 miles. They had to go by ferry from Panama to Columbia since the roads apparently don’t go through. They did it in 4 months and a week, so I guess one-way just from Santiago or Mendoza might be 6-8 weeks to be safe, although I don’t know how much sightseeing they did on the way. This web site addresses dangerous places (e.g., don’t camp out). Here’s a web forum you might want to look at: http://www.roadtripamerica.com/forum/

Boats go slower than cars, don’t they? Although it depends on the boat and the quality of the highway. The kind the drug runners use probably go pretty fast. Neither Santiago nor Mendoza, however, is on the coast.