Ship of Fools: Miniscule Satisfactions

Thread: Miniscule Satisfactions Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

These are the things that happen, or that you do, that are pleasures so small there are no terms to describe them.

For instance, the pleasure of using a word in a sentence, feeling a doubt, going to check the spelling or meaning, and discovering you were right all along! I did this just now with 'susurration', which, however you spell it, never does look right.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

Impressing one's Better Half by solving a really devious clue in the Grauniad crossword (especially if it includes an enormous anagram).

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I'm impressed too!

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

Accurate guesses. Although I say so myself, I am a good guesser, but I get a good feeling when some off the top of my head number turns out to be near enough to be useful.

Posted by Starbug (# 15917) on :

Getting a pointless answer on Pointless, when the contestants didn't.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Starbug:
Getting a pointless answer on Pointless, when the contestants didn't.

Or scoring less than all of the contestants.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Scoring more than the winning team on University Challenge.

Better still, getting the whole of a Maths question right on UC without guessing.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Throwing together a meal out of unlikely ingredients and having it come out delicious.

Posted by Diomedes (# 13482) on :

Plonking a bunch of cheap supermarket flowers in a vase and getting an unexpectedly artistic result. Just happened! [Smile]

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Starbug:
Getting a pointless answer on Pointless, when the contestants didn't.

Discovering it's not just me.

Posted by Mili (# 3254) on :

I've been revising and improving/expanding my French online. The website I am using involves translating from French to English and vice versa and typing what you here in French as well as multiple choice questions. (You can also do speaking, but I don't have a headset) You get a tick and a winning sound effect for a correct answer and a cross and losing sound for a wrong answer. I feel ridiculously motivated by the winning sound effect - it makes me feel like Lisa Simpson getting an A+.

Especially when I have to translate from English to French, which I find much harder than translating the other way, and it's an answer I have to guess at and manage to get right from my prior knowledge. I also am satisfied when I get accents on e the right way as I find it hard to remember these and the site doesn't help, because it lets you cheat by still letting your answer be correct if you get accents wrong.

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

The Brainy Person™ in my group of friends frequently disputes statements and facts that I casually mention in conversation. When he finds out that I'm right (which is most of the time!), he makes a point to send me an email. [Big Grin]

On occasion, he will admit his wrongness to the whole group.

Very satisfying!

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

Okay, this is not exactly Heavenly, but...

Internet debates that go like this:

A: Stetson, you immoral piece of **** idiot apologist for [whatever the person doesn't like], EVERYONE knows [something he believes to be true]. Typical of morons from your part of the [world, country, province, etc] to not know this.

B: Hmm, actually, no, you're wrong. Here's a link to an article on that website you like to quote proving it.

[ 20. December 2014, 16:06: Message edited by: Stetson ]

Posted by churchgeek (# 5557) on :

I quickly recognized an actor who was in costume and heavily made-up, based on his mannerisms. Impressed my roommate, anyway. (I'm better at recognizing mannerisms than faces, anyway!)

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:
I quickly recognized an actor who was in costume and heavily made-up, based on his mannerisms. Impressed my roommate, anyway. (I'm better at recognizing mannerisms than faces, anyway!)

In movies, when they make the first mention of a particular character who has not been seen yet, but will be appearing soon, I can often sense when it will be some older, "Hollywood royalty" actor doing an uncredited cameo, and like to make that prediction either to myself or whoever is watching it with me.

The last time was in American Hustle. Anyone who has seen it can probably guess which actor I'm talking about.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

The Metropolitan Opera in New York does a live broadcast on many U.S. radio stations on Saturdays. I usually don't pay attention ahead of time to know what it's going to be, so I'm thrilled when I turn on the radio on Saturday and can recognize the opera in the first minute or two. Some are easy (one day I tuned in during the "Toreador Song" from Carmen) but others are more of a challenge. I was delighted several years ago when it was one of the operas form Wagner's Ring and I could pinpoint the opera, the scene, and the characters. (His Leitmotifs give the whole thing away!)

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

I was riding the subway into town. a large group of young people came onto the train and sat around me. They were playing a game on their cell phones, some sort of trivia thing. The question was, in which movie did Indiana Jones meet his father again? These young whippersnappers puzzled over it for some moments. Finally I chipped in: "Kingdon of the Crystal skull." The cell phone holder clicked that option, and it was right. They were awestruck.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

If I can post one on behalf of my husband...

We are currently watching a three-year-old banshee (I mean, delightful toddler) and said toddler has gotten screaming tantrums down to a fine art. I couldn't get him to settle down last week, but he shut right up after Mr. Lamb picked him up in his arms. Later that day, when Mr. Lamb was out, I had to put the toddler down for a nap. Screamed the toddler: "DON'T WANT YOU! WANT UNCLE!"

I told my husband this later, and you should have seen the look of satisfaction on his face. Quickly concealed, of course.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:
... I'm better at recognizing mannerisms than faces ...

I'm often like that with voices; some actors and broadcasters have very distinctive voices - the sort you could enjoy even if they were reading the phone-book.

Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :

I got a disproportionate amount of satisfaction this afternoon, observing a bumblebee on my (inside) windowsill, in a state of total exhaustion due to having tried to fly out through the glass for who knows how long (the TV was on so I hadn't noticed the noise). I gave it some honey on a toothpick and it stayed there for about 15 minutes sucking it all up with its amazingly long tongue before limbering up and finally achieving take-off again, whereupon I shepherded it out the window.

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

Shining shoes. A simple and satisfying thing, that makes me feel like I really did Something. Someone once said that it is hard to get into trouble if your shoes are polished. I have been following this for some 35 years since.

I also waxed (waterproofed) a 70 year old canvas shoulder bag which smartened it right up. No actual purpose except that I'd done this in the 1960s when in Boy Scouts and I found the bag.

Posted by cattyish (# 7829) on :

The minister said thank you to us choir girls for singing the descant in the Chapel on Christmas morning.

Cattyish, Glooo-o-o-o-o-ooo-o-o-o-o-ory in the highest!

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

As a retired Latin teacher currently studying Spanish, I feel quite smug when I know the answer to questions such as, "Why is día masculine?" or "Why is the preterite tense of decir irregular?"

The answer, of course, is "Because that's the way it was in Latin!" although that doesn't explain why it was that way in Latin.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
... The answer, of course, is "Because that's the way it was in Latin!" ...

That's a good enough reason for me. [Big Grin]

On a similar theme, I get disproportionate satisfaction from working out why a word means what it does because of its (usually) Latin root.

I only did Latin for a year, but I'm glad I did; if I had the power, everyone who wanted to would have the chance to learn it.

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Made a stab at the correct usage of the word 'commonweal', which in the US is the title of a magazine. Of course I could not let it rest, and went off to look it up. And I was correct!

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

MINOR SPOILER AHEAD

I watched Kill Your Darlings last night.

In one of the scenes near the beginning, when the script is establishing Ginsberg's emerging dissatisfaction with the academic worldview, he is shown sitting in a classroom while a stuffy prof prattles on about how poems must have proper rhyming and metre.

I thought to myself "Ginsberg is going to ask 'What about Walt Whitman?'?

And, sure enough...

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:

quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
... The answer, of course, is "Because that's the way it was in Latin!" ...
That's a good enough reason for me.

On a similar theme, I get disproportionate satisfaction from working out why a word means what it does because of its (usually) Latin root.

I only did Latin for a year, but I'm glad I did; if I had the power, everyone who wanted to would have the chance to learn it.

My mother was a keen Latin scholar and, seeing that I was a language person, put me down for Latin when I went to boarding school.
There were only three in the class and both the others dropped out after a year so I did shortly after.
Admittedly in my two previous years (age 10-11) we'd had Latin roots and prefixes to learn every week. So I've been using all that Latin ever since.
The 12/13 year-olds that I have each year for 6 hours of Language extension *love* the Latin and Greek part.

And as another crossword fan, I get a huge kick out of completing a technical or otherwise arcane word with two letters out of eight to go on, and saying "How in the world did I know that?"

GG

Posted by Hugal (# 2734) on :

I too like getting answers they don't get on Pointless particulaly when you get a well done from Richard.

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

The Indiana Jones question induced my to check Wikipedia. It states that Sean Connery declined to have a cameo as Indiana's father, Henry Jones, in the movie. I've seen the movie and I don't remember seeing him. Eh?

Posted by Aravis (# 13824) on :

Getting a physics, maths or chemistry question on University Challenge correct just before my husband does.
(For him, it's getting a literature or medicine question before me. We'd probably have made a good team if we'd been to the same university!)

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Sean Connery was certainly there:
Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade

Perhaps you were reading a slightly out-of-date gossip piece?

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:

quote:
Originally posted by Starbug:
Getting a pointless answer on Pointless, when the contestants didn't.
Discovering it's not just me.

That is good, but getting a Mastermind question in a specialised subject that the person who specialises in that topic gets wron,. that has to be the best feeling in watching quizzes.

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

Brenda, your earlier post did not mention that film. It mentioned "I. J. and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".

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